Fuck yes to this. My husband and I have frequently complained about the eye-rolling annoyance and fatuous space waste of blurbs - and - furthermore - it perpetuates toxic cycles in the industry such as bullshit lying and exploitative narcissistic status-climbing game-playing...I could go on. Maybe it makes sense why the "no thanks to..." revenge list (an antithesis to the hyperbolic asskiss *smooch!* of the acknowledgements page) calls to me so deeply. As always, love you.
A revenge list could honestly be so fun, especially if it was kind of ambiguous. (And fuck you to that one guy who …) I think my hater-energy would have a thrill with that! Love you back!!!
LOVE this, truly. At Deep Vellum we have two books coming out soon that play with marketing copy in this way that I love—the back of Tetra Nova by Sophia Terazawa is just one giant sentence filling the space that says "TETRA NOVA CONTAINS DANCING RACCOONS." And the marketing copy for Juvenalia by Hera Lindsay Bird, written by the author herself, begins: "this impressive debut has established Hera Lindsay Bird as a good girl………with many beneficial thoughts and feelings………" Who says we have to stick to the same old boring stuff???? These books are fun and unexpected, the marketing copy should match that!
Ahhhh Nadine, I love this. So fun, everyone should get to be a good girl or have their dancing raccoons!!!
And OF COURSE it’s Deep Vellum doing the good work—always ahead of the curve. Forgive me for not googling beforehand but are you the new publicity director? (I loved Walker and I bet you’re amazing too!)
I love this post to shreds. And now I want a scratch and sniff cover.
Re: blurbs? I can see both sides to this - it's awkward as hail to reach out for them but it has also created a connection point with a few authors and people I might not have connected with. I understand that some authors get asked all the time...but there are some who aren't asked all that often (or ever) and that would be pretty cool. It me: I might want to be asked to do so.
We should have a notes from friends and strangers section inside books that are more causal, maybe even more gushy! That would be fun. They could be long too! I’d love to read a blurb that felt like it was written from a friend who was trying to throw a book into my hands!
This is fascinating because Sean Manning "discovered" me.
i.e. A bunch of agents (not the right fit) had already come my way because of things I was publishing, contests I was winning, my Kickstarter funding, the UArizona MFA Lookbook etc., but it wasn't until Sean Manning read my essay "In Praise of Contempt" in BAE '16 and reached out from S&S that I got hooked up with my first agent, Bonnie Nadell. Sean wrote emails to three top agents on my behalf because he loved my work.
No writing a book proposal before querying. No formal querying! Just one person coming across my art in the wild and recommending it to other people-- which is exactly what he described in his piece as a more organic, beautiful blurbiverse.
Thanks, as always for sharing the alternate vision.
btw I wonder when--if?-- Little, Brown will put my blurb from Dr. Ackerman on Lightning Flowers: "This is a book every physician should read," he wrote. When the SADS Foundation prints it on flyers we sell a book to almost every cardiac professional in the room.
And also, yes, Sean was so generous with me. He didn't even end up bidding on LF because S&S didn't like the secondary book I was trying to sell (about sex)... but still utterly changed the course of my career. I think he was partially into the discovery effort because he was just transitioning over from being an editor at one of the airline magazines and still had to make his name at the house.
Noooooooo tbh he kind of scared me when I was an agent! The books he was buying felt so big (I was always coming to him with little weirdos). I will look it up!
Also-- did you know that Sean wrote a book?? I read it because it was about his mother's illness. This definitely relates to the way he moves in editing and acquisitions...
Right?! Seriously, why don't all MFAs have it. I'm not sure I've seen one from them in a few years-- could have just been Ander Monson's doing when he was director. I always felt like UA was a little better than some of the other programs on trying to make sure people understood how to make a career... we had a string of BAEs and good book deals for a while. The program took some major funding/personnel hits in the last few years, so it may not be running on all cylinders anymore.
I am totally the miracle, lol. The problem is, my agent and I didn't do well together by the end of our process, so I now need to re-agent for my second book, and it seems I may be required to play by the normal rules this time (lolsob).
Of my entire team, my publicist (Jules Horbachevsky) is the only one still there-- my editors (Tracy Behar and Ian Strauss) and some other Hachette folks (like Vanessa Mobley) have all moved on. Jules is responsive to requests for free books but otherwise doesn't seem to have bandwidth to do anything like update my media kit, etc. So, I'm now mostly on my own it seems, without even a new editorial contact. I know theoretically it's still my first agent's job to figure that stuff out but I don't feel particularly welcome reaching out-- she recently shipped me all remaining copies of Lightning Flowers that were in her office.
But you have so much cred to top your query letter that hopefully that will help! Also ask friends if they love their agent! You will find your person!
The turnover in publishing is a lot (and so glad Vanessa is at the NYT now because she’s doing such great work at the opinion desk!).
Also, airline magazines, I wish they still existed! Ugh, that was one of my major goals as a writer to get into an inflight magazine. 😂
I adore this, I saved it to use on any future books I get to publish and also… sadly, at the end, he says “but if authors WANT to blurb a book bc they just love it so much” and… back at square one.
I love that it’s framed as a choice (not forcing anyone to obtain blurbs over here!) but I wonder what the inside messaging is and who / how will be responsible for blurbs if they’re not a “requirement” technically.
I agree that blurbs are mostly annoying, but the argument against them here doesn't make a ton of sense, especially when the three examples of recent successful blurbless books are all by celebrities or people who already have a strong platform. The reason older books like Catch-22 found success without blurbs wasn't because they lacked blurbs but because they were published at a time and by a publisher (and an entire industry, really, not to over-idealize) that prioritized long-tail sales of books and long-running relationships between authors and their publishers in a way that is no longer the case. Gottlieb worked on editing Catch-22 with Heller over the course of YEARS after it was acquired and before it was published. It sold OK on release but sold even better 10 years later. Hard to imagine that happening today--would the book even remain in print after the first year, except as a crummy print-on-demand edition?
Blurbs aren't really that much effort on the part of the publisher or the authors of books--just a matter of an email or a phone call--so does eschewing them really open up that much time and effort for other sorts of publicity? I doubt it. (Obviously, blurbs ARE a lot of labor for those who are asked to write them.)
Blurbs are mostly useless to readers (especially those savvy enough to know that they rarely mean anything more than "yes, this author is my acquaintance or was once my student), but they are useful, I think, to booksellers, so even if they're left off book covers (bring back the days where the back cover was just a huge photo of the author!) they remain to the author's benefit as a publicity item.
I understand the kvetching about blurbs from the reader's perspective but never got why writers whine about asking for them. At best, it gives you an excuse you wouldn't otherwise have to make cold connections with people you admire. At worst, you get rejected over something that ultimately matters very little.
Fuck yes to this. My husband and I have frequently complained about the eye-rolling annoyance and fatuous space waste of blurbs - and - furthermore - it perpetuates toxic cycles in the industry such as bullshit lying and exploitative narcissistic status-climbing game-playing...I could go on. Maybe it makes sense why the "no thanks to..." revenge list (an antithesis to the hyperbolic asskiss *smooch!* of the acknowledgements page) calls to me so deeply. As always, love you.
A revenge list could honestly be so fun, especially if it was kind of ambiguous. (And fuck you to that one guy who …) I think my hater-energy would have a thrill with that! Love you back!!!
So good! So true! I love these alternative ideas :)
We need more! And less! 😂
Love all of this. I didn’t know that about Miranda July’s book but it reminded me of this novel True Story whose UK cover I wrote about because it showed four very different covers all in one image, which I’d never seen before. It was imo a very innovative and clever approach. https://www.forbes.com/sites/rachelkramerbussel/2019/12/17/why-uk-publisher-riverrun-created-4-book-covers-for-kate-reed-pettys-debut-novel-true-story/
Rachel, I LOVE THIS. They’re all so different and totally would bring in different folks!!
No longer square!
I'd LOVE to add a QR code to my book's playlist in place of a blurb!
ouuuu a qr code!!! Then it’s officially interactive!
LOVE this, truly. At Deep Vellum we have two books coming out soon that play with marketing copy in this way that I love—the back of Tetra Nova by Sophia Terazawa is just one giant sentence filling the space that says "TETRA NOVA CONTAINS DANCING RACCOONS." And the marketing copy for Juvenalia by Hera Lindsay Bird, written by the author herself, begins: "this impressive debut has established Hera Lindsay Bird as a good girl………with many beneficial thoughts and feelings………" Who says we have to stick to the same old boring stuff???? These books are fun and unexpected, the marketing copy should match that!
Ahhhh Nadine, I love this. So fun, everyone should get to be a good girl or have their dancing raccoons!!!
And OF COURSE it’s Deep Vellum doing the good work—always ahead of the curve. Forgive me for not googling beforehand but are you the new publicity director? (I loved Walker and I bet you’re amazing too!)
Yes, as of mid-November, so still pretty recent!
Congratulations!!! That’s so exciting—so many good books! I’m sending you all the big hits!
I love this post to shreds. And now I want a scratch and sniff cover.
Re: blurbs? I can see both sides to this - it's awkward as hail to reach out for them but it has also created a connection point with a few authors and people I might not have connected with. I understand that some authors get asked all the time...but there are some who aren't asked all that often (or ever) and that would be pretty cool. It me: I might want to be asked to do so.
I did write fake blurbs in my humor book. ;)
We should have a notes from friends and strangers section inside books that are more causal, maybe even more gushy! That would be fun. They could be long too! I’d love to read a blurb that felt like it was written from a friend who was trying to throw a book into my hands!
💗💗💗
I wanted to include a blurb from my mom, which was her reaction to seeing the cover: “Is that a wet spot?” (It was.) Alas.
Oh my goooooood. Immediate buy for me, this is SUCH a mom move 😂😂😂
This is fascinating because Sean Manning "discovered" me.
i.e. A bunch of agents (not the right fit) had already come my way because of things I was publishing, contests I was winning, my Kickstarter funding, the UArizona MFA Lookbook etc., but it wasn't until Sean Manning read my essay "In Praise of Contempt" in BAE '16 and reached out from S&S that I got hooked up with my first agent, Bonnie Nadell. Sean wrote emails to three top agents on my behalf because he loved my work.
No writing a book proposal before querying. No formal querying! Just one person coming across my art in the wild and recommending it to other people-- which is exactly what he described in his piece as a more organic, beautiful blurbiverse.
Thanks, as always for sharing the alternate vision.
btw I wonder when--if?-- Little, Brown will put my blurb from Dr. Ackerman on Lightning Flowers: "This is a book every physician should read," he wrote. When the SADS Foundation prints it on flyers we sell a book to almost every cardiac professional in the room.
Okay I did NOT know UArizona had an MFA look book, why don’t all MFAs have that????
So what you’re saying Katherine is you’re the miracle!!!! The wish!!!
Oh my gosh, next printing for that blurb right??? Has your agent checked?
For the record, he seems great and I’m glad he’s been promoted to publisher. That discovery effort should happen more!
And also, yes, Sean was so generous with me. He didn't even end up bidding on LF because S&S didn't like the secondary book I was trying to sell (about sex)... but still utterly changed the course of my career. I think he was partially into the discovery effort because he was just transitioning over from being an editor at one of the airline magazines and still had to make his name at the house.
In my cart at Better World Books now!
oh my goodness!
Noooooooo tbh he kind of scared me when I was an agent! The books he was buying felt so big (I was always coming to him with little weirdos). I will look it up!
It's not my favorite book ever but anyone who does the thing gets my mad respect.
agree! agree! agree! okay, but what IS your favorite book, haha.
The hardest question!! And there are many faves for different purposes buuuut... the weirdo fave book is this one: https://therumpus.net/2009/09/30/kati-standefer-the-last-book-i-loved-the-lake/
I love the image of you fighting hard for the little weirdos!
it’s my everyday, truly!!
Can’t wait for the sex book 😈
Also-- did you know that Sean wrote a book?? I read it because it was about his mother's illness. This definitely relates to the way he moves in editing and acquisitions...
Right?! Seriously, why don't all MFAs have it. I'm not sure I've seen one from them in a few years-- could have just been Ander Monson's doing when he was director. I always felt like UA was a little better than some of the other programs on trying to make sure people understood how to make a career... we had a string of BAEs and good book deals for a while. The program took some major funding/personnel hits in the last few years, so it may not be running on all cylinders anymore.
I am totally the miracle, lol. The problem is, my agent and I didn't do well together by the end of our process, so I now need to re-agent for my second book, and it seems I may be required to play by the normal rules this time (lolsob).
Of my entire team, my publicist (Jules Horbachevsky) is the only one still there-- my editors (Tracy Behar and Ian Strauss) and some other Hachette folks (like Vanessa Mobley) have all moved on. Jules is responsive to requests for free books but otherwise doesn't seem to have bandwidth to do anything like update my media kit, etc. So, I'm now mostly on my own it seems, without even a new editorial contact. I know theoretically it's still my first agent's job to figure that stuff out but I don't feel particularly welcome reaching out-- she recently shipped me all remaining copies of Lightning Flowers that were in her office.
But you have so much cred to top your query letter that hopefully that will help! Also ask friends if they love their agent! You will find your person!
The turnover in publishing is a lot (and so glad Vanessa is at the NYT now because she’s doing such great work at the opinion desk!).
Also, airline magazines, I wish they still existed! Ugh, that was one of my major goals as a writer to get into an inflight magazine. 😂
Right?! Some of the goals feel so quaint now. That was a good gig while it lasted.
The dream of writing an op-ed for Vanessa remains!
So good.
❤️❤️❤️
“you included a short list of the titles of your word documents as you were working on the book (I would … this would make me so happy)”
all of these are delightful and inspired, but I think this one is my favorite!
The titles get so kooky!!! (I typed cooky at first and I think that was the universe saying you’re replying to Maggie 😂)
I adore this, I saved it to use on any future books I get to publish and also… sadly, at the end, he says “but if authors WANT to blurb a book bc they just love it so much” and… back at square one.
I love that it’s framed as a choice (not forcing anyone to obtain blurbs over here!) but I wonder what the inside messaging is and who / how will be responsible for blurbs if they’re not a “requirement” technically.
I was delighted by this news today — except I saw it hours after hearing about the growing importance of "pre-blurbs." so as always, who knows.
I will admit, when I was agenting, I fell for the pre-blurbs and now writers are using them in queries too and that’s just … we’ve gone too far!!!
I agree that blurbs are mostly annoying, but the argument against them here doesn't make a ton of sense, especially when the three examples of recent successful blurbless books are all by celebrities or people who already have a strong platform. The reason older books like Catch-22 found success without blurbs wasn't because they lacked blurbs but because they were published at a time and by a publisher (and an entire industry, really, not to over-idealize) that prioritized long-tail sales of books and long-running relationships between authors and their publishers in a way that is no longer the case. Gottlieb worked on editing Catch-22 with Heller over the course of YEARS after it was acquired and before it was published. It sold OK on release but sold even better 10 years later. Hard to imagine that happening today--would the book even remain in print after the first year, except as a crummy print-on-demand edition?
Blurbs aren't really that much effort on the part of the publisher or the authors of books--just a matter of an email or a phone call--so does eschewing them really open up that much time and effort for other sorts of publicity? I doubt it. (Obviously, blurbs ARE a lot of labor for those who are asked to write them.)
Blurbs are mostly useless to readers (especially those savvy enough to know that they rarely mean anything more than "yes, this author is my acquaintance or was once my student), but they are useful, I think, to booksellers, so even if they're left off book covers (bring back the days where the back cover was just a huge photo of the author!) they remain to the author's benefit as a publicity item.
I understand the kvetching about blurbs from the reader's perspective but never got why writers whine about asking for them. At best, it gives you an excuse you wouldn't otherwise have to make cold connections with people you admire. At worst, you get rejected over something that ultimately matters very little.
Thank you so much for this! The alternative suggestions are incredibly inspiring.
So obviously I love the erasure one! Love this post and your incredibly creative mind!