The first line in this Atlantic piece about author book blurbs was OOF! If there’s one thing authors love more than procrastinating, it’s praising one another. During the Renaissance, Thomas More’s Utopia got a proto-blurb from Erasmus (“divine wit”), while Shakespeare’s First Folio got one from Ben Jonson (“The wonder of our stage!”). By the 18th century, the practice of selling a book based on some other author’s endorsement was so well established that Henry Fielding’s spoof novel Shamela even came with fake blurbs, including one from “John Puff Esq.”
These days, most of my purchases are online, so I don't get to read the blurbs until I have the book in my hand, therefore they play no part in my decision.
I'm not sure if audiobooks have them these days (i forgot my phone today so cant check - feels like i left a limb behind). I think i've always gone off friend recommendations rather than blurbs. When i was young books were too expensive to take a risk on marketing advice on the inside/back of a book. Now i have read the word blurb so many times it has ceased to make sense and sounds like verb. An unenthusiastic lazy vomit that marvin the paranoid android would do. Like a blergh but with less force or care :)
I must admit I rarely even look at them, with the odd exception being something akin to "I didn't think King/Palahnuik/Birmingham read this sort of thing‽"
Yeah my interest might be piqued if I saw JB praising a book I wouldn't usually expect him to read. Mind you most of my book recommendations come straight from JB via the Burger these days so a pull quote really doesn't have any selling power for me...
I bought a copy of Marcel Montecino's "Cross Killer" because of King's blurb. Glad I did, great fucking book and the rest of his stuff is top rate too. " Big Time" should be a movie or series. Tell me I'm wrong...
Aside from all that, how good is the word "blurb". We should have reserved this word until we found something really cool that was in need of a name.
These days, most of my purchases are online, so I don't get to read the blurbs until I have the book in my hand, therefore they play no part in my decision.
same
I am waiting for the AI written ones that are just close enough to a well known author/celebrity to be accepted as genuine if you see it briefly.
Oh that's a great idea! I mean terrible! A terrible idea. Just, er.... excuse me for a while. I have some... things... yes some things I have to do.
The quotes do little to sway me. If the book sounds interesting from the blurb I'll drop dollars on it.
However, one look at my kindle would indicate that interesting does a lot of work in that sentence.
I'm not sure if audiobooks have them these days (i forgot my phone today so cant check - feels like i left a limb behind). I think i've always gone off friend recommendations rather than blurbs. When i was young books were too expensive to take a risk on marketing advice on the inside/back of a book. Now i have read the word blurb so many times it has ceased to make sense and sounds like verb. An unenthusiastic lazy vomit that marvin the paranoid android would do. Like a blergh but with less force or care :)
I must admit I rarely even look at them, with the odd exception being something akin to "I didn't think King/Palahnuik/Birmingham read this sort of thing‽"
Yeah my interest might be piqued if I saw JB praising a book I wouldn't usually expect him to read. Mind you most of my book recommendations come straight from JB via the Burger these days so a pull quote really doesn't have any selling power for me...
I bought a copy of Marcel Montecino's "Cross Killer" because of King's blurb. Glad I did, great fucking book and the rest of his stuff is top rate too. " Big Time" should be a movie or series. Tell me I'm wrong...
I've not heard of it before, but I'll definitely see if I can find a copy kicking around.