With social media fragmenting, I’m bringing back my old “You Tell Me” Wednesday discussions to try to get good old fashioned blog conversations going. If you’re reading in a feed reader or via email, please click through to the post to leave a public comment and join the discussion!
This past week, publishing tongues were wagging as the publisher of Simon & Schuster’s eponymous imprint announced they were de-emphasizing blurbs, those marketing quotes that adorn many a book jacket. Now, whether S&S even had a blurb policy to begin with or what this means in practice given they will still accept blurbs is immaterial. There was a collective sigh of relief from beleaguered authors who either hate being soliciting burbs, being solicited for blurbs, or both.
Count author Lincoln Michel (and me for that matter) among the skeptics that blurbs will truly go by the wayside. But that got me to wondering: do you pay attention to blurbs? Do they play a role in your book buying journey?
Personally, I only pay attention to blurbs inasmuch as I try to guess the author’s agent and/or editor by the blurbs alone, so it’s more of an industry parlor game. What about you?
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I don’t care about blurbs. Well, I don’t actually trust them.
Never paid attention to blurbs. I will sometimes read them if I recognize the author, but it still feels like getting the opinion of people whose opinion I didn’t ask for and don’t have reason to trust.
Like, I love reading Brandon Sanderson, but I don’t know what HE likes to read nor whether it matches up with my reading interests, you know?
I read blurbs. It’s not a deal breaker if a book doesn’t have them. Nor do I put a lot of weight into one from an unknown writer. But I do appreciate them from known publications and other writers I’ve enjoyed. However, some are so generic sounding that they are almost meaningless. I wouldn’t say they overly influence my buying. Maybe if I’m on the fence.
I’m old enough to remember when books had no blurbs, even after the introduction of paperbacks. Today, I’ll skim them, ignore the reviews and bio, and get right to the meat of the matter.
Blurbs seem to show industry connections. Shrug.
A blurb from an author I like will make me consider a book. Although, once in a while, I ended up disappointed.
I feel bad for anyone who got blurbed by Neil Gaiman. Ouch!
I use blurbs backwards. If I read a book by someone I haven’t read before (especially in a genre I don’t typically read) and I like it, I will look at the cover afterwards for blurbs written by other authors that I might not be familiar with to add to my TBR pile. I know that isn’t how it is meant to work, but I have made some great discoveries this way!
I often do this as well, and, like you, have discovered some interesting new reads.
I only pay attention to them if they come from an author I read.
Yes, they give me some clarification on what I can expect. Notable names tell me it’s probably going to be at least a serviceable read; blurbs from indie authors (sorry folks) tell me I’m probably going to be disappointed. Some blurbs are more just “namestamps” of validation, but others are more useful… I wish there were more useful ones that hinted at the story, quite honestly.