The blurb on the back of books.

housemap

Sorry if it's been done before, I did a few searches but didn't find anything. I was wondering what peoples opinions on the blurb on the back of books are.

Mr/Ms X says it's the greatest thing since sliced bread etc.

Do you think

A. That Mr/Ms X even read the book ?
B. That the quote was from Mr/Ms X or a publicist came up with it and
offered an amount of money to Mr/Ms X in exchange for ascribing it
to them ?
C. That there is any merit in what is written on the back of a book ?

I believe most of the people whose opinions are quoted on the back of books have never read them and merely do so for financial reward (I have no facts to back this up I'm just a cynic, I'm wondering are there more cynics out there ...

stoneill

I've often wondered that too.

I see that Andrew Marr managed to get Tony Blair's book 72 hours before official release to have a breakfast television review on the morning that it went on sale.

Eliot Rosewater

I don't put much stock in those quotes. They're usually just full of cliches. For example, Hillary Mantel on Sarah Waters' book: "masterly ... gripping, confident, unnerving and supremely entertaining". That doesn't say much, I think.

In fairness to the Penguin Classics imprint they often have meaningful quotes from reputable people, for example Victor Nabokov, Anthony Burgess, Antony Beever and Nelson Mandela.

Kinski

Apart from the ones taken from reviews, I guess they're probably provided by friends of the author, or come from people who share the same publisher or agent.

I don't pay any attention to them, but I think they sometimes can make a difference. For instance, Salman Rushdie's endorsement of Zadie Smith's White Teeth probably helped her a lot (a novel I hated actually, but that's neither here nor there.)

stoneill wrote: »

I see that Andrew Marr managed to get Tony Blair's book 72 hours before official release to have a breakfast television review on the morning that it went on sale.

Reviewers get advance reading copies of books. If you were the publisher, you wouldn't want the reviews being written a week after the book went on sale.

The Mad Hatter

I've sworn off reading the backs of books (and DVDs) because they seem to bypass a lot of the work the author does in the first chapter. Never really bothered much with the quotes anyhow. Mostly now I read off recommendation or reputation.

nompere

Kinski wrote: »

Reviewers get advance reading copies of books.

Indeed they do.

I remember more than once buying a 2nd hand book in Chapters before the release date.

Reviewers make pocket money by selling off their review copies, though my publishing mates tell me that it is very bad form to do so before the book has actually been released.

bigsmokewriting

Have never heard of writers getting paid to provide such things or the publishers writing the things for them (which isn't to say that the handful of authors who have personal assistants mightn't have asked them to do so), though there's certainly often a lot of talking-up-one's-friend's-book that goes on (though in many cases the author who provides a quote won't know the author - it'll be another connection like a shared publisher/agent).

Many authors place specific limitations on the number of books they'll provide quotes for - it's time consuming for them to read these books, but also an author wants to maximise their chances of finding something good to say about it! It affects the quote-author too - if they say something great about a terrible book, it obviously reflects poorly on them.

There was an interesting thing about blurbing in the Irish Times a while back -
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/features/2010/0628/1224273454494.html

hatful

I pay more attention to blurbs from broad sheet reviews than to what a celebrity has to say. Best blurb ever- "From the moment I picked your book up until I laid it down I was convulsed with laughter. Some day I intend reading it." Groucho Marx.

Callan57

I don't place much credit in them really ... I would be more influenced by reliable reviews and friends/workmates recommendations. I place great weight on Eileen Battersby in the IT & some of the reviews on The View can be excellent.

kylith

I can't remember who wrote the book, or its name, but whoever wrote the blurb definitely hadn't read it. They got the main character's name wrong, for a start.

Denerick

J.D. Salinger hated them and they aren't on the back of his books.

I think they're stupid and hold no stock in them.

Permabear

This post has been deleted.

calex71

They are pretty amusing sometimes, but still nowhere near as cheesy as the movie trailers with average joe punter at an advanced screening saying "awesome , electrifying" etc etc with a book it's hard to know if it's true or not and hence they mean nothing to me. At least when you see a movie trailer as I described you know it's a stinker

Eliot Rosewater

Denerick wrote: »

J.D. Salinger hated them and they aren't on the back of his books.

JD Salinger also forbade pictures on his covers lest people get preconceptions about his characters. I actually admire the guys integrity.

His books don't have an author's bio, either.

RonMexico

After the publication of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas Hunter S. Thompson was inundated with requests for blurbs. He only did ones for books he actually liked. The rest of the blurbs he sent back to the publishers were comedy gold

Here's a few of them:

Hunter was asked to contribute a blurb to Kristi Witker’s book – HOW TO LOSE EVERYTHING IN POLITICS Except Massachusetts. Here are the blurbs that he offered for use:

* “If Kristi Witker is right, Frank Mankiewicz should be castrated.”
* “This book is the best argument I’ve ever read for getting women out of politics and into sex and drugs where they belong.”
* “A disgraceful indictment of the sexist swine who ran American politics. Nothing short of selective castration on a massive scale will right the wrongs Mz. Witker outlines here….”

Hunter finished the letter by offering the following opinion – “I want to remain on record, however, as a firm advocate of the theory that no quote (or blurb) ever sold more than 13 copies of any book in hardcover, and no more than six in paperback.”

More here: http://totallygonzo.org/gonzowriting/hst-intros-blurbs/

Jonny7

Ahh just use your cop to filter out the fake from the real

The same applies for films..

Empire, the Sun, the Star, trashy publications, celebrities, etc can be bought and will 5 star anything. I ignore those always. Its the trusted sources that reveal.

For a book, if you pick it up, and it has glowing quotes (plural, not singular) from The Times, the Guardian, Wall Street Journal, New Statesman, The Irish Times, The observer, etc then it will be a good book, end of. Its only then a question of your taste.

MarchDub

The blurbs from the back of books come from people who have been given a special - prior to final editing- preview copy. They are expected to have read the manuscript at least. Publishers get these special 'preview' copies out months before final printing and they are usually cheaply produced with low grade covers.

I have some copies of manuscripts in preview form and they are also frequently full of typos that have not been finally corrected. But it's a way of getting copies out there so the reviews/blurbs can be printed on the back cover of the final edition.

politicsdude

I've noticed that alot of authors have the same quotes on multiple books like a quote from bernard ornwell sayin "I wish I wrote this" and the the exact same quote on another book by the same author .. pretty meaningless

chenguin

I remember seeing a situation where one author brought out a book with one of these quotes from another author and then a book brought out from the second author had a quote from the first author.

I personally wouldnt take to much notice of any review that is on a book as it is obviously going to be biased.

ixoy

I'm always suspicious of a book where it's praised by an author and then, when you look inside at the "Thanks" section you see that same author. Clearly then they're either friends or a mentor.

The best one I saw yesterday was a book with a quote from Neil Gaiman saying something like "Vampire zombie bats? I'm sold!" with a little asterisk beside it. At the bottom it said that Neil Gaiman wanted it to be specifically pointed out that he hadn't actually read the book....

rubabbel

I remember recently a lot of controversy about reviews in newspapers. They focused on some of the positive ones, and found, somewhat inevitably, that the writers chosen for reviewing would always give positive reviews to the writers from the same publishing house. I'm not sure if many people really go by the blurb on the book, but it's more the 'trusted' names. If these people give a positive review, it will guarantee modest reviews. In Ireland this is Ryan Tubridy (for the slightly more mass-market appeal) and the ever hysterical Eileen Battersby (for the upmarket 'literary' end). Her reviews are hilariously badly written, but they will always help a book sell shedloads.

I think there's a quote on Flann O'Brien's books from James Joyce. Rumour has it Joyce never said it.

Earthhorse

donegalfella wrote: »

This post has been deleted.

It's called logrolling (see bottom of the linked page for specific reference to logrolling in book reviews). The Sunday Times had a section in their Culture supplement for a while that tracked authors praising each others' books.

fenris

If there is nothing about the plot of the book in the blurb I don't buy the book, I want to know what the book is about not the opinion of some nob.
Imagine going to the supermarket for some cereal

- "best cereal ever"
- "an emotional and spiritual roller coaster in a bowl"
- "a passionate and poignant reminder of who we were and may yet become"

Tell me what is in the box if you want me to buy it.

Or even better mention if the book is part of a series and what its position in the series is!

Basic info, that's all, enough info to make up my mind and not be ambushed by twilightesque chick lit or bran.

chenguin

fenris wrote: »

If there is nothing about the plot of the book in the blurb I don't buy the book, I want to know what the book is about not the opinion of some nob.
Imagine going to the supermarket for some cereal

- "best cereal ever"
- "an emotional and spiritual roller coaster in a bowl"
- "a passionate and poignant reminder of who we were and may yet become"

Tell me what is in the box if you want me to buy it.

Or even better mention if the book is part of a series and what its position in the series is!

Basic info, that's all, enough info to make up my mind and not be ambushed by twilightesque chick lit or bran.

Yes I would agree. I hate it when they dont tell you anything about the book instead you just get a series of qoutes from reviews as you said.
It also really annoys me when a book is part of a series and it doesnt tell you where it comes in the series.

sponsoredwalk

"The author’s observations on the great nineteenth-century Russian
writers-Chekhov, Dostoevsky, Gogol, Gorky, Tolstoy, and Turgenev.
“This volume... never once fails to instruct and stimulate. This is a great
Russian talking of great Russians” - Anthony Burgess.
Lectures on Russian Literature - Vladimir Nabokov

Reading that little blurb I quoted by Burgess tricked me, for a second I
thought that this gave the book credence seeing as Burgess himself
modelled his language in A Clockwork Orange on Russian and that he was
talking about authors I like along with this being a book by Nabokov so
you've got a lot of positive reinforcement in that millisecond.
It just made me remember that even though I'm aware of the psychological
game that is being played by the inclusion of these little adverts on
books/games/products under certain circumstances it works on me too &
I'd daresay a lot of people.

The way I heard about a lot of new bands was through the ones I liked
mentioning their influences, the same for certain authors, it's a very
similar game. If Salman Rushdie's quote is used as a blurb for some book
discussing the the East you've got endorsement of a particular worldview
right there & it lets the reader know what to expect. Also, if you seen a
Christopher Hitchens quote endorsing a book 15 years ago you'd
have an inkling of what to expect while now it would most certainly be
different.

Nobody respects "Action packed thrill ride for your senses!" by The Sun
but get a Nobel Prize Winner who has written a book with a similar topic
to that you've got inside the covers of your jacket quoted on that same
jacket & you've got something people who read it will, at least, give it
another thought.

I seen a great lecture about reviewing friends books, some authors wont
do it simply because they know they'll have to either give a good review
no matter what or else incur the wrath of an old friend in years to
come In this same lecture they were actually wondering why
contemporary critics are nowhere near as revered as critics used to be,
It's a tough question alright

I've no problem with praise for the novel from newspapers or fellow authors but I don't like when that's all there is.

Bit disappointed if there's no reference to the plot.

The quotes featured on the back of the comedian Stewart Lee's latest book 'How I Escaped My Certain Fate' reveal an interesting dichotomy:

"The most exciting comedian in the country bar none"
-The Times

"The worst comedian in Britain, as funny as bubonic plague"
-The Sun

It is left to the discretion of the curious individual to discern what significance they accord to either source instead of a having a pitiful "awesome, spectacular" rammed down their throats, although Lee is probably being sardonic

Grievous

I honestly don't mind Blurbs that have a snippet of a review printed on the back of them. It's reasonable that a publisher (Business) would try to maximize sales and customer interest.

I do believe the famous people listed on the back of said books really read them.

Be||e

From 'The Other Hand' by Chris Cleave:

We don't want to tell you what happens in this story. It is a truly special story and we don't want to spoil it. Nevertheless, you need to know enough to buy it so we will just say this: This is the story of two women. Their lives collide one fateful day, and one of them has to make a terrible choice. Two years later, they meet again -- the story starts there... Once you have read it, you'll want to tell your friends about it. When you do, please don't tell them what happens either. The magic is in how it unfolds.

I love finding new books by browsing in bookshops and when I read the above, I was intrigued. I bought it shortly after and on reading it, was quite disappointed. It is certainly not anything that I would recommend.

I later read that it won the "Best Blurb" award at the 2010 Book Marketing Society Awards. I'd been duped by clever marketing.