[Prev][Next][Index][Thread]
RARA-AVIS: In Defense of Blurbers
I suspect that the quality of blurbs and blurbers varies as in all
occupations, with those assigned to rehashing copy for reprints exhibiting
less fidelity to accuracy than those who are working with living authors,
who have been known when displeased to throw caustic fits with deadly
accuracy. In new fiction, the editor is usually responsible for writing
"back cover copy," as it's called in the publishing business. Back cover
copy for reprints generally falls to assistants or associate editors. To my
knowledge, and this is after publishing three books and in the midst of
publishing a fourth, publicity departments are dead letter drops; you might
exchange messages with something or someone claiming to be the publicity
department, but it doesn't actually exist, and it never does any work.
Okay, I'm as bitter as week old coffee, but in most houses, publicity
doesn't write much of anything, and reads less.
The person writing the blurb, then, will usually be a twenty-something
freshly graduated from an east-coast college, working long hours for almost
no money and the opportunity to become an editor, and work even longer
hours for just a little more money, though not enough to actually live in
NYC. If she's already read the book when the assignment lands in her lap,
the copy will be reasonably accurate; if not, she probably won't be given
the time to read it before her copy is due. Her primary task will be to
make the book seem exciting, which is why so much back copy has that
over-caffeinated tone.
Blurbs, more properly, are quotes from the writer's best friends, extolling
the virtues of the book in hand, and which often grace the back cover of
first novels.
Robert M. Eversz
dedalus@terminal.cz
SHOOTING ELVIS
US & International Publishing Information:
<http://netrix.terminal.cz/shooting.elvis>
-
# RARA-AVIS: To unsubscribe, say "unsubscribe rara-avis"
# to majordomo@icomm.ca
[Archives] | [RARA-AVIS]