The Blurbs
Earlier this week, the folks at Black Library Publishing sent me a few cover flats for my upcoming novel Gunheads. As you can probably imagine, I was pretty excited to see them. It's one of those little kicks a writer gets in between finishing the last draft of the book and actually having the published product in his hands (and in the shops) all those months later.
A short while ago, I also received cover flats for Imperial Guard Omnibus: Volume One, which reprints my debut novel, Rebel Winter, and includes my new Vostroyan short story, The Citadel.
I think you'll agree that both books are looking pretty damned smart.
It's not all roses of course. In a fit of frankness, I must confess to feeling a bit irked whenever I read the back cover blurb on one of my books. Maybe it's some kind of weird territorialism, but I always feel that the author should write (or at least co-write) this important part of the cover. Who could possibly be more qualified for that job?
In fact, that brings up a good question. How important do you think the blurb on the back of a book is? Is it more or less important than the cover painting? Do you ever select or reject books on the basis of the blurb alone?
Post a comment and let me know.
posted by Steve Parker at
6:05 PM
5 Comments:
Hi Steve
Gunheads is looking especially smart, I think, and the omnibus looks like it's going to be a weighty tome.
I know exactly what you mean about cover blurbs. The blurb on the back of one of my BL novels gave away the carefully construsted twist in the tale that was only revealed in the last chapter of the book. Didn't discover the fact until the book came out.
I now write all my own blurbs, at the publishers' request, for exactly the reasons you state.
Hi Jonathan,
Thanks for posting. A big twist blown by the back cover blurb, huh? That sounds like the worst! Seems it worked out to your advantage in the end, though, since you can personally ensure it never happens again.
By the way, I'm looking forward to checking out your Pax Britannia series. Judging by the blurb, it sounds like my cup of tea! ;)
And that would be the blurb that I wrote myself.
Cheers - I hope you enjoy them. Very different to my 40K stuff.
Blurbs sure are a tricky old beast, and usually compiled through a combination of editor (who supplies the basic story and its highlights) and the marketing person or team (who actually write the thing) who, a few steps removed from the process, try to write a blurb that covers all the commercial aspects of actually selling a book. It has its own problems, of course - objectivity provides focus on the main selling points of a book (Imperial Guard, tanks etc) but can sometimes result in a blurb that doesn't quite match the represent the story in the book or (in worst cases) give away a crucial part of the narrative.
Blurbs (in the form of cover flats) then go to authors (or they should do, at least), who can, if they wish, request changes if necessary (and it has certainly happened this way at BL before).
Some authors, of course, don't like writing blurbs, or they simply can't - the act of condensing their work down into one or two salient paragraphs too much to ask.
But I can certainly appreciate the flipside. I know that whenever I read a blurb for one of my books, I read it diligently - a perk of being an editor too, I guess.
Well, Nick, it seems to me that the marketing people aren't really the best people for this at all. I think many authors would love to write their own blurb or, at the very least, be able to edit what the marketing folks write.
In fact, the latter sounds like an easy and effective fix to me. Let the writers see the blurb before it actually gets onto the cover flats, and everyone will be happy.
Makes sense, right? :)
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