Just a random thought today.
Simon and Schuster are no longer going to require blurbs — those little things on the back cover from other authors that tell you the book you are considering is the greatest thing since the two-line pass (who says there’s no hockey content in my tech, books, and hockey newsletter?) — from their authors. This has caused something of a stir, with authors generally being happy. But I wonder if readers will even notice.
Part of the reason for the reduction in blurbs is that authors hate doing them — its apparently like being asked to the dance by every person in your school and you don’t want to do disappoint anyone, so you say yes and then spend the entire dance trying to juggle fifty different dates (that’s a thing that happens right? I wouldn’t know. No one ever asked me to dances. The only person I ever asked was a play to get my parents to stop bothering about “missing out on your high school memories” and she was supposed to say no. So, Heather, you still owe me for the money I spent on prom.). Part of the reason is that asking for blurbs is apparently worse than asking people to the dance (maybe they should all ask Heather for blurbs?). But I wonder how much is that blurbs don’t move books.
I have never, that I can think of, bought a book because of an author’s blurb. Or, more precisely, I have never bought a book because a specific author blurbed it. I am sure that blurbs have influenced my decisions, but in the sense of “that description sounds cool”, not in the sense of “if this author I like likes it then I probably will like it.” But I wonder how typical I am, and that wonder is entirely the fault of NASCAR.
A few years ago, I ended up in a discussion around NASCAR sponsorships with a couple of NASCAR fans at work. They were adamant that they made purchasing decisions in part by who sponsored their favorite driver. This was a completely foreign idea to me. My favorite team, for my sins, is the Chicago Blackhawks. (See! Hockey!) But I would never fly United just because United bought the naming rights to the stadium the Hawks play in. But these people were adamant that they would. And obviously, companies pay to be the official cat litter or hairbrush or what have you of sports teams. I assume that they have numbers somewhere that at least suggest such sponsorships work. But it always seemed such a foreign concept to me. In fact, it makes me a little more cynical about the company. If your cars were any good, Honda, you wouldn’t need to bribe me by being the official car of the NHL, would you?
Or maybe that’s me. Maybe through a combination of upbringing and temperament I am especially cynical about advertisements and sponsorships. And, obviously, given how my NASCAR friends behave, I am not always the best suss-ing out how others think about certain issues.
Just ask Heather, who was supposed to say no and didn’t.
Do blurbs by authors sell you on books? Or are you more like me and they, at best, slide off you?
Weekly Word Count
Only 4200 this week. Been a bit busy with life and things (you know things — stuff not related to life, apparently), but also been struggling with the perceived quality. I am pretty sure the words are bad, and I hope this is just the middle of the book doldrums (I am about 60% through based on the outline). But, hey, it does say Failed Writer on the door, so the odds are decent that the writing does, in fact, suck.
But you cannot get to good without going through suck, or at least I cannot, so forward, onward and upward, and any other cliche you want to insert here. Hopefully this coming week will be more productive.
If not, I’ll find some way to blame Heather.
Have a great weekend, everyone.