dogmatika
This book will not change your life
03 May 2006
"Maybe I don’t feel books as intensely as Eggers."
Bookninja point to an article on CBC: The reckless art of book blurbing
Every newly published book heaves with hyperbolic quotations — and the language is getting more and more preposterous.
Take this example from the paperback cover of British author Nicola Barker’s last novel, Clear. According to the London Spectator, “The brilliance of Barker’s style is beyond perfection.” Now, I haven’t read Clear, but I’d venture to say that at best, it’s perfection. “Beyond perfection” is like that old sports adage about “giving 110 per cent”: it’s patently illogical. Like so many critics nowadays, it seems the person who reviewed Clear was so euphoric, they momentarily lost their mind.
The blurb is a longstanding practice in publishing — nowadays, it’s jarring to find a book that isn’t garnished with adoring verbiage. While there’s no empirical proof that blurbs help sell books, no publisher would dare print a book without one.
Blurbs for a book’s first printing are usually submitted by other authors; for subsequent editions (like the paperback version), these quotes are typically supplemented with excerpts from reviews in newspapers and magazines. Along with high-profile reviews (preferably positive) and book tours, blurbs are part and parcel of marketing any title. Craig Pyette, associate editor at Random House of Canada, says the importance of a blurb lies not so much in the praise as in the person giving it.
“It’s lovely to have nice words about your book on your book’s cover, but the real value is the comparison value,” says Pyette. “The idea is for a shopper to see a blurb from a certain author whom they’re familiar with, and say, ‘My favourite author likes this book, so I’ll like it, too.’” Pyette points to one of the books he edited, Kenneth J. Harvey’s Inside; while the Newfoundland writer’s novel got great notices, Pyette says the real coup was extracting kudos from British author John Banville, the recent winner of the Man Booker Prize (for The Sea).
The word “blurb” dates back to the early 20th century. When writer/illustrator Gelett Burgess published his comic treatise Are You a Bromide? in 1906, it was common practice for book jackets to include an image of a damsel (distressed or otherwise). Burgess was evidently something of a card. At a trade association dinner the following year, he and his publisher cooked up a new cover that depicted a woman named “Belinda Blurb” delivering a hilariously over-the-top testimonial. The stunt was meant to satirize the art of book promotion; ironically, it may have put it into overdrive.
Zitzer admits that she’s come across blurbs that had “a tone of ecstasy that I found hard to swallow.” No doubt some books deserve ecstatic praise. A problem arises, however, when every book is touted as “brilliant.”
The brilliant Bookmunch had a bone to pick with Matt Thorne a while back on that very issue, who they said, "represents the epitomy of lazy publicists' (genuinely iniquitous!) attempts to get us to buy their product."
Keep a mental tally of the names you see cropping up again and again. Enjoy the hyperbole...by all means, just keep a track of the names...mostly you'll see Matt Thorne...We'll gloss over the fact that he appears to like FUCKING EVERYTHING (and, I mean, what kind of recommendation is that, anyway? who wants to read a book that's been recommended by somebody who doesn't appear to have any kind of critical faculty whatsoever!?!).
[..]
Book cover quotes are an evil and they need to be stopped. It's time publicists worked a bit harder to find some way to entice the book-reading public out from under its rock....And I'll tell you something else - if Matt Thorne put his foot down, stopped appearing on the front of other people's books . . . I'd warrant he'd sell a lot more of his own.
Take this example from the paperback cover of British author Nicola Barker’s last novel, Clear. According to the London Spectator, “The brilliance of Barker’s style is beyond perfection.” Now, I haven’t read Clear, but I’d venture to say that at best, it’s perfection. “Beyond perfection” is like that old sports adage about “giving 110 per cent”: it’s patently illogical. Like so many critics nowadays, it seems the person who reviewed Clear was so euphoric, they momentarily lost their mind.
The blurb is a longstanding practice in publishing — nowadays, it’s jarring to find a book that isn’t garnished with adoring verbiage. While there’s no empirical proof that blurbs help sell books, no publisher would dare print a book without one.
Blurbs for a book’s first printing are usually submitted by other authors; for subsequent editions (like the paperback version), these quotes are typically supplemented with excerpts from reviews in newspapers and magazines. Along with high-profile reviews (preferably positive) and book tours, blurbs are part and parcel of marketing any title. Craig Pyette, associate editor at Random House of Canada, says the importance of a blurb lies not so much in the praise as in the person giving it.
“It’s lovely to have nice words about your book on your book’s cover, but the real value is the comparison value,” says Pyette. “The idea is for a shopper to see a blurb from a certain author whom they’re familiar with, and say, ‘My favourite author likes this book, so I’ll like it, too.’” Pyette points to one of the books he edited, Kenneth J. Harvey’s Inside; while the Newfoundland writer’s novel got great notices, Pyette says the real coup was extracting kudos from British author John Banville, the recent winner of the Man Booker Prize (for The Sea).
The word “blurb” dates back to the early 20th century. When writer/illustrator Gelett Burgess published his comic treatise Are You a Bromide? in 1906, it was common practice for book jackets to include an image of a damsel (distressed or otherwise). Burgess was evidently something of a card. At a trade association dinner the following year, he and his publisher cooked up a new cover that depicted a woman named “Belinda Blurb” delivering a hilariously over-the-top testimonial. The stunt was meant to satirize the art of book promotion; ironically, it may have put it into overdrive.
Zitzer admits that she’s come across blurbs that had “a tone of ecstasy that I found hard to swallow.” No doubt some books deserve ecstatic praise. A problem arises, however, when every book is touted as “brilliant.”
[..]
Book cover quotes are an evil and they need to be stopped. It's time publicists worked a bit harder to find some way to entice the book-reading public out from under its rock....And I'll tell you something else - if Matt Thorne put his foot down, stopped appearing on the front of other people's books . . . I'd warrant he'd sell a lot more of his own.
© Dogmatika 2004-2007 | All rights reserved
