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Ask a Publicist: How Do You Go About Getting Blurbs?

January 27, 2009 Sorry for no post yesterday; I've been fighting off a nasty cold and sore throat. Fortunately, Ask a Publicist means that other people write the entries for me!

Today's question: How do you go about getting blurbs?

Jill Maxick, Director of Publicity, Prometheus Books and Pyr:
With Pyr, we tend to go outside our own list for blurbs, to friends of the author or people the author thinks will have an affinity for the book. Often the author pursues the blurb, though other times we might enlist authors that we think are appropriate. Lou Anders doesn’t think a blurb on its own sells a Pyr book, but combined with a good description and cover, the combination can be very effective in helping a book catch the right reader’s eye.

On our nonfiction side, for Prometheus Books, we think blurbs can sometimes be extremely influential. One blurb ("I learned an enormous amount from this splendid book.") by Richard Dawkins, author of the New York Times bestseller The God Delusion, was incredibly influential in helping our book God: The Failed Hypothesis become a New York Times bestseller itself. The timing (when The God Delusion was huge) and the suitability (appealing to the very same science and religion and/or atheist readership) made it a perfect endorsement for garnering attention to our title. I’m pretty sure we, the press, requested that Dawkins blurb, but the author may have done so directly as well. And sometimes a blurb request results in more involvenment, like a foreword or a preface.

Brett Alexander Savory, Publisher, ChiZine Press:
I ask the author to approach bigger writers they know who enjoy their work—or give me the names so I can approach them. I definitely look all over. Only having blurbs from authors in your stable is a little incestuous and, if the reader knows your line, it looks amateurish and disingenuous with everyone from the same house patting each other on the back.

Erin Galloway, Manager of Marketing, Dorchester Publishing:
At our company, this process is handled completely by the editorial department, through a combination of authors, editors and/or agents.  Many authors approach each other for blurbs, but sometimes the editor of an author early in their career will approach another more established author to request that they consider providing a blurb.  It is obviously easiest to request blurbs from authors that already write for the same publisher, but it is also quite normal to approach other authors through their agents or for an author himself or herself to approach a more established author from another publisher.

Gavin Grant, Publisher, Small Beer Press:
We ask the author for their dream list and we brainstorm about it inhouse and then we go out and see what we can do. We look all over as we're trying to help readers triangulate the book in their hands.

Corinda Carfora, Sales and Marketing Director, Baen Books:
We try to find the most appropriate author whether it's in-house or not.  Some authors have a very tight circle of colleagues who are often willing to help each other.

Vincent W. Rospond, North American Sales Manager, BL Publishing:
We go to different places and people for our blurbs. Part of this decision may depend on wether we are looking at our Black Library or Solaris imprint.  We work with authors and the marketing department to see if there are potential readers to provide blurbs.  Because we publish in the U.S., U.K. and Oz simultaneously we widen the net of potential quotes.  In some cases we get early reviews.  In other cases, we give it to a known person in SF&F for potential quotes.  We try to avoid incestuous quotes, but in some cases they are necessary.

William Schafer, Publisher, Subterranean Press:
As a general rule, we don't solicit author blurbs.

Vera Nazarian, Publisher, Norilana Books:
This is a fun question because many people don't seem to realize there is a basic etiquette to getting blurbs.  Whether you already have a professional relationship or acquaintance with the name author in question, or you don't know them at all, the approach should be the same. You--the publisher, the editor, or the author--write a professional and courteous letter to the individual whose blurb you are soliciting for the title. I prefer to have my authors contact their favorites directly, via email or snail mail, and to aim sky-high.  If they want J.K. Rowling or Nora Roberts, by all means, go for it, but of course be realistic and be aware that the answer will very likely be no, and not to be surprised or offended if it is.  However, it has been my experience that many name authors are willing to look at good new books if they feel the request is done in a professional non-imposing manner, if they have the time to spare, and if--this is very important--the type of work has some relevance to their own genre or field of expertise.  It may seem a no-brainer that a hard SF name author is more likely to blurb a hard SF novel than a paranormal romance (unless we are talking "Renaissance woman" Catherine Asaro who does it all), but sometimes people are star-struck and blinded by their wish to have a favorite author's glowing praise on their cover, and forget to consider that it may work against them.  Blurbs are for the consumption of the industry (the bookstore chain buyers, reviewers, libraries) more than they are for the average reader, but a recognizable name does lend weight to a book (just as it may in some cases detract).
 
I take Norilana Books author blurbs very seriously. As I said, I prefer to have my authors contact their intended favorites directly (and if I happen to know the individual, I provide the contact information) because I want the author to make the effort of writing that letter and making the situation personal.  This way the potential "blurbist" can get a sense of what this person is like, and possibly what their work is like--before making a decision to look at it.  Blurbs should never be an automatic courtesy transaction between an editor and his name author buddy, but a contact between two compatible individuals with the assumption that the work will truly appeal to this particular big name.  And if for whatever reason the answer is no, I explain to the authors, it is fine, and they simply need to ask another favorite on their list, and keep going until we have at least 2-3 blurbs.  In general, the focus is on subject relevance, and not so much on whether or not the name author is a part of our "author stable."
 
Also, depending on editions and timing, if a title gets an advance trade review from Publishers Weekly for example, we are more than happy to showcase a quote prominently on the cover.  An ideal situation is a mix of major trade blurbs and name author blurbs on the cover.

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If you'd like to suggest a question, email it to rose.fox@reedbusiness.com with "Ask a Publicist" in the subject line. The next question on deck is "What are the publicity advantages and disadvantages of your company's size and position in the market?".

Posted by Rose Fox on January 27, 2009 | Comments (5)