Hi everyone,
I hope you’re having good weeks!
Today I am talking about author blurbs. What are they, why do we ask for them, and what can you do to help?
Author blurbs (or quotes, or endorsements) are usually a few lines (which will likely then be condensed to a few words) in support of your book, from either well-known authors, or authors writing in your genre, or both. Publishers use these to build excitement for the books, and to help build a case both internally (with sales, marketing, and PR teams) and externally (with retailers and booksellers) for your novel. Publishing is a risk business, and if as an editor I can provide a whole slew of positive quotes, it means that others feel more confident in backing the book. Quotes are helpful for sell-in and for publicity. Pick up any book on your shelf and you will likely see some (they are also often used on the inside pages at the front of a book).
So how does the process work? Well, if it’s a debut novel, as an editor I might want early proofs of it - bound-up books that we will send out to key people who might want to read. These might have a slightly different jacket, or a jacket that looks very much like a proof - it depends on the marketing campaign, the book, and where you are at that stage in the cover process. Some proofs can be designed creatively to look super intriguing and hopefully be splashed across social media; some proofs might look pretty similar to the final jacket, and they usually have the line ‘uncorrected proof copy, not for resale or quotation’ on them. The US call these ‘advance reader copies’ or ‘galleys’ - you might also hear the term ‘arcs’ - publishing has its own lingo and hopefully this Substack helps you understand some of it a little bit better!
Once we have the proofs, we have to decide how many to print. Unfortunately, it is very expensive to print proofs so publishers tend not to do them for every book, and if an author is more established, the need for them lessens (because we often have quotes for their writing that we might be able to re-use, or because they have got a good footing with readers). It also depends on how proofs fit into the wider campaign, where the book is going to be sold, and in what format. If a book is digital-first or if audio is the key format, we might not do physical proofs; we might send out early digital copies for authors to read and spend the money on something else (e.g. advertising). If you are a debut author it’s helpful to have proofs if your book is one that will be stocked in retailers more widely - that way we can provide them with ‘ammunition'! But it depends on the size of your publishing house and their overall plans as to whether you have them or not. I often do not do them for my authors any more. Anyway, how that piece of the process works is the editor usually gathers up all the best quotes that they have secured, and we send them to the sales team so that the sales team can send on to the retail buyers at the right moment. It’s important not to bombard retailers with things like this, so publishers have to be selective and pick the right moments!
In order to try to get endorsements, whether with physical proofs or otherwise, the editor usually sends a copy of the review copy with a note to the author, having asked first as to whether they’d like an early advance copy. We usually email the author’s agent or editor, or go directly to the author if we have more of an existing relationship / if it is appropriate, and send a letter/note outlining what the book is about and explaining why we’d be appreciative of an endorsement. Some authors get sent TONS of proofs all the time, and are constantly being asked for quotes, so as editors you have to bear that in mind and we always say that the request is only if the author has the time - we’d never force an endorsement out of anyone! Sometimes, an author might reply to say they are sorry but they don’t have time, or they might reply to say that they cannot guarantee a quote, but they will post about the book on social media (this can be quite helpful too, depending on the size / engagement of their following).
If the author agrees to receive a copy, the publisher will either send one in the post or email a digital copy. Digital copies are more environmentally too so I prefer them, but some people don’t read on a Kindle so we need to keep that in mind too.
Endorsements are also helpful for things like your Amazon listing, for your A+ material (the large images on Amazon under your book, provided by the publisher as marketing tool), and we try to put all the quotes we receive onto our internal systems so that they feed out to all online retailers. I usually also send round-ups of quotes to the internal teams, but again, people in publishing receive a LOT of emails so you need to be careful not to do this for every book and to only do it when you feel it is worthwhile! It can be really lovely to showcase the building buzz and endorsements for a book though and it’s a good way to get it a bit more on radar.
Blurbs are also helpful when it comes to the positioning of the novel. Some of the best quotes help tell the reader what the book is about, or give the reader the genre, and those are often the ones we might choose to put on the front cover, or on the back cover depending on the design and the space available. Our theory is that readers are more tempted to buy if they see that other writers they like or respect have endorsed a book. Of course, in publishing you do see some writers who provide a lot of endorsements and there will be some readers who might find it off-putting, but we try to go with the majority and usually, sales team find quotes really helpful to have.
So, what can you do as an author? Well, it’s helpful if you can provide your editor with a list of any significant authors you may already know or be connected to, so that we can reach out to them. But you might not know anyone! And that’s totally fine! In that case, leave it to your editor and they will be able to make a list. It’s helpful to pool ideas at this stage, so in the past I’ve worked with agents and perhaps US editors to reach out to key authors -everyone has different contacts - so please don’t worry if you don’t have any yourself. It’s only if you do that it’s worth saying. Sometimes, your publisher might ask you to approach authors to ask for quotes - this can feel awkward, but the personal touch can also go a long way, and in my experience most writers are flattered and they hopefully know that there is no obligation to provide a quote if they do not have time. Your publisher might occasionally ask you to handwrite a note or a postcard that they can send out with a proof, and if you have any authors who you as a writer particularly love, it’s worth letting your editor know so that they can think about whether to try them for an endorsement.
On the whole, blurbs from other authors are a wonderful thing to have, but if you’re finding it hard to secure them, please don’t worry! There are also books out there who don’t have any / who only have a few which have done very well too, and another thing publishers do more of now is use real reader endorsements - quotes from actual readers who might have read the novel on a platform like Netgalley, for example. These can be really effective too!
I hope this helps explain what can sometimes feel like a murky part of the industry!
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Phoebe x
This was very interesting and another marketing thing I've always been curious about. Do publishers try getting quotes for midlist books too or just the lead titles and can an author request their book ends up on bookgalley if the publisher hasn't mentioned doing that?
This information is gold! I'll be saving it for the future. Thank you!