Which promotional blurbs matter the most to historical fiction readers?

The literary world has been having a long-overdue conversation about the practice of blurbing, that is, writers providing promotional endorsements for each other’s books. This was spurred by Sean Manning, publisher at Simon & Schuster’s imprint of the same name, who wrote an essay for Publishers Weekly explaining why they’d no longer expect their writers to obtain blurbs. “Trying to get blurbs is not a good use of anyone’s time,” he writes, among many other good points. “Instead, authors who are soliciting them could be writing their next book… worse, this kind of favor trading creates an incestuous and unmeritocratic literary ecosystem that often rewards connections over talent.”

 Others in the industry have shared their own takes:

From NPR Books' newsletter: Hey, would you mind blurbing my book? 

From Elisabeth Egan in the New York Times: What are book blurbs, and how much do they matter in publishing? (gift article) 

Publicist Kathleen Schmidt, from her Substack: Let's Talk About Blurbs... Again

Author Rebecca Makkai: Blurb No More - written before Sean Manning's essay came out.

Blurbs, blurbs, and more blurbs

Blurbs from peers can provide encouragement for authors, especially debuts, and contribute to a sense of belonging in the literary sphere. But since presumably the goal of all involved – publishers, authors, and agents – is to sell books, it should matter if readers find blurbs useful or not. And the consensus is that they don’t – or, at best, “we don’t know.”

As a book critic and avid reader, blurbs come across my desk and inbox all the time but usually don't, in themselves, encourage me to take a closer look. Blurbs are good at demonstrating their writers’ connections in the industry: fellow authors within the same category (like historical women’s fiction); authors who share the same publisher or literary agent; or writers and faculty from the same MFA program.

Some novels include a voluminous list of blurbs that go on for pages. Why so many? Nobody's going to read them all, and all I can think is how many total hours were spent on that exercise. It's not easy to provide a nice précis while extolling the book’s appeal in an original way. Just like reviewing, blurbing takes time and skill.

I know this personally, since I’ve been on the receiving end of blurb requests a handful of times. I was pleased to be asked and enjoyed the books but have decided to stick with reviewing. Also, several instances after I spent time reading a book and crafting a blurb, the author’s publisher decided it wasn’t valuable enough to use (the unspoken message is that I lack name recognition!). This wasn’t the author’s fault, but it was discouraging.

Blurbs' strongest asset is their ability to provide clues, in a readers’ advisory sense, about what type of book you'll be getting. This only works if readers recognize the names of the authors providing the quotes, and are familiar with what they write.

Some blurbs can be confusing if not outright detrimental, with regard to helping a book find its audience. I’ve seen works of commercial historical fiction arrive with blurbs by authors of literary short story anthologies – a big disconnect. I’ve also seen blurbs for historical novels written by professionals in unrelated fields who may have been personal friends. Best to skip soliciting those.

Here are specific instances when, as a reader and reviewer, blurbs have piqued my interest:

- Novels by new-to-me writers, especially those with small or indie presses, blurbed by well-known authors whose works I admire.

Some examples. I had recently seen the Publishers Marketplace deal for Esperanza Hope Snyder’s Orange Wine and made a mental note to watch for it, since it’s set in early 20th-century Colombia and had an intriguing plot. It appeared on NetGalley last week with a blurb from Margot Livesey, whose The Road from Belhaven I loved. I put in a request for it. For another: C. F. Dunn’s Wheel of Fortune has a cover endorsement from Elizabeth Chadwick, who calls it “the best Wars of the Roses novel I have ever read.” This doesn’t guarantee I’ll love either book, but were these blurbs effective? Yes. 

- When a major author in the genre praises any book. The late Hilary Mantel was known for her generosity towards other writers, as well as her discernment. If she praised a book, I paid attention.  Her comments were always brilliantly phrased, too.

The book cover, and a close-up.
What do you think... is this blurb persuasive?

- Novels in which the author’s moving to a new genre or subgenre and seeking to expand their audience. If the blurbers and blurbs don’t match this new direction, it sends a mixed message.

-  Recommendations from representatives of historical societies, well-known academics, or others with a personal relationship with the novel’s subject. These are uncommon and totally not necessary for fictional works, but when done appropriately, they stand out. While this isn’t a blurb per se, the endorsement that Nedra Farwell Brown, great-granddaughter of the subject of Kathleen Grissom’s Crow Mary, provided for the book via her foreword is noteworthy. How do I know this? Because so many reviewers mentioned it in their reviews. I dare say her words carried even more weight because Grissom was writing outside her culture.

The absence of these or any other blurbs isn’t meaningful to me, however, and it’s the rare endorsement that would persuade me to read a book I didn't already want to read.

I would be interested in hearing from other readers about whether blurbs/endorsements encouraged you to pick up a book.