Don't Trust Author Blurbs

[Robert Mahnke]

The departed Spy Magazine used to have a feature called Logrolling In Our
Time:

http://lippard.blogspot.com/2008/04/logrolling-in-our-time.html
http://bookmavenmedia.com/2009/04/22/logrolling-in-our-time-book-review-ethics-re-examined-part-one/
http://oneminutebookreviews.wordpress.com/category/backscratching-in-our-time/
http://wonkette.com/263372/logrolling-in-our-time



On Thu, Jul 15, 2010 at 8:29 PM, Thomas Beshear <tbeshear at insightbb.com>wrote:

> I've heard the practice called log rolling, which I think also applies to
> writing a review of a book written by a friend or colleague or mentor.
> Mutual back scratching is another way of looking at it. I often look at book
> blurbs (especially on hardcovers) and try to judge which clique a writer
> belongs to.
>
> For example, take the jacket of a book I just read: So Cold the River by
> Michael Koryta. Koryta is a mystery novelist who is branching out  -- So
> Cold is a thriller with horror (a ghost, Midwestern gothic) elements. Front
> cover has blurbs by Michael Connelly and Dennis Lehane, heavy hitters in the
> detective novel field Koryta has been a part of. All three writers are
> regionalists: their detective novels all hew to a particular place: LA for
> Connelly, Boston for Lehane, Cleveland for Koryta. Connelly has blurbed
> previous novels and Koryta has thanked him and Lehane on acknowledgment
> pages, including in So Cold.
>
> The back cover has blurbs by high-profile writers Scott Smith, Dan Simmons,
> Stewart O'Nan, and Joe R. Lansdale. All have written horror, and O'Nan and
> Lansdale are considered regionalists (O'Nan is primarily a literary
> novelist). Koryta is published by Little, Brown, which also publishes
> Simmons.
>
> I'm not always sure what the connections, mean, but I imagine these things
> are hints about the publishing business.
>
> ----- Original Message ----- From: "John Bailey" <sundayjb at gmail.com>
> To: "Pynchon Liste" <pynchon-l at waste.org>
> Sent: Thursday, July 15, 2010 11:03 PM
> Subject: Don't Trust Author Blurbs
>
>
>  Interesting piece on Salon.com about how author-written blurbs almost
>> never reflect the sentiments of the author but are instead usually
>> personal favours or professional obligations:
>>
>> http://www.salon.com/books/laura_miller/2010/07/09/blurbs/index.html
>>
>
>
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