Don't Trust Author Blurbs

[Thomas Beshear]

Right -- I remember seeing that column a couple of times. It was pretty funny.
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Robert Mahnke 
  To: Thomas Beshear 
  Cc: John Bailey ; Pynchon Liste 
  Sent: Friday, July 16, 2010 11:34 AM
  Subject: Re: Don't Trust Author Blurbs


  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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