I suck at blurbs. If I read a book and like it I can write a good review but that snappy six-word cover copy attention getter is beyond me. I mean, I have a hard time writing the elevator pitch for my own books.

I also dislike the whole notion of blurbs. I hate exploiting my writing friends and I loathe the way name blurbs exploit the undeniable privilege of bestselling writers. My publisher is still using a Michael Connelly quote about the Kate Shugak novels he kindly gave me twenty years ago. I get it, it’s Michael Connelly, the world’s nicest guy and a plankholder on bestseller lists everywhere. They’re hoping that the kajillion Michael fans out there will see his name on the cover of my book and reflexively pick it up and maybe even (the holy grail) buy it.

Mr. Manning writes

In no other artistic industry is this common. How often does a blurb from a filmmaker appear on another filmmaker’s movie poster? A blurb from a musician on another musician’s album cover? A blurb from a game designer on another designer’s game box?…trying to get blurbs is not a good use of anyone’s time. Instead, authors who are soliciting them could be writing their next book; agents could be trying to find new books; editors could be improving books through revisions; and the solicited authors could be reading books they actually want to read that will benefit their work—rather than reading books they feel they have to read as a courtesy to their editor, their agent, a writer friend or a former student. What’s worse, this kind of favor trading creates an incestuous and unmeritocratic literary ecosystem that often rewards connections over talent.

Emphasis mine. So hooray, Mr. Manning! And thank you for that perspicacious and on occasion hilarious essay. I can’t say I’m looking forward to reading Sex and Magic, should you ever rediscover the copyright, but I hope you’re keeping a daily journal that will one day morph into a book by you called My Life in Publishing. I’m ready to pre-order a copy right now. No blurb necessary.

#thiswritinglife Chatter book blurbs Sean Manning Simon & Schuster