The wise and wordy Jeri asks:
I guess a good question for readers would be, do cover quotes affect your buying decision in the first place? But that sounds like another blog topic altogether.
Fo’ shure, this is a blog topic on its own.
My personal opinion (and of course you asked for it!) is that it doesn’t make a huge difference, except for me thinking, ‘Hey, a quote from an author I like – that’s cool that she/he knows him/her’ – e.g. when PC Cast had a quote from Christopher Moore, I emailed her in hyperventilating fashion and said, “OMGOMG You know Christopher Moore? He is, like, So Super Kewlies!” and barely stopped short of artistically decorating my email with various symbols like ** and ~~ and ||||.
I also got a book to review recently with a cover quote from MaryJanice Davidson that literally made me laugh out loud. I don’t have the book with me, but it was to the effect of, “I’m so jealous I didn’t write this book myself!” That cracked my ass up.
But do quotes from authors I’ve heard of make me read a book? Honestly, no. I usually assume they are friends, or a favor was owed, or someone knew someone who knew someone else. The inside joke of Sherrilyn Kenyon/Kinley MacGregor cover quoting aside, the words usually ring so artificial and sound like so much PR-speak that I ignore them.
However – a quote from an author whose work I don’t like? Might make me question the quality of the book I’m considering.
That said, I’m more than ready to sell myself for cover quotes. In the spirit Darlene’s son’s review of Bela Fleck (which was spot on, by the way), I’ll tell the entire world that your book was so funny, I laughed until my episiotomy hurt.
Okay, this is wierd. I have not read any of Christopher Moore’s books and decided to see what all the fuss is about. I went to his website and became very interested. I plan to check him out soon. Then I found it. A blurb from NICHOLAS FRIGGIN” SPARKS!!!!! It goes without saying that a major purpose of these blurbs is to pull in another kind of reader who may have never picked up a particular book otherwise. I can just hear my Grandma now, “I don’t usually buy books about deamons…. but if Nicky Sparks likes it, WELL.”
I have never let an author quote persuade me to buy a book so I guess I won’t let this one persuade me not to buy one, but damn. If there is some kind of sappy ass diary or a perky little terminally ill chick in it I am going to be pissed.
Am I the only one in the world who resents authors who, instead of using the back cover to describe the book, put pictures of themselves there?
I see a lot of assuming that the author has anything to do with this. “Putting themselves”—right, because the author has any control over how their image gets used, or the design of the book. That’s like saying that the author gets a say in how big the font is in teh chapter headings. In addition, there’s a certain population of the book buying public who finds the author photos appealing. Who finds the ads on the subway of the author standing next to a giant photoshopped copy of their book appealing, etc.
In addition, I may be in the minority, but I have nothing to do with asking for blurbs for my book. I didn’t even get a say on who was asked.
People assume that authors have control over their covers, or their blurbs, or whatever. But we really only control what goes on on the inside of the book. So people who are disgusted with an author cover should complain tot eh publisher.
PC Cast’s comment about the McCaffrey blurb made me laugh. I could just imagine the process: ‘Find: Shit! – Replace: Shards!. Find: Fuck! Replace: Fardles!’
And think of all the pages you could cut by switching the hot sex with ‘she responded as ardently as if dragon roused!’ then drawing a tasteful veil over the shocking proceedings.
This isn’t to say I didn’t love the Pern books when I was a teenager. I did. But she didn’t stop writing them. And while my tastes matured, her writing ability had already peaked.
Shit = Shards. Fuck = Fardles. God, that made me snort wine out my nose. I’d forgotten all about the Pern curse words. The irony here is that the drastically veiled sex in the Pern books was a huge impetus in making me decided that I wanted DETAILS in my own fantasy books. I agree with you, Fiamme. Once I was out of my early teens I wanted more more more (and you KNOW some seriously hot sex was going on in Pern!).
And I have to chime in with Diana, too. Authors rarely have anything to say about covers – their photos – copy, etc., etc., and it often makes us crazy. Queen Nora probably doesn’t even think about her photo. My guess is where it’s placed is the last thing she gives a shit about with her books. I’ve never had any discussion with any of my three houses about where to put my author photo. I’m just thankful my most recent one doesn’t look like an aging prom queen. Also, I like to look at author photos. If I don’t know them I’m curious. If I know them I want to see exactly how much air brushing is going on.
Uh, sorry. This is totally off the blurb subject.
Hm. Never mind about the airbrushing of author photos. H.E. tells me that romance authors are often told to wear scarves and to pose with their chin on their hand … you know, to cover up any neck wrinkles. Is this at all true?
Although I’m not a big fan of author photos in general (especially when they draw too close a connection between the authorial persona and the book in question), what irks me far more is the fact that publishers spend so much more promoting those authors at the top rather than the mid-listers or newbies who might really benefit from more PR. I understand why it happens, but beyond celebritizing the author, I think it fosters a real disparity in the genre and a sense—at least to a reader like myself—that authors are basically viewed as raw labor, at least until they hit celebrity status. I don’t know; I just don’t feel there’s a real appreciation for whatever the equivalent of the “character actor” is in the Romance industry (although I’d love to know if there is).
It’s like that line in the movie “She-Devil” where Ed Begley’s character tells Meryl Streep’s Romance novelist character something like “we’re not talking about art—we’re talking about a product” in reference to her work (an insider or outsider’s perspective there??). Obviously publishing is a business, but I still hold to the idea/ideal that works of fiction are, or should be, substantively different from, say, machine tools or patio furniture.
From an author’s point of view, I can say I’m asked to give a quote about once a month on average. Very rarely it’s a friend asking for a favor; it’s usually an editor or an agent I’ve never worked with asking if I’ll read the book and, if I like it, give a quote. (I get a lot of funny, first-person paranormal manuscripts, for obvious reasons.) And my standard rule is, if I don’t like the book, I don’t give a quote. Believe me, I’ve got plenty to keep me busy without making up something nice about a book I hated.
I’ve been burned so often that I’ll ignore blurbs, or even, sorry to say, avoid books with blurbs by certain individuals if theirs is the only one featured. So far only one (in my view) author’s unwise appreciation of an extremely dodgy book caused me to re-evaluate my opinion of their work. In the end I assumed they were blackmailed and forgave them, but I’m still wary.
A lot of these blurbs seem to function a bit like the reviews that read: “Fans of Esmerelda Voluptuadina-Lustte will knot their knickers over this book”. It’s sometimes glaringly apparent that the reviewer only has a nodding acquaintance with either author’s work, but they’re not so much pointers on potential quality as genre.
They probably help if the dark colours, gothick letterynge, flamingo-necked damsels, bat silhouettes and brooding, be-caped man-titty on the front, and the coyly-worded back cover detailing the hero’s “dark secrets”, “dwelling in darkness”, “eternal night” and plays on the words “fangs” and “teeth” leave a reader confused as to sub-genre. Could this be a vampire romance or is it a secret gay twin novel about a melodramatic orthodondist who’s so deeply in the (endless velvet shadows of the agonising) closet (of ceaseless anguished longing) it’s as if he’s never paid the electricity bill?
Oh the agony of indecision. Luckily, if LKH claims in a blurb that it’s a heartbreaking work of staggering genius so good that Anita would form the beast-with-pretty-rainbow-hair-and-three-backs-including-one-with-spikes-and-several-long-thick-tails with the author if she were a were-platypus,* ‘cos she ain’t done one of those, yet, you know it’s the orthodondist. What a relief.
*And male. Can’t have Anita involved in girl-on-girl action, of course, ‘cos that would mean she’s a no-good down and dirty slapper who’s only doing it for fun, rather than channeling higher powers via the potent mightiness of man-juice.
Blurbs have little effect on whether I’ll buy a book. But if I’m already inclined to buy it and just weighing the decision of whether to spend the money on a book verses a jumbo pack of Pampers, a great endorsement from an author I like just may push me over the edge. (Sorry, Baby.)
On the other hand, I have heard from several people that they gave my book a second look based on the Janet Evanovich blurb on the cover. (Thanks, Janet!)
And while most of us are savvy enough to realize that most blurbers are friends or otherwise share a connection to the blurbees, I don’t think the average reader is as jaded as we are.
And, like many other posters, I am annoyed when a book cover devotes so much space to blurbs that I have no idea what the plot is about. That really turns me off!
Don’t forget Anita won’t take it up the butt either, EAP. That might make her a dirty slut. It hardly seems fair to have 3 dudes there and not er, provide for them as best she can.
>>Don’t forget Anita won’t take it up the butt either<
<
Jeez, you’d think at least Merry Gentry would let one of the tinkerbell-sized fairies have a go at it.
>
>so good that Anita would form the beast-with-pretty-rainbow-hair-and-three-backs-including-one-with-spikes-and-several-long-thick-tails with the author if she were a were-platypus,*<<
Oh, good Lord, I think I hurt something. And not in the beast with three backs kinda way.
DVDA for Anita!
I take absolutely no notice of author and reviewer endorsements. I mean, the cult devotion to Diana Gabaldon’s books annoys me so much that – mucho apologies to DG – I can’t stand the sight of her name. And yet only last month I finally noticed her endorsement on the cover a novel I loved for years.
Thank God I didn’t notice nor care about endorsements because otherwise, I’d miss out on this fabulous novel.
I pay no attention whatsoever. I have read books in the past based on people’s reviews on the back, and finished up thinking, I was reading a totally different book.
Do the people being quoted actually read the book, or are they just given a synopsis?
“This book is so good, it makes me want to choke a bitch.â€
I’d kill for that SB quote on my book.
Bwahahahahahaha!
And actually some of the quoting is arranged by the publisher. At least that’s what one of mine is telling me. So I have no idea who they’re going to be sending it to. *chews nails*
I think I’ll ask them if they wouldn’t mind sending it to the SB’s for a quote *snicker*
DVDA
Man… I can’t wait for the day that LKH gives in and gives Anita some DVDA… that shit would be tight.
True?
Well…. didn’t the last Merry book have at least DV?
Raina_Dayz is a woman after my own heart. Gaiman, Pratchett and Moore are the only authors I have ever followed cover quotes for – and for the most part liked.
That said, I worked many years as a Bookseller and in a library and can tell you that nothing convinces a person to buy a book as much as a cover quote will. Esp when they are those annoying people who come in once a year for the a Nora Roberts book and maybe one other but they don’t want something that they’ve never read before. Point out a Robert’s quote (and there are ALOT) and it’s a sold book.
“Man… I can’t wait for the day that LKH gives in and gives Anita some DVDA… that shit would be tight.”
Oh yes…TIGHT. That word is used 5 or 6 times in every love scene in every Anita book. You ought to be able to drive a freight train through anything that gets used that much, but poor Anita’s giney is so TIGHT that she is in constant danger of being injured by one of her many men (or creatures, or critters, or whatever.) As we say down here in the south….Bless her little heart.
Karibelle, I love how LKH shows that Anita is much more woman than Micah’s ex-girlfriend by being able to take in his gigantor penis better than she could.
“I can take your giganto penis. That means I love you!” That’s true love, baby.
“I can take your giganto penis. That means I love you!†That’s true love, baby.”……
“……..And since we have all this true luuurve between us I know you will understand now that I have used you up I have to go fuck this fruity little stripper now, and then a couple of vampires, and a big ol’ alpha werewolf, if I have time. Love ya babe!”