Blurb Your Enthusiasm: A Cracking Compendium of Book Blurbs, Writing Tips, Literary Folklore and Publishing Secrets

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The author does a stellar job of taking us through the history of publishing and the development of the blurb, the authors who hate it, those who burn it, the hyperbolic nature of Americans and the French who have a habit of avoiding the commercial nature of it. Highlights include the changing blurbs to attract new audiences to classics such as Jane Austen and the reflection of society's norms and expectations when it comes sexism and sexist tropes in books and publishing, the derogatory comments about women writers and their areas of focus, where men write on what really matters, for everyone, whilst women write for women! Do not be surprised if after reading this, you find yourself venturing into reading a genre you normally avoid, and wanting to read a pile of other books that you had not anticipated, that is how good this is. Of course, one has to draw the line somewhere, and Willder would like to see fewer shopworn adjectives on book covers, specifically ‘luminous’, ‘dazzling’, ‘incandescent’, ‘stunning’, ‘shimmering’, ‘sparkling’, ‘glittering’, ‘devastating’, ‘searing’, ‘shattering’, ‘explosive’, ‘epic’, ‘electrifying’, ‘dizzying’, ‘chilling’, ‘staggering’, ‘deeply personal’ and the ubiquitous ‘haunting’. Oneworld has signed copywriter and Penguin Books blurb creator Louise Willder’s Blurb Your Enthusiasm: An A-Z of Literary Persuasion. Which isn’t to say the season premiere, airing 21 years after the series premiered as an hour-long HBO special, won’t be considered an instant classic to many. Indeed, we now live in a world where Jon Hamm has spoken Yiddish on television, a true hallelujah moment for an admittedly small percentage of the world’s population, but a gift wrapped in a bow to Larry David’s most dedicated core. (We knew Hanukkah was coming early this year, but not this early.)

Blurb Your Enthusiasm | Louise Willder | 9780861542178 Blurb Your Enthusiasm | Louise Willder | 9780861542178

I'd forgotten about blurbs. But the process of getting blurbs - which the US journalist Rob Walker has termed "blurb-harvesting" - is thought, by some, to be a necessary part of modern book publishing. You send the manuscript of your book to another writer, hoping they'll like it, hoping they will give you a favourable comment to put on the cover. It's a weird transaction. No money changes hands. There is only one unspoken convention: if somebody blurbs your book, you should not blurb theirs. Not until a decent amount of time has elapsed, anyway. So you're asking somebody who is probably busy, and possibly even a rival, to do some work on your behalf, for nothing in return. A New York publishing CEO joked that Lincoln’s Doctor’s Dog would be an optimal title to appeal to readers (respected president + health + animal), but there are actually now six books with some variation on that title and all were presumably flops!

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If you’re a writer, it’s all about finding your voice. If you’re a copywriter, it’s usually about expressing someone else’s. One is an art; one is a craft (or if it’s an art, it’s the art of imitation). You just have to listen. I couldn’t resist Louise Willder’s Blurb Your Enthusiasm when it popped up on NetGalley many months ahead of publication. That wordplay, of course, only added to the attraction. Willder’s book is all about those 100 or so words, so important in persuading us whether to read a book or not. She should know, she’s been writing them for twenty-five years. I enjoyed it, it contained lots of interesting facts and was fun to read, and I trusted the author’s judgement enough to add three of the books she praises to my TBR queue. Blurb Your Enthusiasm is about more than blurbs, really. It’s about publishing, the art of writing, and strategies for selling words. The scope is impressive, but Willder never forgets to make it enjoyable and accessible. Her enthusiasm for the topic and her work is obvious, and the result is a delightful exploration of books and their covers. cancel culture’ is in itself a problematic phrase. but if I were to dip a toe into the culture war, I would come down on the ‘think before you censor, or even censure, if it plays into the hands of a libertarian’ side. why make life easier for your enemies?

Blurb Your Enthusiasm | Oneworld

Louise Willder certainly makes a 5 star splash with her smart, joyful and knowledgeable non-fiction debut with its insights and history of the publishing industry, more specifically on the book blurb, the writing of which she has decades of experience, all of which she relates with wit, charm, warmth, with the occasional acerbic comment. If you love books, are in the publishing industry, are an author, a would be writer, or a book reviewer, then this is not one you should miss out on. Willder identifies the critical qualities that underline the thinking that goes behind the 100 words of blurb, citing a plethora of real life examples across literary fiction, classics, across every conceivable genre and non-fiction, the good, the bad, the ugly and the downright unhinged. The blurb works in a symbiotic relationship with the cover, title, first line of the narrative, to persuade, and/or manipulate, distort, or deceive through the use of the dark arts to get us to want and buy that book. Hamm (oy, Hamm of all names?) accuses Albert Brooks of being a shanda when an embarrassing secret is discovered at the end of the episode, one of the only references to Covid. David’s decision to largely put the pandemic in the rearview fits perfectly with the tone of the series, which has always shoved aside life’s bigger and more realistic problems and focused on the frustrating aggravations of minutiae. Willder is an English copywriter. She has written hundreds of blurbs. She has blurbed bestselling romance books, reprints of literature classics, self-help books, mysteries, and more. She considers the blurb to be one of the minor arts of publishing. Cecilia Stein, editorial director, acquired world all language rights from the author, with publication slated for September 2022. The ultimate book for any bookish sort, whether that is a reader, writer or collector. Written by an experienced copywriter, this non-fiction book looks in depth at such marketing tools as titles, punctuation, book covers, opening lines, swearing and - blurbs. It literarily is an A to Z of literary persuasion.

the spelling bee, which came out of white foundational myths !!!!!! (also rightfully calls the pilgrims the ‘mayflower colonisers’) It is the history of a revolution that went wrong – and of the excellent excuses that were forthcoming at every step for each perversion of the original doctrine. This is an entertaining grab bag of stories. Tolkien, Salinger, Graham Greene, Hemingway all have interesting blurbing stories. Her explanation of how to blurb contemporary popular fiction is wonderful. She discusses how to hint at just the right amount of sex, blurbing for men vs. woman, the challenges of blurbing new books in a long existing series, and the challenge of blurbing modern literary fiction where nothing much happens.

Blurb Your Enthusiasm eBook by Louise Willder | Official

Writing something longer than 100 words has been a novel and joyful experience,” she said. “I’m thrilled to share what I’ve learned about the art of literary persuasion over the years, and to impart a bit of publishing gossip on the way. I hope Blurb Your Enthusiasm will enlighten and delight readers – and maybe raise a few eyebrows in the trade too.” So I think blurbing serves a purpose, if you know how to read it. Some blurbs are over the top, such as when a blurber feels flattered, or when he is unconsciously seeking good karma. But I don't think many people want to be blamed by readers for making them read bad books.

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A delightful bibliophile’s miscellany with a great title – not just for the play on words, but also for how it encapsulates what this is about: ways of pithily spreading excitement about books. The first part of the subtitle, “An A–Z of Literary Persuasion,” is puzzling in that the structure is scattershot rather than strictly alphabetical, but the second is perfect: from the title and cover to the contents, Louise Willder is interested in what convinces people to acquire and read a book. I loved the chapter on the classics, the opening quote from Alan Bennett is all too true and highlights Wilders previous point about how a opening line can make or break a novel. Being a big whodunit fan I really found the section on writing blurbs for these books very interesting and it does explain why that sometimes the blurb is better than the actual book. The section of woman’s literature was my favourite I have had many of the same thoughts as the author, and I particularly loved the discussion and quotes from Marian Keyes. Louise Willder has worked in publishing as a copywriter for 25 years and she’s written more than 5,000 blurbs. She seems eminently qualified, then, to guide us on ‘the outside story of books’ (as the book’s own blurb puts it). This is a good description, as Willder doesn’t limit herself to exploring blurbs – there are lots of elements that combine to produce a book’s cover and most of them are touched on here. Or this, talking about thinking one must enjoy “classics”: “My most important classics principle, however, is this: some of them are definitely better than others, and you don’t have to like all of them. Magical realism, the Beats and most ‘Great American Novels’ have never done it for me, and I am at peace with that.” Whether you agree with her taste here or not, that’s a sensible, humane and, for me, helpful and encouraging approach.

Blurb Your Enthusiasm by Louise Willder | Book review - TLS Blurb Your Enthusiasm by Louise Willder | Book review - TLS

john yorke: ‘the shape of all stories; the enduring pattern of how someone is found by being lost.’There are sections on all sorts of things, including various genres, what makes a good book within them and what makes a good blurb in each case. Willder is often enthusiastic, sometimes withering but always thoughtful and enjoyable to read. There are also some wider reflections on books and publishing, including an excellent section on sexism and how it affects perceptions and the presentation of a book. It’s witty and punchy, making a not-at-all-funny subject very readable. (And boy, did it make me think!) I understand that the American Federal Trade Commission requires me to state that I received a free review copy from Oneworld Publications via NetGalley. However, my opinions are my own and are unbiased. it can be easy to forget that a potential reader hasn’t read it: they don’t know anything about it. You can’t sell them the experience of the book – you have to sell them the expectation of reading it; the idea of it. And that’s when a copywriter can be an author’s best friend.