It's rude to blurb in public
April 18, 2012 2:21 PM   Subscribe

Adam Mansbach (previously) will write a blurb of your novel. For a price.... posted by schmod (20 comments total) 3 users marked this as a favorite
 
Seems like he needs more help than he's in a position to offer, literary-cachet-wise.
posted by clockzero at 2:37 PM on April 18, 2012


Love it!
posted by Sidhedevil at 2:38 PM on April 18, 2012


That's not a chart, it's a list. Description fail (+$100).
posted by Doleful Creature at 2:46 PM on April 18, 2012


Seems like he needs more help than he's in a position to offer, literary-cachet-wise.

Publication in the New Yorker is not too shabby.
posted by kenko at 2:51 PM on April 18, 2012


'Angry Black White Boy' wasn't all bad.
posted by box at 3:10 PM on April 18, 2012


I'm thinking of putting together one of those quizzes like "James Joyce or a schizophrenic?" where you have to identify which one said a quote. Mine will be "NEW YORKER OR MCSWEENEYS?"
posted by Justinian at 3:13 PM on April 18, 2012


box: “'Angry Black White Boy' wasn't all bad.”

That's what I said, but for some reason they didn't use it on the dust jacket.
posted by koeselitz at 3:21 PM on April 18, 2012 [2 favorites]


It's so funny when one's faint praise is used as a blurb.

I think the best example was when my friend Mark Caro, then a movie reviewer, said that Kid 'n' Play's House Party "aims for the mainstream, and hits it." He then saw that in the newspaper ad for the movie and was all WTF? I DIDN'T MEAN THAT AS A COMPLIMENT
posted by Sidhedevil at 3:42 PM on April 18, 2012 [2 favorites]


" this book took a lot of effort"
posted by The Whelk at 3:51 PM on April 18, 2012


My favorite sideways-praise in a dust jacket blurb was one I saw on Richard Dawkins' The Selfish Gene once: "This is the sort of writing that makes the reader feel like a genius." I'm still not sure that's really a compliment.
posted by koeselitz at 3:53 PM on April 18, 2012


Oh, the snarkiest book blurb I ever saw was "Full of passionate intensity." That may not sound snarky, but the blurber was a noted Yeats scholar, and there is no way he didn't mean it.
posted by Sidhedevil at 4:07 PM on April 18, 2012 [13 favorites]


I was confused by this for ages until reading the last few comments. I always thought blurb just meant the description of the book on the back and was wondering why people would be asking someone to write theirs for them. I never realised it covered the praise quotes as well.
posted by dng at 4:43 PM on April 18, 2012


The description on the back that's written by the publisher is properly called the "jacket copy"; "blurb" was originally coined to mean "an endorsement by someone else" but there has been some definition creep over the years.
posted by Sidhedevil at 4:46 PM on April 18, 2012


Your bio contains a list of wacky jobs you’ve held and/or states that you “divide your time” between two cities, countries, or continents.

Boy is this one common. Or maybe it's my selection of books.
posted by BinGregory at 5:13 PM on April 18, 2012


Is it just me or does this piece come off as self-indulgent and kind of assholish? Long list of price modifiers, then a kicker of "oh also the base price is enough to qualify as a year's salary" and then HA HA NO NOT EVEN THEN
posted by egypturnash at 5:40 PM on April 18, 2012


it's kinda funny, maybe not enough to laugh, but at least to fend off the bitter tears for a few minutes as i lament the fact of having just finished a novel and having no celebrity friends to buttonhole into doing a simple measly feckin blurb.
posted by ecourbanist at 5:52 PM on April 18, 2012


I laughed.
posted by bongo_x at 6:03 PM on April 18, 2012


Is it just me or does this piece come off as self-indulgent and kind of assholish?

Writers do get strange impositions in the forms of will you advance my career by (reading my manuscript/recommending me to your editor or agent/providing a blurb/collaborating with me) or will you act out your part in my imagined friendship with you based on feeling I know you from your works?

I don't know this guy from Adam (ha ha) and I'm willing to cut him some slack for blowing off some steam. And some of it I thought was funny.
posted by Zed at 8:08 AM on April 19, 2012


I don't really know why but I hate blurbs. REALLY hate them. So I enjoyed it.
posted by mrgrimm at 9:38 AM on April 19, 2012


the snarkiest book blurb I ever saw was "Full of passionate intensity." That may not sound snarky, but the blurber was a noted Yeats scholar

oh, Sidhedevil, please tell me you remember what the book was. That's a thing of beauty.
posted by Zed at 2:48 PM on April 19, 2012 [1 favorite]


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