However, if they followed up it would be much better if the email wasn’t “Where’s the blurb?” or “Why haven’t you sent us a blurb yet?” but rather “If you’re going to blurb this book, please be aware the deadline is X”.

what if you are asked to blurb a book and you don’t like it? obviously, this will not make it onto the book, but is there an etiquette or something that writers follow if it does happen? do you let the publisher/ writer know, or do you let it fade to silence?

I’ve been in the asking category as well, and that’s a lot worse. It’s so easy to get your feelings hurt–at least, it is for me–especially when you don’t hear back from the person you’re asking. How hard is it to simply write “Sorry, I’m much too busy right now” in an e-mail?

Roc/Ace (Penguin) is my publisher and they’re really good about finding blurbs for their authors. The chances are excellent that they will do the necessary work on this. That’s how I got my Stasheff blurb and how I ended up Blurbing Anton Strout. You should be fine.

So, to alleviate my worries about the contract going down the tubes, I’ve moved on to obsessing about blurbs. Hmm. I don’t personally know any BNAs or similar-genre authors. I have a hand-waving acquaintance with some published romance writers, but asking them to read or blurb military science fiction isn’t going to work. Short of sending out ARCs cold, I thought of asking authors of similar fiction whether they’re “open to solicitations” for blurbs — but the only place I can ask this is a convention or book signing, and I’m worried I’ll just come off as being rude. I also don’t know if blurbing authors are supposed to be within the same publishing company/family. Any advice out there? [Sigh, check email again….]

OTOH, the handful of books I’ve been asked to blurb have ranged from charming to fantastic, so although I wouldn’t necessarily have bought them on my own, I’m actually pretty delighted to have had the opportunity to read them. I’ve been lucky so far, and I’m not a BNA, so I don’t have lots of pleas from lots of random people at this point.

As for asking people for blurbs, I mostly think it’s terrifying unless I know them personally, in which case it’s merely an imposition that I’m not going to take wrong if I’m turned down.

-Catie

There’s really nothing I can do for Stasheff or the other BNAs who have helped me out over the years, so I try to pay them back by passing on the lessons learned and favors proffered. That means that the book sent to me got bumped to the next slot on the to-read pile. I’m not sure how long that’ll be the case if I start getting ten a month or something, but for now, that’s where I felt it belonged.

Oh, and I did blurb it. It was Anton Strout’s first novel and both fun and funny.

I’m wondering at what point in my career that will stop being egoboo and start being a nuisance.

In this case, the editorial assistant who sent it along is a friend of mine, and she did a good job positioning the book in the cover letter as something I’d be interested in. Plus — in the vein of “do blurbs do any good?” — I figure having my name potentially end up on someone else’s cover probably won’t hurt, right?

Not done reading yet, but I’m enjoying it, so I will in fact probably blurb it.