Brilliant, moving, thought-provoking! Simon & Schuster is dispensing with book blurbs – will it make any difference?

It is rare to see a newly published book that doesn’t come with a ringing endorsement from at least one or two familiar names. Well known authors will laud a new title as “brilliant”, “moving” or “thought-provoking” and testify that they were “unable to put it down” – or something to that effect.

These “blurbs” are typically sourced prior to publication. Authors (or agents or editors) go cap-in-hand to more famous peers and request a few favourable words for their front or back cover. A fortunate minority will get a second printing with some select quotes from reviews, but blurbs from other authors are regarded as vital.

But the newly appointed publisher of Simon & and Schuster’s flagship US imprint is rejecting this tradition. Writing in Publisher’s Weekly, Sean Manning has declared that his authors would no longer be required to “obtain blurbs for their books”.

Manning argues that “trying to get blurbs is not a good use of anyone’s time”. He notes that a number of acclaimed titles in Simon & Schuster’s back catalogue, including Catch-22 and All the President’s Men, were first published without any blurbs at all.

Furthermore, he notes that the convention of the blurb is unknown in other artistic industries. In publishing, the practice “creates an incestuous and unmeritocratic literary ecosystem that often rewards connections over talent”.

Does Manning’s decision herald a radical upheaval in the book world? Will his stance serve to liberate authors from the tyranny of the blurb?

Words of genius

In an essay for the Millions, Alan Levinovitz has considered the evolution of the blurb. Classical writers typically sought to connect their works to more famous figures through epigraphs and dedications. Levinovitz suggests that the practice of including praise for a text from a third party first emerged in the Renaissance.

The famous humanist Sir Thomas More provides possibly the first recorded example of an author attempting to rustle up a favourable quote or two. In 1516, the year he published Utopia, More wrote to the philosopher Desiderius Erasmus requesting that the book “be handsomely set off with the highest of recommendations, if possible, from several people, both intellectuals and distinguished statesmen”.

This practice became widespread in the 18th and 19th centuries, when the rise of periodicals saw a boom in book reviews, which could be liberally quoted in prefaces. According to Levinovitz, the first example of an endorsement being added to the exterior of a book comes in 1856, with the publication of the second edition of Walt Whitman’s Leaves of Grass. A quote from a letter to Whitman from the philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson was gilt-printed at the base of its spine:

I Greet You at the Beginning of a Great Career / R W Emerson.

Emerson was apparently less than thrilled to discover he had unknowingly written the world’s first cover blurb.

While many endorsements may be genuine, the suspicion that they were offering empty or exaggerated praise emerged relatively early. Henry Fielding mocked the laudatory notes included in Samuel Richardson’s novel Pamela (1740) in his parody Shamela (1741), which opens with a letter from “John Puff, Esq”, asking: “Who is he that could write so excellent a Book?”

The word “blurb” was coined in 1907 as a derogatory term for extravagant descriptions of a book’s content. In 1936, George Orwell would denounce the practice as deceptive. In his view, the predominance of blurbs made it harder for readers to discern genuine quality and could eventually lead to exhaustion or disillusionment. “When all novels are thrust upon you as words of genius,” he wrote, “it is quite natural to assume that all of them are tripe.”

More recently, Stephen King – himself an enthusiastic blurb writer – has cautioned against hyperbole. The protracted derision that followed Nicole Krauss’s effusive blurb for David Grossman’s novel To the End of the Land in 2010 (“David Grossman may be the most gifted writer I’ve ever read; gifted not just because of his imagination, his energy, his originality, but because he has access to the unutterable, because he can look inside a person and discover the unique essence of her humanity”) might serve as a cautionary tale.

Networks of affiliation

While the practice of blurbing books can be viewed with scepticism, the importance of blurbs has gone largely unquestioned in publishing. Book sales tend to be driven by word of mouth, so it is often assumed the word of a popular writer will carry the most weight.

But as Bill Morris notes, a blurb from a particular author might just as easily turn a reader off a book. Tastes are subjective and authors only have sway over readers within defined areas of interest.

Michael Maguire’s 2018 study revealed that blurb writing exchanges occur through close networks of affiliation around genres, publishers, geographical locations, and institutions such as universities. Maguire’s mapping of the blurb economy supports Manning’s belief that book blurbs tend to emerge from a culture of favouritism and mutual backscratching, but it also shows that influential authors are, on balance, generous in their support for novices in their fields.

While several writers have questioned the necessity of blurbs, booksellers do apparently find them useful for positioning new titles. A quote from an established author can help booksellers promote and recommend works to readers.

The famous names who can provide meaningful endorsements are few and highly coveted. Several authors have reported that the sheer volume of requests for blurbs they receive is unsustainable. Many write them out a sense of obligation, rather than because they are genuinely enthused.

Manning’s new policy alleviates some of these pressures. New authors will not have to go through the often humiliating process of seeking endorsement; successful writers won’t be as exhausted by requests. Personal and professional networks will not be so overtaxed, potentially allowing space for other forms of mutual support. As Manning notes, reducing the dependence on blurbs may encourage innovation in book promotion.

The importance of blurbs has long been accepted wisdom in publishing, but the assumption is worth challenging. As Catriona Menzies-Pike observes, if all books are blurbed as a matter of course then it is impossible to gauge their real value. Manning’s initiative may create the space to consider whether this often fraught and questionable practice is really necessary.