Blurbs: Some complaints & a proposal

How should a blurb be?

Blurbs have been (weirdly) in the news lately. There was a gossip-y, fatalist piece in Esquire, then a more informative and contextualized essay in The Atlantic.

Reading those pieces is not necessary to understand the complaints and the proposal I’m making here, but their appearance reminded me of something I’ve wanted to articulate for a while about the possible meaning and role that supporting another writer’s work could take.

I’m not putting this one behind a paywall because I’d like to invite anyone and everyone to consider a possible change to the way we read, write and seek blurbs, but as always I’m deeply appreciative of the paying subscribers. Comments, for once, are open to all.

(And for those less entrenched in book publishing industry woes— A blurb is a short, enthusiastic sentence or two that appears on a novel (or in its accompanying press material) that was written by a fellow (and usually somewhat similar) writer. Blurbers are not paid for the hours it takes to read these …