[ezchaos]

I've noticed a few times on this board that some of the members said they have read a particular book because of the recommendation that was given by another author. Usually, the recommendation is a blurb on the front or back cover of the book.

I'm wondering what you guys think of these blurbs? I tend to ignore them because I know that some of the authors that give the recommendations just happen to be writing books for the same publishing company. Also the publishing companies edits the blurbs just like they do with the ones from the NY Times, Locus, etc. Personally, I would never read a book based on what an author says in a blurb on the back cover of a book, even if the praise was from one of my favorite authors.

[Killer Chicken]

I agree. When I look for a book, I don't even read the recommendations. The only recommendation that I will take are from people who I know because I know if I can value their opinion and if their interests are the same as mine. And I occasionally take recommendations from people on this forumn, because you all seem like an intelligent bunch:p

[Qin]

Blurbs? Never paid attention to them. I tend to sometimes scan the blurbs inside the novel to see what magazines and websites have reviewed it as well. Typically though, I don't worry about them, since I tend to know what I'm going to purchase anyways, regardless of the criticism.

[Llama]

They can be quite useful, I find, mostly because there are few contemporary fantasy authors I read, so if one of them blurbs another it's a sign it might be someone worth reading. Jonathan Carroll, for example, is not going to be blurbing the next Terry Goodkind; but he did paraphrase Neruda to provide a nice quote for Neil Gaiman.

[ChrisW]

Well Robert Jordan Blurps have never let me down, so if he recommends a book i'll read it:D . If not for him I wouldnt have read Carey, Jones, Martin or Bujold. All other blurbs though I ignore.:)

[Shannon]

Has anyone else noticed that there is the same blurb from one author on every book of the series? WoT is good for this, Fred Saberhagan reviewed all 9 books and said the same thing each time :p
But Llama has the right of it, if you like the author giving the blurb chances are you'll like the book itself.

[ChrisW]

Actually it doesnt even have to be the same series.

Oh and RJ doesn't need new blurbs cause Tor puts "Sequal to the #1 New York Times bestseller -insert previous book here-! " on all the damn covers. Thank god Orbit doesn't as it's damn ugly.

[Caly]

Sounds like I'm in the minority, but I love author blurbs. I love any kind of blurb. I love every little tid bit of info that is on the cover or inside the jacket flap or in back of the book. Before I read a book I read everything in the book including all blurbs, dedications, author's notes, ect.

Do the author blurbs effect my book purchases? Usually not. I know that they are not often honest, or that the author may not have the same taste in books as I do. I think it's still fun to see what books authors are reading themselves.

I also agree with the Robert Jordan blurb thing. I've read a couple of books with blurbs by him (though I didn't buy them for that reason) and they both turned out to be excellent. I found that highly ironic since I am not a big fan of WoT. WoT started me in the fantasy genre and I was obsessed with it for a while, but I've read so much other good stuff since the "good ole days" that I think of WoT as a joke now. Let the flaming begin.

[Cadfael]

I once read on this forum somewhere that these author blurbs are a kind of 'mutual appreciation' thing that authors do. A publisher may call a few authors for comments... and will do the same favour back. Obviously... the publishers will never use negative comments.

I will see if I can find the relevant topic.

[Fenn628]

If an author that I respect and enjoy reading mentions another author or book in an interview or essay, I will give it a shot more times than not. A cover blurb ususally has no effect on me though. I just see them as a silly marketing tool.

Mike