Blurbs, Book Descriptions, or Book Covers

What is it, why is it important, and who the f*** is supposed to write it?

I hate book blurbs, so, I’m tackling this article early on.

We’re going to get some of the confusion out of the way early. There are ‘book blurbs’ and then there are ‘book descriptions’, and they are often confused and interchanged, especially among new authors or in the indie world.

Let’s check out those definitions—

Book Blurb: a short, promotional piece accompanying a piece of creative work; an endorsement

Book Description: a summary of a book's contents that gives readers a sense of what the book is about

Yeah, they kind of sound like the same thing on the surface, so let’s dive a little deeper.

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If you’ve ever scrolled through posts tagged #writersadvice or joined a Facebook group like 20booksto50k (more on this another day), then you would have seen people discussing “blurbs”, especially in reference to running ads. Is there a disconnect between the ad and the blurb, the cover and the blurb, etc?

These are situations where blurb and description have been interchanged.

A “Book Blurb” is nearly always a short quote from a reviewer—sometimes another author—that appears on the case of the book. You will have seen these on the front of covers, and also on the back, or inside of dust jackets.

Can you spot the blurb on this cover of “Babel” by R. F. Kuang?

“A Masterpiece”—Rebecca Roanhorse. Now, I don’t know who Roanhorse is, but clearly, she is important enough to take word from that this book is something to care about.

Anytime you see something like this on the cover of a book, it is a blurb. The same goes for snippets of reviews on the back of books, such as the one on the back of A Tide of Treason.

Authors will often ask other authors to blurb their books, as it gives another level of professionalism, and enticement across audiences. It’s easy to do when you are close with a certain author, or have connections to them via an agent, editor, or artist.

Another type of blurb you will see is actually a Testimonial, and this is the longer version of the blurb. A testimonial is a positive review, or an endorsement, intended to promote the book. These are often on the back of hardcover books, while everything else is on the inside of the dust jacket, and they appear in the top of the book summary, in sales listings.