Author Blurbs As a Go-To Resource With an Assist From Author Alma Katsu

Former Summer Scares author and Spokesperson Alma Katsu's most recent newsletter did a deep dive on Author Blurbs from the author who gives them perspective. You can read her newsletter and signup to get it yourself here, but here is some of the language from that newsletter: 

 I thought that this month I would talk about blurbs. If this is something you have absolutely no interest in, please feel free to skip ahead.

I bring this up because at any given time I might have 6-10 books on the nightstand waiting for a blurb. Yes, even a decidedly not A-list author like me gets asked a lot to blurb. (A blurb, in case you're not sure, is the little one- or two-sentence tag that appears on the cover or back and is designed to make you want to read the book. Or, more truthfully, to make you want to buy the book.)

There's disagreement in the book biz as to whether blurbs drive sales. Most people would say no. Have you ever bought a book solely due to a blurb? But blurbs have other purposes, particularly in the early stages when publishers are sending advance readers copies (ARCS) to booksellers, librarians, and other industry professionals, trying to entice them to read the book and maybe stock it in their store, or acquire it for their library system.

After reading this I reached out to Alma. As she says above, she is not sure how blurbs can be helpful other than driving sales.  So, I sent her one of the posts where I talk about how Author Blurbs are one of my 5 resources you cannot live without. Alma had never thought of this use. 

I thought today would be a good day to show the author side of the blurb process-- please click through and read more because it was fascinating-- and pair it with how we use them in RA Service as a reminder. 

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 2023

Resource Alert: Author Recs of Other Authors With a Twist

One of my 5 Resources You Cannot Live Without from my 10 Rules of Basic RA Services page is:

Authors recs of other authors: There isn't a single place you can go per se, but do not forget that many patrons will love trying an author or book that one of their favorite authors recommends. Try searching for a patron's favorite author on Twitter [don't need an account to view] and then see what authors they are promoting there. Most established authors do this. Also the back of a book a patron liked-- does it have blurbs by other authors? Those can be readalike author options. And Fantastic Fiction tries to catalog as many of an author's blurbs or recs that they can. Search an author in the site and scroll to bottom of record for examples. Then use Novelist or Goodreads to find out more about any titles or authors you find.The point here is you are using resources and need to know nothing about any of the authors involved, just that the patron in front of you likes them. [8/19/20 addendum: Same editor as a similar readalike option.]

I love using author recommendations of other authors as a resource so much, I even found a way to include it in Chapter 15: Staying in Horrific Shape:

Author Recommendations of Other Authors: The  least “professional” of my general RA resources, is also one of the most effective, pointing a patron to the authors and titles that their own favorite authors love. Patrons find great joy reading these books, even those in a genre outside their normal comfort zone. Stephen King is the perfect example of this phenomenon. King, the best known horror novelist in the world, is famous for turning previously unknown books into bestsellers just by mentioning his affection for said book. But where do you find this information? A few places, including,  the author’s Twitter feed, front or back covers of a book, or Fantastic Fiction where at the bottom of each author record there is a section which gathers an author’s “recommendations.” As horror authors get more popular themselves, they are well known for paying it forward to others, so you can regularly find today’s most popular horror authors-Victor LaValle, Carmen Maria Machado, Paul Tremblay, and Stephen Graham Jones- suggesting the next generation of great writers to their legions of fans. Why not listen to the authors your patrons already love and pass on their favorites with a comment on how you found the suggestion? When it works, and it does more often than it does not, you look like a genius. Often, the book is better received by the patron than those carefully crafted suggestions you agonized over.

Today though, I wanted to remind you that this works with any public figure who the reader in front of you likes, especially actors in literary adaptations or literary adjacent media. I was reminded of this the other day when Emily Temple over at LitHub gathered the books and authors Pedro Pascal (Games of Thrones, The Last of  Us and the Mandalorian himself) has listed on his socials. So yes, Temple used my resource to help you help more readers.

Click here to see what she gathered for you.

But here's the thing, any of you can do this for any popular public figure and then turn the results into a social media post, make a list for your website, even make a quick display. And that is above and beyond the direct RA interaction I describe above.

There is no better way to stay relevant AND show your patrons that you are actively listening to them than to anticipate what they are looking for. Using popular authors, actors, or public figures and connecting what they are reading, listening to, and watching to the items you have ready for patrons to check out is the easiest way to do  this.