In her recent
Esquire Magazine feature article “'A Plague on the Industry': Book Publishing's Broken Blurb System,” New York City-based social media strategist and freleance journalist Sophie Vershbow says that book blurbs represent so much of what’s broken within the traditional publishing establishment: “[They] expose this ecosystem for what it really is: a nepotism-filled system that everyone endures for a chance of ‘making it' in an impossible industry for most. To borrow a phrase from Shakespeare enthusiast Cher Horowitz, ‘Blurbs are a full-on Monet. From far away, they’re okay, but up close, they’re a big old mess.’”
Sophie Vershbow recalls that many authors she talked with described the process of asking for blurbs as “excruciating,” “anxiety-riddled,” “deeply dreaded,” and “the worst part of the publishing process.” A few of those authors shared with her their fondness about how blurbs helped launch their literary careers, but their praise of blurbs was for the outcome, not the process: “Even those lucky writers who reaped the rewards of a few big name blurbs spoke of how much unpaid effort went into the process of securing them.”
Read Sophie Vershbow's feature article in full in Esquire Magazine's September 7, 2023 issue!
