The Importance of the Almighty Blurb

I have frequently harped on the importance of book covers, especially for digital books. Book covers and blurbs are extremely important for digital books that are digital only. Why, you ask? I cannot ignore a bad blurb and a bad cover and pick up the book and read random pages of the book to see if it is an error.


For most digital pubs, blurbs are submitted by the author. The blurb gives me an indication about the skill of not only the author but also the quality control of a pub.

see more Historic LOL



The cover and blurb are my introduction to an author, and in some cases, an introduction to a publisher. What does it say about a publisher that is willing to put a bad blurb up on their website, like say this one:

A semi-naked photo, taken almost ten years, almost ruins everything for Madison Pearce. With a glass of champagne in hand, Madison is about to call her recent job a success, until she is pulled her into a private room and a secret, one from her past, resurfaces.

Along with the lover, she never expected to see again…

Let's be clear--the author is not the only one responsible for bad blurbs (unless, of course, the work is self published).  Why would a publisher post this? Where was the editor when this blurb was posted? Surely each publisher has someone in charge of some semblance of quality control? I will not only judge a book by its cover but its blurb. If this is what an author and pub are comfortable with customers seeing, if this is a best effort, then what does the actual product look like? 


This gets my wagging finger of shame. 


Thanks go to Girrlit's Books for the link.