The Gentle Art of Nagging

I’m on a bit of a how-to kick of late, so if you like it, great and thank you, and if you’re wondering when I’ll get back to industry news, that will be as soon as something moves me. For this week, by request from my author community, I’m writing about endorsements, aka blurbs.

I learned a fun historical fact about why we call them blurbs from reading Michael Castelman’s (former guest on my podcast) The Untold Story of Books (terrific book) in which he tells the story of why we call blurbs blurbs. Writing about how the early twentieth-century public was starting to take issue with celebrity endorsements and exaggerated claims of books’ excellence, Castleman shared:

As the kerfuffle over cover quotes raged, in 1907, Frank Gelett Burgess (1866–1951), a San Francisco satirist, released a collection of essays and, as a joke, included a ridiculously over-the-top dust-jacket quote from a fictional admirer, one Belinda Blurb. Ever since, promotional quotes have been called “blurbs.”

So now you know.

There are a a lot of things to think about when it comes to blurbs: 1) how many you need; 2) what kind of writer or expert you should ask; 3) who specifically to ask; 4) how to ask and on what timeline; 5) when and how to follow up; 6) how long blurbs should be and can they be edited; and 7) what to do with them once you have them. So let’s dive in.

This varies from author to author as much as it does from publisher to publisher. Sean Manning, the publisher of Simon & Schuster’s flagship imprint, made national news in early 2025 when he announced that his authors would no longer be required to get blurbs. The thing is, it doesn’t matter if a publisher says they’re not necessary because authors want them, and the industry does in fact rely on them in many ways (see below: What to do with them once you have them (aka, why they matter)). A good benchmark for how many, in my opinion, is one to four. I’m a fan of just enough blurbs for the cover (front optional, and only if it’s exceptional). Some publishers and writers, as you’ve undoubtedly seen, are blurb mad—which is how a book can end up with pages and pages of praise, or why you’ll see Amazon listings with tens and tens of blurbs. So there’s no right number, and my orientation on this is to follow my authors’ lead. So it comes down to the number you’re comfortable trying to solicit, and ideally a minimum of one.

My recommendation is to divide your list into three columns: 1) sure bets; 2) realistic possibilities; 3) pie-in-the-sky.

Having sure bets is simply helpful, but not everyone has sure bets. These will be people you know, friends of friends, people who are accessible to you. Realistic possibilities are acquaintances of friends, people you have connections to by degrees. Maybe they’re authors you know or have studied with in some capacity. In other words, these people are in your orbit but not exactly people you know. Pie-in-the-sky are your dream blurbers, and these ones will be tough because the reason they’re pie-in-the-sky is usually because they’re famous. The more fame an author has, the harder the effort will be, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try. I’m a fan of putting yourself out there and seeing what happens. The worst outcomes is not hearing back or getting a no. And being an author requires being bold. Go for it—you have nothing to lose.

Once you have your three columns, start to think about who should go in them. Sure bets, like I said, are people you know. But what kind of people for what kind of book? Generally speaking, if you’re writing a novel, your blurbers should be novelists; if you’re writing a memoir, your blurbers should be memoirists. But there are exceptions to these best practices. For instance, if you’re writing a prescriptive or topical memoir, it’s not at all outlandish to consider getting an expert from an appropriate other industry to blurb you: a therapist for a divorce memoir; a doctor for a weight-loss memoir; a politician for an advocacy memoir; etc.

For your realistic possibilities and pie-in-the-sky folks, usually these will be authors in your same genre. Occasionally my authors go after other types of celebrities, though often other kinds of celebrities are also authors. For instance, one of my She Writes Press authors got a blurb from Cindy Crawford, the model who’s also an author. We’ve had blurbs from chefs and movie stars, too. One of the most fun blurbs I ever got on one of my Seal Press books was from Jane Fonda, known for many things other than being an author, but yes, she’s an author, too.

If you do solicit an author outside your genre, there are two criteria to consider: First, is the topic of the book similar? For instance, maybe you’ve written a memoir about a topic or a region (or even town) that a novelist circles, or maybe they’re from there, making them an appropriate genre-jumping possibility. Second, the blurber is famous enough that it doesn’t matter. One of the first books I ever acquired for Seal Press was a nonfiction book about reckless women and their interesting lives, and we printed the book with a cover blurb by Tom Robbins. Why Tom Robbins? Well, the author knew him, he had name recognition, it mattered to the author, and was good enough for us.

The “how” of this endeavor is where things get creative—and you want to stay agile and think outside the box when it comes to tracking people down. How you find people, how you ask, and how you follow up all falls under the umbrella of how to get this job done.

The best method is full-on guerilla mode. If you’re separated by degrees, you may have to ask someone to ask that person on your behalf. You should look up your potential blurber online. Do they have a website with a contact form? Are they on social media? Do they have a book agent, or a speaker’s agent? I personally think it’s always best if you can get the person directly, so through their website or through their social media DMs, but that’s also a likely place to be ignored. Which is why how you ask is as important as anything.

Whether you write a letter, an email, or a DM, make sure it sings. Your note should be both flattering and authentic. (Note: if you are going to use AI to support you to write a query letter, please please make sure that it really reads like your voice. I can’t tell you how off-putting the current AI surge is and how many of the emails I receive lately feel like they’re written by AI. Resist!) Tell the person why you love their work, but also make the case for your own book. Blurbing is a favor, but if you don’t know someone, they have no reason to do you a favor. Therefore, you have to sell to them why your book matters. Make a case. Spend time with your letter/note, and make sure to think of any and all reasons why the person you’re asking would be moved to support you. The number one reason here is a shared passion or connection.

Tip: Make sure your letter/note is framed as an ask. Give the person a sense of the timing of publication and/or who your publisher is or will be. If you don’t have a publisher yet, you can leave this out. Include that you will be happy to provide your manuscript in any format they prefer: in ARC (Advance Reader Copy) form, printed out, digital, or even audio-recorded. The more options you offer, the better. If they say yes and have a preference for how you deliver the content, you’ll figure it out!

The next part is both easy and anxiety-producing beyond measure. You hit send. Send might mean a number of things: 1) You’ve sent to your shared connection; 2) You’ve sent to the author/expert via their contact form or DMs; 3) You’ve sent to the author’s/expert’s agent or representative. And then you wait.

Following up is an art and an opportunity. The follow-up phase is a good time to make it increasingly easy for your potential blurbers to say yes. Of course, first you have to weigh whether you think the person you’re trying to reach has even seen your request. I recommend going about your follow-up based on what information you’ve gotten back from your potential blurbed based on one of the following scenarios:

Scenario 1: Blurber or your connection to the blurber gets back to you and says they’re open to the possibility
In this case, you’re halfway there! Here’s where you make your blurbers life easy. Make sure you don’t have a pressured timeline. Ask (even if this is a re-articulation from your original letter) how the blurber would like the manuscript to be sent. I once had a blurber ask me to audio-record two chapters of my book for her and send it as a voice note. I was happy to oblige!

Here is also where you might be bold and offer some template language to your potential blurber. It can’t hurt to write, for instance:

Given how busy you are, I’m enclosing my chapter summaries and my favorite chapter. I’d be happy to send you the full manuscript if you feel you want or need more, and I can get that to you as a printed ARC, or digitally. This will be ready on xDATEx, and I’m hoping to have the blurb back by xDATEx.

In the meantime, here are some sample blurbs my team has come up with that I invite you to use as a baseline or guidance, or even as is.

Sample 1: Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua.

Sample 2: Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua.

Scenario 2: You know you’ve sent to the right address and you’re not hearing back
In this case, I recommend one to two follow-ups before giving up. You might use your first follow-up as an opportunity to restate your case if you failed to make a strong one in your first note. If you get something published in the form of a story or an op-ed or a personal essay, use that moment to share with your potential blurber. If you weren’t previously contracted with a publisher and you get a publisher, that’s another good reason to follow up. After an initial request and two follow-ups, I recommend letting it go.

Scenario 3: You’re not sure if you have the right address and you’re not hearing back
You might keep trying here if you’re not sure you reached the person, but this is a sleuthing job and at some point you might hit enough dead-ends that you will decide you’ve gone the distance you can go.

Per my xDATEx placeholders above, you’ll want to give the average blurber at least six months to consider your request. In your initial letter, you can let them know if you have a publication date. If and when they say yes, they’ll consider blurbing your work, your follow-up letter might read something along these lines:

Date: May 11, 2026

Thank you so much for your consideration. My publication date is June 2027. Given how busy you are, I’m enclosing my chapter summaries and my favorite chapter. There are a number of ways I can get you the manuscript—via email or a printed and bound copy. If you prefer to wait for ARCs, they’ll be ready to send out early next year.

My team has come up with some sample blurb language that I invite you to use as a baseline or guidance, or even as is.

Sample 1: Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua.

Sample 2: Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua.

I’ll leave you with this for now and if you have a preference on how you’d like me to send the work, please let me know. Otherwise I’ll follow up again when the ARC is ready.

If you think offering sample language is too bold, don’t do it. I’m telling you, however, it works—and people are busy, so food for thought.

How you follow up after this depends on whether and what you’ve heard back. The entire process is, as I said, an art and an opportunity. Be persistent without being pushy. It’s okay to follow up with very busy people, and it’s not a no until it’s a no. In other words, not hearing back is not necessarily a no, and the gentle art of nagging is expected and required of authors when it comes to nailing down blurbs.

If you’ve gotten to this step, hallelujah! You have a blurb! Or more than one. Some people will generously offer a lot of words, others many fewer. Authors are understandably thrilled when someone writes a page-long blurb about their book, but readers are not so thrilled to read a review when they’re expecting a blurb. So keep within the industry parameters of 50 words or less. Cover blurbs should be even shorter—three to fifteen words being a good benchmark. You don’t want your blurb to overwhelm your front cover design. On the back of the book, there’s typically room for two or three substantive blurbs or four or five short ones.

Yes, you can edit blurbs, but you can’t add words, or put words into blurbers’ mouths. You can use ellipses to truncate blurbs, and in some cases you might possibly go back to a blurber with an edit you made if it changes their language or their meaning, but that would need to be approved, and you’ll want to consider whether your ask will be alienating. You do not need to get a blurber’s approval to use a partial blurb, which means that if you pull out a single line among five lines to use as your official blurb, that’s considered fair play. You are not required to use every single word a blurber offers.

Once you have your blurbs collected and edited, they serve a few purposes, and this goes back to why I think it’s silly for a publisher to express that blurbs aren’t required. No, they’re not and they never have been. It’s not a publisher’s policy for authors to get blurbs. It’s just a best practice. Why? Because blurbs serve many purposes and live in many places:

1. Cover, back cover, and/or praise sheet. Depending on how many blurbs you have and of what caliber, you may decide to put one on your cover. Look at other covers of books you own to see how this looks—not too many words! Choose wisely when it comes to placement. Better-known people should occupy cover real estate, but you may also want variation (ie, industry expert vs. author; male vs. female author; etc.) If you have a lot of blurbs (not to mention reviews, which is too much to tackle in this post, but that means industry reviews like Kirkus, Booklist, Foreword, etc.), then often this will merit including a praise sheet (or sheets) at the front of your book.

2. Online retailer platforms. If you spend any time on Amazon or Bookshop or B&N online, then you know that blurbs spill into online spaces. They’re a selling tool! The way I think about blurbs is that they’re a tipping point. If you see a blurb from a well-known writer, or someone whose credentials lends credibility, or if the language of a blurb moves you in such a way, it might be a reason to buy a book that you otherwise wouldn’t have.

3. Foreign/subrights sales. Our foreign/subrights agency wants us to send them every single blurb our authors get because blurbs support the case that a book is a strong bet when it comes to subsidiary rights. Blurbs (and reviews in this case, too) build a case file in a sense—showing anyone in any position to leverage a book that it’s a worthwhile bet.

4. Bragging rights. You can and should make memes that feature your blurbs, which you can then use as part of your social media campaign. Blurbs are often used on sales and publicity sheets, as well as press releases. Any public space where you post about your book might be enhanced by a solid blurb.

5. Selling tool. There’s the actual selling of the books post-publication of course, but agents also appreciate blurbs for the purpose of selling your manuscript. A strategically placed blurb on a proposal can make the difference between an editor sitting on a project and moving it to the top of their consider pile. I do not think a blurb has so much power that it will make someone acquire a book they wouldn’t otherwise, but a meaningful blurb by a big name will cause industry people to sit up and take notice.

I know many of my readers are industry professionals and savvy multi-published authors and I love that, so I’m sure you all have creative ways you’ve used blurbs and more to add to this post, which I welcome! I love it when I see a restacked post in which people recommend reading the comments. Thank you and bring ’em on!