#286

Blurb Your Enthusiasm

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Louise Willder, a copywriter at Penguin Books whose written around 5,000 blurbs over nearly three decades, chats with Trey Elling about BLURB YOUR ENTHUSIASM: AN A-Z OF LITERARY PERSUASION. Topics include:

  • Defining “blurb” (0:29)
  • The profession of “blurbing” (3:09)
  • Adjectives begetting laziness (7:10)
  • Subtitles (10:24)
  • Why some authors despise blurbs (14:10)
  • Do authors ever write their own blurbs? (17:14)
  • Charles Dickens: trailblazing self-promoter (21:00)
  • What makes a book ‘classic’ (27:35)
  • Louise’s blurbing pet peeves (30:34)
  • The greatness of cuss words (32:43)
  • The greatness of…the ellipsis (36:18)
  • Blurbing a book that sucks (39:03)
  • Rules for blurbing self-help books (41:30)
  • Blurbing the Bible (44:09)
  • Blurbs in the US vs the UK (46:46)