How I decide what to blurb

+ all my thoughts on the endorsement economy

Cue the tiniest violin, but I have an unexpected author problem to report.

I had no idea that reading for blurbs would take up so much of my time as an author. I'm not a particularly fast reader, and I'd say 95% of the reading I do now is for writing a blurb or otherwise supporting an author professionally, e.g., by moderating their book event.

Don't get me wrong—I looove reading books in my genre. I’m beyond fortunate to be in the pinch-me position where folks want me to look at their stuff! But it means that so many books that are part of the national conversation are perpetually stuck in my TBR pile.¹

Here’s the harsh truth: I'm asked to blurb FAR more books than I could actually read. As the Contact page of my website states, I'm currently closed to blurbs, yet I still get multiple requests per week (and before that, some weeks it was dozens).

Actual footage of my TBR [nervous laughter] (Photo by Nothing Ahead)

I want to be a supportive member of the writing community, and I'm deeply grateful to everyone who's blurbed me (including when I was a debut). But if I said yes to every request, I wouldn't have any time left to write my own books! (That is, as long as I actually read the books before endorsing, which I always do. But maybe some other authors don't?)

This week we’re going to talk about blurbs, and I’d like to start with a cranky #publishinghottake (yes, even crankier than the above). I might get some flak for it, but if this is gonna be a space for radical honesty, well…