Does Anything Pack More Clout in Publishing Than a Blurb?

"Powerful ... A tale that is as forceful as it is affecting, as fierce as it is resonant." -- Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times.

"Unflinching, gorgeously written."  -- San Francisco Chronicle.

Those are known as blurbs, or "short descriptions of a book, movie, or other product written for promotional purposes and appearing on the cover of a book or in an advertisement."

When it comes not just to attracting purchasers, but also to getting a book through the conventional publishing mill, nothing is more important than blurbs, it seems.

Is Some Fiction Written in Code?

Have you ever wondered what the author of a novel is really writing about?

In an article in the The New York Times entitled "Song of Inexperience," Vivian Gornick depicts E.M. Forster as writing with "a pen forever dipped in code."

It's a provocative notion.

Sex Sells, and Sells and Sells and Sells

The Sunday Business section of the New York Times recently carried a lengthy article on Meredith Wild, a woman who, after becoming a very successful independent author of romance novels, started her own publishing imprint called “Waterhouse Press.”

“I wanted something that sounded like it was a real imprint, because nobody takes you seriously as an independent author,” the Times quoted Ms Wild as saying.

After first publishing her own books, Ms Wild began acquiring and releasing the works of other self-published romance writers under the Waterhouse name, becoming what the Times termed “a kind of value investor in erotic prose, pinpointing under-valued writers and backing their brands.”