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.”

Imagining Ourselves Into Other People's Experiences

Quote of the day: "In fiction, we imagine ourselves into other people’s experiences."

That comes at very end of an interview of Sunil Yapa, author of "Your Heart Is a Muscle the Size of a Fist," a recent novel about the 1999 World Trade Organization protests and riots in Seattle. He was interviewed by Bethanne Patrick.

The quote is interesting and perceptive because it helps explain why people like or dislike certain novels. If one doesn't find a character with whom one wishes to identify for one reason or another, books are often not that interesting.

That can be true no matter how well characters are "developed."

The Immediately Shocking, The Immediately Charming

"Does anything less than the immediately shocking or charming get attention?" asks Lorin Stein, editor of The Paris Review in a recent New York Times "Critic's Take" column.

Not if one spends much time on Facebook or some other form of electronic social media. Topics hurtle past and those who post them have learned they had better not require much thought on the part of viewers. What's up front has to be sufficient to generate a "like" or perhaps a three-word comment. Few viewers will bother to read any further.

The Independent Lives of Fictional Characters

I think it is natural that when people read a book, they wonder to what extent writers have cast themselves, family members, friends or acquaintances as characters, perhaps with an agenda in mind.

Some friends who have read my novella, "Manhattan Morning", have expressed surprise to discover that neither I nor anyone else they know appears therein. The main characters -- Dan, Marcy, Gloria and Rev. Saddleford -- are inventions I set in motion and who then, to at least some degree, took on lives of their own during the writing process.

Dead Doormen, Caricature and Helen Ellis

One way to illuminate the truth of something is to enlarge its most pertinent features out of proportion. We are all familiar with caricature in art, often with respect to political figures or celebrities. For example, Richard Nixon was rarely caricatured without having considerable emphasis placed on his trademark five o'clock shadow, suggesting an ever-present dark side to his character and a certain degree of shiftiness.

All too true.

Caricature is also a form of literature and when deployed, an author exaggerates or over-simplifies certain aspects of a character or a situation to entertain readers or to make a point. If the point is to ridicule the subject, the technique is akin to satire.