[neilmarr]

No, Timolean, it's not. That is the job of publisher and editor; in a big house, of a specialised back-cover text writer (often freelance). Only self-publishing authors write their own blurbs.

I often include for instance, an unsigned and italicised line of two of appraisal of my own in back text to a BeWrite Books title. What you must bear in mind in such cases, though, is that the words are genuine and independent of connection with an author.

The book I am back-texting was one chosen by me from perhaps 500 offers. I rejected, 499 often without even an explanation for declining (time is tight). I was impressed enough to spend many months editing the one book that struck me in this pile of freely available reading and to invest no small sum in publishing and promoting it.

So the book I run with has got to be stunning for one reason or many (I can say why in two lines), and one shining review in 500 reads is not to be sniffed at ... even though I do say it myself.

I do not, however, promote my own reviews of work I am involved in (though I often review books by authors not connected with my own house as an independent reader). It is for others to figure out whether or not I made the right choice on a book we publish and if we and the author got it right.

Cheers. Neil