Dumb book blurbs

[issybird]

Originally Posted by Cinisajoy

Any new author that puts FAMOUS NAME in their blurb gets an immediate no thanks from me.
This book for example would not be bought.
https://www.amazon.com/Mash-Up-Joe-K...dp/B00I2E19Q0/

Reason 1 the cover is a take off on the original Mash.
Reason 2 the author's name is a take off on a name.
Reason 3 it is a detective novel so nothing to do with the title or cover
Reason 4 he paid at least $800 for his editorial reviews

Reason 5. The entire thing smacks of trying to profit off someone else's success.

Yes it is self published.

I got curious about this and took a look. I didn't see a famous name in the blurb.

The cover doesn't look like any MASH cover I remember; this is the original cover.


Joe Klingler seems an odd name to make up. Are you implying it's a riff on the character of Klinger in the television show? That seems a reach to me, especially since this is the author's second novel.

And finally, the term mash up originated in the practice of mixing different bits of music, so I can believe it's appropriate here.

Yeah, the guy is paying for reviews and awards and he's spent far more than $800, but that gets a big "so what" from me. He's playing the indie game and he's being professional about it.

I don't think you've made a good case here and I wonder why you've gone out of your way to cite this book, frankly.

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by issybird

I got curious about this and took a look. I didn't see a famous name in the blurb.

The cover doesn't look like any MASH cover I remember...

I agree. It's not in any way related to the original M*A*S*H* even if it's the famous film poster you're thinking of:



Even the paid reviews don't bother me as a cursory scan at the page shows that the two and three star reviews are filtering up.

None of this is to say it looked good, to be clear. One character is named Qiqig and the other is named Kandy and it looks like it's intended to be a series. No thanks.

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

This is a really bad start to the description of a book.



If the author is so wonderful, why does he have to be compared to Heinlein?

I feel bad as Joe Haldeman really is one of the great sci-fi writers. But yeah, that blurb really is over the top.

[4691mls]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

What I find rather stupid is having the review blurbs in an eBook I already have. I'm not going to read a book based on a bunch of annoying review blurbs.

I wonder if the publishers just copy all that stuff in from the print version. I can see why they put the blurbs in a paper book in case a potential customer is looking through it in a store before deciding to buy it, but with an ebook you don't even see the blurbs until you've already bought it.

[issybird]

Originally Posted by 4691mls

I wonder if the publishers just copy all that stuff in from the print version. I can see why they put the blurbs in a paper book in case a potential customer is looking through it in a store before deciding to buy it, but with an ebook you don't even see the blurbs until you've already bought it.

Unless you're reading the sample, when a lot of front matter can mean little or nothing of the actual text. I don't see many blurbs in samples, but there have been times the sample ran out before the introduction did.

[Cinisajoy]

Originally Posted by issybird

I got curious about this and took a look. I didn't see a famous name in the blurb.

The cover doesn't look like any MASH cover I remember; this is the original cover.


Joe Klingler seems an odd name to make up. Are you implying it's a riff on the character of Klinger in the television show? That seems a reach to me, especially since this is the author's second novel.

And finally, the term mash up originated in the practice of mixing different bits of music, so I can believe it's appropriate here.

Yeah, the guy is paying for reviews and awards and he's spent far more than $800, but that gets a big "so what" from me. He's playing the indie game and he's being professional about it.

I don't think you've made a good case here and I wonder why you've gone out of your way to cite this book, frankly.

That is not the cover on the older copy of MASH. Mine looks almost like the poster ZodWallop posted.
Anyway, I was just giving my reasons why I wouldn't buy the book.

I do know of another author that was flat out stealing covers and titles from well known romance authors but I guess HE finally gave up when people realized that the books were not good.
He hasn't published anything in over a year.

[issybird]

Originally Posted by Cinisajoy

That is not the cover on the older copy of MASH. Mine looks almost like the poster ZodWallop posted.
Anyway, I was just giving my reasons why I wouldn't buy the book.

I do know of another author that was flat out stealing covers and titles from well known romance authors but I guess HE finally gave up when people realized that the books were not good.
He hasn't published anything in over a year.

Cin, that is the cover of the original hardcover edition, published by William Morrow in 1968. In any case, the picture of the hand on the legs which appeared on later editions also does not look at all like that on the book you cited. And I showed your other reasons don't seem to apply, either, so I continue to wonder why you singled out this book. It didn't even have a famous name in the blurb (as you claimed it did) which is the point of this thread.

And what has unnamed author who stole titles and covers from others got to do with anything? With the addendum that titles can't be copyrighted anyway, so no theft involved.

People can not buy books for all sorts of reasons, even spurious ones. But I'm sensing an undisclosed agenda here, since none of your reasons are objective or based in fact.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by issybird

Unless you're reading the sample, when a lot of front matter can mean little or nothing of the actual text. I don't see many blurbs in samples, but there have been times the sample ran out before the introduction did.

Sometimes there's so much garbage before you get to the text that there is not enough text to read. I've even seem some samples where you never even got to the text.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

I feel bad as Joe Haldeman really is one of the great sci-fi writers. But yeah, that blurb really is over the top.

Joe doesn't need to be compared to another author and all that award winning nonsense is just a real turn off. I don't read books because the author won an award. Some of the worst books I've read have won some sort of award. I read a book because it sounds interesting to me.

[BenG]

Haldeman wrote The Forever War with Starship Troopers in mind so there's the Heinlein connection, though not in the way the blurb writer intended.

[Cinisajoy]

Originally Posted by issybird

Cin, that is the cover of the original hardcover edition, published by William Morrow in 1968. In any case, the picture of the hand on the legs which appeared on later editions also does not look at all like that on the book you cited. And I showed your other reasons don't seem to apply, either, so I continue to wonder why you singled out this book. It didn't even have a famous name in the blurb (as you claimed it did) which is the point of this thread.

And what has unnamed author who stole titles and covers from others got to do with anything? With the addendum that titles can't be copyrighted anyway, so no theft involved.

People can not buy books for all sorts of reasons, even spurious ones. But I'm sensing an undisclosed agenda here, since none of your reasons are objective or based in fact.

No agenda whatsoever. I saw something on that book that you didn't.
I gave my reasons only.
The first time I looked at that particular book I misread his name.
I read Mash and Klinger. I had to look closer to see that it wasn't.
That cover is very similar to the paperback I own. . Note when I saw this book the author font was half the size we use here and the book was a 1 inch square.
Quick glances are what sells books.
And no I do not know that author.

[Witty Username]

Not so much the publisher's blurb, but the Project Gutenberg entry for ‘Black Beauty’ by Anna Sewell:

Anna Sewell (1820-1878)

Black Beauty - The Autobiography of a Horse (also as human-read audio book)

It sort of implies that the audio version of some animal autobiographies are read by the author…

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by issybird

...since none of your reasons are objective or based in fact.

Welcome to the internet

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Joe doesn't need to be compared to another author and all that award winning nonsense is just a real turn off.

Yes, I was agreeing with you.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Witty Username

It sort of implies that the audio version of some animal autobiographies are read by the author…

It means it's read by a person instead of a computer.