Blurb pet peeves

[gmw]

Hitch, I suspect that your post #24 offers one of the big reasons why Blurb has morphed into an all inclusive term. The fact is that a book description (as written for the back of the book or other form of advertising) is written explicitly to be enticing. There is a blurring between text that describes the content and the text that tries to sell the content. Indeed, this blurring makes it all the more appropriate that "blurb" should be expanded to include the description in this context.

You see this with some of your peeves in post #26. By telling the reader that the content is "A heartwarming tale" the blurb is ostensibly describing the type of story, but some will interpret that as being told how they should feel about it.

[darryl]

Originally Posted by Hitch

Oh, brother--you don't want THIS list. The advent of Indy publishing has made descriptions--forget blurbs--pretty much a pet peeve of mine, no argument. Here's a short list of things that drive me bats**t, in no particular order:

• Speaking to me in the first person, breaking the "4th wall." That's a major NO-NO. If I read a description that addresses me directly, that rules that book out. "Are you afraid of finding out about love?"
• Worse, as part of that, telling me how much I'm going to LOVE the book. Don't tell me how I'm going to feel about it. That's irksome at best.
• Using adjectives to "sell" the book. e.g.,. "A heartwarming tale of ..." To me, that's a variant of the "telling me how I'll feel about it" peeve, above.
• Giving me a lengthy synopsis, instead of a tantalizing description. ("Meanwhile, back at Fred's all-night cafe, Mary had learned that...") ACK!
• Y'know, back in the day, we all had to polish our elevator pitches. We had to learn how to write synopses to give to potential agents. Now, apparently, writing the description is so hard that 95% of all books are ruled out by the sheer ineptitude of the description. Work harder on that skill, folks.
• Incoherency. (Speaks for itself).
• Exclamation marks.
• Asking me questions, or posing questions. "Will Jimmy learn to love Doris, before his Schnauzer runs away to find a happier home?" ACK.
• and last, but not least, SPOILERS. You know what publisher does this? The Harry Dresden books. God forbid you are looking ahead to buy a book--you find out all sorts of stuff. That is just downright irksome. I'm up to the latest on that series (binged on the last...4, I think, when my spouse was hospitalized this summer), but that's bloody annoying.

I know I have more, but off the top of my head, this covers the bulk of my dislikes and pet peeves, I think.

Hitch

Excellent list Hitch. I don't disagree with even one item.