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reported that "the blurbing game is also evolving as newspaper film critics disappear and studios become more comfortable quoting
Internet bloggers and movie Web sites in their ads, a practice that still leaves plenty of potential for filmgoers to be bamboozled. Luckily for consumers, there is a
128:
In this case, the jacket proclaimed "YES, this is a 'BLURB'!" and the picture was of a (fictitious) young woman "Miss
Belinda Blurb" shown calling out, described as "in the act of blurbing." The name and term stuck for any publisher's contents on a book's back cover, even after the picture was
282:
wrote in an "Explainer" column: "How much latitude do movie studios have in writing blurbs? A fair amount. There's no official check on running a misleading movie blurb, aside from the usual laws against false advertising. Studios do have to submit advertising materials like newspaper ads and
283:
trailers to the Motion
Picture Association of America for approval. But the MPAA reviews the ads for their tone and content, not for the accuracy of their citations. ... As a courtesy, studios will often run the new, condensed quote by the critic before sending it to print."
266:
cavalry: blurb watchdog sites have sprung up and the number of Web sites that aggregate reviews by established critics is steadily climbing. ... Helping to keep studios in line these days are watchdog sites like eFilmCritic.com and The Blurbs, a Web column for
1220:
148:
A blurb on a book can be any combination of quotes from the work, the author, the publisher, reviews or fans, a summary of the plot, a biography of the author or simply claims about the importance of the work.
101:
sent
Whitman a congratulatory letter, including the phrase "I greet you at the beginning of a great career": the following year, Whitman had these words stamped in gold leaf on the spine of the second edition.
170:
Prominent writers can receive large volumes of blurb requests from aspiring authors. This has led some writers to turn down such requests as a matter of policy. For example,
182:
reports that "Every now and again, I stop doing blurbs.... The hiatus lasts for a year or two, and then I feel guilty or someone asks me at the right time, and I relent."
49:
piece accompanying a piece of creative work. It may be written by the author or publisher or quote praise from others. Blurbs were originally printed on the back or rear
1358:
470:
237:, deliberately used fake blurbs by deceased authors on the inside cover. One of the blurbs stated "One of the two or three books ...", and nothing else.
309:
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1188:
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125:
described it, as "the picture of a damsel—languishing, heroic, or coquettish—anyhow, a damsel on the jacket of every novel".
696:
178:
that he would no longer write blurbs, except for certain writers with whom he had a professional or personal connection.
609:
552:
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909:
343:
386:
286:
Many examples exist of blurb used in marketing a film being traceable directly back to the film's marketing team.
117:
was presented in a limited edition to an annual trade association dinner. The custom at such events was to have a
1348:
136:
around 1902. In German bibliographic usage, it is usually located on the second page of the book underneath the
1353:
1076:
445:"The Best Worst Blurbs of 2007: The 10 most egregious misquotes, blurb whores, and other movie-ad sins of 2007"
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404:
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195:
54:
46:
1343:
978:
834:
667:
Blaise Cronin and
Kathryn La Barre (2005). "Patterns of puffery: an analysis of non-fiction blurbs".
632:
819:
740:
619:
194:
Many humorous books and films parody blurbs that deliver exaggerated praise by unlikely people and
186:
reports that he received fifteen to twenty blurb requests per week and tackles "as many as I can."
98:
1318:
1284:
1193:
684:
583:
578:
526:
261:
233:
19:
This article is about a short summary of a piece of work. For the print-on-demand publisher, see
548:
521:
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for films, and usually consist of positive, colorful extracts from published reviews.
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122:
688:
1322:
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88:
62:
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57:, they were placed on both covers by most publishers. Now they are also found on
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137:
58:
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McGlone, Matthew S. (2005). "Contextomy: The Art of
Quoting Out of Context."
162:
in Our Time" which exposed writers who wrote blurbs for one another's books.
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24:
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729:
215:– "We look forward keenly to the appearance of their last work"
97:. In response to the publication of the first edition in 1855,
314:
113:(1866–1951). The October 1906 first edition of his short book
16:
Short promotional written piece accompanying a creative work
132:
In
Germany, the blurb is regarded to have been invented by
87:
In the US, the history of the blurb is said to begin with
725:
426:
Reiner, L. (1996). "Why Movie Blurbs Avoid
Newspapers."
310:"The Curious Case Of The Book Blurb (And Why It Exists)"
1171:
1105:
1044:
892:
763:
121:promoting the work and with, as Burgess' publisher
37:, which contains the first use of the word "blurb."
522:"Hollywood's Blurb Search Reaches the Blogosphere"
336:The Cambridge Encyclopedia of The English Language
553:"'(Best) Film Ever!!!' How Do Movie Blurbs Work?"
669:Journal of Librarianship and Information Science
428:Editor & Publisher: The Fourth Estate, 129,
65:. A blurb may introduce a newspaper or a book.
741:
697:"'Riveting!': The Quandary of the Book Blurb"
8:
748:
734:
726:
240:They're also used on comics occasionally.
255:Movie blurbs have often been faulted for
109:was coined in 1906 by American humorist
300:
53:of a book. With the development of the
1359:Promotion and marketing communications
387:"An Open Letter from Gary Shteyngart"
7:
129:dropped and only the text remained.
270:magazine written by Carl Bialik of
207:– "Makes Ben Hur look like an Epic"
469:Sancton, Julian (March 19, 2010).
308:Dwyer, Colin (27 September 2015).
14:
645:(8th ed.). Oak Knoll Press.
1317:
1308:
1307:
1297:
713:
658:
577:Silver, James (3 October 2005).
1298:
610:The story of Miss Belinda Blurb
520:Barnes, Brooks (June 6, 2009).
471:"Good Blurbs from Bad Reviews:
204:Monty Python and the Holy Grail
158:ran a regular feature called "
29:The 1906 front dust jacket of
1:
508:Media Culture, & Society,
405:"American Gods Blog, Post 36"
248:Movie blurbs are part of the
78:
1221:Conservation and restoration
366:. Variety. 10 December 2006
257:taking words out of context
196:insults disguised as praise
1375:
344:Cambridge University Press
18:
1293:
417:Writers's Voice, Oct 2015
681:10.1177/0961000605052156
510:Vol. 27, No. 4, 511-522.
140:, or on the dust cover.
134:Karl Robert Langewiesche
879:Collection (publishing)
803:Illuminated manuscripts
693:(Includes bibliography)
642:ABC for Book Collectors
272:The Wall Street Journal
718:Quotations related to
579:"How to flog a turkey"
364:"Spy: The Funny Years"
290:References and sources
84:
38:
1248:Intellectual property
874:Volume (bibliography)
228:The Lord of the Rings
76:
55:mass-market paperback
28:
616:Original dust jacket
481:Diary of a Wimpy Kid
250:promotional campaign
620:Library of Congress
443:(January 6, 2008).
99:Ralph Waldo Emerson
1285:World Book Capital
612:at wordorigins.org
584:Guardian Unlimited
527:The New York Times
385:Shteyngart, Gary.
262:The New York Times
234:Bored of the Rings
115:Are You a Bromide?
85:
39:
35:Are You a Bromide?
1331:
1330:
1163:Coffee table book
994:Bookworm (insect)
639:(2004). "Blurb".
477:The Bounty Hunter
212:1066 and All That
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1349:Book terminology
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1231:History of books
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551:(Nov 25, 2009).
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703:, March 6, 2012
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222:Harvard Lampoon
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172:Gary Shteyngart
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94:Leaves of Grass
91:'s collection,
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77:Gelett Burgess
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708:External links
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637:Nicolas Barker
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184:Jacob M. Appel
176:The New Yorker
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166:Blurb requests
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152:In the 1980s,
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111:Gelett Burgess
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340:David Crystal
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190:Parody blurbs
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174:announced in
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123:B. W. Huebsch
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66:
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63:news websites
60:
56:
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48:
44:
36:
32:
27:
22:
1272:
1268:Preservation
1184:Book burning
1179:Banned books
951:
932:Bibliophilia
917:Bibliography
847:advance copy
830:instant book
798:Illustration
781:dust jackets
722:at Wikiquote
700:
672:
668:
641:
626:Bibliography
589:. Retrieved
582:
572:
562:February 28,
560:. Retrieved
556:
543:
533:February 28,
531:. Retrieved
525:
515:
507:
502:
492:February 28,
490:. Retrieved
486:
480:
476:
472:
464:
454:February 28,
452:. Retrieved
448:
441:Bialik, Carl
435:
427:
422:
413:
399:
390:
380:
368:. Retrieved
358:
335:
331:
321:30 September
319:. Retrieved
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89:Walt Whitman
86:
42:
40:
34:
1344:Book design
1201:Book curses
1077:Netherlands
947:Bookselling
922:Bibliomania
905:Bestsellers
893:Consumption
884:Book series
869:Typesetting
633:John Carter
549:Beam, Chris
487:Vanity Fair
180:Neil Gaiman
119:dust jacket
82: 1910
59:web portals
51:dust jacket
47:promotional
45:is a short
21:Blurb, Inc.
1338:Categories
1146:audiobooks
1045:By country
998:Furniture
989:Digitizing
984:Collecting
974:Censorship
957:book towns
842:Publishing
825:incunabula
764:Production
652:1584561122
352:0521401798
295:References
225:satire of
160:Logrolling
138:half title
1216:Book tour
1189:incidents
1121:miniature
1116:fictional
1002:bookcases
942:Bookmarks
857:paperback
852:hardcover
370:25 August
231:, titled
105:The word
1313:Category
1226:Dog ears
1142:Formats
1138:Grimoire
1131:textbook
1082:Pakistan
1029:literacy
1007:bookends
926:tsundoku
810:Printing
689:40272839
587:. London
473:Repo Men
1303:Outline
1263:Outline
1172:Related
1112:Genres
1062:Germany
1036:Reviews
1024:Reading
1014:Library
962:history
820:history
815:edition
793:Editing
771:Binding
618:at the
604:Sources
69:History
31:Burgess
1323:Portal
1236:scroll
1151:Ebooks
1126:pop-up
1057:France
1052:Brazil
952:blurbs
900:Awards
788:Design
776:Covers
687:
649:
591:22 May
350:
338:. Ed.
1258:Novel
1241:codex
1156:Folio
1106:Other
1087:Spain
1072:Japan
1067:Italy
979:Clubs
757:Books
720:Blurb
685:S2CID
557:Slate
279:Slate
144:Books
107:blurb
43:blurb
1253:ISBN
1194:Nazi
967:used
910:list
864:Size
647:ISBN
593:2010
564:2013
535:2013
494:2013
456:2013
430:123.
372:2014
348:ISBN
323:2015
268:Gelf
244:Film
219:The
61:and
677:doi
315:NPR
274:."
155:Spy
33:'s
1340::
699:,
683:.
675:.
673:37
671:.
635:;
581:.
555:.
524:.
485:.
479:,
475:,
447:.
389:.
312:.
259:.
198:.
79:c.
41:A
928:)
924:(
749:e
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735:v
691:.
679::
655:.
595:.
566:.
537:.
496:.
483:"
458:.
407:.
393:.
374:.
325:.
Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License. Additional terms may apply.
