Looking at the Trend in Blurbs

And a merger.

I am feeling like a trendsetter since I learned a bit of stunning news.

Publisher Sean Manning announced earlier this year that Simon & Schuster will no longer ask writers to find blurbs for their books. He explained why in an editorial in Publisher’s Weekly.

While reviewing the backlist at Simon & Schuster, Manning was surprised to find no blurbs on the covers of their “biggest-selling, prize-winning and most artistically revered titles.”

“I believe the insistence on blurbs,” he wrote, “has become incredibly damaging to what should be our industry’s ultimate goal: producing books of the highest possible quality.”

(The bold is mine.)

He said that “this kind of favor trading creates an incestuous and unmeritocratic literary ecosystem that often rewards connections over talent.”

Instead, he said, writers could spend more time writing and editors could spend more time making books better.

Amen to that.

I Have a Few Thoughts

Frankly, I’m bowled over hearing a Big-Five publisher talking about quality, talent, and artistry, when—except in increasingly rare cases—emphasis has been on “biggest-selling.” The bestseller list is supposed to entice me to read a book, but because I’ve been burned many times by poorly written books clinging to the list, and because I don’t love genre fiction, I consider the bestseller list as a “DO NOT READ.”

Cold Mountain was an exception. That was a novel so extraordinary, so well-written, and so exquisite that it deserved every minute it perched on any chart.

I can name a few other books of its kind.

For the most part, New York publishing has not been producing literature. Most of what it produces is, for me, unreadable.

Seth Manning, publisher of Simon & Schuster, knows all this. He is smart enough to make a dramatic, if somewhat desperate, creative pivot and to spin it in a pleasing way. But for a second let’s dial back and repeat two words Manning used—favor trading. What taste does that leave in your mouth?

Caveat

I have never had a traditional New York publisher, and if I had, I might not be saying these things. However, I utter them without an ounce of ire, only with bitter disappointment that the folks who commandeered American literature—often at the expense of the working stiff, the author—did such an abysmal job with American letters, which is to say civilization.

Why It’s Circling the Drain

Big publishing did many things wrong. It impoverished many of its best writers. It hid the accounting—even my first publisher, Milkweed Editions, will not open their records to us authors. Big publishing threw gobs of money at trash and trivia. It created superstars with its marketing and left a lot of fine writers eating dust.

To be fair, sometimes it gave us people like Charles Frazier.

For a long time, New York managed to maintain power until it alienated enough people that indie (or self) publishing became not just viable, but inspiring and hopeful and sometimes incredibly lucrative. It democratized publishing. It brought power back to the reader and the creator, not the marketing machine.

I’m not getting rich now that I’ve begun to publish my own books. However, I’m in charge of my creative expression, I don’t have to stand at a door knocking while nobody answers, and I make more money than I ever have before. Yes, I had to learn book distribution and marketing, and that’s just fine with me.

About This Blurb Revolution

When I indie-published The Woods of Fannin County, I was very clear that I would not be asking for blurbs. Instead I folded a request in the end pages, asking readers to submit reviews—if they wished—to sites online. Hundreds did.

If you want someone’s opinion about this book, consult Amazon or Goodreads.

Because Stephen King did not blurb it. Nor James Patterson.

My Prediction

Big publishing will begin to look more and more at the success of indie publishing (think Colleen Hoover), and its business strategies will change. This blurb decision is a small step, with colossal changes to come.

Meanwhile

Taylor Swift has bought back the rights to her first six albums, and now she owns the intellectual property rights for all her work. So savvy. Such a smart woman.

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Further Reading

Emily Temple wrote an interesting essay in LitHub called “Here Are the Biggest Fiction Bestsellers of the Last 100 Years (And What Everyone Read Instead)

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Thought Experiment

Whose blurb would you love to see on the back jacket of your own book?

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I Need Your Help

I need an assistant at the ASLE conference in July. ASLE—the Association for the Study of Literature and the Environment—is the academic arm of nature writing. This year they confer at the University of Maryland in College Park July 8-11, 2025.

I need someone who will assist me with tabling. You’ll need to love meeting and talking with people, and you have to be deeply interested in environmental writing.

I will pay your travel, registration fees, meals and lodging, plus a stipend. In return, I’ll need about 6 hours a day from you. We’ll coordinate so you can attend ASLE sessions that interest you.

To apply, send me an email at wildfire1491@yahoo.com with the following information:

1. why you’re interested in attending ASLE

2. where you’d be traveling from and by what means you’d travel (preference goes to someone closer)

3. what makes it possible for you to be free during those dates

4. anything else you want to tell me

Deadline for applications is June 15, extended if necessary.

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News Just In

Join Simmons Buntin, Petra Kuppers, Sueyeun Juliette Lee, and me at the ASLE offsite reading, to be held Thursday, July 10, from 7-8 p.m.during the Cultural Crawl. We’ll be at the Pyramid Atlantic Art Center, 4318 Gallatin Street, Hyattsville, Maryland. Sponsored by terrain.org.

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Report on the Memoir Course

We had our first session of the summer memoir course last Wednesday and will convene our second tomorrow. In addition, we squeezed in 30 minutes of Q&A on Saturday morning, followed by an hour of coworking. Last night we held a meetup that involved more Q&A.

These are folks who made the decision to follow their dream and start a memoir or get help on a project they’ve already begun.

For new writers, we are at the moment I expected, when we begin to flip out

• that our private life will become public

• that we will be writing about real people who will react, sometimes violently, to our work

• that the work is not only going to be physically but emotionally demanding

Reams of advice can be written about this, but in short, a memoir writer dealing with dark places has to stay safe, has to create a solid support network, has to take the work at a pace they can handle, and has to believe that the effort will be for the greater good.

Cyn Kitchen wrote a beautiful post, “Memory Hoarder,” on this very thing at her Substack, The Kitchen Cynk.

I’m working with a few memoirists to do extra workshops for the writers in the course, and we’ll open these to the public. Keep an eye out if you’re interested in short memoir-writing workshops or be in touch if you’d be willing to teach one.

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Beta Readers Rush To My Rescue

When I put out a call for beta readers for my forthcoming book, Journey in Place, a beautiful posse of folks responded: Sue Kusch, Dallas Anne Duncan, M.K. Creel, Cheryl Hilderbrand, Hilary Vidalakis, Julie Friar, Kortney Garrison, and Yolanda McAdam. Thank you all. If I missed anyone, I truly apologize.

I took folks in the order I received responses, and the book is currently in the hands of Sue, Dallas Anne, and M.K. They are reading digital files. I have been receiving edits in batches of 25 pages, and the edits are going very well. Many thanks to Sue, Dallas Anne, and M.K.!

I hired a cover designer. As soon as the cover is approved and all the edits incorporated, I will load the manuscript to Amazon KDP. I will probably need two more beta readers to look at a proof copy of the actual book.

Then I’ll print and mail copies for folks who took the correspondence course that created the book. I’m planning to treat this as a special pre-edition, and the books will be numbered and signed.

After that I plan to launch Journey in Place via Kickstarter. If you have ideas for marketing, I’d love to hear them.

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Merging Into Trackless Wild

Little Fawn is now 10 months old, and I’ve come to the conclusion that I need to reduce the number of standing deadlines I have. I write Rhizosphere on Tuesdays, teach the memoir course on Wednesdays, also the day I publish Trackless Wild. On Friday afternoons I work at my little Archives downtown.

I hate to discontinue Rhizosphere, but making it a section of Trackless Wild would be lifesaving to me at this juncture.

I will alert you when this happens. I will move your email address over to that section of Trackless Wild. I’m going to attempt to transfer as much content as possible.

What will not convert are paying subscribers. All paid subscriptions will be refunded.

Business-wise, incorporating the two publications makes sense, but I will miss this little underground hidyhole where we seek nourishment as writers.

Thank you for being here. Truly, big love to you.