Blurbs – an essential marketing tool! They provide your very first taste of the story within, enticing you to take another bite – er, figuratively speaking here. Hardbacks taste disappointing, mostly. But they can be made even worse if their blurbs are indoctrinated with stale adjectives, unclear context and enough spoilers to spoil your appetite.

Maybe Willder here’s got you covered?

Review – Hooked.

Blurb your enthusiasm is a 352 page introduction to copywriting, exploring the manners and often the lives of the publishing houses as they pretty up the best-sellers…or accidentally condemn a promising work to obscurity. It’s not just about blurbs, but cover graphics, displayed accolades and even first lines. In a way, it’s a collection of personal essays. We learn about Willder’s childhood obsession with horror – including the corny blurbs that came with it. We hear about her interactions with Authors whose works they entrusted to her. We even get many, many funny anecdotes.

Giggles aside, it’s a very varied collection. First Willder goes over all the possible elements of a copydesigners job, then traces the development of the blurb from overly long titles (looking at you, Jacobeans) to stylistic hooks and how Authors have coped with the marketing of their books. Next, it’s Willder’s criteria for a good blurb across all genres, as well as the deadliest sins of blurb writing, then a safari tour of blurb species and finally a reflection of how blurbs affect us on a personal level. I mean, you could’ve gathered all this from scanning the contents page, but suppose you didn’t make it past the blurb in the first place?

This book made me laugh hard. Very hard. Not overstating my amusement here for promotion’s sake – I read out a section from section 3.7 (appropriately named “show me the funny”) to some friends and were all struck down with asthma for the next three minutes. Willder mercilessly tears apart bad blurbs, yet in the act redeems them as comic masterpieces. We’ve all read a few bad blurbs in our time, so most of us can join in the laughter when Willder spells out the god-awful cliches to us.

I will spoil no more jokes for you. Actually, I dare say I shouldn’t spoil anything more about the book. Perhaps reviews like this give away too much of the nitty gritty, leaving readers with a sense that they know enough about the book to forgo reading it. Just like a blurb, this review pitches a work to you – if it oversteps, it will likely put you right off. If I am to spoil anything more, it’s Willder’s hatred of waffling. A long overview spoils too much and offers too many opportunities to bugger up. It’s why most of the best blurbs rarely exceed 100 words. This review is already quadruple that.

So, I won’t review the book anymore. That is for you to read – I highly recommend it.

For the remainder of this post, I’m going to be reviewing the copywriting elements of the book!

Blurb review?!

Front cover – Rather simple, I must say, but makes up in dynamic. Sandwiched between the Bold blurb and rather elongated subtitle, a dinky mouse hides in a little blue book. Cute. This same mouse is a recurrent little icon throughout the book’s margins. Nice bit of consistency. I would say the front page is a little overcrowded though. The designer has fallen to the cliche of using puff clippets from other writers and journalists around the edge, as well as *shock horror* bragging their status as “Times book of the year” at the top! What were they thinking?! Not that Willder would condemn it too dearly though – she herself reminds us of the necessity many of these well-worn conventions serve. After all, you’d want to read a book that’s done well in life, wouldn’t you?

Blurb – They couldn’t bugger this up on a book like this, could they? A nice little 103 word summary of the book – close to the golden length of a blurb. Bullet points are used to seperate the main hooks of the book from the main summary body (E.g. What are the worst blurbs of all time?). The blurb has used a couple of adjectives, but nothing too domineering. At least it’s not telling you it’s funny with nothing to show…but it isn’t really showing you the humour inside anyway, Aside from the inclusion of the word “Bonkbuster”. And a self aware puff review at the top by Laura Freeman (The times). I doubt Louise Willder wrote it herself, but she knows best that the author should never blurb their own book. Maybe for the best. Thank god no allusion was made to “Judging a book by it’s cover”.

Author Biography and PRAISE – The biography of Louise Willder is nice and short, ending with a funny hint of desperation and denial. Nobody reads the praise anyway, but it’s absolutely chock full of puff, including extended quotes from the cover. Mind, Carrie Callaghan’s review should’ve made the cover with it’s bizarre allusions Bawdy songs after dinner and whatever the hell a “Mimosa^*” is.

Overall, the copywriter set to work on this book has done a somewhat decent job, even if not exceptionally standout. They certainly haven’t done a bad job, even with all the swollen hooting from the puff writers. Atypically of me, but I merely got the book because I wanted to prepare for writing blurbs over my Novel course at university, so didn’t really notice anymore than the title until afterwards. Nice, but not as well plotted as the blurb for David Damrosch’s “around the world in 80 books”, which embraces minimalism better.

Anyhoo, I’d recommend this book to anyone who’s obsessed with reading blurbs at the book shop (often without buying anything on the way out). It’s funny, it’s informative and it’s easy to read. Vitamins hidden in your comfort slop.

^{Blurb your enthusiasm is available online and at waterstones for about £9-10. If Louise Willder is on site, she will surely direct you towards it, possibly against your will. Do not resist.}

*_{According to BBC Goodfoods, a Mimosa is basically just orange juice and champagne. A sort of alternative for Buck’s fizz. Personally, I thought it sounded like a small rodent from South America. I need to drink more alcohol. 8-(}