Monday, July 16, 2007
Lose the Blurbs, Add Some Stars?
CA Barron in the Guardian blog suggests that book publishers dispense with uniformly hyperbolic blurbs on their books and instead move to a rating system like that of Rotten Tomatoes for films or Robert Parker for wines: "To have 2005's 206,000 books published in the UK, and 172,000 in the US, all shrieking superlatives at us seems counter-productive. Let us first savour and judge books -- like films and wine -- with our own brains, hearts and palates."
Commenter BillyMills likes the idea, and also suggests more honest blurbs, such as: "This is XXX's second novel. Due to contractual stipulations, it's much like his/her first novel" and "This is our entry in the great 9/11 novel sweepstakes." He also finds refreshing the candidness of some historical reviews, as "'One would imagine this piece to be the work of a drunken savage'. -- Voltaire, 1768 (of Hamlet)."
Labels: book reviews, book selling, guardian, publishing, rankings, ratings
