On Writing

So in my last post, I talked about what cover blurbs are. Today, I thought I would talk a little more about how I went getting my blurbs and some of the problems that I ran into.

So once I compiled my list of potential cover blurb authors, I sent it to my editor and agent to get their thoughts. They came back with some suggestions and authors of their own. Once that was done, I basically sat down and thought about all the authors that I had connections with and went from there — who I thought I could realistically get a blurb from.

And then, I put together a package, just like aspiring writers do when they’re sending their stuff out to editors and agents. Basically, my package was the first chapter of Spider’s Bite, the preliminary cover art, a flyer that I designed about the Elemental Assassin series (shown here), and a cover letter asking the author for a blurb and how I thought his/her books were similar to mine.

And then, I sent them out via e-mail. Not only did I target authors that I had a connection with, but I also sent the package to what I dubbed my “dream blurbers” — best-selling authors that probably get a hundred blurb requests a year. I figured why not? I might get lucky.

Most folks were great, agreeing to read the book. A couple of authors literally got back to me within a few hours, which was awesome (Thanks, Lisa and Jackie!). A few politely declined, which was perfectly fine and somewhat expected. I know how busy other authors are writing their own books.

But some of them never got back to me at all.

Yep, that’s right. Some authors I contacted about blurbs didn’t even send me back a “Sorry, no thanks” e-mail. Now, I know some of these authors get hundreds of e-mails a week, and I probably got lost in the shuffle. But in some cases, I e-mailed the author’s agent — and some of them never got back to me. (And no, I’m not going to name names).

Now, politely telling me no for whatever reason is fine, but I think not responding at all is a wee bit rude. Yeah, I know agents get even more e-mail than authors do. But it was a professional request sent in (what I think was) a professional manner. You should at least e-mail me back and say no, so I can move on to the next person. Especially since the author is paying the agent that 15 percent to handle things like this in the first place.

So all you aspiring writers out there, don’t feel bad if an agent or editor never gets back to you about a submission. Because it happens to published authors too.

But anyway, I sent my package out and got some wonderful yeses from other authors. Then, of course, I had to send them the book and wait for them to read and blurb it. Which was probably the hardest part for me. I am so not good at waiting. 😉

The blurbs started trickling in the last two weeks, and I’ve really been thrilled with what everyone has had to say about Spider’s Bite. I wish we could put all the quotes on the cover.

So who are my blurbers? I think that’ll be the next post. (I’m hoping to get the final, final cover art to post with that blog by the end of the week. We shall see …)