Self-Published books

Here I go again. A friend who is very excited about her self-published book wants to honor me by asking me to put a blurb on the cover.

Here's the story: Man is hunting from a tree, falls and is paraplegic. Leaves loving family to preach God's word in undeveloped country. Wife marries friend. Full of unconditional love and the steps to recovery.

The book is about two hundred pages too long.

I cannot recommend the book. How can I put a blurb on the cover? The grammar and format are excellent. The author just received no guidance in cutting.

Tell her she needs a blurb from an author who writes in her genre. Tell her thank you for thinking of you. and you are honored, but you want her to have something meaningful and helpful on her book.

Alice, that is a great suggestion. Barring some pretty spicy sexual language in a few places, the tone is more Christian and religious than anything else. It would have made a nice novella. It was just stretched out too far....with too much repetition.

If she's a good friend, I'd give her the blurb. What does it hurt? It's not like she'll ever get a big audience for it. Potential hurt feelings and damage to the relationship could outweigh whatever damage you think you'll get from giving the blurb.

If she's just an acquaintance, decline.

That's a tough decision, Diane.
I view a blurb by anyone as an endorsement.
I had a similar experience last year. I didn't like/agree with the story line and couldn't in good conscience write a positive blurb/endorsement. Even a blurb summary of a book gives the impression that the author of the blurb is endorsing it. I thanked the party for the honor of considering me, however I had to decline.
Don't remember what lame excuse I gave, but didn't want my name associated with it.

If your name is not included, writing a blurb summary may not be a problem.

Here is what I wrote: "A compelling story of courage and unconditional love."

Perfect!

Sounds good.

Ghost Orchid's publisher hires editors to thoroughly go through the books. I was encouraged to cut large sections, change wording, and many other aspects that improved the book without changing its voice or direction. I was very pleased with the editor.

That is one advantage of publishing with a small press over self-publishing. At least L & L Dreamspell does edit the books with an eye toward making sales...

I read many manuscripts that have quite good stories; but the authors do not want to hear that they need to cut, edit, and improve their flow. I'll receive a manuscript for my "opinion" and then the author hires someone else to do the edit. My friends were not ruthless. An editor needs to be ruthless. The market is competitive.

Many self-published books have great stories; they just lack the final polish to put them out in front. Their challenge is greater because they lack the vetting of a mainline publisher. Criticisms are greater. When NPR reviewed my book, the reviewer made a point of it being "well-written and grammatically correct" something they would not have said about a book published by a traditional New York publisher.

Once an author has a following, it's amazing what passes. In the meantime, a lot of thought needs to go into a book before it's made available for the public. It troubles me even more when the publisher is a vanity press and charges a considerable sum to publish a book they know will go nowhere.

DK.
Your analysis is on target.