What Power, the Blurb?

[akirlu]

So John Scalzi has a post up on the continuing appeal of Robert Heinlein, in which John claims that the blurb from Publisher's Weekly on the cover of Old Man's War, a blurb which anoints Scalzi as The New Heinlein, plays a significant role in how well Mr. Scalzi's book sells. It's perfectly possible that this is true. But if it is, I wonder how Scalzi knows it. How much do book blurbs really influence consumer behavior? How measurable is that influence? Do publishers do bookstore exit polls? Does anyone actually fill out marketing surveys on book purchasing choices? Are the reasons why any particular book sells actually known, actually knowable, or just an article of faith inside publishing? I dunno. I have not much other than my usual over-abundance of skepticism.

The preponderance of responses to this post in NYT Opinion, by Stephen J. Dubner, do seem to be running against the idea of people buying books because of blurbs most of the time. On the other hand, as Howard Moskowitz found (here ably explained by Malcolm Gladwell, in the course of his fabulous TED talk, or in print form here at gladwell.com), consumers often can't informatively access or articulate their own desires, reasons, or consumer processes anyhow.

So who the heck knows. Anybody happen to have Marshall McLuhan in their vest pocket?

Comments

[supergee.livejournal.com]

Cell phones are making it harder to stash him behind a phone booth.

[akirlu.livejournal.com]

Thus exacerbating the pent-up demand for a microminiaturized digital Marshall McLuhan.

[supergee.livejournal.com]

He always dreamed of coming back as one of those.

Me + Marshall McLuhan minus one

[liveavatar.livejournal.com]

I only have my own opinion to offer at the moment: sometimes blurbs from people I already know and trust can indeed push me over the edge to buy something new if I'm teetering on the edge of going for it. I do try to take into account the "logrolling in our time" effect (SPY magazine, we need you now more than ever!).

My Most Trusted Blurb Author at the moment: Neil Gaiman, for the types of books he writes blurbs for.

Re: Me + Marshall McLuhan minus one

[akirlu.livejournal.com]

I think Neil Gaiman happens to have written a blurb on a number of books I've bought anyway, lately, but that's one of those after-the-fact things I notice. The sorts of things that push me over the edge are personal recommendations from trusted filters, getting hooked by reading a sample of the book itself, and cogently written positive reviews. Pretty much all of these require more words than comfortably fit on the back of a dust jacket.

I guess I'm a hard sell.

Re: Me + Marshall McLuhan minus one

[liveavatar.livejournal.com]

Well, all the other things you mention count for me too, of course. But everything else being equal, a thumbs-up from Gaiman could make me say, "Oh, what the hell."

[mjlayman.livejournal.com]

Charlie keeps trying to get the OSC quote/blurb off his books.