#286 - Louise Willder on BLURB YOUR ENTHUSIASM

Louise Willder, a copywriter at Penguin Books whose written around 5,000 blurbs over nearly three decades, chats with Trey Elling about BLURB YOUR ENTHUSIASM: AN A-Z OF LITERARY PERSUASION. Topics include: Defining “blurb” (0:29) The profession of “blurbing” (3:09) Adjectives begetting laziness (7:10) Subtitles (10:24) Why some authors despise blurbs (14:10) Do authors ever write their own blurbs? (17:14) Charles Dickens: trailblazing self-promoter (21:00) What makes a book ‘classic’ (27:35) Louise’s blurbing pet peeves (30:34) The greatness of cuss words (32:43) The greatness of…the ellipsis (36:18) Blurbing a book that sucks (39:03) Rules for blurbing self-help books (41:30) Blurbing the Bible (44:09) Blurbs in the US vs the UK (46:46)