#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)