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Quotes on backs of books


KEV67

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Is there a term for those comments on the back covers, or inside pages, that say how great the book is? They are often lifted from reviews in newspapers and magazines. For example, on the back of a Jack Reacher book, The Times is quoted: 'Busy, bloody and ingenious'. I ask because I was amused to see a quote from Samuel Johnson on the back of Clarissa: 'The first book in the world for the knowledge it displays of the human heart'. A recommendation from Samuel Johnson must be pretty hard to beat.

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On 5/13/2022 at 5:57 PM, Kudz said:

They're endorsements or sometimes more commonly referred to as book blurbs.

Thank you. I thought blurbs were the paragraph on the back that tell you what the book is about. Another term I just came across is puff quote, which sounds like an insincere endorsement. There are also straplines or taglines, but these are different. A strapline is something like 'Winter is coming.'

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On 6/13/2022 at 10:31 AM, KEV67 said:

Thank you. I thought blurbs were the paragraph on the back that tell you what the book is about. Another term I just came across is puff quote, which sounds like an insincere endorsement. There are also straplines or taglines, but these are different. A strapline is something like 'Winter is coming.'

Blurbs are the write ups on the back of books and they aren't necessarily very true to what happens in the book. My blurbs were written by my editor and I was usually rather surprised to see  what she thought was happening in my books.

 

Taglines are as you say something like 'Winter is coming', again it doesn't have to be particularly relevant.

 

In my experience, going back 20 years so before the lines from "review Goodreads" etc, stuff taken off proper reviews were just quotes, I think I heard of puff quotes and yes they usually came from another author, usually with the same editor who had been asked to say something nice!

 

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