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A cheat sheet to critical reviews

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Back in January, I talked a bit about why being critical matters. I’m still thinking about the things in that post and I’m always going to be an advocate for being critical and being classy.

As you know, we’re critical reviewers here. We like to look at books in depth and talk about the things that do and don’t work in a story. Something I’ve been asked often — and even more so after posting about the topic of being critical — is how I approach reading and reviewing a book. More specifically, what elements do I think about and how do I think about them then take those considerations and write a review.

This was sort of what inspired the original KidLitCon presentation last year, and when we build our presentation, one of the elements was a cheat sheet to review writing. In all honesty, I sort of forgot about it until the other night, and I thought it would be worth sharing. This was a collaborative effort, with help and insight from Abby, Janssen, and Julia. You’re welcome to borrow it, share it, and any insights you may have you’re welcome to add, as well. I hope it’s helpful not only in giving insight into what goes into a critical review, but I hope it’s helpful in shedding insight into critical reading and critical blogging, as well.

Critical review cheat sheet
If you’re looking to freshen your content or are just getting started in blogging, here are some “big” things worth considering. These can assist in blog consistency or in helping establish your voice in the blogosphere, and they help when you fall into one of those sticky situations when it comes to comments or feedback you may get from readers.
– Summary vs. Publisher Copy: Do you want to write your own summary or rely on publisher copy? Your interpretation may differ from the publishers, and there is nothing wrong with that. It is essential, though, if you do borrow publisher copy that you cite your source (i.e., publisher’s copy, GoodReads summary, Amazon summary).
– Substance vs. length: How much you write in your review doesn’t matter. There are good short reviews and there are weak long reviews. It’s about substance, not length. Finding your own reviewing voice will guide you to this.
– Spoilers and content concerns: Do you write your review with acknowledgment to spoilers? Do you warn your readers when spoilers appear? What’s the length of time when spoiler warnings are not necessary? What about content – do you discuss issues of language or situations which may make readers uncomfortable?
– Your readership: Do you blog to be a resource for teachers/educators? For causal readers? To keep a record of what you read for yourself? For book publicity/as a means of PR for books and authors? Consider this when structuring your reviews. What’s your end goal? Write and review toward that. And remember: this can change. Nothing’s set in stone.
If you’re looking for some ideas of what to do when critically reviewing, here are a few suggestions. Not all reviews need all of these. In fact, you might find it worthwhile to talk in depth about only one of these issues or none of these issues. This is meant to be a helpful cheat sheet for those times when a book is simply a “meh” book — one you are struggling to review because it wasn’t great and it wasn’t terrible — and you need to find words to put to that feeling. The list below is certainly not exhaustive.
– Character Development: Do you find them fully-fleshed or lacking in development (is there an arc)? How does the main character interact with secondary characters? Are relationships believable? Does the dialog aid in their development?
– Story Pacing: Is the story consistent in pacing or uneven? Is it a quick read or a slow read? Did some parts become weak because of the pacing?
– Cohesion and Flow: Does the storyline work? Is it fluid? Is it rocky? Does it flow right, whether it’s meant to be a linear story or not? In short, does it make sense or does it leave the reader confused? Is that intentional within the story or a fault of the writing/characters/dialog?
– Language and Writing: Is it a literary masterpiece? Are the metaphors smooth like honey or are they distracting like flies? Is it poorly written? This is an opportunity to talk about things like length, too, as well as editing. Could it have been tightened or lengthened? Did the writing heighten the story or was it merely serviceable?
 – Authenticity (to the character, to the story, to the setting, to the time period, to the intended audience): Do you believe it? This is especially helpful in non-contemporary works. Did you believe the world building? The mystery? The characters? The situations? Was the setting developed or was it forgotten about? Are historical elements authentic? Is this book going to meet the expectations of the intended audience? Does the book feel real? Are the teenagers/middle schoolers/preschoolers depicted believable or are they inauthentic? This is trust in the story and trust in the writing and, over time, perhaps trust in the author him/her self.
– Voice: Does the story have a voice? A feeling to it? Does the character have a voice? It’s not an easy topic to talk about, especially with the “meh” book, because often, that’s the problem with the “meh” book: there’s NOT a voice. A voice is the tone of the book, the feeling underscoring the story, and the thing that can ultimately be what is most memorable about a story or a character.
– Reader Appeal: This one is dependent on your blog’s goals. Who will the book appeal to? Does it appeal to fans of other authors? To certain genre readers? This is a fun but challenging aspect of critical reviews because it requires removing your own biases about the critical elements listed above and thinking about big picture readership.

So there it is — I hope it’s helpful or insightful, and if there’s anything you consider in reading/writing critically, share away.

On ARCs, Ethics, & Speaking Up

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I’ve talked this week about how I use ARCs, and the reaction was about what I expected. Most librarians who come in contact with ARCs tend to do similar things. Over the last couple of days, though, the lid’s been lifted on how other people use their ARCs, too.

Before I go on, I’ve pulled up an example of what an ARC looks like, for those who might not be entirely familiar with them. The picture on the left is a good example of what an ARC from a publisher may look like. It’s usually paperback (though there are electronic ARCs too) and each of these ARCs comes with a disclaimer right on the cover — and on the back flap and usually inside, too — that these books are not for sale. That’s not to say they’re not to be shared, but that they’re not meant to be sold. There should be absolutely no monetary exchange with an ARC, either between the publisher and the reviewer, the reviewer and other reviews, or reviewers and, say, teens who may get a copy as a prize during a summer reading club.

Let me repeat: there is no monetary value in ARCs at all at any level. This means that the publisher makes no money off them (and in fact, they’re more costly to produce than a finished copy of a book). Authors make no money off them. Reviewers make no money off them. And they are not, not, not to be sold.

However, they are sold. Regularly.

Hop onto Ebay and do a search for ARC under the “Books” category (or just click here). These things are being sold left and right — some are books that aren’t available yet and they’re truly advanced copies of the book and sometimes, the books have been out and the ARCs are still being sold, often at some really discounted price or because they have a signature or any other number of reasons. It seems after big industry conventions or meetings like ALA or BEA, the number of books making their way onto Ebay increases and a lot of times, they’re books people are really looking forward to or that were perceived as hard-to-get ARCs at the convention. Just this week, I saw an ARC of Bitterblue up on Ebay for a cool $51 (you can pre-order the same book — one that’ll in fact be a finished, complete copy in hard cover and without error — for about $14 right now). That’s not to say that ARCs aren’t sold via Ebay and other similar sites all the time nor that they aren’t sometimes sold in indie bookstores, but the fact becomes more apparent and appalling following these events.

It’s questionable whether selling and buying ARCs is a legal issue, but that’s not what I want to delve into. I want to talk about ethics.

Selling and buying ARCs — when there is money exchanged — is unethical at any and every level.

Now that’s not to say doing an ARC trade or giveaway or donation is unethical. I don’t think it is. There are, in fact, ARC tours meant to help bloggers and librarians get their hands on ARCs to read and review, and the only requirements are time frames for reading and posting a review, as well as paying for shipping of the ARC to the next person in line. The problem emerges when ARCs show up with a price tag attached. When one person puts a price tag on a book that’s clearly an unfinished copy, that clearly has a note on it saying the item is not meant for sale, they’re practicing something that is unethical.

But the blame isn’t just on the person who sells the ARC. It’s also on the person who buys it, especially if it’s someone who knows better than that. It sort of sounds like a no duh moment, but the fact is, it happens, and it’s not as hidden as people think it is. Buying and selling of ARCs is much more common than we like to believe it is.

When someone purchases an ARC, rather than a finished copy of the book, they rob the book of a sale. The author and the publisher and the agent and the editor and everyone else involved in the production of a book sees nothing. The money spent on the ARC goes to the person unethically selling it, rather than to those who worked hard to put together the best finished version of that story.

Something that scares me a little bit about this practice, aside from the unethical nature of it and the fact it takes profit away from those who deserve it for their art, is how easy it is to track down those who are doing it. When I saw the Bitterblue ARC up on Ebay, I was also able to see other ARCs that particular seller had sold, as well as those people who’d purchased ARCs from that seller. One of those who purchased from the seller happened to be a book blogger, whose blog I was able to track down by their user name.  The ease of being able to do that is itself scary, but it’s scarier that the very people working toward promoting reading and books are participating in something they know is unethical.

Let me step back a second and return to a couple earlier points I’ve made here and in my post about how I use ARCs — though it’s not entirely easy to gauge the impact on actually selling copies, my giving the book to a kid doesn’t rob the book of a sale. It’s entirely possible the book is being sold in some way. More importantly, though, I’m not making a profit from giving the book away. No one loses money in this exchange, and there is only opportunity for it to be made (see: purchasing a finished copy for my library to lend).

When a blogger borrows an ARC from another blogger or participates in an ARC tour, they presumably review and build buzz for it. Again, impossible to gauge sales on this, but that’s sort of moot. The blogger isn’t profiting, though, in the exchange and sharing.

But when a blogger buys an ARC, they’re participating in an unethical exchange of cash for goods. They’re not helping spread the word. They’re taking away a potential sale. And when a blogger sells an ARC, they’re profiting from someone else’s work, too.

It sounds extremely hokey to say, but the fact is, books are exciting, and there are times when it feels impossible to wait to read something. When someone unethically lists such a coveted book on a site like Ebay, the temptation to purchase it — especially at what can sometimes be a really, really cheap price — may be huge. If the true goal of blogging, though, is to spread the word about books, to help promote those books worth promoting, to help sell books, the only way to be taken seriously is to behave ethically. That means not only holding off on purchasing an ARC unethically, selling an ARC unethically, and it means doing your part in reporting these things when you see them. It means holding fellow bloggers to a high standard of ethics, and it means calling them out when necessary. It’s a scary idea, to call someone out, but the fact is, people who do these things aren’t necessarily covering their tracks.

You can report these sales via Ebay, and you can forward on these sorts of links on to the marketing folks at relevant pubs.

I don’t have a whole lot more to talk about on the topic, other than to say the value in an ARC is the value in what it does for the book. An ARC and a book aren’t the same thing — the ARC precedes the book, and the ARC can help push sales of the book through early buzz. That’s why they exist and why bloggers have become part of the publicity machine. If you’re truly invested in helping promote books and reading, then you promote the purchase of the book, and you work toward halting the buying and selling of ARCs.

For what it’s worth, bloggers who practice the unethical buying and selling of ARCs are harming, rather than helping, everything that bloggers are working toward doing. They’re tarnishing the image of the role a blogger can play in sales and in promotion and in buzz. They’re also stealing from those who work to produce the content, narrowing, rather than expanding, the experiences the book world can bring.

Anyone curious to learn more about ARCs and the role they play, please take the time to read through Liz Burns’s posts here, here, and here.

Librarians, Bloggers, & The Lines Between

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Before diving into the heavy stuff, a glimpse at the books I picked up at ALA. I used “picked up” loosely because I’ve become a big believer in talking with publicists at conventions. I love hearing what their favorites are and why (because it’s not always the book getting the big publisher push and often it can lead you to a real gem). But yes — this pile is everything I picked up at Midwinter. It fit into my carry on luggage.

Over the last few conventions, I’ve posted the titles of books I’ve picked up, their release dates, and a link to GoodReads for more details. I’m not going to stray from that, but it’ll wait a couple of days. I’ve been told by librarians, teachers, and readers how nice it is to know about what’s coming out from the different publishers, so they have it on their radar. I like doing it because it helps keep me organized too.

Something that’s come up is blogger behavior at industry conventions like ALA and BEA. In fact, I’ve talked about it before, been cited about it before. Whenever this conversation comes up, I have to take a step back. The anxiety gets overwhelming. There seems to be some sort of belief there are only black and whites and not shades of gray everywhere. That there are, say, bloggers and there are librarians.

I tread a fine, fine line. I’m a librarian and I’m a blogger. I do both and I love doing both. I don’t think they’re necessarily different identities nor ones I need to keep separate. And in fact, the more I have become involved in blogging, the more I see them as things that cannot be separated. Being a librarian has made me a better blogger because it’s given me deep perspective on the idea of audience and readership. The more I’ve blogged, the better I’ve become as a librarian because I’ve forced myself to read well and read with the idea of audience.

These things just aren’t separate for me.

When I go to a conference where there is an exhibit hall, where there will be publicists and opportunities to pick up ARCs, of course I go in with a wish list of some sort. There are books I’m excited about personally and I’d love to get a crack at. Books I’d love to read and fall in love with so I can talk about how much I love the book and why I love the book. Books that in my job as a librarian I’d love to bring back to my teens because they’re excited to read them. 

But I don’t go into the exhibits with expectations of anything, either as a blogger nor as a librarian nor as a reader nor as a person who has red hair. It’s an experience, and it’s one best enjoyed by interacting, be it with publicists, colleagues, strangers. When I’m able to take home a book that is on my wish list, it’s a plus. When I don’t, it’s not a minus. It just is! I’ll still be able to purchase the book or borrow it from the library when it publishes a few months down the road.

I’ve never walked away from a convention thinking I didn’t get enough. Because the thing is, I don’t expect to get anything. Being a librarian and/or a blogger doesn’t entitle me to anything. Being a librarian and/or a blogger, though, does come with a set of expectations. A set of standards.

But this is something I’ve talked about before.

No matter what your title is, no matter what your goal is in attending an industry convention, the only expectation there is is for classy, professional, courteous, kind behavior. It means being thoughtful and considerate. It means behaving in a way that would make whatever you’re representing proud to call you a part of that organization (if it’s your blog, then it’s your blog; if it’s your library, then it’s your library; if you’re there representing yourself, well then that’s a pretty big role to make proud, too).

I’m not of the belief that we should close off cool experiences like ALA from non-industry members if it’s not necessary. But I am of the belief that there should never be bullying, there should never be swarming, there should never be name calling or teasing or stealing or rule breaking. Treating one another with respect is the only expectation, and that goes for not only attendees, but for attendees toward publicists, publishers, the industry as a whole.

I like to think of the book world as a type of eco-system. We all grow and thrive when we allow one another to do so. This means feeding and keeping one another in check. It means being respectful and thoughtful every step of the way. When you’re contributing the good, you get the good back. When you’re not, you’re only harming your environment.

Stepping back from this a second now, since I really cannot say anything more on that particular subject without sounding like a broken record, I thought I’d talk a little bit about what picking up ARCs means for me. Since I tread that slippery line of blogger and librarian, it means a couple of things.

As a blogger, I like to think my role in the ARC process is one of reading, blogging, and helping build buzz. I like to think, too, that by being a librarian, I reach a certain audience of readers who have a budget behind them — they actually purchase some of the books I talk about, either for themselves or their organization. And if they don’t have the funds, I like to think I’m able to offer to readers books they can talk about with readers in their lives. Either way, my role as a blogger is spreading the word.

Did you know for a lot of teenagers, owning a book is something they will never get to do?

Did you know for a lot of teenagers, the ARC a librarian brings them from a conference may be the only book they actually, truly own?

This was something I never thought about, never knew, until I actually worked with teenagers. Until I had teenagers tell me they’d bring the book right back to me because they didn’t want to lose something that belonged to me (an adult). Telling those kids they could keep that book illuminated something inside them. Disbelief. Shock.

Excitement.

I can’t even tell you what it feels like to hand a teenager a book you picked up for them at a convention. It’s what makes me LOVE being a librarian. Putting that book into their hands. Knowing it will change a life, even if it’s in a small, small way.

Moreover, many of the ARCs end up as prizes for various programs at the library, including the summer reading club. Most libraries — especially smaller ones — don’t have prize budgets. They don’t have money to give teens books to keep. After working on the Cybils and attending a couple of conventions, I can amass a lot of ARCs (and finished copies). For what it’s worth, I pay for shipping on everything I bring home from a convention. Sometimes upwards of $50, $100, often for books I’m not necessarily keen on myself but that I know will mean a lot to a reader at the library. No, I don’t get reimbursed.

But I get to bring books to the library in stacks this tall to give away to teenagers. Books they’ll get to peruse and pick from and keep. Books that will mean the world to them because it’s something they get to own. I reiterate — for many of these teens, this is the only time they may actually get to own a book.

The other thing I do with ARCs as a librarian is this:

I cannot possibly read everything being published for teens, so I often go directly to the teens and ask them to write up book reviews for me. In exchange, they get to keep the book (if they want) or they can trade with another teen (which they often do). My teen above writes excellent reviews which I use to promote the books when they’ve been purchased, and they help me decide whether it’s a book worth reading so I can book talk it. And often, I can book talk the book based on the teen’s review alone. I get feedback on what the book reminded the teen of (I can’t possibly know what all of their experiences are in their world and in their age, and this feedback is priceless to me as a librarian and, as you’d guess, a blogger, too!).

Let me say, I’ve never felt guilt about picking up an ARC I could put in the hands of a teen.

If you’ve ever wondered why we don’t do a lot of giveaways here at STACKED, this is just one of the reasons. Most ARCs never stick around long enough to give away. I’d rather spend my own money to buy a finished copy of a book I read in ARC form for someone else (and that is why if you’ve entered and won a giveaway here, the book often comes straight from Amazon or Book Depository).

All of this is to say one thing and one thing only, really: let’s be courteous, please. We are all part of the same eco-system, even if our end goals differ. Whether you’re a blogger whose goal is to build your readership and build buzz around books or whether your goal as a librarian is to pick up books for your own reading/collection development planning/prizes. What you pick up, what you take, what you demand. You can pollute or you can recycle. Either way, it reflects back upon not just you, but the environment as a whole.

I like a world that keeps spinning.

On being critical

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You may remember in September, I did a presentation with Julia, Abby, and Janssen at Kid Lit Con about critical reviewing. I promised to write up the key points and share them. I can think of no better time to sum it up than right now.

Critical reviews are not negative reviews.

Know this distinction. Critical reviews involve thoughtful analysis and synthesis of the work at hand. They support their statements — both positive and negative — with what’s in front of them. They check their baggage at the door.

Negative reviews are not supported by text. Negative reviews don’t tell readers anything substantial about the book, but rather, about the reviewer. It’s self reflective, rather than text reflective.

I believe in critical reviews and I love writing them, too. There’s nothing more satisfying to me than sitting down after finishing a book and thinking through the points of story that did and did not work for me. It helps me not only realize why I did or didn’t like a book, but it also helps me grow as a reader. I learn to read differently each time I critically assess a book. Moreover, I love reading other people’s critical reviews of books. There are a handful of blogs I read every single day and there are a handful of blogs I will seek out after I read a book to see what they have to say. I know they’re going to be thorough, whether they’re succinct or lengthy reviews. Likewise, there are a few Goodreads reviewers who don’t blog that I appreciate reading insight from. I think what I love most about reading reviews that are critical and thorough is that a lot of times, I can disagree with them, and yet, I’m able to see precisely why the reviewer said or saw what they did in the text. Because they support it with the text.

Critical reviews are important to me not only as a reader, but me as a librarian. These reviews help guide my thinking about my biases and they help guide my thinking about how to approach selling books to readers.

Not all blogs are created equal.

I don’t like negative reviews, and I love critical reviews. But there are a ton of bloggers out there who do neither of these things. There are blogs that exist solely to promote books or authors or agendas. There are blogs out there that write only positive reviews. There are blogs out there that write with a snarky tone or a humorous tone or with a thoughtful tone or with a well-educated tone or with a perky tone. Some blogs incorporate ALL of those things. I like to write critically because … I like to write critically. It’s how I think. It’s how I process. I like to think I’m honest but I back up anything tough I say with why I’m saying it. I welcome disagreement. I welcome agreement. It’s fine. It’s more than fine, really.

All of our blogs — all of our voices — can and should coexist just fine.

Blogging is being aware of your audience.

I have a handful of go-to blogs and bloggers I read no matter what because I like reading their style of reviewing. It’s critical. It gets me what I need as a reader.

I also keep tabs on blogs that share only positive reviews and blogs that are more about publicity than reviewing.

I get what I need as a reader and a blogger and a librarian from all sides of the blogging world.

Many blog readers read as many blogs as I do. Many read hundreds more. Many may only read my blog or your blog or that blog which is only there for publicity or the blog that only posts snarky reviews. That’s okay.

What’s important is understanding that whether you blog for yourself or for someone/something else, you have an audience. I know my audience pretty well, but I don’t know it perfectly. What I may think is something that’s been blogged about tirelessly may reach someone who only reads this blog. That’s why I shape some of my posts the way I shape them. Writing critically is an art and a craft. It’s both sides of the brain.

It all comes down to understanding, though, I have an audience. Being mindful is key.

Bloggers aren’t immune.

Something I’ve thought a lot about is how bloggers put their words out there openly. They state their opinions and thoughts how they wish to. They eagerly devour books and talk about those books through their own words.

But bloggers shouldn’t live in glass houses, either. The way bloggers get stronger, the way they better understand the notion of audience, the better they make themselves is through being criticized themselves.

Criticism is and should be a two-way street. You should be able to take as well as you dish.

Class never goes out of style.

Disagreement is going to happen anywhere you go in the blogging world. That’s why having such a multitude of different types of blogs is good. You get varied opinions, and you get the chance to wade into the waters and find what works for you as a reader. Sometimes you’ll strike a chord with your audience and sometimes you might set them off with what you say and what you do. That’s why you have to always remember you do have an audience and you won’t always know who it is.

Be aware of what you’re doing and saying and how you’re presenting it. Be aware of your presence on all social media where you are making yourself open. If you’re accessible, people are going to access you. People will ask you to talk about what you do and how you do it. Tell them. Be open. I enjoy talking about writing critical reviews, and I’m always happy to teach people the ways to do it. I’m thrilled when the lightbulb goes off and someone realizes critical reviews aren’t negative reviews.

From personal experience, I can tell you I’ve had blog posts called out by other bloggers and by authors. People have written me some of the dirtiest emails you can imagine. People have written entire blog posts about my opinions, have called me things, have disagreed vehemently with every word I’ve written.

I put myself out there for that. When I get those posts sent my way or people email me something less-than-kind, I suck it up and make myself better for it. I don’t post those things and I don’t call people out by name. I don’t openly criticize because I believe it does you no good to respond to sass with sass. You respond by being a critical listener and critical thinker.

Being classy is responding appropriately, no matter what the forum. Being classy is not firing off a blog post about it without thinking through everything and figuring out a way to state my opinion without devaluing or belittling the opinions of others. Being classy is giving myself room to cool off when someone tells me I have no idea what I’m talking about. Being classy is not diving into drama to create more of it.

Being classy is being critical.

Own what you do.

Doesn’t matter what you do when it comes to blogging, but however you do it, do it knowing your name’s attached. Do it knowing that people will remember things. Do it knowing you’re doing it because you love and want to do it and not because it gets you something in the end. Don’t do it thinking about whether what you’re doing is new or cutting edge or different.

This is what we make of it. It can be a trash pit or it can be a community. But what do we get out of it if we treat it like junk? Nothing. Check your ego at the door.

Do it because it matters to you.

Do Book Blurbs Say Anything?

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I’ve done a lot of thinking over the last few months about book blurbs. Actually, a lot of the thinking on this topic came up at and following Book Expo America, and it’s something I’ve mulled since.

For those of you who don’t know, a book blurb is what you see on the cover of a book (or sometimes on the back or inside), where a publication or an author’s comments about the book’s contents are summed up in one or two tight sentences. The goal’s to entice a reader to pick up the book. It sells the book based on a publication or author’s reputation — and for the sake of simplicity, I plan on talking about the author book blurb here and not a publication’s blurb.

As the YA market continues to grow, so has the book blurb. At least, these are my observations in the past few years as a librarian. It seems any new author needs a good blurb by a well-respected author in the field; it’s a seal of approval. It’s a well-known phenomenon that people trust the opinions of their friends and people they respect over research, so it makes sense that blurbs exist and that they’re used as a marketing tool. It’s word-of-mouth. It’s trust.

But my question is and remains, who is the blurb for?

If you break down the idea of a blurb, it’s got a few functions: part of it is the writing/publishing field as a whole. It’s one of those things authors do for one another. Those who are established work to help new people establish themselves; it’s almost a system of networking and mentoring. It’s a formality of work, but it’s one (I hope) most authors who choose to do it find pleasure and enjoyment in. They get to discover new voices, just like readers do. For a lot of mid-list authors, I suspect blurbing actually helps them, too. Their names get more exposure the more they blurb. It takes a lot of time away from their own writing, but from the marketing/exposure aspect, it’s probably worthwhile, especially if the book they blurb ends up doing really well. See the name enough attached to good books, and there’s a good reputation to be had.

Outside the writing world, the blurb serves as a selling point to gatekeepers. First, the biggest gatekeeper of all: booksellers. I mean beyond the indies, too. We’re talking your box store (singular). There’s only so much room on the physical shelf, and that means decision making. Imagine staring at your catalogs and hearing reps trying to sell you on a particular book to add to your store to sell, knowing your goal line is the bottom line and that’s it. You’ve already purchased your front list titles and your best-selling authors, and now you’re choosing one book among three. You’ve never heard of any of these authors and you’ve checked your database and see you’ve never held those authors titles in your store before, so you have no prior sales figures to reference. Reading the descriptions of the books only tells you so much, as do the reviews from your typical sources. But, one of the three books has a blurb from, say, Suzanne Collins. She calls the book suspenseful, praising it as one of her favorites of the year. The other two books don’t have a blurb or they come from authors you’ve never heard of. Take a guess which book has a higher chance of being selected?

Selection for librarians isn’t all that different from how book sellers do it, except, of course, their end goal is much different. They’re not looking at selling a book and making a buck; they’re looking at how they can sell a book to a reader based on content, appeal, and a host of factors, including filling holes in a collection so that it’s balanced and meets a community’s needs and wants. There’s also a budget to watch, and sometimes that means making similarly tough decisions as a book seller (though the issue of balance within a library’s collection reigns supreme over a store’s). I realize I talk from a bit of a place of privilege since I feel like I have a good command of what’s out there in the young adult market, and for the titles I’m not aware of — usually those outside of my favorite genres — I pick up enough in the review journals to feel I’m meeting the needs of my library. For me, the blurb never even plays into a purchase decision, and I tend to believe this is the case for most librarians. Those who don’t go to trade shows or see advance reader copies of books often have no idea there are even blurbs involved. Review journals don’t show enough cover images to even make this a factor.

But blurbs come into play in the library in a different way: they’re shelf talkers. Face a book out on a display and there’s a Cassandra Clare blurb on the cover, chances are it’ll catch the attention of one of her fans. Or maybe one of her fans will remember Clare mentioning reading and loving the book. That one sentence cover blurb? The book’s gone from the display into their hands and out the door. For the library, it’s almost easy reader’s advisory. It’s a tool.

In the book seller’s case, that’s meeting a bottom line.

I looked through a ton of blurbs after BEA out of curiosity, and I noticed two interesting trends. The first was that James Dashner and Lauren Kate both blurbed a LOT of books this year. The second, and maybe the more interesting one, was how blurbs are placed on a book. Scroll back to the top of this post and look at the very first cover for Elevent Plague. Is it just me, or is Suzanne Collins’s name as big as Jeff Hirsch’s? With the blurb in a big black panel, it almost looks like she’s actually the author of the book. Same with the Marion book — his name looks buried, but Stephenie Meyer’s name? It stands out.

One of the things book blurbs helps with, at least from the librarian’s perspective, is something I touched on a second ago, and that’s reader’s advisory. We cannot possibly read everything or know everything, and sometimes, these book blurbs can be helpful. James Dashner blurbs a book? Well, his fans will probably enjoy it. Cassandra Clare blurbs a book? Likely going to work well for fans of paranormal or supernatural books. And the new John Green book? That is a book with CROSSOVER APPEAL. I mean, Jodi Picoult blurbed it, and while she certainly has her teen readers (usually already Green fans, in my experience), she’s huge among a certain demographic of adult female readers. If Picoult calls Green’s book “electric,” well. Seems like it’s one her readers should pick up, too.

If you thought I wouldn’t say it, well, here it is. This is a marketing game, and publishers are playing it really well. The right blurb sells a book, whether for reading pleasure or for cash. The right blurb can launch a career and a reputation. The right blurb can get an unexpected book into the hands of the right people. Marketing is influential.

Here’s the thing: do readers care?

Gatekeepers — and in here I lump book bloggers, authors, librarians, teachers, book sellers, and anyone beyond a casual reader — are privileged in their knowledge of a market. Part of it is because we need to be to do our jobs well, but the bigger part of it is because we care about it a lot. Emphasis is important. We choose to be knowledgeable. We care a lot about the field, and we care a lot about who is talking up what books.

Taking gatekeepers out of the equation, do blurbs mean much? Are readers really influenced by them? I mentioned above that hypothetically, seeing a blurb by Cassie Clare could snatch the interest of a reader. But I put that in the context of the reader being familiar with Clare and her reputation and perhaps having read Clare talk about the book via her social media presence (marketing and promotion, mostly because Clare wants to talk about good books with other people who want to know about good books, not because she’s in it for any financial gain). A casual reader, though, who isn’t engaging with Clare on any basis or maybe who hasn’t read any of her books — would that person even notice the blurb? Does it mean anything to them or is it simply more noise on a cover? We’ve all read those blurbs on movie trailers or restaurant reviews and product reviews and mostly ignored them because, well, they don’t mean anything if we have no connection to the source.

I took my questions to the source: my teens. Granted, my teens are a small group of dedicated readers in one semi-rural community. But I asked them what they thought of book blurbs and what value they place in them.

The truth? They didn’t pay attention. They told me I thought too much about them because I was a librarian. They just liked to read a good book, period.

Did the book blurbs matter to them? They didn’t notice them unless it was an author they really knew and loved.

I mulled these two simple questions and sets of answers for a long time. My teens didn’t notice book blurbs because they said they preferred to notice the cover image and titles. A good cover or interesting title catches them. Once they’re hooked at that point, they don’t care about the other jacket text.

And then I asked what authors they paid attention to. I waited, but they could really only give me one response:

Ellen Hopkins. Which isn’t to say they don’t trust other authors, of course, but it was the only one that rolled off their tongues. And I don’t know if it’s because they had any sort of interaction with Hopkins outside the library (she’s hugely active on social media) or because they like Ellen’s books a lot and want to read more books like them. The assumption then becomes are they reading books because she blurbed them or because they want to read more books like hers? If it’s because they want more books like hers, well, maybe they’re heading down the path we want them to.

Here’s the humor in it all, though: they couldn’t recall any books she had blurbed.

During a later book club discussion, when I showed them Reed’s book, it wasn’t the blurb they noticed at all. It was the girl on the cover. When I book talked it and said it would appeal to them if they liked Hopkin’s edgy, raw writing style, they were sold. It wasn’t the blurb that sold it. It was the content within the book.