{"id":17049,"date":"2013-01-28T14:15:54","date_gmt":"2013-01-28T19:15:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/terribleminds.com\/ramble\/?p=17049"},"modified":"2013-01-28T14:15:54","modified_gmt":"2013-01-28T19:15:54","slug":"how-not-to-ask-for-blurbs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/terribleminds.com\/ramble\/2013\/01\/28\/how-not-to-ask-for-blurbs\/","title":{"rendered":"How Not To Ask For Blurbs"},"content":{"rendered":"

Asking for blurbs is, for me anyway, a very uncomfortable thing. You’re often asking peers or even your own authorial heroes to carve out precious time to write you what amounts to marketing copy. I have to blacken my Shame Sensors with the heel of a heavy boot just to get up the gumption to ask another author for a blurb. (Further, I’ll be asking for blurbs\u00a0very very soon\u00a0<\/em>on my YA book, which is already making me itchy because I always feel like such an ass.)<\/p>\n

I am now in the weird position of having authors ask me<\/em> for blurbs.<\/p>\n

This is totally fine and further, a totally awesome problem to have.<\/p>\n

I have blurbed books gleefully and will continue to do so because YAY BOOKS.<\/p>\n

Just the same, here are a few tips. Ready? Here we go.<\/p>\n

When you email someone, be polite.<\/p>\n

Use words like, “please,” and “thank you.”<\/p>\n

Do not write an email that sounds like it assumes the blurb is forthcoming.<\/p>\n

Or, worse, like they owe it to you.<\/p>\n

That’s not to say you have to slather up the potential blurber’s nether-anatomy.<\/p>\n

Just\u00a0be polite<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Understand it is a favor of time and effort and act accordingly.<\/p>\n

Do not be a human spam-bot. Be a fountain, not a drain.<\/p>\n

Mass mails are not a good way to ask. Neither are public social media channels.<\/p>\n

Finally, when the potential blurber gets back to you and says, I can’t or won’t do that, sorry, good luck,\u00a0<\/em>your response shouldn’t be a two-word:<\/p>\n

“Why not?”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Because when you ask that, you’re going to get a less-than-pleasant response.<\/p>\n

I don’t mean to put anyone off of asking me or asking any author.<\/p>\n

But a modicum of politeness and grace goes a long, long way in this industry.<\/p>\n

PLEASE THANKS BYEBYE.<\/p>\n

*runs off to psyche self up to send out mails that ask for blurbs aaaauuugh*<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Asking for blurbs is, for me anyway, a very uncomfortable thing. You’re often asking peers or even your own authorial heroes to carve out precious time to write you what amounts to marketing copy. I have to blacken my Shame Sensors with the heel of a heavy boot just to get up the gumption to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-17049","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"hentry","6":"category-theramble","8":"no-featured-image"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pv7MR-4qZ","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/terribleminds.com\/ramble\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17049","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/terribleminds.com\/ramble\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/terribleminds.com\/ramble\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/terribleminds.com\/ramble\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/terribleminds.com\/ramble\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17049"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/terribleminds.com\/ramble\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17049\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17059,"href":"https:\/\/terribleminds.com\/ramble\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17049\/revisions\/17059"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/terribleminds.com\/ramble\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17049"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/terribleminds.com\/ramble\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17049"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/terribleminds.com\/ramble\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17049"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}