What Hank's Writing: The Most Difficult Letters Ever

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: What I’m writing? Argh. One of the most complicated parts of being an author, emotionally complicated, is the supremely difficult moment of having to ask a colleague for a blurb.

You all know what blurbs are, those endorsements of a novel of a book by one’s compatriots who writes similar books. (The photo to the left has nothing to do with it, but I just did an event with Lisa Genova, Jodi Picoult and Alice Hoffman, so that cannot go unmentioned.)

Anyway. Blurbs. (And I am not asking any of the above goddesses.) Just so you know, this is a massive and delicate undertaking. First, remember that at the point of asking for a blurb, the real world has not read your novel at all. It's not out there. So there is no way for anyone to gauge whether anyone else has liked it. Or not.

In some cases, this writer included, there is a version of the book called a bound manuscript, which comes out in extremely limited editions before the advanced reader copy. And by limited I mean... there may be 25 of them. These are the books the publisher prepares for super super super early readers, even pre-trade publications. These are the books that get sent, with crossed fingers and held breath, to authors who might potentially take the time and effort - and more on that below --to offer an endorsement.

One massive pitfall of these bound manuscripts is that they have not been copy edited, let alone proofread, and they are essentially, simply the best possible version there could be of the earliest possible readable version of the novel. But it is an early version. Early. Unfinished. And full of potential landmines.

In my entire existence as an author there has never been a copy edit when I don't find some absolute career-ending error. People with the wrong names, characters who are in places they couldn't possibly be, people who know things they couldn't possibly know, people who drive a different car than they did at the beginning of the book.

Now it can be told that in The House Guest, do you remember when Alyssa worried that someone had put a bug in her car? She worried and fretted and hypothesized about it, then...went home, had an entire dinner party where she never thought about it, and then…and we never heard about it again. Ever again. I mean... I just totally dropped that thread!

Of course, it didn’t matter, because I caught it and fixed it and all was well.

And any savvy early reader knows that there are going to be continuity problems-- and potentially continuity disasters --in such an early manuscript. But sometimes, those have to be the versions that are sent out. And we don’t know it when we send it, because the copy editing has not been done.

For instance in my new book ONE WRONG WORD, I found, after I had sent the advance manuscript to just one or two people, a complete flaw in the ending. Kind of a…lapse in logic. I mean, I was thrilled to find it, delighted, because that meant I got to fix it, and it made it so much better, and hurray. I love it now. But I had to write to my early early readers and say oops, here's a new final chapter. Argh.

Plus, and going on now, asking someone for a blurb is just so massive. They have to read an entire book, and care about it and think about it, and decide whether they like it enough to give an endorsement. And then write the darn thing, which is a project of its own.

And giving a book an endorsement means they are putting their name on the cover of the book. Saying “I liked this, and I think you will like it, too.” It’s putting your own name and reputation on the line.

I was given a book to blurb once, long ago, well, not too long ago, which was absolutely great. It was great great great. And then, all of a sudden, I turned the page and there was this hideous grotesquely gratuitously violent scene. I don't even want to tell you about it except to say that I wish I could have unread it. I dithered about what to do, because the rest of the book was so fantastic. So I finally just confessed to the editor, told them the total truth, and why. And that was the end of that. I was off the hook. And, dear readers, that they took that part of the book out, I am pleased to say.

Plus and going on now, that's why it is so ridiculously difficult asking for blurbs. This is my 15th book, coming up, and one thing I have learned is how supremely difficult a busy successful writers life is--I see them on Facebook and Instagram jet-setting to standing room only crowds, and the idea of sort of raising my hand and saying hey, excuse me, could you stop everything that you're doing and read my book? Is horrible.

Argh.

So, in what we are writing week, I am writing blurb request letters. And it is absolute agony. It's funny, because when someone asks me for a blurb, I am generally incredibly honored. Whether I can do it or not depends on my schedule (and I am honest with them about that), but just the idea that someone would think of me is lovely. And I have a whole stack or them to do, and looking forward to it. And it’s great to find a wonderful book before the rest of the world pounces on it. So why do I fear that other people don't have the same response?

It's just a massive massive thing to ask.

So let me ask you, as readers. When you read the endorsement from an author on a book, does it matter to you?