Simon & Schuster imprint will no longer ask authors to obtain blurbs for their books
When you buy a new book, you can usually expect to see praise from other authors emblazoned on its cover. A writer slightly more famous than the author of the book you're buying might have called it 'whip-smart', 'illuminating' or 'a tour de force', for example – presumably so that fans of the more famous writer will take a punt on the less famous one.
But soon we may not see so many of these author blurbs – Sean Manning, publisher of Simon & Schuster's flagship imprint in the US, has written an essay for Publishers Weekly explaining that as of this year he will 'no longer require authors to obtain blurbs for their books'.
'While there has never been a formal mandatory policy in the eight years I've been with the Simon & Schuster imprint, it has been tacitly expected that authors – with the help of their agents and editors – do everything in their power to obtain blurbs to use on their book cover and in promotional material. I have always found this so weird,' Manning wrote in his essay.
'The argument has always been that this is what makes the book business so special: the collegiality of authors and their willingness to support one another. I disagree. I believe the insistence on blurbs has become incredibly damaging to what should be our industry's ultimate goal: producing books of the highest possible quality.'
Authors feeling obliged to write blurbs for their friends can create 'an incestuous and unmeritocratic literary ecosystem that often rewards connections over talent', he added.
'Thank God,' was the reaction of British writer Jo Hamya. 'Honestly, it's just an insular and repetitive format.'
Irish novelist Naoise Dolan also welcomed the move. 'Pragmatically speaking, I do give blurbs and am very grateful to receive them because as an individual author, you want to be supportive (and supported) within the industry as it currently stands. But I would be delighted if they were done away with,' she said. 'There are famous authors who give blurbs to complete strangers; I'll never forget Hilary Mantel doing so for my first book. But by and large, blurbs reflect who's friends with whom. It's natural, and not at all a bad thing, for writers to find companionship with people whose work they admire. But I think we would all breathe easier in these intellectual friendships if our publishers didn't constantly make us pester one another for glorified marketing copy.'
Yet twice Booker prize-nominated author William Boyd thinks Simon & Schuster might be 'shooting itself in the foot'.
'I once asked an editor of mine what was the benefit of blurbs and he said that blurbs weren't so much aimed at the casual browser but at the bookseller. Booksellers are inclined to order more books if the book in question has been well-blurbed, apparently,' he said. 'Any little help one can give to a fellow author is worthwhile, I reckon.'
Manning did state that 'if a writer reads a book because they want to (not because they feel beholden) and comes away so moved by it that they can't resist offering an endorsement, we will be all too happy to put it to use'.
And at the moment, Manning's policy only applies to books published by that flagship US imprint, not all books published by Simon & Schuster globally.
A spokesperson from Simon & Schuster UK said the publisher has 'no blanket policy' regarding blurbs. 'It is up to each author and their publishing team to establish what is best for each book.'
'We acknowledge the time and effort it can take acquiring endorsements (and indeed writing them), but also how useful they can be in some instances as signposts for readers,' the spokesperson went on to say. 'That said, our colleague Sean Manning echoes a sentiment that is no doubt felt by many across publishing.'
Illuminating.

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
King Charles to Sit Out Major Royal Event in Stunning Break From Tradition
King Charles to Sit Out Major Royal Event in Stunning Break From Tradition originally appeared on Parade. will reportedly sit out a major royal event—the 2025 Trooping the Colour parade—in a stunning break from tradition amid his cancer battle. On Saturday, June 14, the annual event celebrating the birthday of the British sovereign will be held. Part of the day steeped in tradition includes a parade, for which the reigning monarch rides on horseback. 🎬 SIGN UP for Parade's Daily newsletter to get the latest pop culture news & celebrity interviews delivered right to your inbox 🎬 However, King Charles, 76, will not ride on a horse for the 2025 Trooping the Colour, The Times reported. The eldest child of the late will instead ride in a horse-drawn carriage during the procession from Buckingham Palace to Horse Guards Parade and back. King Charles brought back the riding-on-horseback tradition for the 2023 Trooping the Colour parade, his first as monarch after Queen Elizabeth died at 96 in September 2022. Before then, Queen Elizabeth last rode on horseback for the procession in 1986. The royal also rode in a carriage with his wife, , 77, in 2024, four months after announcing his cancer diagnosis. According to The Times, King Charles is not expected to ride on horseback again at Trooping the Colour. Related: Meanwhile, , 40, and , 43, will sit out the 2025 Trooping the Colour completely amid an ongoing rift between them and the rest of the royal family after the Sussexes relocated to the U.S. in 2020. Luckily for royal fans, , 42, , 43, and their three children—Prince George, 11, , 10, and , 7—are expected to participate in the Trooping the Colour on June 14. We can't wait to see photos! Next: King Charles to Sit Out Major Royal Event in Stunning Break From Tradition first appeared on Parade on Jun 10, 2025 This story was originally reported by Parade on Jun 10, 2025, where it first appeared.
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
World War Two secret agents' house put up for sale
A Highland house where "troublesome" secret agents were kept busy during World War Two has been put up for sale. Inverlair Lodge was taken over in 1941 by the Special Operations Executive (SOE), an army of saboteurs and guerrilla fighters formed to fight behind enemy lines. Inverlair's residents were foreign nationals who had been unable to perform their duties but needed to be kept safe because of the dangerous secrets they knew about the Allied war effort. Supervised by British soldiers, the agents were kept occupied with a range of tasks including mending boots and salvaging scrap metal from the surrounding countryside. Estate agents Galbraith has put the 18th Century property on the market for offers over £1.3m. More stories from the Highlands and Islands News from the Highlands and Islands on BBC Sounds Six-bedroom Inverlair Lodge, near Tulloch, about 20 miles (32km) from Fort William, was chosen because of its remote location. During WW2 it was known as No. 6 Special Workshop School. In interviews with the Imperial War Museum, Dundee-born Alfred Fyffe told how he was put in charge of Inverlair for 30 months. He said the residents, who included Italians and Dutch, were supervised but not kept under armed guard and were even allowed to make trips into Fort William. Mr Fyffe described the lodge as an "experiment" with agents of different nationalities living under one roof, and working on tasks designed to distract them from the secrets they knew. One of their jobs was salvaging metal, including railway track, abandoned by British Aluminium which operated a smelter in Fort William. Inverlair Lodge and similar SOE properties are said to have inspired the plot to 1960s TV drama The Prisoner, which starred Patrick McGoohan. War-time prime minister Winston Churchill enthusiastically supported the formation of SOE, and ordered its agents to "set Europe ablaze". Its history was an inspiration for film director Guy Ritchie's 2024 action-comedy The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare. SOE was disbanded after the war and Inverlair Lodge was vacated and fell into disrepair. It was restored in the 1970s. Lochaber was a key training area for Allied forces during WW2. Achnacarry Castle, the ancestral home of the chiefs of Clan Cameron and about 15 miles (24km) north east of Fort William, was used as commando training base. The elite troops were from Britain and the US as well as France, the Netherlands, Norway, former Czechoslovakia, Poland and Belgium.

Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Allie Quigley retires more than 2 years after her final Sky game: ‘Finally and officially say goodbye'
CHICAGO — Allie Quigley never meant to end her career with an Irish goodbye. The longtime Chicago Sky star jokingly acknowledged her quiet exit in a Players Tribune column on Tuesday as she formally announced her retirement from the WNBA — nearly three years after playing her final game for the Sky in September 2022. Quigley left the game as one of the sharpest shooters in the history of women's basketball, winning four 3-point contests at WNBA All-Star weekend. She remains the Sky's leading 3-point scorer after making 504 baskets behind the arc while shooting 39.5% across her career with the franchise. For a decade, the Sky were defined by one dynamic partnership: Quigley and her wife, Courtney Vandersloot. The pair of guards shared a car on the way from the airport to Sky training camp in 2013, an introduction that sparked one of the strongest connections in the WNBA on and off the court. Over the next decade, the pair married, recruited top talent to Chicago and established a legacy as they led the Sky to their first-ever WNBA title. Playing for the Sky always meant something more for Quigley, who grew up in Joliet and played four years at DePaul. That commitment to her hometown team was a foundational piece of the Sky's success throughout otherwise challenging seasons that defined the first half of her career. 'The main thing was that people wanted to play the style that we play,' Quigley told the Tribune in 2022. 'It wasn't 'Oh, I want to come to Chicago for their gym or to live in the city.' They want to play our style of basketball and that superseded everything. That's something we definitely take pride in.' Quigley initially felt ready to retire after winning the title in 2021, but she decided to play one final season. After quietly stepping away from the game in 2022, she turned her focus to her next priority: having a baby. Although the couple had been ready to start a family after their wedding in 2018, Quigley wrote that they felt inhibited by the grueling cycle of playing overseas in the offseason and the respective arcs of their careers with the Sky. But Quigley was still hopeful that if her first pregnancy was quick and successful, she might be able to return and play one more year. The process took longer than expected. Two more WNBA seasons stretched past. And Quigley wrote that the birth of her daughter Jana in April confirmed her readiness to say goodbye to professional basketball for good. 'I know I speak for both myself and Courtney when I tell you that as special as the Sky winning a championship felt, and as proud of a moment as that was, bringing a baby into the world is our accomplishment we're most proud of,' Quigley wrote in The Players Tribune. 'It was the greatest day of our lives. There's nothing like it. But also, now that Jana is here, I feel ready to finally and officially say goodbye to my basketball career.' Quigley's announcement is somewhat bittersweet, coming less than 24 hours after Vandersloot suffered a season-ending ACL injury in Saturday's loss to the Indiana Fever at the United Center. Captaining the Sky once again, Vandersloot's return was key for the team's development after a tumultuous 2024 season. But the legacy forged by Vandersloot and Quigley in Chicago is untouchable. The pair will be in the franchise's history books for years — if not decades — to come as the first and second all-time leaders in points, assists and games played. Now, all that's left is another jersey to be hung in the rafters at Wintrust Arena, where Quigley is already memorialized in the DePaul Hall of Fame.