Latest news with #Makkai
Chicago Tribune
22-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Chicago Tribune
Column: Chicago has long been a place for book lovers, and book sellers
In the Sunday book section of the New York Times, you'll find the Literary Destinations feature. This relatively new weekend addition to the paper is intended as one 'in which authors provide literary guides to their cities, including book recommendations that capture a sense of everyday life and the local cultural landscape.' The author of this week's offering is Rebecca Makkai, a stunningly fine novelist of, as the Times notes, five works of fiction, including the Pulitzer finalist 'The Great Believers.' She begins her piece by writing, 'Chicago is too big, enormous in both geography and spirit, to capture in its entirety. Locals understand this.' Later, she writes of the 'DNA of Chicago: neighborhood as subject, neighborhood as map of the heart.' I couldn't agree more. Read what she has to say in her short essay and then see what specific books and authors she recommends. Buy and read one, or more. Could any Chicago reading list not contain Theodore Dreiser's 'Sister Carrie,' Richard Wright's 'Black Boy,' Carl Sandburg's 'Chicago Poems' or Saul Bellow's 'The Adventures of Augie March'? These usual suspects are joined by titles by such other dead giants as Studs Terkel, Nelson Algren and Gwendolyn Brooks (including her poetry collection 'Annie Allen' and for her only novel 'Maud Martha'). The list also includes such worthy, very much alive authors as Stuart Dybek ('The Coast of Chicago'), Alex Kotlowitz ('There Are No Children Here' and 'An American Summer'), Mark Larson ('Ensemble'), Aleksandar Hemon ('The Lazarus Project') and Audrey Niffenegger ('The Time-Traveler's Wife'). There's more and whether intended or not, Makkai's offering is timely and useful, because this coming Saturday is Independent Bookstore Day. It's a national effort by the American Booksellers Association, to celebrate the country's independent book stores (more information at There are events in every state and dozens of cities. And so do we happily have the 2025 Chicagoland Indie Bookstore Day Crawl. Go to for a handy map and lots of information about the more than 50 book stores you can visit, many of them having specials, events and surprises. Ellen Hanson is looking forward to Saturday. She is one of the newest members of that small, exclusive, hardworking gang called bookstore owners. She owns Sandmeyer's, a charming space at 714 S. Dearborn. 'I have always wanted to own a bookstore but spent my working life in professional services,' she told me over the weekend. 'After I retired in 2020 I was, frankly, bored. My neighbor Ellen Sandmeyer was selling her store (which she opened with her late husband Ulrich Sandmeyer in 1982) and so I bought it and have been happy ever since.' There have been some surprises — 'the astonishing number of books that are published,' she says — but she is enthusiastic and optimistic about the future for independent book stores. Though COVID wasn't good for much, book folks have benefitted from increased traffic in stores due to, of all things, the pandemic. As Louis Menard put it in a New Yorker magazine story last year, 'Since the end of the pandemic, there has been a small but significant uptick in the number of independent bookstores. … Reading turned out to be a popular way of passing the time in lockdown, more respectable than binge-watching or other diversions one might think of. A slight decline in sales over the past couple of years suggests that people felt freed up to go out and play pickleball instead of staying home and trying to finish 'War and Peace.'' Hanson says, 'The community has been very supportive.' She is looking forward to Saturday's crawl and to the annual Printers Row Lit Fes t, which will take over the neighborhood September 6-7. So, what books should you buy? You can't go wrong with any of Makkai's suggestions. But if you are looking for something more, I recommend 'The Bookshop: The History of the American Bookstore' by Evan Friss, which my colleague John Warner wrote about in the Tribune a few months ago, saying that the book reminds us 'that the constants for what makes a bookstore are the people and the books in community with each other.' Friss does not ignore the numbers, informing us that 'In 1958, Americans purchased 72% of their books from small, single-store, personal bookshops. … As recently as 1993, the US Census Bureau counted 13,499 bookstores. … By 2021, however, there were just 5,591 bookstores left.' He also writes, 'Bookstores may be endangered spaces, but they are also powerful spaces.' His book is not a deep dive into the nuts and bolts of the business of books. Rather it is a series of 13 sections, each devoted to what Friss considers notable bookstores and their owners, from Benjamin Franklin and his print shop to Amazon's stores. What grabbed me was Chapter 4 and its 20 pages devoted the important, influential role the city has played in the business of books. Focusing on Marshall Field & Company and its once massive book department on the third floor of its main store in the Loop, he cites a British writer who in 1920 described it as 'to ordinary English bookshops like a liner to a houseboat. (It is) said to be the largest bookstore in the world.' It was then one of 164 bookstores in the city, run by an innovative, autocratic woman named Marcella Burns Hafner, barely 5 feet tall but of such forcefulness that she was referred to, in whispers of course, as the Czarina. She is mentioned in another book, 1952's 'Give the Lady What She Wants,' written by my father, Herman Kogan, and his newspapering pal, Lloyd Wendt. They wrote, 'Her section became the most famous book department in the country. She staged Chicago's first book fair … originated the idea of autographing parties.' She was a real life character worthy of, well, a novel.
CBC
08-03-2025
- Entertainment
- CBC
To blurb or not to blurb: That is the question authors are asking as major publisher calls for their end
Blurbs — endorsements from authors like "this is exactly the book I was looking for" — have long been a fixture on the covers of books, intended to entice readers and lend credibility. But some authors and publishers say they would rather do without them. "It's part of being a literary citizen," Rebecca Makkai, a writer in Chicago, told Day 6 host Brent Bambury. "But it was eating my life." Writing blurbs is no small task, says Makkai. The amount of time she needed to finish reading multiple books and craft thoughtful reviews left her with little opportunity to focus on writing her own works. Last December, Makkai chose to take a two-year hiatus from blurbing. In January, Sean Manning, the publisher of Simon & Schuster's flagship U.S. imprint, announced that his authors would no longer be required to obtain blurbs for their books. James Folta, a writer and editor in New York City, says going blurbless means authors are also spared from the awkward dynamics of requesting those reviews. "You have to send out all these emails kind of begging for them," Folta told CBC's BizDigest. "There's a tit-for-tat system, if I blurb your book, you'll blurb my book … [But] are you beholden to somebody if you blurb their book, are they beholden to you?" For new authors, this system can feel especially uncomfortable, says Vancouver author and editor Jen Sookfong Lee. The pressure to ask someone to read and endorse their book can feel embarrassing, particularly if they fear rejection. What's the original intent? However, amongst the pushback against blurbs, Lee says that they do serve a purpose. They are a valuable tool in a competitive market that help ensure a book reaches a potential reader, who not only have different titles to choose from but might also opt for other types of content, like a film or TV show, she says. To determine who will write the blurbs, Lee thinks on what the book is about, and identifies reviewers who can bolster its appeal and credibility, while also helping readers grasp the book's content. Along with other writers, she's also reached out to social media influencers, athletes, scientists, doctors and celebrities. "Sometimes it's because of the style of the writing — someone reminds you of somebody. Sometimes it's someone from the same community, or cultural group," she said. "You have to think in all of those different directions." But, there's also a tendency for people to reach out to those who they already know, such as a friend, co-worker or writing instructor. "Is the blurb actually unbiased? Is it worth anything?" Thad McIlroy, a digital publishing analyst and principal at The Future of Publishing, a blog and publishing consultancy, agrees that the elements of a book — from the number of pages, font type, author photo, to the cover design — are meticulously chosen to "augment the possibility that the book will find a home." Blurbs, he says, are a part of that strategy. The evidence on the effectiveness of blurbs is mostly anecdotal, said McIlroy. Still, he believes they are important in helping to sell books. "Each time we're thinking, well, that's another one per cent chance we'll sell an extra five copies of the book," he said. The fate of book blurbs Jane Friedman, a publishing industry reporter who has looked at promotional tactics in self publishing, says authors can still achieve significant success without relying on traditional blurbs. Self-published authors, she says, have focused on building a dedicated fan base and using a mix of alternative marketing strategies that do not depend on the typical back-cover endorsements. They've turned to selling their books online and advertising them through social media platforms, says Friedman. Some self-published authors also have the support of their readers by building "street teams" of passionate fans who help "evangelize" their work. "When we think about how to promote a book, and bring visibility to it, a blurb is one of the more frustrating things that authors are asked to do that they don't want to do," she said. "Given how there are so many other options available to authors for marketing and promotion that are more enjoyable, why not give them a chance to try some of these other things, rather than burgeoning them with the blurb process?" For Makkai, she can't deny the power that blurbs hold. She says they're especially helpful for lesser-known authors. If they submit their work to any sort of external reviewer, such as a prize judge, film agent or media critic — who often have hundreds of books to look at — compelling blurbs can help a book rise to the top of the pile. In fact, for the next book that she publishes, Makkai says she'll still have blurbs.
Vox
10-02-2025
- Entertainment
- Vox
Luminous! A masterpiece! Why publishing can't stop debating blurbs.
For the past few months, publishing has been consumed with debate over that ever-divisive topic: blurbs, those breathless little testimonials from other writers that appear on the back of a book's cover, which hardly anyone likes to write and even fewer people like to ask for. One big author and one major publisher announced within weeks of each other that they were through with the practice of blurbs, and the resulting conversation threw publishing into a tizzy. In the process, it provided a new lens on who has access to clout and resources in an increasingly precarious industry. Authors traditionally set out to procure blurbs after their books have been accepted by publishers and gone through the editorial process, but before the books have been finalized, typeset, and printed. At that point, some combination of author, editor, and publicist reaches out to other writers, ideally famous ones, and ask them to read the manuscript and write a few nice words to go on the back of the published book. Sometimes the people being asked to blurb the book are close connections — a former teacher, an MFA classmate, a fellow author under the same editor — and sometimes it's a cold pitch to a publishing heavyweight. (Stephen King sometimes blurbs suspense novels, and it's always a big deal when he does.) Either way, the idea is that these blurbs will act as a kind of sympathetic magic, one author lending their own established brand to another as the new book makes its way down the gauntlet of publication. Authors have long groused about blurbs, but the current conversation began in December, when the bestselling author Rebecca Makkai posted to Substack that she was taking a hiatus from blurbing for at least the next two years. She had realized that reading unpublished manuscripts and blurbing them was taking up more of the time she had allotted for her own reading and writing, and she could no longer justify the time and energy. 'As of this fall, I was getting about five to ten requests a week. And I'm sure there are people out there getting a lot more,' Makkai wrote. 'I do think it's important for writers to understand this when they set out to procure blurbs.' Vox Culture Culture reflects society. Get our best explainers on everything from money to entertainment to what everyone is talking about online. Email (required) Sign Up By submitting your email, you agree to our Terms and Privacy Notice . This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. A few weeks after Makkai's newsletter, Simon & Schuster publisher Sean Manning published his own anti-blurbing manifesto. '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,' Manning wrote in an essay in Publishers Weekly. 'It takes a lot of time to produce great books, and trying to get blurbs is not a good use of anyone's time.' Further, he argued, blurbing was inherently a kind of cronyism, one that 'rewards connections over talent.' For that reason, Manning went on, Simon & Schuster will no longer require authors to obtain blurbs for their books. Further, he argued, blurbing was inherently a kind of cronyism, one that 'rewards connections over talent.' It's not entirely clear what this policy actually means. Manning says that S&S will continue to use any blurbs they receive, but that 'there will no longer be an excessive amount of time spent on blurb outreach.' That leaves plenty of room for publicists and editors to continue requesting blurbs on their authors' behalves — or to make other efforts to get attention for books, like pitching one of the increasingly few outlets that offer book reviews. (By the way, Vox has a book recommendation newsletter you ought to subscribe to.) Publishing nonetheless reacted with shock to Manning's announcement. Every bookish Substack put out one essay after another on the state of the blurb. 'I've seen many anti-blurb takes over the years that were from bestselling and/or award-winning authors who, having reached a place where blurbs no longer helped their career, decided the practice should end. Those can feel a bit 'pulling the ladder up behind you,'' the novelist Lincoln Michel wrote. 'What's refreshing about Manning's article is that it was written by a publisher who is actually in a position to change things.' Michel included a platform of suggestions for reforming the blurb economy, including a demand that blurbs be reserved for those writers who are not household names. 'There is no reason a bestselling, award-winning writer needs blurbs for their new book,' Michel wrote. 'Save the blurbs for the midlisters and debuts.' 'Asking for blurbs is a really rough process,' the writer Johnny Diamond mused. 'I don't know if they help in any way in terms of sales, but in the long slog that is writing and promoting a book, [blurbs] offer an opportunity to remember to breathe and remind ourselves we're writers who get to write, and that's a beautiful thing that shouldn't be taken for granted.' At stake in all this worrying about the blurb is a lot of fear about the state of the economy of publishing. As was discussed in detail during the 2022 lawsuit blocking a merger between Simon & Schuster and Penguin Random House, contemporary corporate publishing relies on publishers saving as many of their resources as possible for those lucky few books they expect to sell very, very well. Once those books have taken their share of the pie, there are mere scraps left for the books that are expected to sell only okay. Blurbs, which you can get for free, are one of the few advantages many writers feel they can scrape together for themselves when they aren't sure they can rely on their publishers for marketing and promotional firepower. 'There's not a lot in place to pick up the slack if blurbs go away,' James Folta fretted at LitHub. 'Blurbing functions to paper over a lot of the gaps in publishing's existing systems, at least to my eye. If a publisher is only going to spend so much on marketing and promotion, and only for a handful of titles, does it make sense for an author to spend big bucks to hire their own promotional team, especially when they can cold-email folks and try to land a big name blurb? Which is more fair?' The blurb economy is so dysfunctional that you can't always rely on those blurbs to guide you through a pile of unread books as well as you would like. No one knows if blurbs are all that useful to the average reader, but they're very useful to their true audience, which is people who read professionally and don't have time to carefully evaluate each and every book that crosses their path before they winnow them down. Booksellers refer to blurbs to figure out which books are worth spotlighting in their stores. Prize juries refer to blurbs to decide which manuscripts will deserve special focus as they make their way through their overflowing piles. As a book critic, I receive dozens of pitches a year for literary novels about sad young women. It is physically impossible for me to read all of them. But if one of them comes with a note from Lauren Groff saying she thought the sentences were good, then I will make that book the one in its genre that I am sure to read. Then again, the blurb economy is so dysfunctional that you can't always rely on those blurbs to guide you through a pile of unread books as well as you would like. Some writers have a reputation for blurbing everything they're asked to, so that in the end, their endorsement comes to mean nothing. (Long before Neil Gaiman's disgrace, I knew that his blurb meant a book was bad.) Even authors who are more selective have so much to read that few blurbs come in with the full focus and attention of their author. As Makkai quipped in her essay, sometimes, the blurbs seem to exist simply to tell us where the author of the book in question got their MFA, because all the blurbers are faculty there. Blurbs are both time consuming and exhausting on all ends of the process — to solicit and to write. They reward the well-connected mediocrity at the expense of the talented unknown. They are so fulsome and omnipresent that they frequently fail to guide readers to the kinds of books they are looking for. Nonetheless, publishing is such a precarious industry that blurbs arrive with the feeling of a magic shield. An anxious author may not be able to control their book's marketing and publicity budget, or how many reviews they'll get, or whether anyone will write a profile about them. But they can, by god, reach far and wide to get the best blurbs they possibly can. At least for now, while the blurb economy awaits reforms.
