Book Blurbs: Hardly Effective and Not Going Anywhere | TIME.com: " . . . Shteyngart is theatrical, imaginative, funny and the most prolific book blurber in the industry. (That in itself kind of sounded like a blurb.) There’s a tumblr account dedicated to his brief yet hyperbolic praise and even a short documentary being filmed just about his blurbs. But why does Shteyngart blurb so much? Clearly, Shteyngart enjoys it, and he’s turned it into a kind of performance art. “I’d like to be a blurber of the whole world,” says Shteyngart, the author of the heralded (and well-blurbed) books The Russian Debutante’s Handbook, Absurdistan and Super Sad True Love Story. “I would like to blurb hair styles or gas ranges.” Shteyngart admits that he hasn’t fully read all the books he’s blurbed (“Who the hell can read all of these books?” he tells me), and his blurbs occasionally sound as if he’s parodying the entire practice. But he swears his motivation is genuine and says he does it to help talented young writers get noticed. But, maybe more importantly, he blurbs for the benefit of booksellers and the industry as a whole. Oren Teicher, CEO of the American Booksellers Association, says blurbs matter more to sellers than actual consumers because they help them determine what selections to put in a staff pick section or place in prominent positions in their stores. . . ."
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