Publishing Timeline: Asking for Blurbs

The Full-Scale Effort Commences in the Ninth Month Before Your Book Publishes (When Your Galley Becomes Available).

Getting blurbs for your book is a rite of passage for each and every publishing experience you have. It’s always challenging, especially for debut authors, but it gets easier over time as your network grows. Of note is that it is just one of the first of many tasks that will involve you asking for things as part of the effort to establish your book and get it ready for publication.

Get used to being put in the position of making an ask.

Special note that the more you do for others, and the deeper you get involved in the larger literary community, the easier these asks will become. You are also likely to get more yeses than nos.

In terms of the Publishing Timeline, the full-scale effort to land blurbs commences in the ninth month before your book publishes. This is when the print/digital galley of your book will become available, and you can easily deliver a copy of your book to potential blurbers.

It’s important to start your planning for blurb asks much earlier — coming up with a strategic list of potential blurbers, and an organized outline of who is asking which author (assuming your editor and agent are assisting in the effort).

Here is some nuts-and-bolts information to keep in mind as you move forward with the blurb outreach effort: