writingadvice – Patricia J. Parsons

Is “book blurbing” Ethical?

Posted on 15 Apr 2026 by Patricia J. Parsons

[originally published March 19, 2026, on LinkedIn]

After forty years of writing and almost three decades of teaching applied ethics to university students, I’ve seen many questionable practices and habits. One of the most grating practices, which seems increasingly pervasive, is the habit of publishers and authors asking other authors to endorse their books.

You’ve seen them. They are the pages of two and three-liners from famous and not-so-famous authors of other books who say wonderful things about the book you’re contemplating. Whether they make a difference is an issue I’ll get to later, but for now, I’m considering the ethical implications of this practice.

These endorsements have more recently been dubbed “blurbs,” which is odd since the definition of a blurb was always that short, three-paragraph description on the back of a book that would make you want to read it. Nevertheless, the practice of endorsing another author’s books is called “blurbing.” You’ve all seen them. They are the flattering sentences on a cover or an inside page that call the book brilliant or insightful, a masterwork, unputdownable. You know the drill.

However, the ethical foundation of this practice is far shakier than the industry is willing to admit.

At its core, this “blurbing” operates within an unspoken economy of reciprocity. Today I endorse your book, and, of course, tomorrow, you endorse mine. No one is asked to sign a contract, and no obligation is explicitly stated. Still, the expectation hangs in the air, and that expectation matters. It subtly but powerfully compromises the independence of the endorsement. What appears to the reader as an objective assessment is, in many cases, part of a professional exchange.

The ethical question begins here. Endorsements are meant to signal genuine evaluation. They borrow the credibility of one author to support another author’s work. But when that credibility gets tangled up in a network of mutual benefit, it becomes difficult to distinguish authentic praise from strategic politeness. This potential lack of authenticity is where it begins to border on deception—lying. Even when the blurb is sincerely meant, the surrounding culture of reciprocity casts doubt. And in ethics, perceived conflicts of interest can be just as damaging as real ones.

Consider how this would be judged in other fields. In academia, undisclosed reciprocal endorsements would raise serious concerns. In journalism, they would be unacceptable. In corporate governance, they would trigger conflict-of-interest policies. Yet in publishing, the practice is normalized, and dare I say, encouraged.

Defenders of the practice would argue that authors only blurb books they genuinely admire. I suppose that may be true in some cases. But the system doesn’t require it to be true, and that’s the point. When participation in the blurb economy is tied to visibility, access, and goodwill within the industry, the pressure to comply can outweigh the commitment to be honest, brutally so if necessary. Declining to blurb can feel like a professional risk.

On the other hand, offering one can feel like a strategic necessity. That still doesn’t make it an ethical practice. And sometimes authors are actually required by their publishers to solicit “blurbs.” Could that culture be changing?

There have been reports of a few publishers removing this contractual requirement, but authors are still inclined to collect them. Do they do it to sell books, or is the reason more personal? Is it an ego boost for an author to see another author proclaim the book as a masterpiece?

Then there’s the practical question that lingers in my mind. Do blurbs actually influence readers?

Anecdotally, many readers have grown skeptical. Familiar names appear repeatedly across covers, often praising vastly different books in nearly identical language. The effect is less persuasive than performative. Instead of guiding readers, blurbs risk becoming background noise. They are then merely a part of the packaging rather than a meaningful signal of quality.

If that’s the case, the ethical compromise begins to look even less defensible. Why maintain a system that muddies credibility without delivering demonstrable value?

In my view, publishing would be better served by moving away from author blurbs altogether. Let books stand on their own merits. Let critics, credible reviewers, and readers provide assessments free of professional reciprocity.

Authors, of all people, understand the power of words. When a sentence of praise appears in a book or on a book cover, it should mean to the reader exactly what it seems to mean, and what the reader expects it to mean. It should be an independent, unsolicited judgment. As a reader, I’d look forward to that. In the meantime, I’ll continue to ignore all those endorsements and read a sample. Then I’ll know if it’s worth buying.

Backstory, Writing books

Writing a Book Series: What No One Else Will Tell You

Posted on 13 Apr 2025 by Patricia J. Parsons

It seems that everywhere you look these days, writers are being told to write a series of books—often before they’ve even written the first one! As far as I’m concerned, this is the dumbest way to write a series or even a book. The thinking seems to be that if you can hook a reader on one book, that reader will buy another one that continues the story or theme.

And this can be either fiction or nonfiction. Bestselling writers like David Baldacci and Michael Connelly are the masters of the book series, so much so that readers lie in waiting for their favourite characters to reappear. But it’s not just for fiction.

If you’re a travel writer, for example, you might write a series of books on a variety of places. The same goes for a health or food writer. Regardless of the topic you’re searching for these days, you can find a series.

There is a lot of advice on writing a book series, and most of it is the same. Most of it starts with the admonition to plan out your series. I’m going to turn that advice on its head because my advice is 180 degrees in the opposite direction from the conventional wisdom. (Although, to tell you the truth, I’m not sure anyone who’s written that advice has ever really written a series).

Here’s what no one else will tell you: Do not, under any circumstances, think of your book as a series until you’ve written the last sentence of the last chapter and the book tells you there’s another one.

Now, I’m going to tell you why and what else you might consider.

What is a book series?

Let’s start by ensuring we’re all thinking about a book series in the same way.

First, a series is not just a number of books written by the same author. In fact, many bestselling series authors have penned several different series. David Baldacci has written something in the vicinity of ten distinct series.

There are also different kinds of series (even publishers can group books by various authors and call them a series―one of my nonfiction books is part of just such a publisher’s series), but I’m talking about a specific type of series.

The definition of a series we’ll use today is this…

“…a sequential group of books by the same author that share specific characteristics…”

My unconventional advice

First—and this is key—do not set out to write a series. No matter what anyone tells you, write one book and see how you feel about it at the end of the process. Could it be the beginning of a series? If it could, the book will tell you.

When I wrote The Year I Made 12 Dresses, I had absolutely no notion of writing a series. But Charlie Hudson, the main character, simply wouldn’t let go of me. She forced me to tell her mother’s secrets, and Kat’s Kosmic Blues was born―and even that wasn’t the last one. She just kept talking.

My second piece of advice is that each book should stand on its own outside the series. Not all readers will find your first book and then proceed sequentially through the series. So, you need to tell enough of the backstory but not too much.

For example, when I wrote book three of the “almost-but-not-quite-true stories,” a reader had to be able to become immersed in The Inscrutable Life of Frannie Phillips without having read Kat’s story. However, the reader also had to be able to think that he or she might like to go back and read the previous two books.

I also recommend that you keep meticulous notes on backstory—characters, places, events, etc.

If you’re writing a nonfiction series, keep a carefully crafted style guide. If it’s fiction, you need a notebook that contains the complete backstory of every character who might reappear. It also needs details on recurring settings, etc.

As you write the first book, let the process become organic. Let one book lead you into the next one. Each well-crafted paragraph in a book contains a transition into the next one. Each well-crafted chapter transitions into the next. It should be the same from one book to the next―even if you have to go back and rewrite the ending of the first book when the character tells you there’s another one that needs to be written.

Finally, think abt your readers. They always need something new, so keep the material fresh by introducing something new in each book,

When I wrote Kat’s Kosmic Blues, the main character was the through-line from one book to another, and the events were sequential. But in this book, although my use of point of view was the same as in the first one, this book came with a Spotify playlist―where each chapter was named for a song from the 60s and 70s, the years in which the book was primarily set.

Of course, there are different kinds of series: ones that have an overarching plot, ones where there is only one plot per book and the anthology kind where the individual books are only loosely tied together by a setting, perhaps. For me, that’s stretching the series definition, but it does exist.

I once saw it written that a series is the meal they keep coming back for. Maybe. But in my view, a series is at least as much a feast for the writer!

Publishing, Self-Publishing

Considering Self-Publishing? Get Yourself Up to Date

Posted on 25 Mar 2025 by Patricia J. Parsons

Did you know that the number of self-published books has increased by 264% over the past five years? On the one hand, this statistic might appear to be great news for an aspiring writer who is planning to self-publish. After all, there does seem to be an exuberant industry here. On the other hand, it can be a harbinger of bad news because it also suggests massive competition.

Did you also know that people are reading less now than they were ten years ago? An American study conducted by the National Endowment for the Arts a couple of years ago discovered that the percentage of adults who reported reading books had declined over the past decade. Indeed, a staggering 50% of Americans didn’t read a single book in 2022. Imagine that. Half the population of a country that is supposed to be literate did not read a single book. And yet, we still write books.

If self-publication of your book is on your agenda, you might want to take a few moments to review a few tips that might help you in the new 2025 self-publishing landscape.