Pulitzer-winning novelist Viet Thanh Nguyen would have preferred that his forthcoming book, The Committed, have no praise-laden blurbs at all, he says. “Kill it. Bury it. Dance on its grave. They ...

Illustration by Paul Spella / The Atlantic. Source: Getty. Blurbs have always been controversial—too clichéd, too subject to cronyism—but lately, as review space shrinks and the noise level of the ...

You know those little quotes on book jackets that say something nice about the pages within? Publishers have long required authors to obtain testimonials or “blubs” from other authors to help their ...