What it means
Blurb has two meanings in publishing, and both live on the cover. The first is the cover copy — the paragraphs on the back of a paperback, or the jacket flap of a hardcover, that describe the book to a browsing reader. Good cover copy is short (100–200 words), opens with a hook, names the protagonist and the stakes, and never resolves them. Online, the same text becomes the product description.
The second meaning is the endorsement: a sentence of praise from another author, a critic or a public figure, printed on the front or back. Publishers collect these by sending advance copies months ahead of publication.
The word was coined in 1907 by the humorist Gelett Burgess, who put an invented admirer, "Miss Belinda Blurb", on a jacket as a parody of the practice. The parody stuck; the practice did too.
Make the book, not the checklist
Describe a book or upload a manuscript. Bindery writes with you, typesets in LaTeX, sizes the spine from the real page count and produces printer-validated files — the watermarked proof is always free.
Start Free