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Everyone in the publishing business agrees that blurbs-those high-profile endorsements you see on book jackets-help sell copies. But how much are they actually worth in dollars and cents? Maybe more than $200,000-if the recent feeding frenzy over Derek Goodwin's first novel, Just Killing Time, is any indication. Three weeks ago Simon & Schuster outbid eight other publishers for Goodwin's serial-killer thriller, which arrived from agent Peter Lampack with effusive endorsements from two writers who rarely give quotes: John le Carre ('' a literary gem. I have still not emerged from its awesome power and delightful spell'') and Joseph Wambaugh (''a chillingly authentic account''). But the blurbs-which played a large part in S&S' reported record $920,000 offer- turned out to be fakes. Although it isn't yet clear who forged the comments, the author-a free-lance writer and self-described intelligence agent-is under suspicion. Goodwin, who maintains his innocence, says he may have been set up by a former CIA agent. But if it turns out that he or his agent (who also denies any wrongdoing) did make up the blurbs, S&S may well cancel the contract-or, at the very least, renegotiate for a lower advance. What would Just Killing Time have brought without Le Carre's and Wambaugh's praise? ''Oh, about $700,000,'' according to an editor from a rival house who read the manuscript. ''It's an impressive work.'' That the endorsements might be worth nearly a quarter of a million to S&S does not surprise Turtle Bay publisher Joni Evans, who also had a look at the book. ''Quotes like that are insurance,'' she says. ''If you tell (bookstore chain B.) Dalton that Mario Puzo or Martin Cruz Smith is endorsing a book, they might take 12,000 copies instead of 2,000. That's how you sell a book.'' Blurb scams are nothing new. More common than outright forgery, however, is the slippery practice of trading quotes-you scratch my back, I'll scratch yours. Says Little, Brown editor-in-chief William Phillips, ''The blurb writer almost always knows the author. That's the way it works.'' That's why blurbs have become the junk bonds of the publishing industry: They can inflate the value of a book-but they are often built on nothing more than air.
EW.com
