Paper short abstract:

This paper approach endorsements on the back cover of scholarly books as a serious and multifaceted phenomenon that say something about academic practice more broadly. Our examination of blurbs relies on interviews as well as through the detailed analysis of 150+ blurbs on books related to STS.

Paper long abstract:

Signed endorsements on the back cover of scholarly books are hardly taken to represent a core form of academic assessment. While scholarly assessments such as the blind article review or the grant proposal evaluation are generally considered to be core activities in academia, the endorsements are easily seen as somewhat marginal qua assessments. Colloquially, endorsements signed by esteemed individuals are often referred to as blurbs. In publishing terms, they form part of the promotional copy, and are seen as the result of an unsolicited academic assessment. They represent a genre susceptible to pastiche and caricature. Yet, for all their possible marginality, blurbs are strikingly prevalent on academic titles.

Rather than dismissing blurbs as representing an insubstantial, insincere and inconsequential practice, we approach blurbs as a serious and multifaceted phenomenon. The important point with blurbs is not what they say about the book they endorse, but what they say about academic practice more broadly. Analysing blurbs from this vantage point means exploring what they do, how they do it, and how they are done. Our examination of blurbs relies on interviews with editors and authors as well as through the detailed analysis of 150+ blurbs on books related to STS. The paper explores: What are the concerns at play when soliciting and authoring a blurb? What registers of "goodness" are evoked in endorsements? How may sincerity and substantiality be enacted in endorsements? How do endorsements perform a community?