Okay, I finally got at the final cover for Spider’s Bite from my editor, which means that I can continue my miniseries on cover blurbs. In my last post, I talked about sending out my cover blurb package to authors asking them to read Spider’s Bite. Now, I want to talk about the folks who were kind enough to take the time to read and blurb the book. Here they are (in no particular order):

Nalini Singh: Nalini is the New York Times best-selling author of the paranormal romance Psy-Changeling series, as well as the urban fantasy Guild Hunters series. Her latest Psy-Changeling book, Blaze of Memory, comes out this week. Nalini is a Berkley author, and I first met her at one of the Berkley author signings at RWA a few years back. We had run into each other at various conferences since then and e-mailed a few times about various things. Nalini was also nice enough to send me some magazines when Hot Mama was excerpted in the Australian version of Cosmo a while back. Nalini does really cool world building in her books and writes complicated, interesting characters, so I thought she would be a great blurber for Spider’s Bite.

Lisa Shearin: Lisa is the national best-selling author of the fantasy adventure Raine Benares series, which includes Magic Lost, Trouble Found. Now, before I asked her for a blurb, I had never met Lisa at a conference, never e-mailed her, nothing. But I saw a post about her on her agent, Kristin Nelson’s blog, and I thought her books sounded really cool. (Seriously, how often do you see a first-person female heroine in epic fantasy?) So I checked out her books. I really liked the fact that she wrote such a strong, but fun female character in Raine, so I e-mailed her about blurbing. I have to say that I was surprised (and thrilled) when she said yes.

Lilith Saintcrow: Lilith is the author of several urban fantasy and other series, including the Dante Valentine series and the Jill Kismet series. I had read the first few books in the Dante series, including Working for the Devil, and enjoyed them. A while back, I had also written some brief review blurbs on the books for my newspaper and had e-mailed the pages to Lilith. When I e-mailed her asking for a blurb, she remembered my reviews, which was really cool. Lilith also writes really strong female characters and the world building in her Dante Valentine series is an interesting mix of sci-fi and fantasy.

Jackie Kessler: Jackie is the author of the Hell on Earth and Icarus Project series (with Caitlin Kittredge). The Icarus series includes Black and White, which is about superheroes, a subject near and dear to my heart. I met Jackie at RT last year in Pittsburgh, and we’ve run into each other at various conferences since them. Jackie was also nice enough to interview me for her Cat and Muse blog, and we’ve e-mailed about various book stuff. Jackie writes a really zany, fun character in Jezebel in her Hell on Earth series, along with a great bad boy in Daunuan.

Adrian Phoenix: Adrian is the author of the urban fantasy The Maker’s Song series, which includes A Rush of Wings. Think FBI agents, vampires, and more in the steamy locale of New Orleans. Like me, Adrian is another Pocket Books author, and my editor asked her about blurbing Spider’s Bite, which she graciously agreed to do. (It’s very common for editors to ask other authors at their houses for blurbs). I’d heard a lot of good things about Adrian’s books, so I was really excited that she was reading my book.

(I was excited that all the blurbers were reading my book — and a little nervous too. You always want other folks to like your work).

So to sum up, I had previously met or e-mailed Nalini, Lilith, and Jackie before asking them for blurbs. So I guess the moral of the story is that it really does help to network with other authors.

But, on the flip side, I had never met or e-mailed Lisa or Adrian before, so I guess that moral is that it never hurts to ask another author for a blurb (whether it’s you or your agent/editor). The worse she can do is say no.

As for why I (and by extension my agent/editor) picked these authors, they all really have two things in common — really strong female characters and cool world building. We also tried to get folks in a variety of genres, in this case paranormal romance, urban fantasy, and epic fantasy.

Up next: What the blurbers said about Spider’s Bite. And the cover!

Tags: Book blurbs, Cover art