Support for Indie Authors discussion

I've noticed a trend lately where instead of reading the book blurb on Amazon.com, I'm given an excerpt. There have even been a few cases where review quotes were listed instead of a blurb. For me, these books have already lost my interest. I'm not interested in reading a sample of a book I'm even sure I'm interested in and 5 star reviews of lecture notes still won't make me read them. I want blurbs. I post blurbs but am I behind the times. Should I reconsider this?

i always did blurbs. when you scrolling on mobile amazon especially blurbs are quick snippets that might influence your decision whereas an excerpt takes too long and might bore the reader. i usually reserve excerpts on personal author site and if I'm doing author interviews...

The way I see it, the product description, aka blurb, should be just that. A brief description to catch the reader's attention. The Look Inside feature provides a sample of the story and if the author has an editorial review, then they need to place it in the proper field, not the description.

I think this debate came up before, but I can't remember if it was this group or another, but I think the general concensus was that despite being the thing all authors hate writing the most, blurbs are importants and should be just that.

Thanks guys. I was just wondering. This may have been discussed before, but I'm new here. Still, I'm glad to you took the time to respond. Blurbs aren't easy to write, but I agree that they are crucial and should not be substituted with excerpts and reviews.

Christina wrote: "I think this debate came up before, but I can't remember if it was this group or another, but I think the general consensus was that despite being the thing all authors hate writing the most, blurbs are important and should be just that..."

It did, because I'm the guy to raised the question. And yes, the consensus came down strongly on the side of blurbs. Blurbs plus an excerpt found no great favor either. (I dislike blurbs even more as a reader than as an authors, but I'm not typical in that regard.)

As to including an excerpt in the book itself, before the front matter (and paperbacks used to do), I think the jury may be out. In that case, people are looking inside the book. (This assumes the book is not set to start on Ch.1 in the "Look Inside" feature.) That also may not be a great idea in a digital format, compared to jump directly to Ch.1.