The official publication date of the book "Writing Tools" was Sept. 1, so it's time to say that this baby is born, all fingers and toes accounted for.

The birthing process for a book is always longer and more arduous than you'd imagine. By the time the publisher accepts the final manuscript, I, for one, am ready to move on to the next project. But for the book to be successful, the writer must attend to many marketing chores. Most are tedious, but one is fun: the search for good blurbs. 

It works like this: Your friends get to say nice things about your book before the critics gets their hands on it. It helps if you have, in the past, said nice things about the blurbers. Spy magazine called such reciprocation "logrolling in our time." The Brits call it "back scratching." 

Next year, we will celebrate the 100th anniversary of the word "blurb." To learn more about this literary form, what I call the "haiku of advertising," check out my essay, which appears in the current Publishers Weekly magazine. 

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