A few months ago, an editor from a big publishing house emailed me asking me to blurb* one of their author’s new books. It was one of their ‘lead titles’ coming out soon and they were really keen for me to show my support. Did I have time to read the book?
(*a blurb is “a short description of a book, film, etc, intended to make people want to buy it or see it” according to the Cambridge Dictionary.)
Sadly I couldn’t. Sorry, I said, I was really up against it with a book deadline myself.
Then, what happened next surprised me.