A blurb is a short promotional piece accompanying a creative work. It may be written by the author or publisher or quote praise from others. Blurbs were originally printed on the back or rear dust-jacket of a book, and are now found on DVD and video cases, web portals, and news websites. A blurb may introduce a newspaper or magazine feature story.
In the US, the history of the blurb is said to begin with Walt Whitman's collection, Leaves of Grass. In response to the publication of the first edition in 1855, Ralph Waldo Emerson had sent Whitman a congratulatory letter, including the phrase "I greet you at the beginning of a great career": the following year, Whitman had these words stamped in gold leaf on the spine of the second edition.
The word "blurb" was coined in 1907 by American humorist Gelett Burgess (1866–1951). His short 1906 book Are You a Bromide? was presented in a limited edition to an annual trade association dinner. The custom at such events was to have a dust jacket promoting the work and with, as Burgess' publisher B. W. Huebsch described it, "the picture of a damsel—languishing, heroic, or coquettish—anyhow, a damsel on the jacket of every novel".
Blurb is a self-publishing platform that enables their users to create, self-publish, promote, share, and sell their own print and ebooks. Blurb offers book-making tools catering to diverse digital skills.
The company was founded in 2005 by Eileen Gittins and funded by Canaan Partners and Anthem Venture Partners. Blurb's headquarters are located in San Francisco, California. Since its inception, Blurb has delivered more than 6 million books created by more than a half million customers. Blurb’s website is translated into 6 languages and the company ships to more than 70 countries and territories.
Time Magazine named Blurb one of 2006's "50 Coolest Web Sites".
The company has taken in $21.6 million in venture capital funding, and generates nearly $100 million in revenues per year.
Blurb announced a partnership with Amazon in April 2014. The deal allows Blurb-designed books to be sold and distributed on the Amazon platform. The partnership enables self publishing on the platform with a 15% cut on Blurb books—a discount from previous fees of up to 45%. Amazon has agreed to the fee to access to Blurb’s nearly two-million authors, who have produced 8 million books since 2006.