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When publisher Simon and Schuster announced earlier this year that they will no longer require authors to obtain blurbs for their books, many writers cheered. Not me.

Try as I might, I’m not a writer with dozens of best-sellers to my credit who routinely receives glowing reviews from The New York Times, the Times Union and the Los Angeles Review of Books. As a result, I’ve always been thrilled when a fellow writer took the time to pen a favorable line or two about my most recent work, however insincere that favorable line might be. When you’re insecure by nature, you take praise and encouragement wherever you can find it.

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Without book blurbs, I’ve been forced to look elsewhere for approval, and I’ve found it! By soliciting blurbs for pieces I’ve written other than books, I’ve discovered an untapped well of support and good wishes from my writing peers.

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