If someone with a sharp eye were to examine the covers of my published books, which now total more than sixty, one might find something unusual about them: in almost all cases, they lack blurbs from other authors. That is because I have never solicited any blurbs or endorsements in the three decades I have been writing fiction.

The two or three blurbs that have actually appeared on my books were not solicited by me, but were the achievement of my editors, or in one case, a spontaneous and unsolicited gift; it was the generous Terry C. Johnston who did that--writing a blurb that has been used by my publishers ever since.

Wheeler receives 5th SPUR

Initially, I was embarrassed to ask for an endorsement, as they are properly called. I thought I would spare myself the pain of being turned down, or of friends and colleagues fashioning a half-hearted sanction of a story they didn't like. So I didn't ask for blurbs, didn't go the "political" or who-you-know route of getting ahead, which is to round up all sorts of important people and get them to endorse my novels. I preferred to proceed by virtue of my talent, if I had any, and not politics.

So, for the thirty years I've been writing Westerns and historical novels, my jackets and covers have sold my stories to the public in other ways. I began getting good reviews, and these have been liberally employed on my jackets rather than blurbs. I preferred it that way. A blurb always has the coloration of networking, good-old-boy politics: I'll blurb you if you'll blurb me. But a good quotation from a objective review is quite another matter; it carries the authority of independent judgment.

I strove to write books that would be well reviewed, and the positive reviews did come along, and quotes from them did end up on my book jackets. I have not hesitated to blurb other authors, and do so frequently, but continue never to ask for a blurb from anyone.