There’s no right or wrong answer to the question “Does a story need an outline?” during the writing phase. But when developmental editing begins after the story is completed, the outline is something the story must have.
Writing a blurb for another person is not as difficult as writing the blurb for your own book. One fellow writer even stated: “I don't even think authors should be doing it by themselves."
If you want to get the most out of social gatherings, you need to be a master of the elevator speech…or at least have several well-crafted elevator pitches ready to deploy.
There is a recurring argument in fantasy writing circles that seems to be split down the middle between those who understand the need for research and those who pooh-pooh the very idea.
Writing is a craft, and those who refuse to learn (and then think they can depend on editors to do the hard work for them) should NOT be surprised if their books do not fly off the shelves.