Endorsements Sell Books

As a long-time reader, I have purchased a number of books because of an endorsement on the front or back cove or just inside the book. These brief words from someone with name recognition help you sell books. Sometimes these endorsements are called blurbs.

From my years in publishing, the process of getting these endorsements is often a bit mysterious to writers.
Without the author taking action during the production process, endorsements don’t happen. Many books are published without endorsements but if your book doesn’t have endorsements, you are missing this sales tool.

You have to ask people to endorse your book. One of the keys in this process is to understand these high profile people are busy and do not assume they will read your book before they send their endorsement.

What To Ask and What To Send

--Write a clear short subject line in email: like Easy Blurb Request. These people get a lot of emails and you want to make it clear from the beginning how your request is different and easy for them to handle.

--Attach the cover and the edited manuscript (probably not in layout at this point). Don’t assume they will read the manuscript but you want them to be able to read it and see the  designed cover.

--Write a brief email with only a few sentences. Give them a deadline and offer to write a “draft endorsement” if they don’t have the time to write one themselves. As I’ve done this process, I’m always surprised at who will ask for a draft endorsement. You have no idea of their schedule and  whether they are home or traveling or in some intense deadline. You want to make it easy so they agree to do it.

--Ask how they want to be identified. Some of the possible options are bestselling author, editor at ___ or president of ____ or any other way. You will get a variety of answers but want to identify your endorsers as they want to be named. Many of us have different roles in different places.

--Use their website contact form or social media to reach them. Some of these high profile people are hard to reach but you want to ask more people than you will actually need. When I did this process recently, some long-time friends did not respond. Others sent emails and said no for various reasons. 

If you can, you want to gather several pages of these endorsements. Some will be broken into phrases and used on the inside but also on the front or back cover.

For a couple of examples of endorsements, I encourage you to look at the sample of my Jumpstart Your Publishing Dreams (follow this link). Notice the variety and different types of endorsements in these pages. You can do the same with your book. Also look in detail at the story of Jacqueline Marcell who self-published her book about elder care and had many high profile endorsements. She details her process and some of her resources in this article (follow this link).

After the book is in Print

When you have books in hand (often before the official release date), send a signed print copy to the endorser with your note of appreciation. This person helped you and your gratitude is an important step in the process.

It does take effort to get these endorsements but they pay off in increased book sales. Also online sites will often put the endorsements in the editorial dection of the book—i.e. before any customer reviews for the book—which is another opportunity for you as the author to influence and encourage the book sale.

Some writers wonder about the integrity of this process. The endorser didn’t read the book cover to  cover before adding their name to this process. Even though I understand how this process works, I still buy books because of a particular endorsement on a book.

My encouragement is for you to put the effort into this process during the book production and it will pay off for you.

How do you gather endorsements for  your book? Have I missed anything? If so, let me know in the comments below.

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Seven Critical Steps for Every Author

Over 80% of Americans plan to publish a book at some point in their lifetime. Over 4,500 new books are published every day. Yet repeatedly I hear from authors wondering how to sell their books and what steps they should be taking in this process.

Let me tell you right from the start, when it comes to book publishing and in particular selling books, there is no magic formula. If there were such a formula every book would be a bestseller. Yet there are proven essentials that every author can do—and that's what I'm writing about in this article. These steps are not in any particular order but it's important to tackle each of them.

1. Know your target audience (readers). The more information you have about this reader, the better you can focus your efforts to reach them. No matter how much we want it, not everyone will read your book but your target audience will.

2. Be active or visible with your audience. It is different for every author but if you know your target. Where are they? Listening to their radios? Then you need to be on radio programs. On Twitter or Facebook or LinkedIn, then you need to become more visible in these places. To help you, I have a free ebook, Platform building Ideas for Every Author.

3. Start and actively use an email list. If you don't have any idea what I'm talking about then I recommend you explore these two links for My List Building Tycoon at: http://bit.ly/t2W1zy or on Kindle: http://amzn.to/wU6Fzb. The essence of it is you create an ebook or audio or something valuable for your audience. Then give that ethical bribe away to your audience in exchange for them giving you their email address. Only you control your email list (not some other platform like Twitter or Facebook). Then you build your list as you use the list to continue to give your audience value. 

4. Take responsibility for your own marketing. Each of us have excuses. We are introverted. We don't like it. We want to just write. We want someone else to do it—why we get a publisher. Listen to yourself and then stop the excuses and take action. Every day when I speak to authors I tell them that they bear 80% of the responsibility for selling their book.. They say, “yes” but then balk at taking action. You will be exceptional if you do take your own responsibility.

5. Get to a writer's conference. Conferences are a key part of my own growth and people I know in publishing. You will learn a great deal and also make friendships with editors and agents. Over the next few months, I'm speaking at different conferences and would love to meet you in person. Follow this link to my schedule. I especially recommend Author 101 University.

6. Have the Right attitude. You should always be growing, trying new things and experimenting to find your path. It is different for each book and each author so you have to be moving forward. Remember you are not selling your book or yourself. Instead you are helping as many people as you can help. In the process, stress the benefits and advantages of your book and how it will help others. Much more attractive to people than “selling” and as an author you will be more comfortable doing it.

7. Create a simple system to become active with your readers. It is different for every author. Maybe your path is blogging or social media or radio interviews. As you speak or write, focus on helping others but also leading them to your products where to spend money to get additional help. An example of this process would be my free teleseminar about book proposals. When you take this teleseminar, I lead you to my Write A Book Proposal membership course. 

Opportunities are around you—but to take advantage of these opportunities, you have to seize them and take action. Don't count on anyone else or you will certainly be disappointed (publisher, bookstore, Amazon—no one). If I can help you, reach out to me. 

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Be More Than An Author

It is terrific to be an author and have books in the world. Over 80% of Americans plan to write a book at some point during their lifetime. Many people have published books through traditional publishers or self-published their book.  It's exciting to hold the new book in your hand and dream of people reading and enjoying your book.

This morning I watched this eight-year old video of Robert Kyosaki for at least the third time. Why? Because this video contains multiple messages and insights from a bestselling author. He and his wife, Kim, are always learning, always promoting, always selling and do not see themselves as authors but as entrepreneurs. Leading up to the Quantum Leap program Steve Harrison offers a series of free teleseminars. The next one is Thursday, September 17^th  and you can sign up here. I always learn a great deal from these sessions and recommend it to you.

If you watch this video, you will hear Kyosaki encouraging you to be more than an author—to be an entrepreneur. In the last few years, I've been hearing the term authorpreneur. The word combines the word author and the word entrepreneur.

The authorpreneur is “relevant, entrepreneurial, action-oriented and literary focused.” I pulled these words from the back cover of Will the R.E.A.L Authorpreneur Please Stand Up?

An authorpreneur gets it. They understand they can't simply throw their book into the world and expect people to buy it just because it exists. No, it takes more effort than publishing a book to achieve success. I participated in this book and contributed a chapter to it called Always Learning. If you read this book and study the content of the various participants, it will get you started on your own journey to become an authorpreneur.

From my years in publishing, I find many people looking for the path to become a bestselling author. They are saying, “Just show me the path and I will follow it.” Unfortunately the journey is different for each author.  If there was a single tool or a single path, every author would find it and all of our books would sell many copies—which is not happening. The key from my experience is to always be learning, always trying new tools and new ideas. If the ideas work and increase your sales and your presence in the marketplace, great. If not, then discard those ideas and try something else.

The point is to be taking regular and consistent action in the marketplace. It certainly will never happen if you do nothing.

As I've written before, 80% of the sales for every book is up to the author. As an author, I encourage you to follow the first principle of The Success Principles by Jack Canfield: I will take 100% responsibility for my life. It is far easier to blame others and depend on others than to take your own responsibility.

What actions are you taking today to move forward for your book?