Excerpt from Grassroots Marketing for Authors and Publishers by Shel Horowitz

Endorsements

Call them endorsements, testimonials, or blurbswhatever you call them, get at least a few for your book.

The best endorsements not only provide a well-known name, but also very specific information about what that famous reader came away with thanks to your product. It doesnt just say, What a great book! If its a how-to or self-help, encourage testimonials that speak specifically to what I learned or how I improved my life. If its fiction, the blurbs should talk about the wonderful writing, the great story, the memorable characters, and so forth.

For instance, an ideal testimonial for a book on taxes for the super-rich might read something like this completely fictional example:

Boy, do I wish Id found Tax Relief for the Rich years ago! I brought Chapter 7 to my accountant and we figured out that just one strategy would save us $372,567 in taxes this year. Anyone who pays at least $1000 in taxes will save many times the purchase price. Go and buy it right now!

Henry Henry III, Americas richest man

Or this, for a novel:

I should never have started Memoirs of a Werewolf so close to bedtimeI stayed up half the night reading it! I couldnt put it down. The use of language is riveting, the characters are unforgettable, and I simply had to find out what happened. Ill be on the edge of my chair, waiting for Barbara Lewiss next masterpiece.

Maryann Megaseller, best-selling author of The Book You Have to Read and many other books

OK, so what makes these two imaginary blurbs work so well? First of all, theres a celebrity factor. You would be very blessed to get endorsements in todays world from, say, Warren Buffett or John Grisham.

Youll notice both blurbs mention the book title, and the fiction blurb also names the author. So this builds brand awareness for both the book and the author when its quoted in a magazine ad, for instance.

The nonfiction blurb offers these extras:

* A specific dollar amountnot rounded, but a believable actual numberthat he saved by using the book.

* The specific chapter where he found that nugget.

* The notation that this huge savings stemmed from implementing just one strategy out of many in the book.

* The amazing admission that he used this material to educate his professional advisor, and then leveraged that education to realize the savings.

* A call to action that first qualifies the audiencethose who pay more than $1000 in taxes (which happens to be everyone in the target market)and then the time-linked command, Go and buy it right now!

For fiction, you want first and foremost a great read. According to the idealized fiction testimonial above, this book delivers with gripping writing, strong plot, and great characters. In fact, it was so compelling that it interfered with the authors sleep: a powerful psychological trigger, delivered with a slightly ironic touch (the mind is lulled into thinking she will criticize the book, and then comes the twist).

Of course, not every endorsement is going to be as strong as these, or from a famous name. Is it worth going after endorsements from lesser people, or endorsements that arent quite as compelling?

Absolutely! There are a lot of folks out there who will be happy to lend their name; they may not be superstars, but they have the credentials to be taken seriously.

At a minimum, you should have two or three endorsements. At a maximum? I dont think there is a maximum. You wont necessarily put them all on your back cover or in the first few pages of your book, but youll have them and can use them on your website (either in a big list or even in a rotating script so visitors see a different blurb with every visit), excerpt them in your press releases and newsletters, include a sheet of them in your press kit, and on and on it goes.

For my own book Principled Profit, I went after endorsements in a big way. The book went to press with 55 endorsements in the first few pages, and after publication, I still continue to collect them. If you visit , youll see the complete list (there are 78 as of July 2006), nicely organized with a jump menu so you can click on any name and go immediately to the blurb. And some of these are big names in the field, such as legendary Internet marketer Mark Joyner. Just because I didnt get his endorsement until the book had been out for two years was no reason not to use it!

You dont have to be a marketing guru to pull this off. Part of my inspiration for collecting large numbers of blurbs was hearing Jacqueline Marcel, previously unknown author of Elder Rage, talk at a Publishers Marketing University session about how she got over 50 endorsements for her book.

Even big publishers are catching on. Just as I was writing this section, I opened a package and found a review copy of a book published by Simon & Schusters Pocket Books division. To my surprise, the first three pages were endorsements.

In the book itself, I watch over and over again as people pick it up and open it, and their jaws drop when they see the 55 endorsements. Some of them sit there and read them all before moving on to the content. And a lot of them buy the book.



[This chapter goes on to tell the specific stories of how I got eight of my most prominent endorsements]



Grassroots Marketing for Authors and Publishers includes detailed chapters on marketing plans, coverage in the media, Internet marketing far beyond just a website, trade show strategies, and much more.