Great Endorsements Sell Books By Shel Horowitz

I am thrilled to introduce you today to our guest writer, Shel Horowitz. What first caught my eye about Shel was his description as an ethical business success strategist. Shel is also an author, marketing and book publishing consultant, a copywriter and a professional speaker. A visit to his websites will uncover a treasure trove of useful information. Today, Shel will be talking about what makes great endorsements. This is a condensed section from Shel Horowitz's award-winning seventh book Grassroots Marketing for Authors and Publishers but it's the first time this has been published on the net. Before we get to Shel's post, here are a couple of quick housekeeping announcements.

1. This week's new video tip is out: Creating Websites Using WordPress. If you have not signed up for my free video tips, then you can do so now at the side of my blog or on my video tips sign-up page. Not only will you be able to watch the current video tip, but you will have instant access to over 45 minutes of free video tips.

2. Chapter 17 in my award winning novel, The Samson Effect, has been released on the serial release site. If you have not started this novel that NY Times best selling author Clive Cussler calls a "first rate thriller brimming with intrigue and adventure", then you can visit the Table of Contents to start from the beginning. While there, check out the announcement of the novel being acquired by a major Hollywood film producer.

Now, on to Shel's post on Great Endorsements...


Great Endorsements Sell Books
By Shel Horowitz


Call them endorsements, testimonials, or blurbs—whatever 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 doesn't just say, "What a great book!" If it's a how-to or self-help, encourage testimonials that speak specifically to "what I learned" or "how I improved my life." If it's 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 I'd 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, America's richest man

Or this, for a novel:

"I should never have started Memoirs of a Werewolf so close to bedtime—I stayed up half the night reading it! I couldn't put it down. The use of language is riveting, the characters are unforgettable, and I simply had to find out what happened. I'll be on the edge of my chair, waiting for Barbara Lewis's 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, there's a celebrity factor. You would be very blessed to get endorsements in today's world from, say, Warren Buffett or John Grisham.

You'll 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 it's quoted in a magazine ad, for instance.

The nonfiction blurb offers these extras:

• A specific dollar amount—not rounded, but a believable actual number—that 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 audience—those who pay more than $1000 in—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 author's 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 aren't 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 don't think there is a maximum. You won't necessarily put them all on your back cover or in the first few pages of your book, but you'll 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.

My own book Principled Profit, went to press with 55 endorsements in the first few pages, and after publication, I still continue to collect them. If you visit http://www.principledprofits.com/new-blurbs.html, you'll see the complete list (82 as of September 2009). And some of these are big names in the field, such as legendary Internet marketer Mark Joyner. Just because I didn't get his endorsement until the book had been out for two years was no reason not to use it!

You don't 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. 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.

Once you've requested an endorsement, your endorser is aware of you and that may lead to other working relationships. For instance, you may be asked to blurb their books (which of course you should do if the book is decent). I actually got a few hundred dollars to do a chapter for a Putnam/Berkeley anthology on simple living; the editor knew about me because I'd asked him for an endorsement of my book on frugal fun, The Penny-Pinching Hedonist, which I then plugged in the chapter.  

Condensed from Shel Horowitz's award-winning seventh book Grassroots Marketing for Authors and Publishers, http://grassrootsmarketingforauthors.com. The book offers numerous effective, ethical, and affordable book marketing strategies (and practical advice for implementing them from trade shows to organizational bulk sales to bookstores to publicity, and includes more than 40 book marketing success stories form other authors and publishers.