How to Get Great Endorsements that Sell Books By Shel Horowitz

Two weeks ago, we had the pleasure of reading Shel Horowitz's post on Marketing Tips For Authors entitled, Great Endorsements Sell Books. Today, Shel is back with Part 2 of his popular post where he will share with us how to actually get the great endorsements that sell books. Shel is an award winning author who has blazed trails that all authors dream of blazing. It's my pleasure to bring him back for this encore post. Before we get to Shel's post, here are a couple of quick housekeeping announcements.

1. If you have not already done so, please sign up for my free subscription to my Video Marketing Tips For Authors newsletter. These videos help you with some of the more technical aspects of marketing your book on the internet. It's one thing to read how to do something, it's another to look over the shoulders of an expert and watch him or her do it. Sign up now and receive access to over 45 minutes of instant video training.

2. Chapter 18 & Chapter 19 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...


How to Get Great Endorsements that Sell Books
By Shel Horowitz

I watch over and over again as people pick up and open a copy of my award-winning sixth book Principled Profit: Marketing That Puts People First, 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.

My set of blurbs includes a number of people who are well credentialed. Among them (in alphabetical order):

• Sheldon Bowles, co-author of several books with Ken Blanchard of One-Minute Manager fame
  
  
• Jack Canfield, co-creator of the Chicken Soup for the Soul series (his blurb is on my back cover)
  
  
• Jim Hightower, progressive populist commentator
  
  
• Anne Holland, founding publisher of the hugely popular Marketing Sherpa website
  
  
• Jay Conrad Levinson, author of the original Guerrilla Marketing series
  
  
• Robert B. Reich, former U.S. Secretary of Labor
  
  
• Al Ries, bestselling author of several books on marketing and public relations
  
  
• Melanie Rigney, then-editor of Writers Digest magazine
  

These eight demonstrate different ways to obtain an endorsement. Sheldon Bowles showed up on an independent publishing list where I participate regularly. We corresponded several times and I helped him with various bits of advice, both on and off list. So, about two years later when I started going after endorsements, I dropped him a note.

Lesson: Be helpful whenever possible; be the kind of person others want to help.
Jack Canfield and his co-author Mark Victor Hansen are both extremely generous with blurbs, if the book is suitable—but it can be challenging to reach them. In my case, I did have an edge. I had gone up to Jack a few years earlier while he was signing books at Book Expo America, introduced myself, and told him I wanted to pitch an idea for a Chicken Soup book. And he asked me, "Are you the same Shel Horowitz that sends me jokes?" Because I knew that he was on publishing consultant Dan Poynter's joke list, and Dan and I are on each other's lists, I said yes. We chatted briefly and he gave me his card. By the time I wanted a blurb from him, his e-mail address had gone stale, so I simply e-mailed Dan and said that Jack had given me his address some time back but it didn't work anymore, and did he have the current one? He did, and Jack very graciously agreed. But because of Jack's generous spirit and mentality of abundance, I think I could have still gotten his blurb without that connection, by mailing postally.  

Lesson: Ask people in your network to help you reach people.
For Hightower, I actually used the contact form at his website (I did mention that I subscribed to his newsletter, which was true at the time).  

Lesson: Use the contact channels the celebrity has already set up.
Anne Holland is less known to the general public than Jack Canfield or Jim Hightower, but in the world of Internet marketing, her company is one of the superstars. Once again, I asked, using the publicly available address on her website, and once again I was able to say legitimately that I subscribe (I still do, and I highly recommend Marketing Sherpa's newsletters). But what was interesting this time is that Anne actually hired me to do some copywriting shortly after the book was published, and then we collaborated to provide five copies of the book to her readers for her weekly giveaway, which meant I was getting publicity to her entire (very large) list.  

Lesson: Asking for a blurb can lead to other collaborations.
Robert Reich is a special case; he had run for governor in my state, and I had worked on his campaign; also, his sister is a personal friend who lives nearby.  

Lesson: If you know celebrities, it doesn't hurt to ask.
Jay Levinson is another public figure who is open and accessible, and likes to help younger writers. He used to be a frequent host of online chats on marketing, and I had saved his e-mail address (which still worked). He had actually endorsed my previous book, Grassroots Marketing, for which he was contacted by my publisher using the e-mail that I supplied, so it was easy to thank him again and ask him again.  

Lesson: Be organized enough to keep track of good contacts when they drop into your lap.
[This story actually has a much deeper follow-up: I invited Jay to collaborate with me on the sequel to Principled Profit, which will be published next year by Wiley & Sons as Guerrilla Marketing Goes Green. So another lesson is dream big—you can form alliances with superstars.] Al Ries came to me through B. L. Ochman, operator of a very active blog on PR. In the immediate aftermath of 9/11, B. L. was forced to evacuate her lower Manhattan apartment. When her landlord demanded to be paid for the months her apartment was uninhabitable, she turned to the discussion lists where she and I actively participated, and launched an Internet-based PR war until the landlord capitulated. I was one among many who wrote her a letter of support. When I approached B. L. for a blurb, she told me she knew Al Ries and asked if I'd like her to get him to blurb it as well. Of course I said yes!  

Lesson: Accumulate good karma; sometimes you get to cash it in, and even if you don't, it feels really good.
Melanie Rigney had been a co-panelist with me at a writers' conference; we had enjoyed each other's company, and each other's presentations, and she had even asked me about a writing project for the magazine.  

Lesson: Speak publicly and get known and respected (and often, paid).
It's worth noting a few other things, too.

• I got a large number of endorsements simply by posting on an appropriate discussion list that I was seeking blurbs. Those who responded are identified by name, title, business, and in some cases website. I don't just say Joe Smith, but say, for example, "Walt Boyes, principal, Spitzer and Boyes LLC, author, columnist, speaker."
  
  
• All the testimonials included in the printed book were collected by sending around an electronic file of the manuscript—thus, the expense to me was zero. However, I would have mailed paper manuscripts if key endorsers had requested them.
  
  
• I continue to collect testimonials; when someone says nice things about any of my books, I ask for permission to quote the statement. The answer is almost always positive.
  

Some people will say no, or just not follow through, and that's okay. But on the whole, my batting average was extremely high, and yours can be, too, with the right book.  

Forewords, etc. If you can get the name of a popular author or other celebrity on the cover, or at least someone whose credentials are easily recognized, even if the person isn't a household name—with a blurb, as the author of a foreword, afterword, or, of course, as coauthor—you build immediate credibility in the marketplace. Many an obscure book has gained traction because the publisher used connections to get a well-known name on the cover. A foreword or afterword is the very best kind of endorsement.  

Condensed from Shel Horowitz's award-winning seventh book Grassroots Marketing for Authors and Publishers. 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 from other authors and publishers. For why endorsements are important, see Shel's earlier article on this blog,"Great Endorsements Sell Books."