Book promotion quote graphics – also known as “image quotes” and “quote cards” – are social media images that excerpt praise about your book from:

• Book blurbs (testimonials and endorsements)
• Reader reviews (with permission)
• The book’s contents

You create these graphics to show that your book is respected by influencers and readers, or to give a small, intriguing sample of the book’s content.

Easy to create and share, they let you use other people’s words to say, “People like my book, so you will, too.” (Which is way classier than using your own words.)

What do book promotion quote graphics look like?

You can use a number of different approaches or treatments, but simple works best. Here are a couple of examples from major publishers for books you might recognize. (Click on the image to see the examples in a larger format.)

You’ll see that only one of these three includes the title. I pulled each from their book’s Amazon sales page, so in that situation, there’s no question about the book title.

I prefer to create them so that they stand alone anywhere, even without an explanatory post accompanying the image. To do that, you’ll want to include the title in the image.

A note about permissions

As you think about how you might duplicate what the big publishers are doing in those examples, keep in mind that Amazon requires authors to get permission from the reader to excerpt reader reviews on that platform. This is because the reviewer owns the review copyright.

To be safe, apply that permission policy to reader reviews from any other retail site or platform, too, including Goodreads.

By definition, you’re allowed to use anything from pre-publication testimonials and literary/trade/media reviews in quote cards and other book promotion materials.

How do you create them?

My favorite tool for creating social media images like these is Canva. I used it to create these promotional quote graphics for the Build Book Buzz Reader Book Review Forms. (Click on the image  to see the examples in a larger format.)

Online tools that are similar to Canva include:

• Stencil
• Snappa
• Quozio

I gave the MockupShots image generator a try, too. MockupShots incorporates your book cover into hundreds of backgrounds, so with that tool, your book cover will always be in the image.

I’m not sure how I feel about including the book cover, though. What do you think of this one I created for my e-book with MockupShots?

Design tips

As you use any of these tools, work to keep it simple. Less is more (which is why I’m on the fence about the image that includes my book cover).

Be consistent with your quote images by using the same or similar templates for all book promotion quote graphics. For example, if you’re creating three for your newest book, all three should look similar for branding reasons.

Speaking of branding, be certain to incorporate book cover imagery and/or colors into your quote card.

To make sure your image has your cover colors, use the free Eye Dropper tool for color matching. Get instructions and a demo video in my article, “How to use Eye Dropper for consistent author branding colors.”

Using book promotion quote graphics

There are a number of ways you can use and share your quote cards. Here are just a few; I’m sure you can think of more.

• Share on social media with appropriate text and a purchase link in the accompanying post.
• Add to your author website.
• Distribute to your launch team to share with their networks

Don’t miss this easy opportunity to make the most of endorsements, reviews, and pithy gems from your book. You might even have fun with it!

What are other uses for book promotion quote graphics? How have you used them for your book?

You’ll find a lot of good advice online about what you should do to prepare for your book launch. Several sources offer checklists and timelines.

These book launch prep to-do lists are generic, of course, because they can’t take individual author situations into account.

Most, for example, will tell you to email your list. Many authors haven’t built an author email marketing list that’s separate from their personal contacts directory, though.

Still, there are several book launch prep must-dos that make sense for most authors. Here are five of them.

1. Create a book marketing plan.

You know what Ben Franklin says about this, right? “If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail.”

A book marketing plan is your blueprint to success. It will help you think through and identify your ideal readers. You’ll also determine the specific steps you should take to get your book title in front of them.

To make this process easy for you, I walk you through the process with my free fill-in-the-blanks template and accompanying instructions. Simply download your Build Book Buzz Book Marketing Plan Template, then use it to get organized and take action.

2. Determine which social network your ideal readers use the most and expand your presence there.

If you’ve written your book marketing plan, you’ve done the work to figure out who is most likely to buy your book. (Need help with that? I’ve got an affordable training program that helps you identify your ideal reader.)

Next, match your reader demographics — age, gender, income level, geographic region, etc. — with social network demographics. You can do this by selecting two or three social networks you think are popular with your readers and adding the word “demographics” to a Google search. You might search for “Instagram demographics” or “YouTube demographics,” for example.

If you’re an active social media user, you probably have a good sense of where you’ll find your readers.

Once you know which platforms they use, work to increase and improve your high-quality connections there. Consider taking a course on how to use the best network for you effectively so you maximize your time on that platform.

3. Create your book’s marketing materials.

Again, there are a few basics that every author needs in place before a book launch. They include:

• Book announcement press release
• Online press kit
• Quote cards
• Images that include your book
• Email announcement to your personal contacts, independent of an opt-in email marketing list

If you’re planning a virtual book tour (also known as a book blog tour), write a few of your proposed guest posts ahead of time.

4. Recruit a street team.

A book launch street team is a group of readers, like-minded authors, and/or friends who agree to support your launch.

Typically, you ask them to read an advance review copy, write an honest review, and stand by to post that review on retail sites and Goodreads during launch week. You’ll want to create a plan that includes other strategies for generating reviews, but your street team should be a big part of that.

You’ll also ask them to promote the books to their networks. To help them with that, give them quote cards and images that include your book (see above) along with a selection of tweets, Facebook posts, and Instagram messages they can use. Include hashtags for each social network, too.

5. Update your social media profiles.

If you’re like most of us, you set up your social network profiles when you created those accounts and haven’t updated them since. (If you aren’t like most of us, I’m very impressed!)

Bring them up to date with a current author head shot, an updated description with a website URL,  and a header that promotes your new book.

(Pro tip: Don’t use your book cover for your profile photo. People connect with people, not books.)

What’s on your book launch prep list?

Your book launch prep list might include other tasks, as well. There’s so much you can do!

What do you do before every launch? Why? Please tell us in a comment. 

They’re the social proof you need to convince people to buy your books.

But did you know you can make glowing reviews work harder for you?

Give your five-star reviews new life by incorporating them into your book marketing and promotion campaigns and material. Here are nine ways to use reader reviews in book marketing. You can get started using them immediately.

EDITED TO ADD: Helpful commenters below remind us that the reviewer owns the copyright on the review, so ask for permission before using it.

1. Add them to social media headers.

Use one (or two!) in your Facebook page cover image, Twitter and LinkedIn headers, and Instagram profile.

Here’s how Jamie Jo Hoang showcases a starred Kirkus review of Blue Sun, Yellow Sky in her Twitter header.

2. Showcase them on your website.

Where you place them on your site depends on your site design and purpose, but many authors can find a home for a good review next to a book cover image on the home page.

Do you have a page on your site for each of your books? Add the positive reviews there, too, in a large font.

3. Create quote cards with them.

I’m a big fan of using quote cards (also known as “image quotes“) to share good news on social media. They’re perfect for every social network you use.

I created several from the positive reviews of the new Build Book Buzz Reader Book Review Forms. Here are two of them.

Here’s one for The Wife Between Us. (Scroll down the page at that link, too, to see more of them that the publisher created.)

Create them using Canva.com or with a smartphone app that combines images and text. I like using WordSwag.

4. Print them on bookmarks.

Bookmarks are probably the most commonly used book marketing materials. They’re easy to create today, thanks to online services that include Moo.com (affiliate link).

A pithy reader review quote is one of my top five elements for a bookmark. The others are the book title, cover image, your name, and your website URL.

5. Add them to postcards.

No, printed postcards are not passé. Because more and more (and more and more) marketers have shifted away from postal mail to email marketing, printed marketing materials get noticed in a traditional mailbox.

Yours will make the best impression possible when you include a glowing reader review. You can order them online with VistaPrint (search online for a coupon code to use with your order) and Moo.com (affiliate link).

6. Add them to the back pages of subsequent books.

Each time you write a book, add reviews of earlier books to the back. This will help readers discover your “backlist” — your older books.

If you are stopping at one book, but will publish an updated edition, add those reviews to the front of the newest version. They will add the social proof you need for someone flipping through your book in a physical store or online.

7. Use them to improve your book’s description.

Did a reviewer describe your novel’s character in a positive, memorable way?

Did a reader add an observation about your credibility and expertise to a nonfiction book review?

When it makes sense, update your online description with this new information. For example, if a reader describes your twenty-something amateur sleuth protagonist as “a millennial Nancy Drew,” use it in the book’s description.

In the mid-1990s, when a journalist described me as “the Ermba Bombeck of the ’90s,” the publisher added that phrase to my first book’s back cover description.

8. Incorporate them into your next book’s marketing campaign.

Readers considering your new book are influenced by what others have said about your previous works.

Use that to your advantage by adding positive reviews on earlier books to:

• The inside pages of your newest book
• Printed marketing materials such as bookmarks and postcards
• Website
• Facebook page

Introduce those reviews with this simple sentence: “Here’s what readers have said about (AUTHOR NAME)’s previous books.”

9. Let them guide what you write in your next book.

Reader feedback can provide important insights into what your fans want from you.

For example, if readers adore one of your secondary characters, you can capitalize on that by giving her a bigger role in your next book.

Perhaps fans of your instant pot cookbook rave about your vegetarian recipes more than anything else. Give them a vegetarian instant pot cookbook, too.

Need help getting those reviews? You’ll love the Build Book Buzz Reader Book Review Forms. There’s one for fiction, another for nonfiction.

Each is a simple, easy-to-use fill-in-the-blanks form that you give to readers to help them write more reviews. Buy one form; share it with as many readers as you want. Learn more on the Reader Book Review Form information page.

How do you use your favorite reader reviews? Please tell us in a comment.