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?