If you’re familiar with Reedsy, you won’t be surprised to know that I think How to Market a Book: Overperform in a Crowded Market by Reedsy co-founder Ricardo Fayet is an excellent book.

It’s not thorough – it doesn’t address many book marketing tactics that are effective – but it doesn’t need to cover all options to offer value.

Fayet’s book focuses primarily on how to understand how Amazon works, then use that knowledge to sell on that platform using email, pricing promotions, and advertising.

It also goes in-depth into how to leverage Apple Books, Google Play, and Kobo. Since most books are purchased on Amazon, though, he spends more time explaining what you need to succeed there.

Who will find this book helpful?

There’s no question that this is a valuable resource for any author who wants to sell books.

While it repeats some of what you might have read on this site already – the importance of writing a great book with a genre-specific cover and knowing as much as possible about your target audience, for example – it also goes into great detail about Amazon algorithms and lists.

We all need to understand as much as possible about how Amazon works.

Still, as I moved through the book, I realized that the ideal reader for this particular book is what I might call a “career author.” Fayet is writing for someone who has the potential to support themselves through book sales.

It doesn’t matter if that doesn’t describe you, though. How to Market a Book is still important to your work as an author, especially with regards to understanding Amazon better.

Note, too, that it skews toward series fiction writers since that’s the best way to become a full-time author. He notes that nonfiction authors can also write series, but his examples tend to be from fiction.

My favorite gems

As Fayet notes in Chapter 1, book marketing is all about getting discovered. It’s not about chasing down readers, it’s about how readers find your book. Everything in Section I, “Mindset and Marketing Fundamentals,” is a must-read for all authors, but I especially appreciated his thinking on “the silent majority” in Chapter 4. These are the people who don’t leave reviews, but could recommend your book to friends.

I discovered a new-to-me concept – book “universes” – in Chapter 7. Fayet describes this as “series of series” – creating a new series that’s related to another series you’ve finished writing. Think TV series spin-offs – for example, NCIS followed by NCIS L.A. and NCIS New Orleans, or all of the Law & Order programs.

Chapter 8 explains read-through rate for series books and explains how to calculate it. Again, if you don’t write series, this isn’t useful. But if you do, you need to understand this.

I especially appreciated Section IV, Amazon Marketing, where Fayet went into great detail on Amazon’s lists and algorithms. How much do you know about Popularity Lists and how they work? You’ll learn even more in Chapter 17.

You’ll get good basics on e-mail marketing in the section on mailing lists. If that’s something you want to get better at, though, read my review of the excellent Newsletter Ninja: How to Become an Author Mailing List Expert. (Then buy that book.)

There’s an incredible amount of information on advertising in Section VIII because this book focuses on paid marketing tactics.

Finally, one of my favorite gems in Chapter 50 on audiobook marketing details how to get an audio clip from your book to share on your website. If you’ve got books available in audio format, you’ll appreciate this chapter.

As is often the case, there was a chapter or two that could have had more substance, including the one on editorial reviews. Still, How to Market a Book includes enough links to tools that will improve your marketing to make up for that.

Five stars

Read this book, which you can download on Amazon for free. It will get you on the right track, especially on Amazon.

And let’s face it: No matter how you feel about Amazon, you can’t avoid it if you want to sell books.

I highly recommend reading it, whether yours is a stand-alone book you want discovered or you’re a series writer who plans to make a living from royalties.

Have you read this book? What did you think about it? Tell us in a comment.

You add blurbs to the cover, online sales pages, and several other places where your target audience will see them.

Like reader reviews, they’re social proof that tells us that the book we’re thinking about buying is a safe purchase.

The “right” person is key

They only make a difference, though, if that endorsement is coming from the right person – someone with a logical connection to the book, the genre, or the topic.

Let’s say that you think you can secure an endorsement from someone you admire and respect but who has no connection to your topic and won’t be recognized by your ideal readers.

Should you ask that person to endorse your book?

I vote “no.”

An inappropriate endorsement:

1. Won’t help sales
2. Will confuse people
3. Takes up back cover space you can use for the book description

The reader reaction you want

You want meaningful testimonials from people your ideal readers admire and respect.

That means that when people in your target audience see your blurber’s name and credential (book title, job title, employer, etc.), they:

• Recognize the person’s name, or
• Recognize the organization the person works for, or
• Recognize the individual’s book title when the person is an author, or
• Respect the endorser’s credentials even if they don’t know their name, and
• Are impressed

The person you ask to endorse your book if it’s fiction isn’t the same as someone you’d ask for a nonfiction testimonial. Let’s break it down.

Fiction endorsers

The best fiction testimonial sources include:

• Well-known authors in your genre
• Lesser-known authors in your genre
• Trade/literary/media reviewers

If you write historical fiction, for example, your dream blurber might be Anita Diamant, author of The Red Tent or Lisa Wingate, who wrote Before We Were Yours and The Book of Lost Friends. Genre fans will most likely recognize their names.

You certainly know the names of authors in your genre who are not as successful or well-known, too. You want them on your list of potential blurbers because they will be more accessible than the genre stars.

Your list can include published fiction authors you know, as well.

Excerpts from editorial reviews generated by advance review copies sent to professional reviewers at magazines, newspapers, and respected online sites also qualify as influential blurbs.

Nonfiction endorsers

You have more options with nonfiction, but that doesn’t make it easier. Possibilities include:

• Recognized topic authorities
• Industry thought-leaders
• Satisfied customers who have applied principles outlined in the book
• High-ranking officials and executives
• Authors of other books on your topic
• Celebrities with a connection to the topic, which might be a disease, issue, cause, hobby, or location

It’s never too early to think about who these people might be, so start a file for them no matter where you are in the publishing process.

It’s a numbers game

How many people should you contact?

The answer depends on how many endorsements you want. Determine a reasonable and realistic number, then multiply that goal number by three.

You want to contact plenty of people because some won’t respond while others will decline.

What if you have a high goal and you hit it? No problem! Add them to the “Editorial Reviews” section of your Amazon sales page and the book’s inside front pages.

And don’t be concerned about the opposite – a less-than-thrilling response to your request. You only need one really good testimonial for the front or back cover.

Worst case scenario

What if nobody says “yes” and you’re left without any blurbs, endorsements, or testimonials?

That’s okay.

You won’t get the extra juice that comes with an endorsement, but there are worse things that can happen to your book.

They include doing nothing to promote it. Your book deserves marketing support, with or without endorsements. Keep working to make sure the people you wrote it for know about it.

Get your questions answered

Not sure how to research potential blurbers or ask for an endorsement? My popular training program, “Blurbs, Endorsements, and Testimonials: How to Get Experts, Authorities, Celebrities, and Others to Endorse Your Book,” includes everything you need to get the best book endorsement possible from important and respected people that your book’s readers like and admire.

Thanks to detailed instructions with examples, sample requests that worked, tracking files, and more, you’ll discover that getting a testimonial from people your readers respect is easier than you think! Learn more here.

Who’s your dream endorser? Tell us in a comment!