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!

According to the website, the company’s mission “is to create the most personalized and authentic fan experiences in the world.”

You are probably seeing already how you might use celebrities for book promotion. Imagine a celebrity saying something positive about your book. It’s a fun and intriguing idea, isn’t it?

Who influences your ideal readers?

Before using it, though, give careful thought to the type of personality you hire to read your message. Ask yourself these questions:

• Who influences my target audience – my ideal readers?
• What well-known personality represents what I want to communicate about my book?
• Who might alienate my target audience?

If you don’t select just the right celeb to represent your work, you could harm both the book and your brand.

Be thoughtful about who you hire

Prolific author Laura Lippman (not her real name) used a CAMEO video to  promote one of her books online.The quasi-celeb she paid, and another she was considering hiring, are well-known in large part because of their polarizing personalities.

In an online discussion, an author noted that the celebrity Lippman paid, and the other she was thinking about hiring, could alienate potential readers.

It makes sense — imagine seeing a book promoted by a celebrity whose values are the opposite of yours. Would you be inclined to buy the book? Probably not.

And that was the unintended beauty of this author’s celebrity choices.

The people she thought best represented the book helped readers decide if they should read it. The outcome might have been the opposite of what she wanted, though, which is why it’s important to be thoughtful about who you hire to represent your book.

How to use CAMEO

Once you know which types of personalities will help, not harm, your book, search for them in the CAMEO database. (CAMEO refers to them as “talent.”) Search for a name, or scroll through categories ranging from actors and athletes to reality TV stars and YouTubers.

Each person’s fee for a personal video is in the upper right of the person’s head shot. Comedian Gilbert Gottfried charges $150; Olympic swimmer Ryan Lochte’s fee is $100. Lesser-known influencers such as YouTuber Chris Dodd charge as little as $5.

Promotional videos can cost more. Learn more about promotional videos on the FAQ page. See who offers them in this list on the site.

Click on the headshot; on their profile page, select “book now” and fill out the form. CAMEO doesn’t charge your credit card until your video is done.

The personalities, I mean, “talent,” have seven days to do the job. If they don’t, your request expires and you aren’t charged.

The frequently asked questions page on the service website will answer most of your questions.

How to use your video

You can request a generic promotional video that says all the right things about your book and share it widely.

Or – and I think this would be really fun – you could use a pesonal video to thank your top fan or fans. Select your biggest fan (or two or three) and address your video to that person by name, thanking them for always supporting your books.

There’s lots of potential here. The videos are novel enough to get your audience’s attention.

Know your audience

Because of that, it’s important to be careful about who you hire. That individual has the potential to either delight or dismay your target readers.

The more you know about your target audience, the more likely you are to pick a winner. If you need help with that, our video training program, “Who Will Buy Your Book? How to Figure Out and Find Your Target Audience,” walks you through the process of learning as much as possible about your ideal readers.

Have fun exploring the possibilities with this unusual resource. And be sure to tell us if you give it a try!

What other ways would you use CAMEO to market your book? Please tell us in a comment!

Tip of the Month

I like to share a “Tip of the Month,” a free resource or tool for authors, on the last Wednesday of the month.

This month it’s my new, free, downloadable “Platform Building for Authors Cheat Sheet.”

In book publishing, “platform” is that built-in audience waiting to buy your book.

Think of it as the seat of a stool. You need at least three legs to hold up that stool, but the more you have, the more solid and strong that seat will be.

This free PDF download gives you 13 platform elements to consider as you build your stool author platform. Download your cheat sheet immediately!

“Social proof” is marketer-speak for public evidence that people won’t be wasting their money if they buy your book.

That evidence comes from reader reviews on retail sites that include Amazon and Goodreads, testimonials and endorsements on your website, and book information shares on social media sites.

When positioning yourself as a topic authority, it extends beyond book feedback to how often people share content you create and what they say about it, too.

Social proof for authors is important

Because there are now so many opportunities for readers to provide public feedback, this kind of social proof has become important.

For example, I loved my friend Laura Laing’s book, Math for Writers: Tell a Better Story, Get Published, Make More Money, so after I “blurbed” it, I shared the news on social networking sites. In each case, I shared an image of my blurb and included a link to more information about the book.

I do this all the time for books I like. I hope it helps add to that book’s “social proof.”

Social proof checklist

Social proof for authors takes many forms. It’s the:

• Reader reviews on retail sites.
• Media/trade/literary reviews of your book written by review professionals.
• Comments on your blog posts that tell others that people are paying attention to what you’re saying.
• Number of times the information on your website (most likely your blog posts) gets shared by others.
• Opt-in newsletter mailing list size.
• Testimonials from fans.
• Endorsements from people who influence your target audience.
• View counts on your videos.
• Number of connections you have in social media networks.
• Interviews you’ve done with the press and others.
• Badges you can add to your site if your book has won an award.

It can be a little overwhelming, can’t it?

Unfortunately, when you’re marketing a book, you’re running a little business. There are lots of pieces to that little business — and doing as much as you can to reassure customers with social proof is one of those pieces that has an impact.

Fortunately, you can generate and leverage social proof pretty easily.

8 easy ways to present social proof

Here are eight easy-to-implement ideas for showcasing your social proof :

1. Provide content that people will want to share.

Maybe it’s images that people will want to Pin on Pintere  it’s informational blog posts. It could be a killer excerpt from your book, or a free download. But before you can get people talking publicly about your book and information related to it, you have to give them something worth talking about.

2. Add a “share” plugin to your blog.

This shows visitors that others are reading and sharing your comments. I love how mine (AddThis) floats alongside the post so you can share content with your networks whether you’re at the beginning, middle, or end of a post.

3. Make sure your share plugin shows numbers.

There’s no social proof when we don’t know how many people have “liked” your information on Facebook or tweeted it. Social proof needs numbers.

4. Gather and add testimonials to your website.

When someone writes to tell you how much they liked your book, ask for permission to quote them on your site. If you don’t have unsolicited testimonials, reach out to those you know have read your book and ask for them.

5. Ask a question at the end of each blog post.

This helps generate comments and discussion. Reply to each comment because it’s the courteous and appropriate thing to do, but also because it increases the total number of comments.

6. Make sure comments on your blog can be seen by others.

I’ve visited several author blogs recently where the comments are hidden. What’s the point of that? Don’t make people jump through hoops to comment (I’ve seen that, too) or to read the comments of others.

7. Use your social networks to drive the traffic to your site.

The more people who know about and see your content, the more likely  you are to benefit from shares and comments.

8. Provide social proof to other authors.

We reap what we sow. Comment on the content of other sites, share their information, pin their pics. Those authors will repay the favor.

What’s your next step?

You’re probably doing some of this already and just need to add a plugin, make a few changes, or make this more of a priority. Is there anything more you can do?

It’s something I work on constantly. Here’s a quick look at some of the things I do — and I’m sure there’s lots of room for improvement:

• I share links to my blog posts on social media using my site’s social sharing bar. (Finding a reliable blog plug-in for social sharing is an ongoing struggle, though. I’ve had to replace mine at least twice, and still have glitches from time to time. Got any suggestions?)
• When my content gets shared on Twitter, I thank the poster and re-tweet as often as I can without being obnoxious.
• I respond to all blog comments so that people providing that type of social proof know how much I appreciate their thoughts and opinions.
• If someone emails me about how much they like my site, newsletter, or one of my products, I ask if I can use the feedback as a testimonial.
• When I’m a guest on someone’s blog or podcast, I share the link on social media. That helps others see that I’m open to sharing what I know while it helps send visitors to my host’s site.

I need to get better at sharing milestones that could include an unusually high number of Pinterest pin shares, or steady growth of the Build Book Buzz Facebook book marketing group.

For you, it might be achieving a certain number of reader reviews, the number of times your book has been added to shelves on Goodreads, or hitting a target number of book sales or downloads.

Examine what you’re doing now; assess what you can add or improve. Social proof is necessary and important. Make sure you’re demonstrating it.

What social proof do you provide now on your website? What do you plan to add?

(Editor’s note: This article was first published in September 2012. It has been updated and expanded.)

Tip of the Month

I like to share a “Tip of the Month,” a free resource or tool for authors, on the last Wednesday of the month.

For the lovely month of June, it’s the printable Pocket Goddess Gratitude Diary from Leonie Dawson, one of my favorite digital product creators.

When things get a little crazy (as they did for me late last week . . . ), I need to slow down, take a deep breath, and count my blessings. Maybe you do, too?

I thought that if this neat little gift will help me, it might help you, too! Don’t wait to download and start using your copy!

Then what do you do?

If you’re like most, you turn it over to read the book’s description on the back and look for the cover blurbs.

Similarly, when you’ve discovered a book on Amazon that looks interesting, what do you do after reading the description? You probably scroll down to see if there are any blurbs – testimonials – offered under “Editorial Reviews.” You might even use the “inside the book” feature to find them on the back cover or the first few inside pages.

Cover blurbs reassure readers

Cover blurbs – testimonials and endorsements – from relevant, influential, or important people tell us that the book we’re thinking about buying is a safe purchase. Favorable comments from people we already trust tell us the book is a low-risk investment.

They reassure us.

Testimonials from  people who are well-known and respected in the field or genre can clinch the sale for someone who’s not sure if your book is what they need.

If you’re traditionally published, they can also help get the publisher’s sales and marketing team excited about the book.

What happens if you don’t have one?

Does this mean that a printed back cover without these glowing recommendations will hurt book sales? Or that an e-book without one on the cover is sunk?

Nope.

Without comments from others, you’ve got more room on that back cover of a printed book for the description. That’s not a bad thing.

Your best combination, though, is a compelling book description plus one, two, or three pithy testimonials about the value your book brings to the reader. You want that book buyer to think that yours is the book that will help them experience the promise of your book. That promise might be fiction’s  entertainment or escapism or nonfiction’s discovery and learning.

How to get them

Cover blurbs are essentially what marketers refer to as “social proof.” They tell us that someone has read the book and liked it.

Isn’t that a message you want to send to readers?

If you need to learn how to get compelling cover blurbs, you’ll want to enroll in my online course, “Blurbs, Endorsements, and Testimonials: How to Get Experts, Authorities, Celebrities, and Others to Endorse Your Book.” It will show you how even an unknown author can get a dream endorsement with the right approach. Get all course details here.

Do you have a question about how to find and reach the right “blurbers?” Leave them here. 

One of the best ways to do this is with images. (Yes, that’s an image of my dream book blurb on the right. It’s a corner of the cover for the first book I wrote, WHY CAN’T A MAN BE MORE LIKE A WOMAN?)

Images built around book endorsements combine two things that get liked and shared the most on social networks:

1. Images
2. Quotations

When you overlay a pre-publication book blurb — also known as an endorsement or testimonial — on a photo or an illustrated backdrop, you generate an attention-getting image you can post on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, LinkedIn, and elsewhere.

Because this presentation of your dream book blurb is visual, it will attract more attention and generate more interaction with you and your connections.

Tips for creating images with blurbs

During the teleseminar, we spent some time talking about two options for creating them — PicMonkey and InstaQuote — but there are many more. Get specifics on how to use these and other options from an earlier blog post, “How to create shareable images with quotes.”

Here’s one I’ve created in the InstaQuote app with a pre-publication blurb for Get Your Book in the News: How to Write a Press Release That Announces Your Book; the blurb is one of several showcased on the book’s sales page:

It took me less than two minutes to create. I spent more time playing with different fonts than I did anything else; if you’re more decisive, you’ll be able to do this in under 60 seconds.

Share your image!

Explore the options you can use to create your image on the how-to blog post mentioned above, then let it work hard for you by following these steps to share your blurb/image combo:

• Share it on the social networks popular with your book’s audience.
• Include a relevant comment when you share it. Maybe you want to tell people that you’re excited about this early feedback, note where on the cover you’ll use the blurb, or comment on the endorser’s impressive reputation. Is this your dream endorser? Say so!
• Whenever possible, tag the endorser in your comment accompanying the image so that person’s followers see the image, too.

Create a unique image with individual endorsements as they arrive in your inbox so you build a small image library of blurbs. On Facebook, collect them in a photo album; on Pinterest, create a board for them.

Interested in learning more about how to get influential pre-publication blurbs for your book? Listen to the recording of our free teleseminar online, then check out the endorsements for the Build Book Buzz training program, Blurbs, Endorsements, and Testimonials: How to Get Experts, Authorities, Celebrities, and Others to Endorse Your Book, on the course site.

Not planning ahead to make sure that you get them from the most impressive and influential people possible.

While you can completely “cold call” the rock stars of your genre or industry and get cover blurbs that will make your mother proud, you’ll have a greater success rate – and work half as hard at it – if you take a few steps in advance.

Why? Because you’re more likely to get a positive response from someone who knows your name than from someone who has never heard of you.

Here are three things you can do now that will pay off when you’re ready to make that important request.

1. Socialize online.

Connect on social media, but make sure that you’re using the right social media networks. Going after high-profile foodies or chefs? Look on Pinterest. Are the people who will blurb your book in the business world? Check out LinkedIn. Looking to connect with Millennials? Try Twitter, Instagram, or Tumblr.

Follow them. Retweet or share what they share. Comment on their status updates and blog posts.

2. Socialize in person.

Is your dream blurber making a presentation near where you live? Attend it and introduce yourself before or after. Compliment the speaker and presentation in a follow-up e-mail, mentioning something specific that resonated with you.

Attend networking events where you might meet someone who will be an ideal endorser. Register for key conferences, seminars, and trade shows where you will meet the right people while you learn even more about your topic and audience.

3. Ask for introductions.

Do you know somebody who knows somebody who knows somebody? Ask for an in-person or virtual introduction. (This is a particularly good approach when you want blurbs from celebrities and other famous people.)

Don’t even think of leveraging the introduction to request a favor immediately, though. Be generous with your time and information before ever expecting anything in return.

How do you start?

My  multi-media training program, “Blurbs, Endorsements, and Testimonials: How to Get Experts, Authorities, Celebrities, and Others to Endorse Your Book,” takes the guesswork, uncertainty, and mystery out of this important process and shows you how to get the blurbs of your dreams.

Step-by-step instructions, an insider interview about snagging celebrity endorsements, tracking files, and sample queries give you everything you need to succeed. Check it out — I think you’ll be surprised at all that the program offers for a super low price.

What’s holding you back from going after your dream endorsement? What’s your biggest obstacle?