The Bloggin’ BUZZ

New authors face fierce criticism. Not the least of which is from ourselves.

And in that we are being so deeply criticized, it becomes increasingly difficult to believe that others are going to enjoy the words that we have painstakingly placed on the pages of our book.

Once you get past this ridiculous thinking, you have to think like a marketer. You didn’t write your book to sit on your shelf! You wrote your book for others to read and sit on THEIR shelves! So how are you going to make that happen?

There are innumerable ways to make that happen, but today I want to talk about endorsements.

Nothing sells a book more than other people telling your audience that they have to buy it. And…the more well known the endorser is, the more books you will potentially sell. Isn’t this why so many people want to be on Oprah? Sure, she’s so well known that simply being mentioned by Oprah will make you a bestseller.

Now, not that you won’t be the next author on Oprah, but I would like to focus on marketing that you can control today.

I’m sure that your friends and family are great supporters of your work (hopefully), but unless they’re famous, it won’t help you as much in the book selling department. Now you’re thinking, who do I ask?

Well, you could sit and ponder this, or you could grab pen and paper, go to your local bookstore, find the section where your book will eventually sit, and start looking at the books. So, what are you looking for? Titles of books that resonate with your topic and best-selling authors. On your paper, write down:

• titles and authors of the books that resonate with your topic
• authors of best-sellers
• names of people that have endorsed the best-sellers

Then take this list home and send a personalized letter to them asking for their endorsement of your book. You may also be able to find these people using your social media connections. Maybe someone you’re connected to is connected to the person you want to contact.

“But, why would they endorse my book?”

Because your book is great, because it’s going to help people to live a better life or improve their business. They’ll endorse it because you’re sincere and personalized your note to them. You have to remember, this is visibility for them too.

“Yeah, but they’re famous and busy and stuff.”

You are “busy and stuff” too. And being famous doesn’t make you a non-person. If you’ve got a good book, people need to know about it. Getting endorsements from well known people will help to ease your marketing efforts.

Besides, wouldn’t it be cool to say, “Dr. Wayne Dyer endorsed my book and after selling 100,000 books, Random House and Oprah called me!”

Build a BUZZ About Your Book!

Deidre Hughey

Related Posts:
Hosting a Blog Tour – Part 1 #authorhelp
Get Your Book Noticed! #authorhelp

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 13th, 2009 at 2:47 am and is filed under Is There An Author In The House?. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.