An\u00a0endorsement, also known as a book blurb or testimonial<\/strong>, is short, advance praise for your book from someone who influences your book\u2019s target audience. They key word here is “praise.”<\/p>\n While endorsements are (nearly) always solicited, reviews aren’t always. They can happen organically when any random reader decides to critique your book.<\/p>\n Before Amazon, book reviews were written by professional reviewers — people whose job it is to read and critique books. Since Amazon initiated “customer reviews,” book reviews now come in two forms:<\/p>\n Professional reviews<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0(media\/editorial\/literary\/trade) are written by professional book reviewers. Their goal is to provide objective commentary that will help people decide if they want to read the book.<\/p>\n They can come from reviewers who work for publishing industry publications (such as Kirkus Reviews<\/em><\/a>\u00a0or\u00a0Publisher’s Weekly)<\/em>, trade magazines, newspapers, or certain blogs or websites.<\/p>\n Publishers and authors solicit them in advance of publication for two reasons. First, so that they can pull excerpts to use as blurbs. And second, so that the reviews will be published around the time the book is released.<\/p>\n You solicit them from monthly, printed publications three to four months in advance of publication date.\u00a0Newspapers, bloggers, online publications, and websites have shorter lead times, so you can contact them closer to your release date.<\/p>\n You can secure them before publication\u00a0by giving away pre-publication review copies<\/a>. Unlike literary reviews and blurbs, however, they can’t be posted on your Amazon sales page until the book’s publication date.<\/p>\n Still, if you’ve got a well-organized review campaign<\/a> in place, it’s possible to get honest reviews posted and shared on or near your publication date so that people see honest reader feedback as soon as they visit the book’s sales page.<\/span><\/p>\n Endorsements\/blurbs\/testimonials are secured pre-publication so that they can be featured:<\/p>\n They might be from media\/editorial\/literary\/trade reviewers, but more often than not, they’re from influential people in your book’s niche or category. The people you ask for a blurb<\/a> are those your target readers like, trust, and respect.<\/p>\n You (or your publisher) control whether endorsements are or aren’t used and seen.<\/p>\n The expectation is that any influencer who takes the time to endorse your book will truly<\/em> endorse it by saying something positive. If you get negative feedback from an endorser, you might be able to learn from the comments, but you won’t use any of them publicly.<\/p>\n [novashare_tweet tweet=”If you get negative feedback from an endorser, you might be able to learn from the comments, but you won’t use any of them publicly.” hide_hashtags=”true”]<\/p>\n That said, a professional reviewer — as opposed to an influencer — can write and publish a less-than-flattering review. If that happens, you simply won’t pull an excerpt from that for your book marketing.<\/p>\n How will you use endorsements or excerpts from early reviews? Here are three ways a publisher of a thriller I just read (and loved), 56 Days<\/em>, is using early endorsements from both professional reviewers and influencers.<\/p>\n Back cover<\/strong><\/p>\n Editorial Reviews\u00a0<\/strong>(click on the image to enlarge it)<\/p>\nTwo forms of book reviews<\/h2>\n
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<\/a>Reader reviews<\/a><\/strong> are exactly that — reviews from your book’s target audience. They’re reviews from the people you wrote the book for.<\/p>\nBook endorsements<\/h2>\n
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You control endorsement visibility<\/strong><\/h3>\n
Endorsements in action<\/h2>\n
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