- A few words from a respected voice in your industry
can go a long way to help you sell a whole bunch of books.
But how do you get those words?
Stick with me.
(upbeat rock music)
Hi, I'm Julie Broad, founder of Book Launchers,
a fantastic company that will help you
write, publish, and sell a nonfiction book
that grows your business and builds your brand.
How do you get that big name to endorse your book?
I'm talking about that celebrity
or that authority name in your industry.
How do you get them to say this book is awesome?
Here are the steps.
Number one, write your list.
Your dream list, the names of the people
you know every single one of your readers know about.
I'm not talking Jennifer Lawrence or Jerry Seinfeld.
Just because pretty much everyone knows their name
doesn't mean they're going to give you the street cred
you need to sell your book.
I'm talking about names in your market.
For example, if you're on the podcasting space,
everybody probably knows Pat Flynn or John Lee Dumas, Dumas?
Hopefully I'm saying, John Lee Dumas?
Dumas!
Finance, Robert Kiyosaki, David Bock, David Chilton,
I put that one in for my Canadian friends.
Although his book, The Wealthy Barber
is decently known in the US too.
Health and fitness, Jillian Michaels, Tony Little.
(laughing)
Remember him?
Am I aging myself by putting that one in?
Alright, now it's tough for me to tell you
who the big names are in your industry
because I'm not in it.
But hopefully you get the picture
and you know exactly who I'm talking about.
Next is to also go to the people who are known
but not by everyone, but they're highly respectable
or they'll highly accomplished.
The goal here is to make a great, big list.
Number two, pull out a mirror,
look in the eyes of that face looking at you
and tell your inner critic to shut it, shut it!
(laughs)
Please be quiet.
Check that ego, check those fragile feelings at the door
and remember that you've written a book
that is going to help people.
You owe it to yourself and those folks you can help
to do everything in your power to get this book out there.
And borrowing credibility from others
is part of the process.
Number three, go through your list
and figure out who you can get connected to
without cold contact.
Who do you know that knows someone on that list?
You'll probably be surprised
at how connected you actually are.
You can do some of the snooping via LinkedIn
and Facebook, thank you social media stalking.
You can see who's connected
to the people you want to connect with.
But also ask folks you know.
You have to be creative, resourceful and intentional
about seeking them out.
Then when you're connected, number four,
write a short, to the point, and personalized,
personalized letter or email.
Why do you want their endorsement?
What have they done that you admire or appreciate?
In this initial contact, you're not sending the book,
you're not going into great detail,
write what you're looking for, an endorsement, and why.
Tell them the hook of your book and why your book matters.
If they're willing to check out your book,
ask how they would prefer to get your book.
You can send it via PDF and that's the ideal
'cause you can send it to them a lot earlier in the process.
But some people really do wanna see
the physical print version.
Let them know your timeline and hopefully,
you've given them more than a month
to read your book and provide this endorsement.
Now some people are going to come back and say,
can you give me some examples
of what kind of endorsements you want?
Here's your opportunity to be strategic.
Think in advance about some of the objections
people might have to buying your book.
It could be time, it could be money,
it could be that they feel like they've seen it all before.
So think about these objections
and have some drafted endorsements
that address these objections head on.
So you do wanna have three or so examples
but do not send these examples unless you're asked.
Number five, once you get one or two endorsements
from the warm contacts, research the contact information
for your dream connections.
Social media is okay if you can't find anything else
but try to get deeper contact information than that.
Then, you're going to hit repeat on the same as above.
Accept you're going to take your best endorsements to date,
ideally the name with the most credibility
and say, professor Joe said this book
will become the next textbook
in their college for this subject.
New York Times, bestselling author Joe Smith said
this is the best book he's read
on science and business since his book.
(laughs)
Bottom line, borrow the credibility from those folks
to get the new people that you don't know to pay attention.
Number six, when you get the endorsement,
thank them and when your book comes out,
send them a thank you and a signed copy of your book.
Who knows?
They may even send a note on social media
but you might be pushing it to ask for that
because you've already got gold from them
in the form of an endorsement.
Recapping, number one, brainstorm.
Number two, tell your inner critic to go for a hike.
Number three, get warm contacts.
Number four, personalize your contact
and get your first endorsements.
Number five, go for the big fish,
in casino talk, get the whales!
Number six, be grateful and show appreciation.
Let me know who you land endorsements from
in the comments below
or who your dream endorsement would be from.
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