Congratulations on following our instructions for getting quality book endorsements; you should at least be getting your friends, family or colleagues to contribute a few nice words. But if you’re really lucky, you might snare one of the highest honors an author can attain — having a prominent influencer provide a book endorsement.
This is a fantastic opportunity – but also one that carries additional responsibility. The question quickly arises, “How can I best respond to this powerful opportunity?”
Book Endorsement Example
Let’s look at an example. A Made for Success author Art Johnson received a book endorsement from legendary radio and CNN host, Larry King.
If you received a book endorsement from a celebrity like Larry King, would you know what to do next with it? We asked data researcher David LaFontaine his opinion and here is what he has to say.
What to do when you get a book endorsement
You will need a coordinated, multi-platform response to both honor the endorser, maximize the opportunity offered, and even “give back” in a way that deepens the relationship. The sooner you get to work on your response, the better.
This agile, proven process has been tested with authors in this exact situation.
1. Follow your influential endorser on social media platforms
You and everybody on your team should follow the influencer’s social media accounts, and take the time to Like/Share/ReTweet/Comment on things that the influencers has recently taken the time to talk about. Do not solely follow the influencer; you should also follow anybody who is a known member of their team, or with other influencers who the endorser frequently interacts with.
The influencer may not manage their own social media accounts themselves, so you’ll want to get connected with as many parties as possible.
Make sure that it is not just your own account that you follow them with. Leverage the accounts of everybody who is connected to you on your team.
Bonus points if you engage directly with the team members. Be sure to thank them for the endorsement. Tweet at them directly or tag them in a post appropriately.
2. Write a blog about the endorsement
The next step in the process it to curate a blog about the book endorsement. However, it’s important to not fall into the trap of saying, “Wow, I must be so great if Tony Robbins endorsed me!”
Instead, focus your blog on building up the influencer and why their opinion holds merit. Discuss their accomplishments, why they’re an inspiration, and how receiving a book endorsement from them carries so much weight.
At the end, you can tie this into your book by saying that you’re glad that the influencer found value in your book and that you are grateful to be recognized by somebody so esteemed.
3. Create branded social media posts
Now that you’ve got a shiny new article to post on your website, you can repurpose the core message from that blog to craft social media posts that are appropriate to the format of each platform, to further spread the word.
At a minimum, you should share posts on the following networks:
- Forbes
- Medium
Be sure to link over to the blog itself where it makes sense to do so, so the audience can hear full story.
4. Propagate the post
Now that posts have hit the social networks, have your team like, share, and comment on all of the posts. Doing this will help encourage the post to go viral. It ensures that the post gets prioritized by the algorithms on these social media platforms as a post that’s worth more people seeing.
Make sure that your team contributes their own genuine reactions, tying it back to the core messaging of the blog post. This way, interactions come across as organic.
5. Reach out to other influencers
With the approval of one influencer, it might be easier to get approval from another.
Use the blog’s messaging and other organic reactions on social media to contact other podcasters, business writers, and influencers to encourage them to give your book a chance too.
Make sure to keep the focus on the original influencer who endorsed your book, rather than you yourself.
6. Express gratitude
Be humble. As you approach every item on this checklist, make sure that you thank everybody that you can. This means anybody who commented, shared, or even liked (if it makes sense to do so).
Show gratitude for the person noticing you, let them know that you think they’re swell. Don’t forget to splash your own personality and humor in it.
Book Endorsement Strategy
Beyond simply being a book endorsement strategy, these are good tenets to abide by regardless of where you are in your publishing journey.
Don’t forget to always thank the people who helped you get to where you were. If you operate with a “Give to get” mindset, you might be surprised at what kind of doors begin to open.
If you have more questions on what to do if you have a book endorsement, or even want to know how to get one, feel free to reach out directly to the Made for Success Publishing team!
David LaFontaine
The ideas in this article were generously shared by David LaFontaine. David is a UX researcher, designer, content strategist, and trainer who has worked for The Herman Ostrow School of Dentistry at USC, Wiley Publishing, AssetShield, and the U.S. State Department. He has written or coauthored five books, including Social Media Design For Dummies and Mobile Web Design For Dummies, and produced more than 20 hours of online training videos for KelbyOne and Pluralsight.