Endorsements?

[Pyram King]

Has anyone had success in obtaining a book endorsement?

Perhaps from a famous author.

[TimothyEllis]

Has anyone had success in obtaining a book endorsement?

Perhaps from a famous author.

Quite apart from I'm not sure why you would want to, I'd consider it very dangerous for an Indie to do, either way.

[notthatamanda]

Dangerous? Care to elaborate?

[TimothyEllis]

Dangerous? Care to elaborate?

Death by association dangerous.

What happens if your endorsement turns out to be the next 404?

What happens if your endorsement becomes the center of the next Twitter storm?

In the case of the 404, association is likely to add you to Amazon's 'Watch this author closely' list. In the case of a twitter war, you might end up being dragged through the mud by association.

And from the perspective of someone you'd want to endorse your book, they'd have to have the same worrys about you.

[Pyram King]

Dangerous? Care to elaborate?

Death by association dangerous.

What happens if your endorsement turns out to be the next 404?

What happens if your endorsement becomes the center of the next Twitter storm?

In the case of the 404, association is likely to add you to Amazon's 'Watch this author closely' list. In the case of a twitter war, you might end up being dragged through the mud by association.

And from the perspective of someone you'd want to endorse your book, they'd have to have the same worrys about you.

Good point.

Need to choose endorsements wisely - perhaps.

[notthatamanda]

Got it, thanks. I was kind of thinking one could be accused of stalking for trying to get an endorsement, depending on how persistent you were. It's pretty common for trades to put comments from other authors in the editorial reviews. They could always be removed. I doubt an endorsement would be easy to get.

[Pyram King]

I was thinking if you get a well known endorsement and they tweet it or put it on facebook - that could certainly drive interest and more importantly sales.

Imagine if Stephen King, Martin, Preston, Koontz, Rowling or any well known author recommended your book on twitter or other social media.

It may be improbable, but not impossible.

[TimothyEllis]

It's pretty common for trades to put comments from other authors in the editorial reviews.

Yes, but publishers and agents would organize them. And they are probably contracted. (guessing).

I was thinking if you get a well known endorsement and they tweet it or put it on facebook - that could certainly drive interest and more importantly sales.

Imagine if Stephen King, Martin, Preston, Koontz, Rowling or any well known author recommended your book on twitter or other social media.

It may be improbable, but not impossible.

At that level, I would think a good solid payment would be needed. Or some deal among publishers.

For an Indie to get such an endorsement would be solidly in the 'dream on' category.

[notthatamanda]

Then it's just paying for a review, when you get right down to it, do you think?

I always considered that highly successful authors would read and review other books by their publisher as kind of a favor to the people they work with. I was operating on the assumption that the reviews were honest. I've seen what I consider evidence of a review network in an online indie author group but I didn't think big names would do that. I guess I'm still kind of naïve.

[TimothyEllis]

Then it's just paying for a review, when you get right down to it, do you think?

I always considered that highly successful authors would read and review other books by their publisher as kind of a favor to the people they work with. I was operating on the assumption that the reviews were honest. I've seen what I consider evidence of a review network in an online indie author group but I didn't think big names would do that. I guess I'm still kind of naïve.

And I might be wrong, or too cynical. 

[notthatamanda]

I resemble that remark.

[Pyram King]

Sometimes it is just being at the right place at the right time.

[notthatamanda]

Organic reviews and word of mouth are among the best sales tools, IMHO, so yeah go for it. But I don't run into famous authors so much. I actually went to elementary school with a very successful trade published author and I have read all her books and like them very much. Part of me would like to post a congratulations on her website, but I don't want her to think I want something from her. We have been out of touch for forty years and I am happy for her success, but I just think it would look weird for me to reach out to her. If I wasn't an author I probably would.

[LilyBLily]

Trad pub authors do not do endorsements for pay or as a "you scratch my back and I'll scratch yours" thing, but some of them do know each other and like each other's books. Those endorsements you see on hardcover trad books were sought by the publisher, not the author, in probably 99% of cases.

As for the rings of indies doing it, they are not naive; they know they are breaking the Amazon TOS, and they make it hard for the rest of us to sit on our hands and wait for the honest reviews to come in, as B.L.Alley notes.

When I first started as an indie, I was naive and desperate for reviews and asked my beta readers to post precis of their crits of my book--warts and all, just please post something. At the time I did not know this was against Amazon TOS. Once I learned that, of course I never asked anyone again. My ARCs go out with a very soft "I hope you enjoy it" kind of message and zero demand for a review.

The problem is, as readers, we tend to look at the number of reviews/ratings as the social proof. We don't go looking at the book's ranking and we may not want to get sucked into the story by reading the Look Inside. I myself have checked out new books from newsletter ads, seen that they only have a handful of positive reviews, and moved on. Not that I thought the book was a loser, but I felt I could wait until there were some 1-star reviews to balance the praise and give me a grasp of the book's failings. A harsh truth, I'm afraid. This is why I'm willing to use NetGalley from time to time, so there can be more balance in the reviews--NetGalley readers feel no need to be nice to an author.

As for contacting that old school friend who rose to fame, you guys should do it. Amid all the chaos of their new life, they probably would be happy to hear from an old friend. Just say hi and congratulate them. It could mean a lot to them, because inside, they're probably still that person you knew way back when. Aren't we all still ten years old and trying to prove something? Proof we did it would be fabulous.

[Bill Hiatt]

Sometimes it is just being at the right place at the right time.

When I was first starting out, an author told a story that illustrates that point. This particular indie was also a playwright who had quite a few of his works performed, both in the US and Europe. Anyway, he was at a party related to one of them at a time when he had just recently published a retelling of some of Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tales.

By chance, he ended up in a conversation with someone who turned out to be a Danish prince. The prince had read and loved the book. The author asked if the prince would mind being quoted. The prince gave him a nice quote to use.

Short of Hans Christian Andersen rising from the grave to endorse the book, I doubt the author could have done any better. And the whole thing was totally a matter of luck.

All of that said, I think the odds of getting an endorsement in most cases are astronomically high.

[Vijaya]

I think if you already have a relationship with a well-established author, it's fine to ask if he or she will give a blurb. It happens all the time with trade books and there's no money exchanged so why not with Indie? I don't understand the dangers that Timothy speaks of, but then again, I wouldn't want a blurb from someone whom I didn't respect.

[notthatamanda]

Sometimes it is just being at the right place at the right time.

When I was first starting out, an author told a story that illustrates that point. This particular indie was also a playwright who had quite a few of his works performed, both in the US and Europe. Anyway, he was at a party related to one of them at a time when he had just recently published a retelling of some of Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tales.

By chance, he ended up in a conversation with someone who turned out to be a Danish prince. The prince had read and loved the book. The author asked if the prince would mind being quoted. The prince gave him a nice quote to use.

Short of Hans Christian Andersen rising from the grave to endorse the book, I doubt the author could have done any better. And the whole thing was totally a matter of luck.

All of that said, I think the odds of getting an endorsement in most cases are astronomically high.

If someone influential tells you they liked your book asking for a quote would be reasonable.

I'm going to stick with my plan of pulling  four quarters out of the change jar and getting my lottery ticket for today, which probably has the same odds, for me anyway. (Not trying to be snarky, hope it doesn't come off that way.)

[Pyram King]

Sometimes it is just being at the right place at the right time.

When I was first starting out, an author told a story that illustrates that point. This particular indie was also a playwright who had quite a few of his works performed, both in the US and Europe. Anyway, he was at a party related to one of them at a time when he had just recently published a retelling of some of Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tales.

By chance, he ended up in a conversation with someone who turned out to be a Danish prince. The prince had read and loved the book. The author asked if the prince would mind being quoted. The prince gave him a nice quote to use.

Short of Hans Christian Andersen rising from the grave to endorse the book, I doubt the author could have done any better. And the whole thing was totally a matter of luck.

All of that said, I think the odds of getting an endorsement in most cases are astronomically high.

I was trying to get an quality editor and person to help with my novel. I sent some drafts out and an editor who had recently left his job at a top publishing house in the UK called me. The only reason he was interested is that his college thesis was on TE Lawrence and my book was a historic fiction that included Lawrence. Sometimes finding common interest sparks a relationship. While not an endorsement, have a top level editor and contact with major UK publishing houses was a good connection.

I once had a run in with Robin Williams. I would frequent a huge used book store in San Francisco late night (it was open till 1am). After seeing each other more than once in the same section, we began talking books. I never mentioned his movies - it was just casual conversation about books when ever we ran into each other. That was over a decade ago.

[twicebitten]

My brain is not sending up this title, but maybe someone will remember it from the other board. A guy had an agent. He decided not to go trade but indie. The book was pandemic subcategory, starting in Africa with, I think, monkeys. He already had the celebrity author endorsements when he backed out of trade. He launched it with a bang in about 2016-2017, but about a year ago, I DID remember the title and checked and rankings were not good at all. How much did the endorsements help? A little, I suspect, but not for long.

In trade, if you pay attention, it's the sharing of the agent that gets most endorsements. I have heard directly from trade published authors they didn't read the book, merely let the agent write a two-line blurb and approved it. and so it goes.

[alhawke]

I follow Stephen King as a fan on BookBub and get recommendations all the time through him on BB (or from his publicist). I'm sure things like that helps sales for his recommended authors.

If it's personal on the book blurb or inside the book itself, then this becomes kinda like a thread about editorial reviews. Do they help? I don't chase after them. But, I tell you what, if any of you have contact information for a rock star author who's impressed by A.L. Hawke, please PM me.