When Bring Your Book to Life Graduate Stacy Corrigan, author of Manifest Your Man, sent me her blurbs, I was impressed—they included bestselling authors Marci Shimoff, Joe Vitale and Bob Doyle, as well as Jeanna Gabellini, who co-authored Life Lessons for Mastering the Law of Attraction: 7 Essential Ingredients for Living a Prosperous Life with Jack Canfield, Eva Gregory and Mark Victor Hansen.
I told Stacy I’d love to know how she got these great endorsements so I could share the strategies with my blog readers. Here’s what she said:
“I acquired Marci Shimoff’s endorsement after doing research for my twitter campaign. I wanted to have some celebrity endorsements as Eli Davidson suggested in her Be Famous Now program, but I didn’t want to go the traditional celebrity route: I wanted to stick with Law of Attraction celebrities. While researching celebrities, I discovered Marci planned to be in Chicago the next weekend.
“I changed my plans and stayed with my Mastermind partner, Anna, in Chicago. The event offered a luncheon on Saturday for 300 women and an optional VIP reception on Friday evening. There were only 20 women at the VIP event Friday and Marci graciously gave me a 15 minute private pow wow of advice, and agreed to endorse my book.
“Jeanna Gabellini is my business coach. She heartily agreed to write an endorsement for my book and asked, ‘If you could have anyone write your foreword and blurbs, who would it be and why?’
“I shared my list of desired people and she told me she knew two of them personally and one owed her a favor! She contacted Bob Doyle, who enthusiastically agreed to write my foreword, and Joe Vitale, who responded with an endorsement immediately.
“I had been willing to settle. After getting a “no” from a bestselling law of attraction author who also wrote a dating book, I thought I’d just have a client write my foreword. The universe rose up to support me and basically said, ‘You will NOT settle,’ and delivered even more than I asked for, which is what I often find to be true once we open our hearts and minds to the possibility!”
Stacy’s experience reminded me of my own. When my co-authors and I were looking for blurbs for The Ultimate Guide to Transforming Anger, we first searched for an anger expert. There seemed to be just one household name in anger at the time and she said she didn’t give blurbs at all. We did get blurbs from a couple of anger experts, but we also wanted someone who was a household name to our readers—someone they knew and trusted.
So we thought about who we knew and Peaco was friends with Amy Tan—they’d been in a writing circle together years before. While Amy wasn’t an anger expert, she was a household name for many of the people in our target audience. And she could write more personally about her experience of the book. She wrote us a great blurb.
The take-aways:
- As Jeanna suggested, make a list of your top choices for blurbs and a foreword. As Stacy did, think about who would have a strong connection with both your audience and the material. They can be an expert in the material, but—as in our case—they can also have a connection to the material by virtue of being human.
- Ask everyone you can think of whether they know the person. Stacy hadn’t realized that Jeanna knew some of her top choices until she asked.
- Aim high.
- Make a big list—the more names, the more likely you are to get a yes.
- If you get no’s, keep brainstorming names and keep asking around—persistence pays off.
- Think out of the box, as we eventually did.
- Meet people in person when possible—even if you don’t know them—as Stacy did. Find out where you might be able to see them in a more intimate setting.
Have you gotten a great blurb? Please share your strategies and suggestions. Or ask your questions as a comment below. And order Stacy’s magical book, Manifest Your Man, here.
I have an unusual situation with a book I am going to try to get published. It is the biography of my deceased son.
I don’t know if I am the autobiographer, the editor or what I am as I have had to write paragraphs in-between his writings.
Also, there is another person who deserves credit; perhaps you would call her a type of ghost writer. She prompted him with questions to help him write the book. He was very ill at the time so he would just talk while she took notes and I audio taped his conversations.
I would be so grateful if you could advise me how such a book would be presented.
Thank you.
Hi Sandy, I am sorry for your loss. I would say “by Son’s Name with Sandy Carlson.” You can then give the question asker credit in the acknowledgements section. You can also make her a “with” but I don’t think it’s necessary, as she wasn’t writing.
Lisa, this is just pure gold. It is so hard to figure out how to get blurbs and is often done in a huge rush while the publisher is waiting! Anyone who is even hoping to get published should read this and start planning an approach now. Thanks, as always, for your advice and great work, Stacy!
I need a soccer celebrity to write the “FOREWORD” of my soccer book. Where can I get one to do this for me? Please help.
Hi Moe, You can contact the person’s agent or publicist to ask. Try researching their info on the internet.