Using Testimonials to Your Advantage
When it's time to promote your book, one of the best tools in your author toolkit is the testimonial. You know what those are: the quotes that appear on the back of a book or within the initial pages of the book to promote it and to promote the author. These are often written by subject-matter experts, influencers, or well-known celebrities. Do they really help sell books? That's up for debate, but they can't hurt!
You should start gathering testimonials for your book even before it gets published. If you wish to include them in the print version of your book, you'll want to have testimonials well in advance of going to print, most likely one to two months out. You can also use testimonials in your retailer copier in your metadata (we’ll explore that in a separate post). Here are a few quick tips for writing testimonials:
Create a testimonial plan. In other words, map out how you're going to go about asking people for testimonials, who you'll ask, and what information you will provide for them in order to write the testimonial. Typically, testimonial writers wish to see at minimum of a sample chapter of your book and the table of contents. Ideally, you'll want to share the entire book with them, even if the book has not yet been edited. Just remember to let your potential testimonial writer know the state of the manuscript that you are sharing with them.
Next, think about what you want those testimonials to say. If you feel comfortable with the person you're asking, you can just turn them loose and let them write whatever they wish. But keep in mind that the testimonial isn't just about who you are as a person (though that element should be addressed), but rather it's about the quality of the content in your book.
Some testimonial writers don't have time or are not interested in actually doing the writing themselves. That's fine. You can offer to write the testimonial for them and simply have them approve the content in the language. This is an option that is best used for well-known influencers or celebrities.
Your testimonials should be no more than 50 words in length. This is because you want to maximize the name brand recognition of each testimonial writer and include as many of them as you can in the printed book or on the retailer copy.
Don't be afraid to give your potential testimonial writers a deadline.
Once you begin gathering testimonials, you can see how the book’s marketing plan will start to shape up. Then it’s time for the real fun to begin.
