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How to Get Celebrity Endorsements For Your Book

Having celebrities endorse your book will lend credibility, prestige and authority. It will also help you sell more books.

Big brands have been using celebrities to sell products for ages. Think Michael Phelps on the corn flakes box to Ellen Degeneres in Cover Girl makeup commercials. They pay big fees to the celebrities because these endorsements help sell more products.

The good news is, with a little bit of effort on your part, you can get industry influencers and busy celebrities to endorse your books- and you won’t have to pay a fee.

To understand why celebrities will give you an endorsement, even if they don’t know you, see Part 1 of this series Why you should ask Barbara Corcoran for an endorsement

I reached out to a top industry expert who was also a multiple New York Times bestselling author to get an endorsement for a client’s book. They agreed. We were thrilled! An endorsement from them would add incredible cache and authority to my client’s book. Weeks went by. We heard nothing. After more than a month, I reached out and asked if it would help if I sent some sample endorsements.

The expert’s assistant wrote back with a one word response: “Absolutely”.
We got their endorsement the next week!

The key to having celebrities endorse your book is to put in time up front, and to make it as easy as possible for them to say yes.

Here is how to get celebrity endorsements for your book

Create a simple, ‘package’ with all your information and materials to send via email.

Start by sending a very short, detailed note about your book along with your request and why you think they are the perfect person to endorse it. [Genuine flattery goes a long way!]

Offer a copy of the book as well as a representative sample

Many celebrities and experts will not want to read your entire book; however, you should offer them a copy of it as well as a representative sample [intro, table of contents and a chapter]. Rather than send the sample as an attachment, host your sample chapter in the cloud [drop box, google doc…] and offer a link to the files in your email.

Offer Sample Endorsements [3 -5 samples]

Let them know you recognize that they are busy, so you have drafted a few sample endorsements that they are welcome to use as is, or edit. This can make it easier for them. They can simply select one of your samples and email you back which one to put their name next to, or they can customize a sample endorsement to make it more ‘in their own voice’.

This last step of offering ‘sample endorsements’ can make all the difference between getting an endorsement or not, as you can see from my client example.

Sending sample endorsement works for two reasons. People are intimidated by a blank page. They aren’t sure where to start. By offering them some samples, you are helping to give them some suggestions and direction. They don’t have to think hard about this, and can comply with your request, by customizing one of your samples in a minute or two.

Remember, you are asking a busy people to take an action on your behalf. You want to have celebrities endorse your book. They get a lot of requests. The easier you make it for them, the greater likelihood you have of success.

Fast Track Your Results & Get More Celebrity Endorsements

Related Content :

Part 1: Why you should ask Barbara Corcoran for an endorsement

Part 3: How to Contact A Celebrity for a Book Endorsement

Listen to our podcast: The Self-Publishing Blueprint

Why you should ask Barbara Corcoran for an endorsement

To add credibility and social proof to your book, there is no better way than to have a celebrity or recognized expert endorse your book. In this post I’m going to cover Why you should ask Barbara Corcoran for an endorsement.

You may be thinking, ” but I don’t know any celebrities or recognized experts, or they don’t know me, so why would they endorse me”?

Here are 3 reasons why a celebrity will endorse books or products, even if they don’t know you personally:

They want to remain visible
They want to give back and help someone who is up and coming
They believe in the product

And yet….Barbara Corcoran turned me down.

When I published my first book, Success Secrets of the Real Estate Super Stars – Remarkable Women in Real Estate, the obvious choice to ask for an endorsement from Barbara Corcoran.

I did a search online and found her press contact. I drafted my endorsement letter and sent it off. I got a prompt response from her press person saying that unfortunately Barbara was slammed with travel and wouldn’t be able to endorse the book. I was a little bit disappointed but went on to publish the book.

Fast forward two years. A colleague was publishing a book on real estate and wanted to get an endorsement from Barbara Corcoran. She reached out and Barbara said yes. Why? The timing was better. She had the time to look at the book and endorse it.

So if you’re looking for endorsements from anyone famous, a celebrity or industry expert, the first rule of thumb is simply – you have to ask.

Be prepared to get turned down. It’s not personal, necessarily. It’s probably just that they’re too busy and not able to comply.

Want to sell more books? – get endorsements from recognized experts or celebrities.

Fast Track Your Results & Get Celebrity Now

Part 3, I show you how to find a press contact for any celebrity.

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Does an Author Need Both PR and Social Media

I was recently asked by a fellow publisher “whether an author with limited time and resources should put them into social media strategies rather than trying to include publicity or even going exclusively the publicity route.” Does an author need PR and Social Media to succeed?

Here is my response:

Good question. The first thing I always want to know is where does your audience live, as it should inform a lot of where to put your efforts. If you target an audience that is rarely on social media, then that would not be a great use of all your efforts.

I consider social media as part of ‘the media’ nowadays

Earned media [others writing about you, talking about you…] is the most valuable type of content you can have [no one cares or believes what you say about you to some extent, especially on social media]. Others talking about you is social proof, third party credibility, perceived as an endorsement…

In our review economy [also called trust economy], people trust:

recommendations from friends and family
online reviews & recommendations and
the media [source: Nielson]

You have probably heard it said that people buy from those they know, like and trust… so media coverage/mentions are in the top 3 factors that influence buying decisions

The media are respected, and as it is they who decide what they write about; being the ‘selected one’ has additional value – i.e. they featured you over all the other experts out there.

When you are featured in the media, you get the halo effect of being associated with their respected brands…. that is why we say, as seen in the NY Times or cite a NY Times book review, and we don’t say “as seen on Facebook” or cite a Facebook book review, no matter how glowing.

As you can probably tell by now, I think that authors need PR and Social Media to succeed; I recommend authors use a combination of PR and social media… yes, even when time and resources are challenged [when aren’t they?]… all the more reason to learn how each medium works and learn how to maximize your efforts.

Want to learn more about how to do your own publicity? Please check out our Magnify Your Message program

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Do Your Own Book Publicity

The top 3 challenges authors have with book publicity

If you build it, they will come. It turns out that readers and clients don’t just show up. Even established authors use book publicity to promote their work.

With one book published on Amazon every 5 minutes, it can be hard to get your book in front of your target readers. Unfortunately, this can be a tough realization for you authors who work so hard on your book to then publish it, only to hear crickets.

I hear this unfortunate story all too often. The two biggest concerns I hear from authors are getting more visibility and how to leverage their book to get more clients. The fastest way to accomplish these two is with book publicity.

Publicity done right can put you in front of your ideal audience, establish instant credibility, instant expert status and be perceived as an endorsement from the media. It gives you free access to a wider audience, while positioning you as a top expert. It also creates a sense of ‘know, like and trust’ that is needed before people will buy from you. Because of these factors, book publicity can help you convert your media coverage into paying clients when done right.

Many of the authors that I speak with aren’t using publicity due to 3 major challenges. I hear these challenges so often, that I have come to call them the Big 3:

Lack of Time
Lack of Money
Lack of Know-how

Due to these 3 factors, authors often stay stuck and don’t do anything regarding publicity for themselves and their book. Or, they mistakenly think that they need a big, expensive PR firm to do the publicity for them. Billionaire and Shark Tank judge Mark Cuban has said, “Never hire a PR firm.” He and I believe that you are the best person to do your own book publicity because you are the most passionate about your book and work, and know the most about it.

Why I Created the Author Visibility Builder Program

I feel so strongly that authors like you are missing out on what can be the single biggest leverage point in getting more visibility, readers and new clients – publicity, and it doesn’t have to be that way. I want to show you how to succeed with PR even if you have little time, a tiny budget and have little or no PR know-how. I felt I had to help authors; you put so much work into your book, you deserve to reap the benefits book publicity can provide.

That’s why I created the Author Visibility Builder program. It’s for non-fiction authors just like you who want to do your own book publicity. You know that if you just get in front of your ideal audience, you can share more of your gifts as well as turn more of your audience into paying clients.

The Author Visibility Builder program will empower you to do your own book publicity, give you a simple system you can easily follow to do your publicity and get results. I’ll also show you how to leverage the publicity you get to generate more opportunities – publicity, speaking gigs, new clients…

Preview the program here

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How a Business Coach Landed Clients and Profits With His Book

When I speak to prospective authors about the book they want to write, the conversation often turns to what they can expect when it comes to a return on their investment. As I work primarily with non fiction authors, I encourage them to look at the profits they will get from the doors their book will open and the opportunities it will bring, then on the actual dollars from the sale of their books in retail and online stores. One business coach has landed clients with his book, increased his branding and visibility and his bottom line, as you will see in the case study below; this result can easily be achieved by you too.

Part of the work I do is to strategize with clients about how to best leverage their book to grow their brand and their bottom line. It’s essential that as an author, you leverage your published book and make sure you are maximizing visibility for your book and encouraging opportunities.

A great example of how to do this, is from my client, business and money mindset coach Wei Houng. He is the co-author of the book, “Breakthrough Leadership – Conversations With Innovative Leaders.”

Wei is an active business networker, and took his book to all his events. This became an easy conversation starter and instant expert positioning for him.

According to Wei, a few of the people he networks with regularly became interested in knowing more about working with him, once they saw the book. This lead to a new client from his existing network, in the first month the book was out.

[clickToTweet tweet=”The branding & positioning from becoming a published author is priceless – Wei Houng” quote=”The branding & positioning component from becoming a published author is priceless – Wei Houng”]

“So the book itself has received really good feedback and has been a great marketing and positioning piece. Since launch, I have personally sold about 200 copies as a way to monetize my speaking opportunities. This alone resulted in $2k in revenue.

As a result of those speaking engagements, countless leads were created which, to date, have resulted in thousands of dollars in new business…with, I’m sure, more to come. When all is said and done, I suspect, branding aside, the book will have been responsible for helping me generate 5 figures worth of new revenue in my business. And, the branding and positioning component is priceless.

So, thanks! Looking forward to experiencing more of the ripple effects!” – Wei Houng, Founder The 6 Figure Academy, Co-Author Breakthrough Leadership

Highlights of how Wei leveraged his book to add an additional 10k to his bottom line in the first few months of publishing his book:

Bring the book to every networking event he attends. It opens conversations and positions you in a new enhanced and elevated way as an authority, even with people who have known you for a while.

A Book Landing Page. This provides an online destination to send potential readers, as well as to build his email list.

Public Speaking – Wei enjoys public speaking, and uses the opportunity to engage with prospective readers /clients. He always mentions the book in his talk and has books available for sale. Wei always includes a call to action, which in his case, is an invitation to the audience to sign up for a complimentary strategy session. At a recent event, he had 30% of the audience sign up for strategy sessions [a nice increase from speaking gigs given before he was an author]

Publicity. Wei has used a simple PR strategy [our Author Visibility Builder system] to get podcast and radio interviews, as well as mentions on ABC, CBS, NBC. This helps him attract prospects from outside his own network. He always uses a call to action in his interviews, which also leads to book sales, inquiries, strategy sessions and ultimately clients.

Social Media. Wei uses social media regularly. He offers valuable tips via postings and Facebook Live videos, which help give a taste of who he is and the value he brings. He regularly mentions his book as where to purchase it. He also has been actively promoting his co-authors which helps put him in front of their networks as well.

As a business coach, becoming a published author can easily lead to landed clients and profits with your book. The key is to have a plan and a strategy to maximize your book and leverage opportunities. You can start leveraging your own book to land clients, by signing up for my webinar on how to use publicity to land clients.

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Webinar:

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Speaking in Soundbites: How Nonfiction Authors Turn Readers Into Clients Using Publicity Register here

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How Thinking Big Can Be Bad for Building Authority

How Thinking Big Can Be Bad For Building Authority

Think big. Create a big hairy audacious goal BHAG. You have all been encouraged to do that. The truth is that thinking big can hurt you in the short term when it comes to everything from building authority, seeking publicity to book reviews and more.
It’s great to create that big hairy audacious goal and to think big, however if it’s not put in perspective it can actually hurt you when it comes to achieving some of your goals, especially when those goals involve third parties such as building authority, getting media coverage, being a radio show guest or getting book reviews.

Prospects sometimes come to me stating their desire to be featured in Entrepreneur magazine, The New York Times or in the ultimate outlet – Oprah magazine. Those are great goals, however, sometimes you have to start out in the minor league, before the majors take notice of you.

Let’s take a page from Oprah’s path to success

Oprah didn’t start out as a nationally recognized, incredibly popular talk show host. She started out part time at a local black radio station in Tennessee. From there she went to another local station as both the youngest news anchor and the first black female news anchor at Nashville’s WLAC-TV. It wasn’t until 2 jobs later that she was discovered by a Chicago station that invited her to come work on a talk show, which soon lead to what we all know as The Oprah Winfrey show.

We might never have heard of Oprah if she only had her sights set on getting hired directly on a major network show, and wouldn’t consider anything less. Instead she began part time, at a local station and kept stepping up into bigger and more visible roles.

It’s important to not to overlook local or smaller opportunities because they often lead to other opportunities. You may be missing out if you’re overlooking opportunities, and holding out exclusively to land the big one first.

Starting smaller offers multiple benefits

By starting smaller or with lesser known media outlets, you get to do a few positive things:

Have an easier time getting opportunities – local media likes local stories, and there is often less competition seeking them
You can practice and polish your skills – better to flub in your small town paper than in The New York Times….
Larger media outlets, producers and book reviewers often scan local media or smaller blogs for story ideas.
The media mentions or reviews you receive are great content to fill your media room or press kit with

For the big win that you’re looking for, it just may not be the first publicity or place you get quoted.

Oprah got her break as an anchor on the news, because she was willing to work at a small local station.

So when it comes to getting publicity, being a guest on a podcast, getting your book reviewed and many other desirable situations, having some experience, even if it’s not from the top network or leading company counts.

Describing what journalists look for in a source, Dawn Reiss, freelance journalist /writer for various national outlets said,

“A lot of the major outlets will do a Google search on people to see where else they’ve been published.”

So being published, somewhere, counts. If you steadily and consistently build your authority and showcase it properly online, those big opportunities will come.

What opportunities are you overlooking because you think they are too small or insignificant?

This first appeared in Business2Community

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How to Use Press Releases To Promote Your Book- Infographic

If you have ever wondered how press releases promote your book, I have you covered. Our handy infographic highlights the benefits of using press releases and shows a timeline of press-worthy events that call for issuing a release.

Suggested occasions to use press releases to promote your book:

Pre-publications events include when you come up with your book idea, signing a publishing deal, and getting invited to co-author a book.

Publishing milestones such as a new book release by an established or famous author, the release of the book in print, kindle or audio versions, or a new book series.

Book promotional story angles include local author, book tours -both virtual and live, author interviews, book signing, free chapter give-away, bestseller status, awards, or reprinting of a book.

To get the most benefit from press releases to promote your book, start planning before you even finish writing your book. That way, you will be ready to start your publicity as soon as you have a newsworthy event, even if it’s pre-publication. To prepare, you can draft a basic press release that can serve as a template for all your press releases since key sections of the press release will remain the same. These sections include the ‘about us’ section, which is also known as the boilerplate, the book title, publisher and contact information.

The additional value of using releases is that they can and should be added to your online press room. That way, you let your site visitors know about your book news and milestones and start to build credibility with each additional item you add to the press room.

For more resources to help you use press releases to promote your book, download our Publicity Toolkit and Free Downloadable Media Plan Template. You can also contact us to find out about our press release writing and distribution services.

Related Content: 8 Ways to Promote Your Book Online

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How Not to Be One of the 45% of HARO Media Pitches That Suck

Not getting responses to your Help a Reporter Out HARO media pitches? The reason may be that your pitches don’t include the 7 must-haves for a successful HARO media pitch. Either you aren’t giving journalists what they need, or your pitches simply stink. The pitch that does satisfy on all counts, gets the publicity.

I am not a journalist, however I occasionally use HARO to find sources for a story, a blog post, or book that I am working on. My team and I use HARO to get publicity for myself and my clients, and we’ve had a lot of success with it.

After posting a query on HARO recently, I was surprised by the number of pitches that missed the mark. Some simply sucked. And it doesn’t have to be that way.

In an effort to help you not be one of the 45 % of pitches that suck, I analyzed the responses I received. The collated results are presented here. It was a small sampling; not sufficient to call this a scientific study, but valuable information if you put it to use. I also interviewed a few journalists on best practices for HARO media pitching, and what they like to see in a pitch.

I started by asking for insight on succeeding with HARO from its founder Peter Shankman, who said:

“In the past ten years, journalists have been tasked with doing ten times more with five times less. Truly want to get your story placed? Do as much of the journalist’s work as you can. Give smart background. When you offer a source, make sure they can talk and know what they’re saying. Beat the herd by being just a little bit better.

Oh, and be fast. Super, super fast. Get your reply out within five minutes of receiving the HARO.”

The key to pitching HARO successfully comes to, as Mr. Shankman says, “doing as much of the journalist’s work as you can.” In an age of 24/7 news, with reduced newsroom staff, journalists’ jobs are more challenged than ever, so your key to getting the publicity you want is to literally help a reporter out.

How journalists use HARO:

To find sources, as well as to help develop a story idea they are working on
When they are on a tight deadline, as well as for stories with more lead time

“I use it both for same-day deadlines and for long-term features and I’ve really gotten wonderful stuff for my stories from it – both from average people, whose opinions and experiences are hugely important in my work, and from experts from every field,” – an editor for a major U.S. news organization who uses HARO several times a month [they requested anonymity].

To get started let’s look at a sample HARO query – broken up into sections.

What Journalists want in a response to a query:

Journalists told us they want you to provide all the requested information in a concise response so that if they are on a tight deadline, they have all the information that they need to use you as a source without needing to speak to you. That said, it’s very important to include a phone number and other contact information, should they have the time and want to follow up and verify information, do an interview or get additional information.

What Journalists don’t want …

Busy journalists don’t want to have to guess who you are, what information or expertise you have to share, to have to try and locate your contact info, or try and locate you. This may sound obvious; however, many pitches were missing some or all contact info.

I encourage my clients to think of their pitch like a gift, with their entire pitch and supporting assets nicely and attractively packaged, so it’s all in one place. Incomplete, off topic or unclear pitches just clog a busy journalist’s inbox and often just get deleted.

“You can have everything in life you want, if you will just help enough other people get what they want.” – Zig Ziglar

7 Must-Haves For A Successful HARO Media Pitch:

Get your pitch in asap.
The number of responses to a query can be anywhere from 10-100 depending on the topic or media outlet. Queries from top national publications tend to get more responses than smaller or lesser known media. Busy journalists often go with the first great pitch they receive.

Create a compelling subject line
In a sea of responses [average query gets 35-100 responses], your subject line can help your email get noticed, though a long query title, leaves less room for your unique pitch to show in the journalist’s inbox view.

24% of HARO media pitches rated ‘very good’

Use a greeting
Business communication usually start with a greeting. Granted, some HARO queries are posted anonymously, so you don’t have an actual name of a person to address. This is not something our journalists noted, nor a requirement, however a greeting is a standard business pleasantry. One that addresses the journalist by name is courteous and also demonstrates you have read the query carefully, which goes a long way towards your credibility.

52% started their pitch with a greeting, addressing me by name. The balance had no greeting at all.

Establish your credentials
To be used as a source by a journalist, you need to let them know what your credentials are, concisely, right within your pitch. Demonstrate you are a good, expert source for their story. One mistake we see repeatedly is “my bio is on my website.” A busy journalist with 95 other responses, will either hit delete or just move on to the next pitch which contains all the information they are seeking.

64% of HARO media pitches established their credentials within the email

Fit the requirements
While not all pitches have requirements, the ones that do have them for a specific reason, so it’s important to respond only if you are a fit.

47% of pitches fit our requirements, 35% might be a fit but needed clarification, 16% didn’t fit at all

“And a lot of the people weren’t on target. I was very specific in my HARO query about how I was looking for responses on how to invest. Another example, in a query on the business side of co-working spaces, a lot of people responded back saying, ‘Oh, I work at a co-working space. Would you like to talk to me?’ And that’s not useful.” – Dawn Reiss, freelance journalist /writer for various national outlets.

Complete, Cut and Paste Response
The ‘cut and paste’ response is where the person has answered the questions posed in the query, right within their email pitch. A busy journalist doesn’t want to interview you to find out if you are the right source for their story. Or they might like to interview you, but with limited time, they’ll have to do with taking your response as is, and cutting and pasting it into their story, citing you as the source.

“I much prefer a response that actually provides the comment or information the person wants to share.” – An editor for a major U.S. news organization who uses HARO several times a month [and requested anonymity].

In other words, if a query asks for you best tips for mobile marketing, include your best tips for mobile marketing right in your email pitch.

Include a phone number
While our journalists have stated that they often don’t have time to speak with you for a story, they still expect you to include your phone number. That way, should they want to get additional information, touch base before going to print or interview you, they already have your contact info.

Only 41% of our respondents included a phone number in their pitch

I hope you will use this information to help you succeed in your HARO media pitches. To your publicity success!

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