What is the best way to get endorsements?

[OneTeam OneDream]

I have a few people in mind I would like to get to give endorsement statements on my book, some I have contact with, some I don't. What is the best way to do this? Obviously you can't send them the entire book, but what could you do?

Thanks

[Sassenach]

Publicists handle this. Does your publisher have a publicity department?

FWIW, they're called 'blurbs'. Endorsements are something else.

[aka eraser]

Your publisher would normally send advance copies to reviewers and other interested parties.

[Kiva Wolfe]

The smaller houses might not put the effort into the advanced publicity; some just don't have the resources. I used to handle pre-book publicity for two author friends. One was with Ivy/Random House, the other author with Adams Media. Neither author was A-list. Both wrote nonfiction, and always, it came down to a combination of efforts. I created the author presentation packets, actively sent out press releases, and provided ARCs to newspapers and magazines to fulfill review requests, keeping the agent, editors and publicity departments in the loop. Ivy put effort into other forms of promotion and did a tremendous job overall, but they could afford to.

Now that I'm my own marketing maven, it all seems like uncharted territory. Recently, I asked authors and readers within my circle if they could suggest an author to do a book blurb. I felt awkward contacting someone I hadn't met, so I approached two authors whose workshop I attended at a recent conference, and another author from a writing organization I also belong to. My publisher provided an unedited ARC for this purpose. I intend to seek out two more authors to make it an even five. If you don't have a publicist or agent to handle this for you, talk to your editor or the person in the publicity department overseeing your work, and be open to taking on this task yourself.

[OneTeam OneDream]

The smaller houses might not put the effort into the advanced publicity; some just don't have the resources. I used to handle pre-book publicity for two author friends. One was with Ivy/Random House, the other author with Adams Media. Neither author was A-list. Both wrote nonfiction, and always, it came down to a combination of efforts. I created the author presentation packets, actively sent out press releases, and provided ARCs to newspapers and magazines to fulfill review requests, keeping the agent, editors and publicity departments in the loop. Ivy put effort into other forms of promotion and did a tremendous job overall, but they could afford to.

Now that I'm my own marketing maven, it all seems like uncharted territory. Recently, I asked authors and readers within my circle if they could suggest an author to do a book blurb. I felt awkward contacting someone I hadn't met, so I approached two authors whose workshop I attended at a recent conference, and another author from a writing organization I also belong to. My publisher provided an unedited ARC for this purpose. I intend to seek out two more authors to make it an even five. If you don't have a publicist or agent to handle this for you, talk to your editor or the person in the publicity department overseeing your work, and be open to taking on this task yourself.



Thanks for the help, yes it is a small press (McFarland), and I will be handling it myself.