The Definitive Guide to Book Blurbs
How to Get Them, Why They’re Overrated, and What to Focus on Instead
--
Of all the book marketing elements you can spend your time and energy on, getting blurbs is by far the most overrated.
Don’t get me wrong: a good blurb from a high quality source can help you garner social proof and sell certain readers on your book.
But in my experience of coaching 100+ authors to write, publish, and market their books, most people spend way too much time thinking about blurbs and not nearly enough time thinking about the feedback that actually sells the most books:
Amazon reviews.
Because blurbs are somewhat important (and no amount of persuasion seems to convince authors to stop obsessing over them), in this article I’ll give you the exact scripts and actionable steps you can use to get both high quality book blurbs and Amazon reviews.
First, it’s important to quickly discuss…
What Blurbs Are and Why They’re Overrated
A book blurb is a quote from a high status source (such as an expert in your field, a celebrity, or a media outlet) that says something positive about you or your book.
Most authors prioritize blurbs over Amazon reviews for one simple reason:
Blurbs are higher status than Amazon reviews, even though they’re less effective at driving sales.
Think about how you engage with an Amazon book page.
You look at:
- The title
- The cover
- The price
- The average rating
- The number of ratings
- And maybe you read a bit of the description or look inside.
If you’re still interested after seeing those elements, you’ll start scrolling down.
Now, here’s the funny part: if you’re like most book shoppers, you’ll skip right past the editorial reviews (a.k.a. book blurbs) and work your way to the bottom to the customer reviews.
Why?
Because the customer reviews are more helpful for selling real readers, despite the fact that they have a lower perceived status than blurbs.
Don’t get me wrong, my minor league baseball memoir is scheduled to publish in about 18 months and I fantasize about seeing names like Michael Lewis, Bill James, and John Feinstein on my blurbs list…
Even though I realize acquiring those blurbs will be more about moving the needle on my ego, not on my sales numbers.
Granted, it’s not an either/or proposition — you’re just better off having:
20 Amazon reviews and 5 mediocre blurbs
than…
5 Amazon reviews and 20 amazing blurbs
You don’t actually have to choose one or the other, but your time is finite — you’ll get more bang for your buck chasing great customer reviews in bunches rather than hunting the great white whale of your perfect blurb.
Having said that, blurbs still provide genuine value. They assure potential readers that your book is relevant to them, and they allow a seemingly-objective third party to sell your book in a way you can’t without coming off as a douche.
So yes, blurbs are valuable, just not valuable enough to warrant the thought and effort most authors put into them.
Okay, we got that out of the way. Let’s get you some blurbs.
How to Get Amazing Book Blurbs
Who to Ask
1. The Out-of-Network Ask
Like a good friend during a night out, I encourage you to shoot your shot with a few people who are way out of your league. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t — but you should try anyway.
One of my clients wanted bestselling author Adam Grant to blurb his book, but they’d never met before. So my client reached out to Grant on LinkedIn.
My client wasn’t annoying about it: he just opened up a thread of communication and kept it going.
Then this client took a chance and emailed a blurb request to Grant. Much to his surprise it actually worked. In fact, it worked so well that I asked my client to share the email with me. It has since become the template I’m about to share with you in the next section.
2. The In-Network Ask
Besides the few “reach” blurbs you’ll seek out, everyone else on your potential blurb list should be in your network, even if they’re a friend-of-a-friend.
You might think it’s annoying to ask a friend for a connection, but the reality is just the opposite: most people are happy to make connections for you because it makes the connector look good.
Regardless of how you get in touch with the blurber, be sure to choose people who have a strong connection to the content of your book.
It’s far more impactful to get a blurb from a thought leader in your niche who’s unknown outside of it, than it is to get a blurb from some celebrity in an unrelated industry.
For example, it might not impress your parents to get your marketing book blurbed by a marketing expert they’ve never heard of, but that’s far more effective than getting, say, Jay Leno to comment on it.
How to Ask
I hate to break it to you, but almost nobody you ask for a blurb will read your full book. I know — it’s disappointing. You have valuable information that could help them, and they don’t know what they’re missing. But they have busy lives, too.
Rather than fighting against this reality, use it to your advantage: make it as easy as possible for them to say yes to your request by giving them the option to blurb you as an individual (rather than the book), and by pointing them to a specific spot in the book they’ll like.
Here’s the template to ask for a blurb:
[Name],
Hello, [Name]. [Insert specific banter if you’ve already met. If you haven’t met, compliment them on their work and reference how you connected.]
I’m writing to ask if you’d provide a blurb for my upcoming book, [Title].
Your endorsement would mean a great deal to me. [Very briefly explain why].
I’m attaching a PDF of the book to this email. In particular, [insert specific chapter, section, or page numbers they’d find valuable and why.]
Obviously I’d love it if you read the book, but I value your time. If you want to comment on our relationship or your work with me instead, that would also be helpful.
Thank you in advance,
[Your name]
P.S. Of course I’d be happy to send you a physical copy if you’d like.
Bonus: one of my clients recorded a personalized video and added it to the above template. I don’t know if it made a difference, but he got a great blurb out of it.
Even if they don’t want to read any part of your book, you give the potential blurber the opportunity to still help you by blurbing you as a person.
You can also get blurbs from:
- Press mentions
- Customer testimonials
- Reader reviews
Everybody goes about this process differently, but I like to send the blurb requests as early as possible — preferably during the final part of the manuscript editing process.
That way you give blurbers more time to read your book (if they want to), and it also gives you a sneaky benefit that most people don’t think about:
If you happen to get an amazing blurb from a high status person, having your hands on that quote earlier in the process will give you the option to implement it on the cover.
One of my mentors, Blake Bailey, did that for the cover of his memoir, The Splendid Things We Planned. He got in contact with David Sedaris very early, and Sedaris gave him a blurb so good that W.W. Norton, the publisher, implemented it in the cover design.
How to Get Amazon Reviews
Scour Amazon and Goodreads for Potential Reviewers
There are over 300 million active Amazon users and about 100 million Goodreads users. Put those people to work selling your book. Not all of them, of course — only reach out to the people most likely to find value in your book.
Here’s the process for finding people on Amazon and Goodreads who can give you quality book reviews:
- Find books that are similar to yours.
- Go to the reviews section and find people who: left a high-quality, multi-paragraph review in the last 12 months; preferably have a profile picture; and bonus if they have a badge that says “Top Contributor” (for Amazon).
- If they have their name and contact information in their profile, add them to a “Potential Reviewers” spreadsheet.
- Add a brief description of what you liked about their review in your spreadsheet (you’ll see why in a minute).
- If they don’t have a full name or contact info listed, cut your losses. I’m sure you could track them down if you wanted, but soliciting reviews from Amazon and Goodreads users is such a numbers game that you don’t want to spend too much time on any one prospect (I’d suggest you get your list in the hundreds, if not thousands).
Bonus: as you scour Amazon for reviewers, take note of the people who left blurbs on those books, too. Mark their names in your “Potential Blurbers” spreadsheet.
(Just a heads up: if you’re lucky, you’ll find quality contact information for about a third of the reviewers you look up.)
Now, fast forward to your book launch day, when you’ll reach out to those potential reviewers with this template:
Hello [Name],
Your review of [book they reviewed] caught my attention.
[Explain what you liked about their reviewing style, based on the brief description of their review you put in your spreadsheet.]
Because I enjoyed your review so much, I’m reaching out about my book.
[Give them the logline for your book and include a link to the Amazon page.] I’m attaching a PDF copy to this email.
I hope you enjoy it.
And if you can share your thoughts in a review, that would be amazing, too.
Thank you,
[Your name]
Tip: to save time copying and pasting, create an email template in Gmail with your personalized version.
Notice how you frame this ask to make it seem like it’s not a request at all? It’s more of an offer.
Rather than making the review a big deal, you treat it like an afterthought while still making it obvious that’s why you’re contacting them in the first place.
If you want to, you can send only one follow-up if they don’t respond after a few days. Keep it short, casual, and friendly:
Hey, sending a gentle nudge on this :)
Remember that you’re cold-emailing strangers, so don’t expect a high rate of return.
However, with these templates, you can contact a lot of people very quickly with relative effectiveness (or hire a VA to do it, which works best for most authors).
A Quick Note on Amazon Links
Amazon is finicky about links and reviews. The short version is this: almost every Amazon link is unique, even if they all lead to the same book. Also, Amazon likes to take down multiple reviews that come from the same link.
Your best option to keep Amazon from deleting your customers’ reviews is to use what they refer to as a “clean link.”
What is a clean link?
Well, check out the following URL on a book listing — look at all that extra bullshit at the end of the URL. You don’t have to be a computer scientist to see that there’s nothing clean about this link.
Most of that stuff is unnecessary for your purposes anyway. The only three things you need in a clean Amazon link are:
- The Amazon.com domain
- The “dp” after the book title
- Your book’s unique 10-item ASIN (which the red arrow is pointing to in the above image)
So instead of using a “dirty” URL that looks something like this:
Your “clean” URL will look like this:
Create your own clean link by inserting your unique 10-item ASIN where the zeroes are here:
amazon.com/dp/0000000000/
Once you create your clean link, make sure you save it as a simple text file and use it for all of your blurb and review asks.
Note: it might seem like we’re really in the weeds here, but I assure you: if you don’t use a clean link, you risk Amazon not only deleting reviews, but also taking down your book entirely.
If you’re somehow even more of a book marketing nerd than me, you can learn more about Amazon URLs here.
Reach Out to Your Facebook Friends
The easiest avenue to contact your friends and family is through Facebook, since most of them are already there.
Don’t be shy about messaging your Facebook friends about your book. Err on the side of messaging more people than you think you should.
(Obviously don’t hit up an ex for the first time since your breakup and tell them to buy your book, but you know what I mean.)
I’ve been there: your instinct is to be non-intrusive and assume people don’t want to hear from you. That may be true, but if you’re connected with someone on the social network, it’s perfectly reasonable to reach out.
Note: the following scripts are predicated on you discounting the Kindle version of your book to $0.99 for launch week. This technique could warrant a post of its own, but the short version is this: if you can convince your publisher to discount your Kindle book for the first week, DO IT.
If you take only one piece of advice from this article, make it that.
On launch day, customize the following message and send it to people on Facebook:
Hey [Name],
[Insert personal banter. Call back to something from the last time you spoke, especially if it’s someone you haven’t talked to in a while.]
Not sure if you saw this or not, but my book [Title] just released, which is a bit surreal.
In all the craziness, my team keeps reminding me to make sure family and friends get in on the action.
If you’re interested, it’s really simple:
My publisher has agreed to discount the Kindle version of [Title] to $0.99 for the first week. That way I can share it with you inexpensively.
I’d be incredibly grateful if you could buy the discounted book and leave a review.
Click here to download: [Clean Amazon link]
Thank you for the support. I really appreciate it!
Using words like surreal, craziness, and action make it seem like you’re stepping out of this wild vortex of new book publicity to send them a personalized message.
Again, after two days you can send a gentle reminder message if they don’t respond, but don’t pester them.
Use Your Email List and LinkedIn Connections
Let’s step back in the timeline real quick…
Around the same time you build out your list of potential Amazon and Goodreads prospects (as early as possible), hire a VA to go through and extract your LinkedIn contacts’ email addresses.
It’s a pretty simple process, but it’s tedious:
- Click on the “Contact Info” link on each person’s profile
- Copy their email address to your email list
Then send the following email on launch day:
Subject: [Book title] is live!
Hey [Name],
Forgive the bulk email, but this is the best way to share some amazing news: my new book, [Title], officially launches today.
What is [Title]? [Insert logline or early blurb — keep it short]
What am I giving you? I’ve convinced my publisher to discount the Kindle version of [Title] from its full list price down to $0.99 for the first week.
That way I can share it with friends and family inexpensively. I’d love to offer you a discounted copy!
Click here [Clean Amazon link] to download the book.
What am I asking of you? No obligation at all, but I’d be incredibly grateful if you could buy the discounted book and leave a review.
Other than sales, reviews are the most important way to attract readers to a new book, and each one makes a huge difference.
That’s everything!
Thank you so much for the support.
Best,
[Your name]
At the end of your launch week, send this second email:
Subject: Your help has been invaluable
Hi [Name],
Just a quick email to say thank you for supporting [Title].
It’s been an amazing first week: we’ve already gotten some fantastic feedback from early readers and we’ve even [Share your bestseller status, if you got it].
This is the last of the book emails, so I want you to know that the price will return to [Price] tonight. If you’re still interested in the discounted book, this is your final chance to grab a copy for $0.99.
Click here [Clean Amazon link] to download.
Thank you again for the amazing support and feedback.
Take care,
[Your name]
P.S. If you want to help out even more, leave a review by scrolling to the middle of the Amazon page and clicking “Leave a Customer Review.” Thank you again!
Note: make sure you get rid of duplicate contacts that are on both your LinkedIn list and Facebook. Again, a VA can handle that as well.
My business partner Jesse, who has coordinated bestseller launches for over 100 books, said that out of the 400,000 people he’s contacted on behalf of authors, fewer than 10 people have unfriended or asked to unsubscribe on account of these book promotion emails and messages.
More often than not, it’s nothing more than anxiety that keeps authors from reaching out to their network to ask for help. And yet the only people I’ve seen launch to crickets (even with incredible books) are the ones who didn’t put the work into getting Amazon reviews.
Bonus: get a few close friends to upvote your favorite Amazon reviews so they stay featured on the page as “most helpful,” rather than getting buried.
Get Your Book the Attention Deserves
One of my college writing professors said something that has stuck with me for over a decade:
I’m an author, not a marketer. I focus on writing the best book possible and relying on the rest of the world to seek it out and bring it into the light.
It’s a cool sentiment that I agreed with at the time, but I’ve since learned that there’s actually a word for this mentality in book marketing: it’s called delusion.
Some of the best books I’ve ever ghostwritten have the saddest, most cobweb-ridden Amazon pages you’ll ever see. All because the authors focused on much less efficient activities, like obsessing over blurbs and just hoping the world would seek it out.
As a ghostwriter and author myself, I understand how challenging it is to navigate writing, publishing, and marketing a book all by yourself. That’s why I offer book coaching services for all stages of the process.
To learn more, schedule a consultation here:
Schedule a Consultation
Greg Larson is an author, editor, and ghostwriter from Austin, Texas.
