Who Says Your Book Is Great?

  

Is your book really, really good?

Do you think that everyone should read it?

Have you cracked 100 copies sold?

Listen up. Authors, no matter how good your book is, you need third-party validation of your book. This means other people must verify your book is terrific. But not just anybody.  Let’s discuss.

First, what ask yourself what really inspires one to invest their time and/or money into a book?

Well, one has to be a book reader who appreciates your genre. They then need to discover your book exists. Once they hear about it, they may look it up on amazon, google the author, or look at your social media pages. If they find your website, they may download the sample chapter that you should be making available, so that people can see if they find your writing style to be pleasing.

Aside from the description of the book sounding interesting and relevant, and that it is priced right and available in a format of their preference (audio, ebook, trade paperback, hardcover), they want to know the background or resume of its author. They want you to sound interesting and perfectly qualified or positioned to pen this book. A catchy title, an attractive cover, or a pic of a good-looking author can’t hurt either. 

Then, they want reassurances, from competent people and authoritative sources, that your book deserves a bonafide green light. Ok, so what does that look like?

Book Awards/Writing Contests

Submitting your book for awards or entering your work into writing contests is an excellent way to get feedback and hopefully praise from a qualified source. Yes, it takes time to find the awards, know of the application deadlines, fill out the submission, and often pay a small fee to enter, but if your book is very good, you have a legit shot at being a finalist or winner of one or more awards. It is a numbers game. The more competitions that you submit to — and the more genres that you apply under — the more chances you have given yourself to come away with something. Many awards send you an evaluation form that shares important insights on various aspects of your book. These notes can be quotable statements that you can use publicly.

Book Reviews

There are several types of book reviews to concern yourself with.  

There are customer reviews on places like Amazon or reader reviews on sites like Goodreads. You want at least several dozen of these — and hopefully you average 4.5 stars or higher. As you can see, you need quantity and quality. Unfortunately, it is hard to know who bought your book or to hold sway over them to get them to post a review. Even getting friends, relatives, neighbors, colleagues, alumni, and fellow churchgoers to post a review can prove to be challenging. You sometimes just want to smack them across the head with your book, but wait, anger management is a whole other topic. I digress. 

Additionally, you want book reviews from real book reviewers at newspapers, literary publications, magazines, newsletters, and websites. You usually need to submit an advance review copy (digital or print) three to four months before your book’s scheduled publication date. Most authors screw this up. They submit when it is too late or to the wrong media outlet or person at that outlet. Further, some snobby snots like The New York Times, will ignore self-published and hybrid-published books. Bastards!  

Ok, so the only guaranteed way to get book reviews is to pay for them. That’s right, shake the money tree. Scrape up a grand or two and submit to a variety of trade publications, major book review sites, and a few other literary outlets. Fees range from 50 bucks at Midwest Book Review to Kirkus Reviews for four Benjamins. Don’t be cheap or a wussy here. Submit to four to seven reviewers. They don’t guarantee a sugar-coated review. They will tell you if you a gem or a toilet-flusher on your hands. But even a mediocre review will have a few words or a sentence that becomes your validating pull quote.  

Influencers

This term is overused and abused: influencer. There are a bunch of losers posing as influencers but half their followers are fake or no longer actively pay attention. Still, there are people with over one million followers or who put out content that gets viewed by millions of people. You can find these people and hope that begging them works. Perhaps they organically discover your book and post about it. You can’t rely on any of that well wishing. Cash your bitcoin out and be ready to pay to play if you want to get public praise for your book. The industry is too slimy for me — and often too costly — for me to recommend it to most authors, but nevertheless, it is available to you to search Instagram to find verifiable social media whores who will service you for the right price.  

Testimonials

Celebrities, best-selling authors, journalists, experts, CEOs, government agencies, trade associations, non-profits, professors, and other people with a title may be willing to give you a blurb for your book. Ask and you may receive. If you do it early enough, you can include it on your book’s back cover. But whenever you get it, use it.

News Media Stories/Interviews

By saying you were interviewed by or written about in various media outlets you quickly can credibility. If possible, quote the media outlet praising you. For instance, if a decent-sized radio show host at some point in the interview says something like: “Wow, your story sounds so intriguing,” use that quote. You don’t need their permission.

Event Appearances

When you speak somewhere, such as a book conference, library, bookstore, or event, list that event in your marketing materials. Further, ask for a testimonial from the event organizer. If a bookstore manager emails you to say; “We are so glad you came to speak at our store. We had a good turnout for your engaging presentation,” use that.  

So, what do you do with all of this praise aside from mentally masturbating over it? You post and share everywhere and often. You can put this praise on or in your:  

* social media posts

* website

* press kit

* elevator speech

* amazon page

* current or upcoming book’s back or front * cover or an interior page upfront 

You can reference the praise when pursuing book awards, bookstore events, news media appearances, or any kind of ask. Your current collection of praise may even help you trade up to convince a heavyweight to endorse your work. 

So, how will you get this done? 

* Commit to doing it. Make a promise to yourself — no crossing your fingers, please. 

* Dedicate time to research and execute the outreach. 

* Be organized and disciplined so that you can follow up on things. 

* Open your wallet to invest some money into this. If you have to count your pennies, pick another hobby.  

* Follow an 80/20 approach. Focus 80 percent of your time on reasonably achievable pursuits and 20 percent on big reaches/dreams. 

* Have a thick skin— don’t worry if people ignore, reject, or even trash you. It goes with the territory. Losses or setbacks don’t matter. You only count the wins. The more you try, the more failures you will rack up. Guaranteed. But you also gain more victories. Do you understand that if you get 30 rejections but also get five good responses that you are a winner? Book marketing is like dating  

* Make a target list of who/what you are going to pursue, do your research, observe any related deadlines, and then unleash the dogs. Just dive in and go for it. No wait and see. No dabbling or toe-dipping. Strip naked and jump into the lake.  

Ok, any questions? Hold onto them and just roll your sleeves up and get to work. Park your cerebral side that questions, delays, and undermines everything. Instead, swig some Red Bull, coffee, or a shot of booze and turbocharge into a praise-gathering machine.  

Do You Need Book Marketing & PR Help?

Brian Feinblum, the founder of this award-winning blog, with over four million page views, can be reached at brianfeinblum@gmail.com  He is available to help authors like you to promote your story, sell your book, and grow your brand. He has over 30 years of experience in successfully helping thousands of authors in all genres. Let him be your advocate, teacher, and motivator!

 

About Brian Feinblum

This award-winning blog has generated over four million pageviews. With 5,000+ posts over the past dozen years, it was named one of the best book marketing blogs by BookBaby  http://blog.bookbaby.com/2013/09/the-best-book-marketing-blogs  and recognized by Feedspot in 2021 and 2018 as one of the top book marketing blogs. It was also named by www.WinningWriters.com as a "best resource.”  Copyright 2025.

 

For the past three decades, Brian Feinblum has helped thousands of authors. He formed his own book publicity firm in 2020. Prior to that, for 21 years as the head of marketing for the nation’s largest book publicity firm, and as the director of publicity at two independent presses, Brian has worked with many first-time, self-published, authors of all genres, right along with best-selling authors and celebrities such as: Dr. Ruth, Mark Victor Hansen, Joseph Finder, Katherine Spurway, Neil Rackham, Harvey Mackay, Ken Blanchard, Stephen Covey, Warren Adler, Cindy Adams, Todd Duncan, Susan RoAne, John C. Maxwell, Jeff Foxworthy, Seth Godin, and Henry Winkler.

 

His writings are often featured in The Writer and IBPA’s The Independent (https://pubspot.ibpa-online.org/article/whats-needed-to-promote-a-book-successfully).

 

He hosted a panel on book publicity for Book Expo America several years ago, and has spoken at ASJA, BookCAMP, Independent Book Publishers Association Sarah Lawrence College, Nonfiction Writers Association, Cape Cod Writers Association, Willamette (Portland) Writers Association, APEX, Morgan James Publishing, and Connecticut Authors and Publishers Association. He served as a judge for the 2024 IBPA Book Awards.

 

His letters-to-the-editor have been published in The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, New York Post, NY Daily News, Newsday, The Journal News (Westchester) and The Washington Post. His first published book was The Florida Homeowner, Condo, & Co-Op Association Handbook.  It was featured in The Sun Sentinel and Miami Herald.

 

Born and raised in Brooklyn, he now resides in Westchester with his wife, two kids, and Ferris, a black lab rescue dog, and El Chapo, a pug rescue dog.

 

You can connect with him at: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brianfeinblum/ or https://www.facebook.com/brian.feinblum