Forewords and Blurbs
You learned in Chapter 9 how valuable a foreword and blurbs can be to the success of a book. In no other genre are forewords and blurbs more relied upon than in books about health, mind, and body. Even if you are an authority on the subject, having other experts or prominent people praise your book not only legitimizes the book but positively impacts the sales — a factor publishers tend to appreciate.
Forewords
Naturally, you'll want to consider an accredited authority to write a foreword, especially if your credentials are weak. For example, if you are a licensed social worker with a practice in grief counseling, you would do well to consider a psychologist or psychiatrist to write a foreword. Sometimes however, even the expert can use a foreword from someone less credentialed.
Consider the book Framework: Your 7-Step Program for Healthy Muscles, Bones, and Joints. The author is Nicholas A. DiNubile, an orthopedic surgeon specializing in sports medicine with an impressive professional resume. Nonetheless, a foreword written by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, a former bodybuilder and movie star, while not necessary to establish the expertise of the author, certainly helped sales.
Blurbs from a Variety of Sources
It goes without saying that the more famous the source of the endorsement, the better. You might also think that blurbs should be written by people who possess a great deal of knowledge about your book's subject. While this is mainly true, it is not an absolute, especially when it comes to notable people. In Dr. DiNubile's Framework, there is an endorsement by the well-known basketball player Allen Iverson.
Authors provide an excellent pool of potential sources for your blurbs. Indeed, they need not have a direct correlation to the subject matter. Consider the bestseller, Tuesdays with Morrie, a book listed in this genre, where the author, Mitch Albom, obtained blurbs from M. Scott Peck, MD, Rabbi Harold Kushner, Bernie Siegel, MD, and Amy Tan — all bestselling authors.
As a general rule, the more your book involves medical science, the more you need blurbs from experts. In the 1970s bestseller P.E.T., Parent Effectiveness Training, by Dr. Thomas Gordon, a prominent blurb was obtained from the renowned psychologist Carl Rogers. Another source for blurbs is to reprint a portion of a favorable book review generally obtained from a reviewer after receiving an advance copy of your book before the release date.
The people you would want to consider for endorsements will depend upon the type of book you are writing. Consequently, it is important you know into which subcategory your book fits. To help you do this, a review of some of the major groups in this genre follows.
