Psst..hey buddy, want an book endorsement for a buck twenty?
Every so often, you will read or hear something that burst a little bubble in your subconscious. It is usually something simple that you should have already gotten, but in your nice little innocent world, it did not occur to you. This happened to me over the little endorsement blurbs on the back on books.
When scanning over a shelf of books trying to decide if I should pick up a book that I might not be familiar with, I will be the first to admit to being swayed by a endorsement on the back of the book. After all, if an some and so thinks its a good book, why not take a chance on it? I know that is consumer psychology 101 and all, but it does work.
Still one day I was reading something that now escapes me, but it mentioned among other methods that how as a author you can pay someone a fair amount like $5,000 and have some famous author talk about how fabulous your book is. Now this is no different than various other endorsement situations, but I guess the bibliophile in me just shutters a little bit at this. Maybe it is because in other endorsement situations, it can be easier to tell when someone is compensated for their positive spin versus wondering if Steven Levitt of Freakonomics fame really enjoyed that new economics book on the shelf or something greased the words. Its like I know when Paul Harvey is waxing poetically about the new Bose Wave system, it is a commercial that he is being paid to endorse the product. But now I often wonder about those little blurbs on the back cover.
I do not mean to imply anything about Mr. Levitt by the way; he was just an example of someone I have seen several books recently. In fact, I selected one book on economics from the library based largely on his endorsement on the back of the book. I guess they really do work, huh?
Still one day I was reading something that now escapes me, but it mentioned how as a author you can pay someone a fair amount like $5,000 and have some famous author talk about how fablous your book is.