Seeking book endorsements may cause nausea, shortness of breath

18 Rules of Community Engagement, by Angela Connor

I’m writing a book.

I am now in the all-important phase of gathering endorsements for the back cover. I’ve known this would come and I’ve been adding potential endorsers to my coveted spreadsheet for about a month now with the goal of asking pretty much all of them to take a sneak peek at my book and offer an endorsement.

I’ve received two so far, and both made me feel all tingly and warm inside after reading them. These two paragraphs written by people whose work I admire and respect validate the hard work and late nights I’m putting into this project. It is just what I needed to keep forging ahead full steam.

(Thanks Sonny Gill and Martin Reed!)

But let me tell you how I felt before opening the emails.

• My heart was pounding.
• My palms were a wee-bit sweaty.
• My feet even turned cold.

I decided to leave my inbox before opening the first response, just to give myself a silent pep-talk in the event the person refused to endorse or told me they didn’t like it and could therefore not support me. After all, I am indicating in the introduction to the sneak peek that there is no pressure and I mean that. I am not interested in any false or sympathy endorsements so I have to be prepared for those who will be brutally honest.

As someone who has often taken pride in not giving what people say about me too much weight, this is pretty new. I have to care about what people say, and I really want them to say something nice. In fact, I’m asking them to do just that by using the word “endorse.”

Book marketing, for the non-marketing type is no walk in the park. The good thing is, I’m getting the hang of it and I’m learning how to be pretty bold about it. That’s what it’s going to take to succeed, so I’m going to market this book until I’m blue in the face. And with all it entails, it just may come to that.

My grandfather always said that anything that doesn’t kill you will make you stronger. Well, I’m not dead, so I must be getting stronger every day.

Oh, and BTW–if you’re interested in a sneak peek of my book 18 Rules of Community Engagement: Building relationships and connecting with customers online, let me know. See, I told you I was getting bold. And what’s a few more sweaty palms between friends?

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