1. COMES FROM A RELEVANT, HIGH STATUS, OR CREDIBLE PERSON This is key. You want your source to be one that sends the right signals to the audience of the book, and conveys the authority you want to achieve with your book. There are a lot of subtleties to this we will explain later in this section. 2. HELPS THE READER UNDERSTAND WHY THE BOOK MATTERS TO THEM It’s not easy to frame or explain your book to a reader, and a blurb can help them understand why they need to buy and read your book. 3. IS NOT PITCHY OR OVER THE TOP The worst thing you can do is get a great person to leave a gushing blurb that sounds paid for or ridiculous. Realistic is better than explosively optimistic. People tend to discount things that seem too good to be true. WHERE CAN BLURBS COME FROM? There are three basic types of blurbs, and we’ll walk through each one in detail. 1. Quotes from Credible, High-Status People 2. Press Mentions 3. Reader and Customer Testimonials QUOTES FROM CREDIBLE OR HIGH-STATUS PEOPLE Most people do not pay much attention to what blurbs actually say, since almost all blurbs are uniformly positive. Instead, people pay attention to who gave the blurb, and judge your book based on the person endorsing it. The more credibility and social status the endorser holds, the more 224 · ThE SCriBE METhOD