powerful the blurb. You are using some of the credibility and status of the person giving the blurb, and reflecting it back on your book. An excellent example is Give and Take. When it was published, Adam Grant was a fairly obscure professor, not well known out- side of academic circles. But his work had been influential on many famous authors, and he asked them to provide blurbs for his book. Look at the list of people who blurbed him: • Susan Cain • Dan Pink • Tony Hsieh • Seth Godin • Dan Ariely • Gretchen Rubin • David Allen • Dan Gilbert • Robert Cialdini Those people are all famous authors (at least to the type of reader to whom Adam wanted to sell). That list forces his audience to not only give it a chance, but made the media take it seriously as well. You’re trying to borrow the credibility and authority of a person, and sometimes that can be conveyed by their position, even if they aren’t famous themselves. Not all people know famous authors, and not all blurbs should come from famous authors. You can also get blurbs from people who have high-status positions. For example, look at the blurbs for Chasing Excellence (a book about fitness and athletic training). Do you know who any of these people are? • Javier Vazquez hOW TO gET iNCrEDiBlE BlUrBS fOr yOUr BOOk · 225