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I Was Wrong About Book Endorsements

Previously, I had thought that very few people bought a book based on endorsements.

(By endorsements, I’m referring to the endorsements that appear in the first pages of a book and on the back cover.)

I assumed that book blurbs were highly overrated, and in the main, ineffective for three reasons:

1) I don’t ever recall buying a book because of an endorsement. I buy books for one of two reasons. One, I know and like the author. Two, I am interested in the subject that the book treats. That’s all.

2) My experience with superb books. Many of the best books I’ve ever read either didn’t have endorsements or the endorsements were written by people that I’ve never heard of.

3) The consensus of experts. The marketing gurus I have read have clamored (rather loudly) about how book blurbs aren’t that important.

But as I’ve recently learned from many of you, it appears that this isn’t the case. Apparently, many people decide to buy a book based on such blurbs.

So I stand corrected.

I’ve always been appreciative of those authors who took time out of their busy schedules to read a manuscript I’ve written and then wrote an endorsement for it. But my appreciation for them has just increased, knowing that their hard work proves more effective than I had once thought.

Therefore, I’d like to publicly acknowledge and honor the following 55 people. Each person has endorsed one or more of my books:

Matt Chandler

Shane Claiborne

Ed Young

Ed Stetzer

Jack Hayford

Calvin Miller

Reggie McNeal

Michael Spencer (the late)

Rowan Williams

Steve Brown

Leonard Sweet

Gregory A. Boyd

Mark Batterson

Margaret Feinberg

Scot McKnight

Robert Banks

Howard Snyder

Myles Monroe

Francis Frangipane

Brian McLaren

David Fitch

Andrew Jones

Don Francisco

Craig Keener

Dan Kimball

John R. Franke

Chris Seay

Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove

Todd Hunter

Alan Hirsch

Anne Jackson

Tommy Barnett

Sally Morgenthaler

James Goll

Mike Morrell

Ralph Neighbor

DeVern Fromke

Wolfgang Simson

Jon Zens

Hal Miller

Robert Ricciardelli

Milt Rodriguez

Tony Dale

Felicity Dale

James Rutz

Grace (at KingdomGrace)

Brian Orme

Ken Ulmer

Graydon Snyder

John White

Lance Ford

Nate Krupp

Donald Hilliard

Dave Norrington (the late)

Mark Chironna

If you are interested in reading exactly what they wrote, click here to view the book catalog. The endorsements are found on the landing pages for each book. Some titles have blurbs, others do not.

Category: Personal

About Frank Viola

Frank Viola is a best-selling author, blogger, speaker, and consultant to authors and writers. His mission is to help serious followers of Jesus know their Lord more deeply so they can experience real transformation and make a lasting impact. To learn more about Frank and his work, go to 20 Years of Projects. To invite Frank to speak at your event, go to his Speaking Page. Due to a new problem with persistent spam that we haven’t figured out how to control, comments are closed for the present time. To contact Frank, use the “Contact” page in the top menu.

Previous Post:Defending the Hebrew God & How Effective Are Book Blurbs?
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Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. William Timmers

    May 17, 2012 at 10:14 AM

    Last night, I had conversation with someone who love your books. We had some sort of disagreement over what I think and he think about your position. I told him that you have ENDORSEMENTS from MANY PASTORS that means you have appreciated them for those endorsements. I acknowledge that you are NOT FAN of “Pastor”.

    I am taking your advice to ask author directly (https://www.frankviola.org/2012/05/15/disagreement/), so I am doing that… Author, do you leave those Pastors to be Pastors since they have glorified the Kingdom of God with great testimony about what they did for God. You have been speaking to many colleges and churches. Pastors who endorsed your work are Mark Batterson, Dan Kimball, Ed Stetzer, Chris Seay, Gregory Boyd, etc.

    So does that mean you STILL THINK they should not continue to be pastors based on Pagan Christianity and Reimagining Church books?

    • Frank Viola

      May 17, 2012 at 12:35 PM

      I’m terribly disinterested in such questions as they are beyond the scope of what I’ve written and aren’t part of my present burden. As I’ve stated in both books you mentioned, there is a big difference between pastors as people who are servants of God (many of whom are being used by God) and the modern “office” and “role” of pastor *in comparison* to the way shepherds/elders functioned in the first century. The latter is all I’ve written about and nothing more on that subject.

      It’s not my place to decide on what someone does in ministry and I have no such interest. Jesus is the Judge and Lord of every person, not any man. And certainly not me. Thus I have never said that a pastor or any individual should leave what they are doing, and I’ve never said that someone should leave a church of ANY type. I *have* said (repeatedly in fact) that each individual must follow the Lord and their conscience in such matters. That has always been my position.

      • William Timmers

        May 17, 2012 at 7:08 PM

        GREAT answer, that is what I needed to hear from you. Really, I never felt peace about debating with someone who has very strong convictions about this, that they should not encourage them to be pastors. That issue belongs to Lord, our judge. So I appreciate your honest answer, smile. THANK YOU!

  2. ChrisLT

    February 22, 2011 at 5:51 PM

    Re-reading my comment, I realise I probably need to clarify. I wasn’t saying that what endorsers say is meaningless, but that, for me, it’s impact is minimal, as there are endorsements on almost every book.

    In the end you have to read a book and judge for yourself.

    To give an example, Eugene Peterson said the following about The Shack:

    “This book has the potential to do for our generation what John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress did for his. It’s that good!”

    While I enjoyed The Shack and thought it was actually quite a good book, I don’t think it’s anywhere near the book Pilgrim’s Progress is. In fact, I think Pilgrim’s Progress is still as relevant and life-changing today as it ever was. The only thing is, the old English takes a bit of getting used to (it’s over 300 years old now), so you might want to get the modern English version!

  3. naturalchurch

    February 21, 2011 at 3:45 PM

    I find myself wondering about something else: To what degree can endorsements work against an author? If you have a controversial televangelist endorse your book (controversial – not necessarily a heretic), does that not automatically serve as a counter-endorsement of his/her ministry? Just wondering.

    • frankaviola

      February 22, 2011 at 8:49 AM

      NaturalChurch: good question. I’ll answer by giving an illustration. Let’s take the book JESUS MANIFESTO for instance. One of the endorsers is Matt Chandler. Now, if someone picks the book up, looks at the endorsements in the front, and doesn’t like Chandler, it would be silly for them not to buy the book on that basis. The reason is two-fold. 1) there are over 20 other endorsers by other people. So they would have to take those into consideration. 2) as I’ve pointed out, an endorsement doesn’t mean the author endorsers the endorser. It’s the opposite. It means the endorser endorses the author’s particular work. So those who respect Matt Chandler may be inclined to buy the book based on his recommendation.

      Now if Matt Chandler was the only endorser, then that might cause those who don’t like him to pick the book up. But even then, an endorsement doesn’t mean the author endorsers the work of the endorsers. It just means the endorsers are recommending that particular book. Hope that helps.

  4. Jenn

    February 21, 2011 at 8:57 AM

    Great list of endorsers. Love Ed Young and Matt Chandler especially. I’ve not read any of your books yet but after reading the endorsements on those sites I am planning on getting the whole series. Thanks for this post.

  5. ChrisLT

    February 20, 2011 at 6:52 PM

    That is interesting, Frank. I didn’t think endorsements were effective, either.

    Because just about every book has glowing endorsements on it, to me, they’re almost meaningless. It’s a bit like when you walk into a video store and see five comedies, all with “Comedy of the year!” on them. They can’t all be the best!

    Like you, I tend to take them on the merit of the author and the content.

  6. Steve Simms

    February 20, 2011 at 10:16 AM

    Indeed. A recommendation from someone you know and/or respect has much influence.

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Frank Viola

Frank is a bestselling author, speaker, podcaster, and blogger. He helps serious followers of Jesus know their Lord more deeply so they can experience real transformation and make a lasting impact. His blog – frankviola.org – is regularly ranked in the top 5 of all Christian blogs on the Web and his podcast – Christ is All – has ranked #1 in Canada and #2 in the USA on Apple Podcasts. He and his conversation partners also host The Insurgence Podcast. Frank’s books have sold over 600,000 copies and they’ve been translated into many languages.

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