Those same stats, however, are stacked against authors.

With the average reader finishing only an estimated 15 books a year (and many picking up far fewer), you’ve got to squeeze through a pretty fine filter for a reader to pick your book over someone else’s.

With competition this fierce, high-profile blurbs and endorsements are more important than ever to build your book’s credibility and visibility. Reader reviews are great, but they’re no substitute for praise from a bestselling author or high-profile leader in your field.

You need a few good blurbs to help convince readers to pick up your book.

If you’re working with a publisher, they may assemble an information package for you to send out to potential contributors, or even handle the collection of blurbs themselves. But most authors are their own marketing department.

Even if you’ve got the support of a publisher, don’t leave it to them to solicit contributions without your input. Leveraging your direct — and even indirect relationships — will get a better response than an anonymous request from a publishing house ever could.

Here are my top tips for getting the right blurbs for your book.

1. Aim high

To trigger actual sales, your blurbs need to come from people your audience knows and respects. They fall into four camps:

Bestselling authors

Name recognition trumps perfect alignment of subject matter, although it’s best if your contributors are strong in both respects.

High-profile experts

If they aren’t a household name, their title and organization must be. Think heads of large organizations and CEOs of major corporations.

For example, a blurb from the director of cancer research at a major hospital would carry some weight. Your family doctor, not so much.

Journalists

If a reporter likes your book, they may give you a blurb even if they can’t do a full review. And if you’re successful at landing pre-publication press, of course you can pick out the best line for the book jacket.

This doesn’t have to come from a literary reviewer or books editor. Depending on your subject matter, the endorsement of a health or tech reporter would have even more impact, as long as they’re affiliated with a credible media outlet.

If a journalist has written and published a full review of your book, they should expect that you’ll want to use their words on your book’s jacket or in its praise pages. You don’t strictly need to obtain their permission to do so, but it’s good practice to run the cut-down quote past them, as a courtesy (and as a thank you!).

Straight-up celebs

Maybe we shouldn’t care what a movie star thinks, but we do. People are shallow. Send inquiries to their publicists. If you’re writing about a pet interest of theirs, they might just say yes.

Start working on your dream list of blurb-writers as early as possible. Who’s name would you love to see on your book jacket?

2. Work your contacts

Sometimes the greatest rewards can be found closest to home.

Tap any high-profile professional contacts you might have first, of course, but don’t be shy about putting the word out through family and friends too.

If someone you know has a connection to a high flier, ask them if they would mind passing your manuscript along. And of course, put it out to social media. People are more helpful than you might give them credit for, but you won’t get anything if you don’t ask.

3. Start early

It’s never too soon to start drafting your network into providing endorsements for your book, especially if you have influential people among your personal friends or professional contacts.

Even while you are writing, ask your warmest contacts to look at your manuscript when it’s ready. Keep their names and contact information in a spreadsheet, and make a note of who said yes, no, and maybe. It will be easier to get the goods from them later.

Send your package out at the earliest possible opportunity. The manuscript must be complete, but not necessarily polished in order to send it out. A common time to start gathering endorsements is when the manuscript is with your copyeditor for fine-tuning.

4. Make it easy

When you’re asking someone a favor, make it as easy as possible for them to say yes — especially when this busy person’s help means a lot to you.

Start with an email inquiry or third-party introduction. Include a single page with all the background information for your book: Synopsis, format (hardcover, paperback or ebook) and book specifications (number of pages, trim size), price, release date, and publisher info.

Don’t forget to include a short author bio. Send full-color cover art too, if it’s ready, and maybe even a short excerpt from the book. The idea is to hook them into wanting to read more without overwhelming them with the whole shebang.

Offer to send them the full manuscript by PDF or mail them a hard copy. But bear in mind that printed copies can be pricey to produce, especially when you factor in express mailing fees, so reserve these for A-list readers, or those who specifically request them.

5. Be polite

Give your blurbers plenty of time to read and respond to your package. Nobody likes to be under pressure for a favor.

And do take no for an answer — graciously! You may only need two sentences, but it can be pretty time consuming to write a short, persuasive message. And, of course, they have to read the whole book first. Anything less than a two-week turnaround would be a rush job, and is likely to be turned down.

Say please and thank you again and again, and offer to send them a copy of the finished book.

6. Keep it brief

Blurbs for your book jacket and praise pages inside the book can be short — in fact, they must be as brief and punchy as possible. Two sentences is plenty.

Be clear about length when you ask for blurbs, so your contributors don’t spend time writing lengthy paragraphs that will only have to be cut.

Ideally you’ll want to get blanket approval to edit blurbs for length, since almost all blurbs can be improved with a little tightening. If you do need to trim (or you want to tweak its focus) be sure to send the text back to its contributor for their approval before putting it through to the designer.

Now you’re ready to get out there and round up some high-quality endorsements for your book. This process takes a bit of legwork — sometimes a lot of legwork — but it’s well worth it. If you get a real humdinger, be sure to put it right on the front cover. It will make all the difference for your credibility, media attention, and book sales.

Already gotten a great blurb? Share it in the comments!

Before founding a publishing company, I was a longtime arts and lifestyle newspaper editor. Over my 15 years in media, I saw our book coverage capacity plummet as reporting staff was relentlessly cut back and the newspapers themselves shrunk in size. I was dismayed to have to turn down highly appealing pitches from authors and their publicists every day, despite my interest in their books, simply because we no longer had the resources to cover them.

Every media outlet in the world is facing a similar crisis today. That’s why as a publisher, I now counsel all of our authors to build a relationship directly with their readers. I’ve seen first-hand that a strong grounding in online book marketing makes a decisive difference to any book’s ability to succeed in the market.

This is true for traditionally published authors as well as those who are self-publishing. Traditional publishers are far more likely to take a chance on an author when they know that he comes with an engaged following. If you’re planning to self-publish, a strong online platform is even more critical because you are entirely dependent upon your own ability to promote and distribute your work.

Here’s how to market your book to make it a winner.

1. Start early

It’s never too soon to begin raising awareness of your book, and of you as an author. If you’re starting from scratch with very little presence online, you should ideally begin your platform-building efforts even while you are writing.

It takes a while to gain traction and build a following. And by sharing updates or asking for feedback on your book while you write, you stimulate curiosity and a sense of personal investment in your audience.

2. Build your website around yourself

You need to have a website, and it needs to be built around you, not around your business or your book. It’s surprising how many authors still overlook this critical piece of advice, relying on Facebook or their publisher’s website to act as their main online home.

But think about it. Your website will forever be under your control, and will never become obsolete. Instead, its power and relevance will only grow stronger as your career develops.

Your site doesn’t need to be fancy — in fact, it’s better not to pack it full of unnecessary features and distracting design elements. Aside from a page dedicated to your book and an “About me” page, the most critical element of your site will be a blog. By maintaining a regular blog you can build a following even while you write, and when your book is ready for publication, your readers will feel they already know you.

3. Focus on growing an email list

Email is the most effective marketing tool available today, and if you’re serious about selling your book, you must use it.

Offer a flagship piece of content on your website such as a mini ebook as an incentive to join your list, then send out a monthly or even weekly newsletter to stay top-of-mind with your followers. To keep their interest high, your newsletter ought to contain more than just “news” about you. By offering something useful, insightful or entertaining, you’ll gradually build an engaged audience who looks forward to hearing from you.

Choose the nature of your newsletter content based on the type of reader you’re courting, and the nature of the relationship you want to cultivate with those readers. This could be as simple as a stripped-down, letter-style email filled with links to top news from your industry, perhaps embellished with your own analysis. Or if your target readership is highly visual, you might choose to create a monthly mini-magazine filled with your own inspiring graphics, articles from your blog, embedded videos, quizzes and more.

4. Be generous

Marketing has changed in the digital age. Intrusive and coercive advertising has given way to permission marketing, in which book-buyers (and consumers of all types) follow their own pathways to find the things they care about. To bring them to your door, you’re going to have to drop some breadcrumbs — plenty of them.

Show the world what you know by blogging and guest posting. Draw people to your site by offering tools and resources for free. Above all, if your publishing arrangement permits it, consider making a free ebook or PDF version of your book. It’s possible that you might cannibalize a few sales this way, but you’re more likely to win others simply by spreading the word.

5. Use social media strategically

Social media quality is much better than quantity: you don’t have to be on every social network, and when you’re just starting out, you really shouldn’t try. It’s much better to do a few things really well than to take a scattershot approach that has no focus and no goals.

Determine where your target readership is most likely to be concentrated, and start by building a strong presence on that network.

6. Seed early reviews

I can’t overstate the importance of those first few weeks after release. To improve your book’s discoverability on Amazon, it’s critical to have a handful of solid reviews — aim for 10, at a minimum. It’s ok for some of these to come from family and friends, but it’s even better for those to come from top Amazon reviewers and verified buyers.

How do you get them? Start by asking, of course. Offering a free copy of your book to the right people in exchange for a review can give an enormous boost to your sales. Go to Amazon’s list of top reviewers and look for reviewers who have reviewed books similar to yours. You can also simply look up reviewers whose reviews you have enjoyed!

Each reviewer has a profile with an email address. Reach out to them with a non-pushy personal note, and a copy of your ebook or PDF version. Be gracious, be grateful and respect their opinion if they don’t love your book. Sour grapes will sour your reputation, but being a good sport demonstrates the professionalism you want to be known for as a career author.

• Related: 3 Ts of Book Advertising
• Related: Effective Book Marketing Strategies for Consistent Sales

What marketing strategies have helped you spread the word about your book?