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 Simpson
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.
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 (http://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?
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.
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!
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!
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.
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.
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.
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.
Indeed. A recommendation from someone you know and/or respect has much influence.