Sometimes after the title page and before the copyright page, authors will place excerpts from a number of positive reviews about their book. The idea is to give readers thinking about your book another sales pitch to help them make a decision.

A headline on the first page of reviews will help readers understand what’s going on in the section. Keep it simple and place it in all caps or boldface. Something as simple as PRAISE FOR “(YOUR BOOK’S TITLE)” will work.

How the rest of the review appears is up to you. One general rule is to keep the blurbs short; any more than four to six sentences is pushing it. Another is to not place it in italics; many readers find long stretches of italicized type difficult to get through. Lastly, always tell who said the blurb and give some credentials, such as Alan Watson, New York Today book critic.

If you don’t have any blurbs for a review section, solicit them in advance. You can send advance reader copies of your book to potential reviewers or perhaps send out formatted copies of the book that you’re still editing. The blurbs, however, ought to come from readers with credentials to make such statements, such a book critics, experts in the field you’re writing about, established authors, and so on. Blurbs from your mother, best friend, and a beta reader no one has ever heard of won’t help your cause.

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My name is Rob Bignell. I’m an affordable, professional editor who runs Inventing Reality Editing Service, which meets the manuscript needs of writers both new and published. I also offer a variety of self-publishing services. During the past decade, I’ve helped more than 300 novelists and nonfiction authors obtain their publishing dreams at reasonable prices. I’m also the author of the 7 Minutes a Day… writing guidebooks, four nonfiction hiking guidebook series, and the literary novel Windmill. Several of my short stories in the literary and science fiction genres also have been published.