Shelley Hitz explains that adding endorsements to a book is optional but useful. She uses her own book, Broken Crayons Still Color, as an example and describes how she placed endorsements on the very first page of the PDF, followed by a blank page, title page, copyright page, table of contents, another blank page, and then the main content. She recommends seeking endorsers with topical authority (e.g., retreat leaders, spiritual directors, counselors, pastors) or, for publishing-focused books, people known in the publishing world. The guidance is practical and layout-focused, intended to show a real-life example of placement that will appear in online samples (e.g., Amazon).
Chapters
When you add endorsements to your book, it is not something that you have to do. It is optional. It is nice if you have a book that you have people that can share endorsements. And one of the books I did endorsements for is my book, Broken Crayons Still Color. So let me show you this book. This is the PDF version. And so this is on the first page of the book is the endorsements. So I started the book the very first page with the endorsements. And then there's a blank page on the back of that, and then is the title page. And then on the back of that is the copyright page. And then from there I have the table of contents and a blank page on the back of that. And then I start right into the book content. So you can do it any way you want, but this is a really nice way. And then when people see the sample on Amazon, they'll see these endorsements. And I just said praise for Broken crayonstal Color. But you can do anything you want. And one thing that is nice to do is somebody who would have authority in the topic that you're writing about. So I chose people like Jean, she's a retreat leader and spiritual director. Karen, she was a counselor and then another counselor. Since this really book was about deeper emotional topics, I tried to find people that could give authority to that. A pastor might also be good for this kind of book. Now for my publishing books, I would look for people who are known in the publishing world and ask them for endorsements. But that's the way I've done it. But you can do it in different ways and hopefully that was helpful to you to see it in real life.