From Sex Parties To The Bible
When you
scan magazine covers and newspaper headlines, as I often do, you start to think
the world’s affairs only come down to money, health, death, sports,
entertainment, crime, sex, religion, and politics. That’s it.
All else is a footnote.
Go ahead
and see for yourself. A Newsweek cover
and a special Time edition featured The Bible.
People and Glamour and the like sold us entertainment. Psychology Today, prevention, and Cosmo sold
us on mental and physical fitness. The
numerous business publications focused on wealth while news magazines covered
politics. Maxim had a cover featuring a
scantily clad honey and separate story about the return of the sex party. The New York Daily News highlighted
cop-shootings and Baseball Hall of Fame inductions. See a pattern?
I would
suggest that an author’s book promotions and branding efforts find a way to
meet the needs of the media. The news
media can cover many types of stories – and does – including cooking,
parenting, museum reviews, space exploration, lawsuits, humor and more – but it
tends to dwell on and highlight a steady diet of money, health, death, sports,
entertainment, crime, sex, religion, and politics. When you can combine multiple subjects and
localize or thematically centralize them you will have a winner. I named nine subject areas – out of scores of
possibilities because that’s what the media has reduced itself to. That’s its formula for selling itself. You should follow it.
Now, any
of these key areas can be broken down a hundred different ways. “Money” is a broad term. This includes careers, jobs, leadership,
starting a business, bankruptcy, wealth, poverty, investing, different
industries, specific companies, laws, banks, etc. But all of it adds up to people looking to
earn a buck, grow it, or protect it from taxes, thieves, inflation,
competition, divorce, lawsuits, or incompetence.
Further,
look at how these topics are covered.
There’s a pattern, one that includes stories on:
·
Myths: 5 wrongs don’t make a right when it comes to interviewing job applicants
·
Rules: The new rules for dating a rich
guy
·
How-To: 6 steps to starting a business
·
Inspiration: How I overcame joblessness
·
Trends: 10 ways to make money on the
weekend
·
Tragedy: How Madoff bankrupted me
·
Advice: 7 tips for better investing
·
Top 10: 10 best people to follow for
investment guidance
The
media loves:
·
Controversy
·
Contrarian thinking
·
What’s
new, what’s no longer in
·
Building
up a person – and tearing them down
·
Scandal
·
Fear
·
Honoring
heroes
It
doesn’t matter if you write fiction, non-fiction, or poetry. Doesn’t matter if you are atheist or ultra
religious. Doesn’t matter if you are
straight, bi, gay, gender=challenged, or asexual. Doesn’t matter what race you are, how smart you
are, or how rich you are. Follow the
media and feed it what it craves and hungers for.
Lastly,
the other thing the media wants is a spicy quote, a colorful backstory, and
visuals. Yes, pretty women and athletic
guys, cool cars, tall buildings, nature scenes, dogs, babies, explosions, and
anything that captures your heart or imagination will do.
By the
way, I didn’t mean to leave you on edge about the sex parties. The new swinging clubs are masspleasures.com,
clubhermione.com, killingkittents.com, and sanctumclub.org. Hey, I’m no dummy. Sex draws us in every time. Now find a way to promote your book so it
appeals to one of the nine areas the media always covers.
2015 Book PR &
Marketing Toolkit: All New
Brian Feinblum’s views,
opinions, and ideas expressed in this blog are his alone and not that of his
employer, Media Connect, the nation’s largest book promoter. You can follow him
on Twitter @theprexpert and email him at brianfeinblum@gmail.com. He feels
more important when discussed in the third-person. This is copyrighted by
BookMarketingBuzzBlog © 2015
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