Why Some Authors Fail to Pursue Achievable, Productive Media Coverage

I’ve spoken to thousands of authors in just the past few years and have found that all too often authors fail to pursue the right media. I would love to inspire these writers to change their faulty approach and rethink how they should go about promoting their book.

For instance, I spoke with the author of a self-published book who told me he only wanted to go after TV. His book was a year old and he had managed to get one local TV appearance in that time.  I explained that national TV is highly unlikely – but that he should focus on the things that are achievable and useful.

He was angered that I had to essentially tell him he wasn’t TV-worthy.  In reality, I’m just the messenger.  National TV is not looking for what he’s selling.  I don’t make the rules.  I would rather not waste his time or money to pursue fool’s gold.  But my honesty was met with dismissiveness.

Authors write, in part, out of ego, but that ego gets in the way when it comes to publicity.  They think they warrant more coverage or deserve attention from a specific media outlet or certain type of media when, in fact, they should be thankful for the media that may actually want to pay attention to their book or message.

Authors should be of the frame of mind to do the following:

• Pursue traditional, social, and digital media – don’t single out one type of media while ignoring the rest.
• Hire a promoter if you can’t or won’t invest time to garner media coverage.
• Look at all portfolios of media:  TV, print, online, radio and come up with realistic strategies to succeed in each area.
• Be prepared to put more effort into areas where you are having success – and to move away from areas that yield little or no dividends.

We all want what we can’t have and we all have the right to dream and strive to achieve what seems just outside our grasp.  But we have the obligation to ourselves to get real and stop deluding ourselves into believing we should be doing something like pursuing TV when in reality we should be doing something else.

Authors should trust the professionals.  If I thought TV was a possibility for this author I would’ve offered it for a fee, but I didn’t feel taking his money to achieve nothing was the right way to go. Some other publicist will likely tell him what he wants to hear and take the money and run. I hate to see authors taken advantage of, but sometimes their ego leads them astray. They only want to hear and believe what they think is their destiny.

Book PR doesn't work that way.

Writers often learn the hard way that generating PR for a book can be challenging sometimes, brutally unforgiving, but it can be a productive process when you focus on what’s achievable and useful.

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Brian Feinblum’s views, opinions, and ideas expressed in this blog are his alone and not that of his employer. 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 2017©. Born and raised in Brooklyn, now resides in Westchester. Named one of the best book marketing blogs by Book Baby http://blog.bookbaby.com/2013/09/the-best-book-marketing-blogs