Although
I’ve given out common-sense advice, strategies, and tips in my nearly three
decades as a book promoter and marketer, I also realize that some of the best
ways to promote or market a book may be unusual, less common, even seemingly
counter-intuitive. Different methods
work for some, while they fail to help many – and what seems to boost most
books may not really move the needle for a handful.
So what might help that often isn’t tried by others?
So what might help that often isn’t tried by others?
1. Most
people will mail books to the media, but they usually send copies to big-name
media or perhaps commonly targeted outlets such as health book reviewers or the
feature editors at top 50 newspapers or the television producers of the major
morning shows. Perhaps you should
consider sending books to massively small media outlets, where the competition
for coverage is not as fierce as at the popular ones?
2. Many
people seek to reach the media by email. Why not pick up the phone and try to
locate the right person? Or even better,
see if you can befriend them though social media, and then lobby their
connections to gain coverage.
3. Often
people pitch logical story ideas – seven tips to losing weight; advice to
parents; the backstory to a sci-fi thriller.
How about you pitch something too outrageous to look away from? What’s the wildest headline you can come up
with?
4. Can you
create a media stunt, something that demonstrates how unique your story really
is?
5. One
thing that’s time-consuming, but worth a shot, and that is to write up what the
story or review would look like in accordance with that media outlet’s
style. For instance, act as if you write
for Library Journal and craft a review
in the same length and format they would use. Or package, with video, how a
four-minute interview with you would appear on a specific TV show. Maybe when you show them how good it will
look they will go for it.
6. How
personal have you made your pitch? I don’t mean about yourself, but about the
person you’re pitching? Did you check online to learn all that you can about
the past and preferences of specific producers or journalists? You can utilize this info when pitching them
and making it seem deeply relevant and customized.
7. Have
you tried offering your story as an exclusive, and making it sound really
important?
8. Lastly,
if you have a decent social media following, have you asked your connections to
lobby specific media outlets on your behalf?
Can you get 20 or 200 or 2000 followers to tweet or email a journalist
to highlight why you should be interviewed by him or her?
Be innovative
and daring. You need to shake things up so take a risk and let it all hang out
there.
“It
is with books as with men – a very small number play a great part; the rest are
lost in the multitude.”
--Voltaire, ‘Books’, Philosophical Dictionary (1764)
“One
reads not to retain what one has read, but to forget what one has experienced.”
--Walter Benjamin, quoted from Stultifera Navis (1957)
“You
don’t write because you want to say something, you write because you’ve got
something to say.”
--F. Scott Fitzgerald, ‘The Note-Books’, The Crack-Up (1945)
DON”T MISS THESE!!!
What is the payoff for authors to getting a million clicks?
Do you
think like a book marketer?
How to fix a broken book marketing campaign
Should all authors invest in book marketing or
book publicity?
How should authors sell themselves?
The keys
to great book marketing
How
Authors Can Capture The Media’s Attention
Big Marketing Lessons From My All-Time
Top 10 Blog Posts
Enjoy New 2018 Author Book Marketing
& PR Toolkit -- 7th annual edition just released
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.