Promoting
your book this year will require you to pitch the news media with a tie-in of
your book or background to something in the news. What better way to do that
than to check out when holidays, honorary days, and anniversaries are due to
take place?
One
place to consult is www.when-is.com,
a resource that lists the dates for:
- Jewish holidays
- Christian holidays
- Muslim holidays
- Hindu holidays
- Buddhist holidays
- American holidays
- World holidays
From
Passover to Christmas to Ramadan, you’ll know what’s due to happen and when. If
you can attach a story angle to what’s coming up, you will help your chances of
securing media coverage.
Many
authors can tie into Veterans Day, Thanksgiving, President’s Day, Labor Day,
etc. Don’t forget Father’s Day, Valentine’s Day, or the Chinese New Year.
Another
amazing – and free – website is www.brownielocks.com, which lists,
day by day, week by week, and month by month, a zillion honorary days, weeks,
months, anniversaries, or historical dates.
From National Breast Cancer Awareness Month to Donut Day, you’ll have no
shortage of media tie-ins to special moments that get celebrated every year.
So
how do you link your book or past to an upcoming holiday?
First,
look at the two websites and go through them.
Take your time. Look at which
special days or holidays could be connected to your message. Think broadly.
Then, look at those special days and start to list what you can say or how you’d link
your background or book to each of those dates. Come up with your statement, then back it up with a statistic, fact, or
story.
Develop
a calendar of stories to pitch, based on these dates. Depending on the media outlet’s need for lead
time, you may pitch some of them in advance, such as with magazines and television
shows, or weekly newspapers or some websites.
Let’s
think of each holiday or special date as one where you can make a prediction,
note a trend, question it, or offer advice on.
Start to line up your content, images, and headline to correspond to
these prompts for each holiday.
Remember, to get noticed, you can’t state the obvious nor say something
others could easily say.
Be first, be different, be controversial, and be entertaining or informative.
Be first, be different, be controversial, and be entertaining or informative.
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“Novelists have always used fiction as a way to process and reorder reality to make sense of the world and provide a better version of it.”
--Sarah Lyall, New York Times reporter
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DON”T MISS THESE!!!
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For Every Author
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That Work
The Author Publicity
Priority List
Brian Feinblum’s insightful views, provocative
opinions, and interesting ideas expressed in this terrific blog are his alone
and not that of his employer or anyone else. You can – and should -- follow him
on Twitter @theprexpert and email him at brianfeinblum@gmail.com. He feels
much more important when discussed in the third-person. This is copyrighted by
BookMarketingBuzzBlog ©2020. Born and raised in Brooklyn, he now resides in
Westchester. His writings are often featured in The Writer and
IBPA’s Independent. This was named one of the best book
marketing blogs by Book Baby http://blog.bookbaby.com/2013/09/the-best-book-marketing-blogs and recognized by Feedspot in 2018 as one of the
top book marketing blogs. Also named by WinningWriters.com as a "best
resource.” He recently hosted a panel on book publicity for Book Expo America.
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