Authors Need to Shake Their Eye Candy To Woo Media

 

“She has a nice ass. I love how she wears that dress.”

“He looks chiseled. I adore seeing him in a T-shirt.”

We are physically drawn to people. It is a simple scientific fact.

Once they have our attention, we talk to them and learn more about them. We determine if we want to date, just sleep with, or even marry them. But nothing will happen unless we feel drawn to them.

Books are in the same boat.

A book could be amazing but no one will know this until they read it. Books need some way of being seen and discovered. To a potential consumer, a catchy title or attractive cover may get one’s attention the way a tight dress draws a guy’s wandering eye, causing them to pick a book up, flip through its pages, and read the book jacket copy.

But when it comes to luring the media in, one has to have a snappy, 15-second elevator speech.

It takes words to sell words.

What can you say that will invite a journalist to feel interested, curious, and excited about you or your book? Find 100 words, in some juxtaposition, that will tease the media to want to engage in a conversation.

Everything you say or do when it comes to book marketing is to close a deal in stages. You sell a book to a potential reader. You persuade a bookstore to have you do a book signing. You apply to a book award to win. You solicit the news media for coverage. You post on social media seeking to gin up your web site traffic and generate book sales. But there are multiple steps to achieving success in each of these pursuits.

The first step is about 100 words long, and you must say something that gets their attention and leaves them wanting for more. Simply tap into what people need, want, or desire.

As different as humans can be from one another, most or all of us go through similar phases in our journeys: childhood, school, work, relationships, travel, death, risks, etc. You must connect whatever you hope to sell with something people can identify with or care about.

Do you discuss your book or yourself by leading with something that will:

* Be timely or trendy

* Ask a question that gets them excited

* Make it personal — to the journalist or about yourself

* State an eye-opening statistic, share an odd fact, or site a surprise poll number 

* Tell a joke 

* Draw from history or current events to make a point

* Talk about button-pushers: sex, politics, or religion

* Focus on victims, the needy, the voiceless

* Identify a potential threat or danger

* Share a solution to a problem

* Expose a secret, confess a truth, reveal a lie

* Attack an institution, public figure, holiday, ideology or group

* Raise standards or funds for an issue

* Provoke, challenge or dare an authority

* Imagine a new world with amazing features

* Make bold predictions

* Help us see the human condition differently

* Passionately defend an idea or belief

* Explain how to save lives or help injured people

* Zero in on nostalgia, memorabilia, or trivia

* Make us feel the possibilities of hope, love, friendship, or family

* Make us feel like curious, care-free, happy-go-lucky kids

* Make us angry and outraged over an injustice

* Make us feel fear and insecurity

* Allow us behind the scenes of places and lives we would never otherwise have access to

* Help us improve: make more money, get a promotion, find a soul mate, raise better kids

* Give us consumer advice: where to find discounts, deals, and freebies

* Let us peek into the dark side of the criminal world

* Present heroes to us

* Transport us to another era

* Bring dogs, cats, and animals into the picture

* Be so strange, rare, unusual, exceptional or extreme

* Offer a story of redemption or forgiveness

Ok, this list can extend into dozens or hundreds of other areas. You get the drift. Make your media pitch about others and what they seek -- not just what you wrote about and want to sell. The focus is on whom you seek to impress.

My wife always says: Buy a present that the recipient would want, not the present you would want to receive. Go give a story that people want to hear, not just the one you wanted to write.

Remember, you need to get the media’s attention, and the fact your book is great doesn’t matter. Shake some eye candy and get to a first date. Then, once you have their attention, go for the marriage proposal.

Contact Brian For Marketing Help!!

Brian Feinblum, the founder of this award-winning blog, can be reached at brianfeinblum@gmail.com He is available to help authors promote their story, sell their book, and grow their brand.

Learn, Grow, Succeed!!

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About Brian Feinblum

Brian Feinblum should be followed on Twitter @theprexpert. This is copyrighted by BookMarketingBuzzBlog ©2021. Born and raised in Brooklyn, he now resides in Westchester with his wife, two kids, and Ferris, a black lab rescue dog. His writings are often featured in The Writer and IBPA’s The Independent.  This was named one of the best book marketing blogs by BookBaby  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. It was also named by WinningWriters.com as a "best resource.” He recently hosted a panel on book publicity for Book Expo America. For more information, please consult: linkedin.com/in/brianfeinblum.