What The Media Wants From Authors

  

As someone in the book publicity industry since 1989, I have written thousands of media pitches and have seen thousands more from colleagues. As a book blogger of nearly a dozen years, I receive dozens of pitches every week. Folks, the media wants one thing.   

The news media wants to receive a pitch about something or someone that they feel his or her readers/listeners/viewers will want to hear about AND that the journalist has some interest in.  

That’s it.  

Fill their needs. Make their jobs easy.  

Keep the pitch short enough to feed their ADHD – but long enough to give the who-what-when-where-how-why substance.  

Ok, so how do you do that?  

Start with the structure. A good pitch has an inviting email subject line. When the email is opened, there should be no attachments. The email contents should have a headline that is catchy, a strong introductory paragraph, a powerful quote from the author, and a list of 6-8 topics that the author can discuss, then a concluding paragraph that’s followed by your contact information.  

The media also wants: 

·         To receive your pitch in a timely fashion. This means, if your book has a tie-in to say Mother’s Day, don’t send it two days before Mother’s Day.

·         The pitch to be undeniably clear and concise. They should not have to guess at what is appealing here – it should be boldly stated.

·         Something new and unique, not just more of the same.

·         A provocative personality to interview or write about.

·         Good visuals to accommodate a story.

·         Everything stated in the pitch to be relevant, factual, and honest.

·         To receive additional information upon request, which may include a press kit, web site link, links to your social media, photographs of yourself, or a jpeg of the book cover.

·         Authors to respond quickly when they have questions.  

If you can do these things, you greatly increase your chances of landing some news media coverage.

 

Need Book 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. He has over 30 years of experience in successfully helping thousands of authors in all genres. Let him be your advocate, teacher, and motivator!

 

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About Brian Feinblum

Brian Feinblum should be followed on Twitter @theprexpert. This is copyrighted by BookMarketingBuzzBlog ©2023. 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 award-winning blog has generated over 3.3 million pageviews. With 4,400+ posts over the past dozen years, it 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 2021 and 2018 as one of the top book marketing blogs. It was also named by www.WinningWriters.com as a "best resource.” For the past three decades, including 21 years as the head of marketing for the nation’s largest book publicity firm, and two jobs at two independent presses, Brian has worked with many first-time, self-published, authors of all genres, right along with best-selling authors and celebrities such as: Dr. Ruth, Mark Victor Hansen, Joseph Finder, Katherine Spurway, Neil Rackham, Harvey Mackay, Ken Blanchard, Stephen Covey, Warren Adler, Cindy Adams, Todd Duncan, Susan RoAne, John C. Maxwell, Jeff Foxworthy, Seth Godin, and Henry Winkler. He recently hosted a panel on book publicity for Book Expo America, and has spoken at ASJA, Independent Book Publishers Association Sarah Lawrence College, Nonfiction Writers Association, Cape Cod Writers Association, Willamette (Portland) Writers Association, APEX, and Connecticut Authors and Publishers Association. His letters-to-the-editor have been published in The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, New York Post, NY Daily News, Newsday, The Journal News (Westchester) and The Washington Post. He has been featured in The Sun Sentinel and Miami Herald. For more information, please consult: www.linkedin.com/in/brianfeinblum.