Book Marketing Maven

Book Publicity: BlogTalkRadio Offers Books Authors the Opportunity to Host Their Own Shows

In today's guest post, author and marketing expert Phyllis Zimbler Miller shares her expertise in generating book publicity through online radio shows such as BlogTalkRadio.

BlogTalkRadio.com – an internet radio “station” that offers anyone the opportunity to host his or her own show for free – is an ideal opportunity for book authors to promote their books on a regular basis while providing valuable content to their target audiences. 

To begin with, no technical knowledge is needed.  You simply sign up at BlogTalkRadio.com, follow the directions, and you can become the host of your own live show.  You don’t even need a microphone.  You call into a number at BlogTalkRadio to be the host, and your show guest – as well as show listeners who want to ask questions – call into the same number.  Show listeners can also “chat” questions during the live show.

Wait, you say! How do you think of topics to talk about?  Let’s answer this by taking two imaginary book projects.  We’ll start with a fiction project, then do a nonfiction book project.

Book Publicity Workshop: How to Build Book Buzz

Veteran book publicist Sandra Beckwith is hosting an interactive workshop to teach nonfiction authors how to get and keep their book in the news. You may remember Sandra from her guest post on Book Marketing Maven earlier this year: 12 Ways to Keep Your Nonfiction Book in the News.

Now you have a chance to benefit from Sandra's expertise in this four-week publicity workshop for nonfiction authors, starting October 5. In the "Book Publicity 101: How to Build Book Buzz" workshop, you'll learn how to develop a publicity plan, create compelling media materials, conduct a virtual book tour, prepare for media interviews, and more.

The workshop is taught in a forum format, with lessons and homework assignments. Sandra provides specific feedback on the homework and the students can interact with each other in the forum. The class runs from October 5 to 30, 2009, and you can choose from two versions, tailored for traditionally published and independently published authors.

Book Publicity: Learn How to Use News Releases Effectively

Joan Stewart, The Publicity Hound, offers a terrific free course on how to use news releases effectively. You can sign up to receive a daily lesson by email for 89 days at no charge, or purchase the entire series in ebook format so you don't have to wait three months to get all these great publicity tips.

Authors, don't miss this one – in addition getting a wealth of publicity knowledge, you can also get good ideas on how to structure an email-based course and companion ebook of your own. 

To create a course such as this, you will need an autoresponder service, which allows you to send automatic emails at specified intervals. Autoresponders are offered by several email marketing companies, including Aweber and MailChimp.

Free is the most powerful word in marketing, but many people will pay for the convenience of getting your information immediately in an easy-to-read package, so consider offering an ebook option as well.

Best Ways to Approach Radio and TV Talk Shows

In today's guest post, I'm delighted to have Karen Melamed, a highly experienced talk show producer, share her tips for getting onto radio and TV talk shows.

I was a producer for The Oprah Winfrey Show. I took pitches, read press packets and got hounded by everyone and anyone who wanted to get on Oprah's couch. I had the power to decide who got booked and who got booted. Before Oprah, I was a producer for many local talk shows from Seattle to Boston. I read many e-mails, pre-interviewed countless authors and experts, and even grabbed guests off the streets. Literally. So for those of you who want to know the best ways to approach TV and radio shows, from someone who actually said “yes” or “no”, read on.

First, before you approach any television or radio producer, you need a hook. A hook is that something special that makes a producer want to book you above all the others who call them. It's that special angle that separates you out from the rest. Sometimes it's your personal story. Sometimes it's a newsworthy event that puts you front and center because of your timely expertise.

Getting Endorsements for your Book

Today's guest post is from Sarah Bolme, author and director of the Christian Small Publishers Association.

Have you ever seen a book cover where the name of the celebrity providing an endorsement for the book was larger than the author’s name? This little trick is used to catch a book buyer’s eye because publishers know that celebrity names sell books.

As an author, make pursuing endorsements for your book a priority. Why is seeking endorsements for a book so important? Endorsements lend credibility to a book and state a book has quality. A good endorsement can make the difference between a few sales and a multitude of sales.

1. Endorsements lend credibility to a book.

With so many books to choose from, most book buyers depend on name recognition when making purchase decisions. A new or unknown author has no reputation and thus little credibility with consumers. The best way to gain credibility in the consumer’s eye is to have your book endorsed by someone who already has credibility. When consumers trust the person endorsing your book, they trust that you are a credible author.

Think Like a Journalist to Get Publicity

To get media coverage, you have to provide value to readers and viewers. In the latest issue of The Savvy Book Marketer newsletter, you'll learn how to think like a journalist when you prepare your news releases. Other topics in this issue include:

• Becoming a Bestselling Online Author
  
• New Classes for Learning Blogging and RSS Feeds
• Texas Book Marketing Handbook -- special discount

Links to previous issues are available on this page.

Promote Your Book on Radio Talk Shows

Nonfiction authors often appear as subject experts on radio talk shows, and fiction writers may be interviewed as well. Authors are sometimes interviewed on drive-time music radio shows too.

A good way to approach broadcast media is to pitch a show or segment idea, briefly outlining what you would talk about and why their listeners or viewers would find it valuable or entertaining. Contact the station's program director or the show's producer.

As with print media, it's generally better to start small and local and work your way up to the big time. Below are three sources for national radio talk show databases. All three of these databases are produced by authors who have been successful promoting their own books on the radio.

•    Gordon's Radio List includes 1,100 locally produced and nationally syndicated radio shows that interview guests.

•    Jo Sabah offers a how-to book, an audio program and a database. His book, How to Get on Radio Talk Shows All Across America Without Leaving Home, is also available on Amazon.com.

•    Alex Carroll offers a radio station database and training materials.

For Book Publicity Success, Start Small

Sure, most authors dream of being on Oprah and selling mega books. There's nothing wrong with shooting for the stars, but the authors you see on major talk shows probably didn't start out there. Chances are, it took them quite a while to build their author platform and their publicity skills.

Here are some tips for climbing the publicity ladder:

1. Create a media page for your website, containing information about you and your book, along with downloadable images of you and the book cover.

2. Start small by getting publicity in your local media, then work your way up from there. The "local resident publishes a book" angle is often considered newsworthy, especially in smaller towns. Other possibilities include local radio or television talk shows, regional magazines, your college alumni publication, and newsletters and journals of your professional associations. As you gather print and broadcast media clips, post them in your online media room.

Promote Your Book with Testimonials and Endorsements

Testimonials and endorsements can be powerful book marketing tools.  I’m pleased to have Tony Eldridge, who landed a book endorsement from bestselling author Clive Cussler, share his expertise in this area.

Welcome Tony, and thanks for sharing.  So, what is the difference between a testimonial and an endorsement?

First, testimonials and endorsements are similar in that you have someone commenting on your book and both are powerful tools to share with potential readers. That said, testimonials are given by readers. Maybe the most well known testimonials are found in the reader reviews on amazon.com. Endorsements are given by experts or celebrities who can influence sales of your book. You will almost always have to solicit any endorsements you want to have for your book.

Book Publicity: Where to Research Magazines and Newsletters

Consumer and trade magazines and newsletters are a great place to pitch feature stories and book reviews as part of your book publicity plan. Here are two sources of information for finding the right publications to target:

Wooden Horse Publishing has an extensive database of U.S. and Canadian consumer and trade magazines. Listings include address, phone number, editor-in-chief, managing editor, website URL, email addresses, circulation, frequency, subscription price, editorial concepts, writer’s guidelines, reader demographics and editorial calendars. Subscriptions to the database are available by the day ($1.99), week, month or year.

Dan Poynter offers mailing lists of North American magazines and newsletters in dozens of categories. You can print mailing labels or download the data in spreadsheet format. Some listings also include phone numbers.

Celebrate Small Press Month

March is Small Press Month, a nationwide celebration highlighting the valuable work produced by independent publishers.

Now in its 13th year, Small Press Month is co-sponsored by The New York Center for Independent Publishing (NYCIP), The Council of Literary Magazines and Presses (CLMP), and the Independent Book Publishers Association (IBPA). 

Here are 30 ways to promote indie publishing and your book: http://www.smallpressmonth.org/todo/.

12 Ways to Keep Your Nonfiction Book in the News

Below is a guest post with some terrific tips from publicist Sandra Beckwith. For a step-by-step guide to creating publicity materials, I recommend Sandra's ebook, Publicity Forms & Templates.

Publishers are willing to publicize nonfiction books when they’re released, but they rarely do much after the launch to keep books in the news, even though most deserve ongoing media exposure. Here are some easy things you can do to generate continuing publicity for your title. Use a mix of these ideas to develop a 12-month publicity plan that will provide the support your book needs.

Turn the advice in your chapters into a series of monthly tip sheets. A tip sheet is a press release that offers tips or advice in a bulleted or numbered format. Start your tip sheet with an introductory paragraph that explains why the tips you’re offering are important, list your bulleted advice, then tie it all together at the end with a concluding paragraph. Send it to appropriate media outlets; the distribution list will depend on your topic.

Where to Submit Your Book for Review

Book reviews in newspapers are getting harder to come by, but many special interest magazines and newsletters do book reviews or mention books. Publishing guru Dan Poynter offers a comprehensive list of special interest publications.

Online reviews can also be a great book marketing tool. For tips on getting reviews on Amazon.com and other websites, read Annette Fix's article about online book reviews at the WOW! Women on Writing website.

Bookstore buyers and librarians base many of their ordering decisions on reviews in the major book review journals. Eligibility and submission instructions vary by publication, so be sure to read the requirements carefully.

Writing Effective News Releases – Tips from “How to Promote Your Home Business”

News releases can be a great publicity tool for authors. John McLain, author of How to Promote Your Home Business, offers these tips for writing effective news releases:

• Use the proper format. Your news release must look like a news release if you want the media to take it seriously. Include your name, address, and phone number. Use the Associated Press Stylebook for style.

• Stick to one subject per release.

• Put a head on it. Write the headline first, using action verbs and present tense.

• Write a strong lead. The straight news lead is good for basic news. A feature lead allows you to inject color, humor, or human interest, but it must still be newsworthy. An informal lead also works, so long as the news angle is obvious.

• Use the inverted pyramid style. The remainder of the release will describe, explain, or amplify the material in the lead paragraph. Put the most important information first and then write in descending order of importance.

• Include quotes. Strive for quotes that are succinct, upbeat and colorful. It's OK to quote yourself, and you should always use quotes when giving opinions.

• Offer photographs if possible. Editors are always on the lookout for photos to add interest to stories, but the photos must be of good quality.

When mailing press releases, McLain suggests accordion folding the release and placing it the envelope so that the headline is visible as it's removed from the envelope and it can be seen if the recipient peeks inside without removing the contents.

Pitch letters, which contain newsworthy information written in the form of a letter, can also be effective in catching the interest of the media. They work  especially well in altering the media about an upcoming event or generating interest in an unusual feature story idea.

Getting Great Reviews For Your Book

Below is a terrific article from Phyllis Zimbler Miller about getting great book reviews. This post also illustrates the power of online marketing. I first met Phyllis on Facebook, then signed up to follow her on Twitter. Today I saw a tweet on Twitter that Phyllis had posted this article at ezinearticles.com, and I wanted to share it with my readers. See how that all works together?
Cheers,
Dana

How to Get Free Targeted and Sincere Reviews For Your Book

By Phyllis Zimbler Miller

Getting free targeted and sincere reviews for your book requires research, commitment and follow through. I'm going to share with you the mistakes I made and the things I did right about getting book reviews. First the mistakes:

I waited until the book was published instead of sending out the manuscript or the first page galleys from my print-on-demand publisher.

I used pay-for-review services whose reviewers were not committed to the subject of my novel -- for them this was a job for hire.

I sent copies of the book to book bloggers who responded to my email that they indeed wanted to review the book but who never reviewed the book. I later realized that I wasn't anyone to them so my book obviously got buried in the avalanche of books they receive.

Now what I did right: