How to Market a Book: Story Suggestions for Media

Alternate title for this post: How to Make the Media's Job Easier So They Will Give You Free Publicity

When you think of the media covering you and your book, do you envision a reporter coming to your house, notepad in hand while you sit in your formal living room and they ask you about your inspiration?

If you do, you're going to be disappointed. Just like homes rarely have formal living rooms anymore, most media outlets can't spare the time for traditional, lengthy interviews. What they need is a quick and dirty idea about you that they can pad out with some details, a picture, and, if there is an event, the specifics about where and when it will be.

You can help your media staffer, and your coverage, by creating some easy materials for them to steal/crib/be inspired by.

Here are some items to consider:

• Fast Facts
• Backgrounders
• Story ideas and themes your book goes with
• Interview Q & A
• Additional resources list
• List of Events

Fast facts: Quick tidbits of insight a reporter can use to add interest to their story.

Backgrounders: By offering up research items, such as where you grew up, that you suffer from eczema and that's where your character's fear of rashes stemmed from, etc., you keep your reporter from having to dig. You can give them the info upfront and help them ask you better questions.

Story Ideas and Themes: Most reporters haven't read your book, and frankly, it's not likely they will. You'll need to clue them in that your book would be perfect for a Memorial Day package because your book is about war or soldiers. By creating a list of stories and angles in which your story could be presented, or maybe themes/holidays stories about your book would be good for helps reporters out. It helps them package stories together and you can be part of that story!

Interview Q & A: It works on Letterman. If you are going to be interviewed, why not try to be asked the questions you'd like to be asked? By making up a set list of interview questions and then answering them, you make it so that there is already background and structure before the interviewer even calls you on the phone! You can even work in all those mundane Q&A standbys like "What is the title of your book."

Additional Resources: Sometimes your book will be the jumping point of a piece, but, the media outlet may want to provide additional information about a topic. For example, say your book is about epilepsy. It would be helpful for their readers/viewers/listeners if they had access to further info and you can help direct them by anticipating this need and providing it. A simple list of books, online resources, and organizations is all it takes!

And finally ...

List of Events: Always provide the who, what, when, where, how much for your upcoming events when dealing with the media. If your story doesn't run for your first event, they may hold it for another in the future. Plus, many media outlets maintain calendars and will helpfully add your event to it. Always give them the information they need to help you!

When trying to get pieces done about your book or yourself as an author, remember that interviewers are on deadline and the more information you give them to work with and the less they need to probe out of you with questions, the more likely you are to have a great story come out that helps you sell your book!

How to Market a Book: Press Releases

Press releases are a common, useful way to tell media outlets and other interested parties (book clubs, writing groups, etc.) about your upcoming title releases, signing events, and other important milestones.

Press releases should include the following elements:

• contact information at top
• headline
• dateline
• body of information
• additional requests information like website links

Here is the sample press release from the Wheatmark book marketing workbook:
samplepressrelease.pdf

You can also include a picture of your book cover or an author photo, bullet points of information, a list of upcoming events, and book purchasing information.

What should your press releases be about? They shouldn't just be about your book being for sale. If you can tie your book topic into a current event or holiday, you'll be in even better shape to get publicity for your book. For more about content, check out this previous post!

To get your free copy of the marketing workbook, sign up here!

Writing a Press Release

How can you get your press release noticed in a pile of leftover papers by the TV station's fax machine or in a busy reporter's inbox? By creating a great press release! You can actually help media outlets instead of fill their recycling bin with a useful press release. Here we'll look at exactly what you should include and how to position your press release. (For a sample press release format, download our free book marketing guide and swing by page 84.)

Here's what you need:

• a place to send it
  
• a hook
• a fact sheet
  
• high-resolution images
  
• short headline concept
  
• easily editable release content
  
• quotes
  
• contact information

Where to send your press release

First of all, it is a good idea to understand what happens in a newsroom. At most newspapers and magazines there is a publisher, a head editor, and then middle editors--usually called section editors--that are responsible for overseeing the content that the reporters create for sports, lifestyle features, and news. For TV news and radio, those middle editors are called producers. But they essentially have the same function: ferret out stories the reporters might have missed and also approve story content the reporters present.

Those middle editors and producers are really who you want to send things to. They help control the flow of stories around a media outlet and best know when to snag something and who to filter it to.

The only time this isn't efficient is if you already have a contact at the media outlet. In that case you should send it to both the section editor and your contact.

The next thing to understand about media outlets is that they have needs.

A Hook

Most media outlets have to create content for multiple days a week. It can be tough on content deciders to plan for all of these days. One of the things they like to do to help structure their plans is to use themes. For example, how many times have you seen a bunch of Mother's Day stories grouped together in the Sunday paper on May 10th? That's called a package. Wouldn't it be fabulous if your book about surviving motherhood was featured on that page? Of course it would!

You have to tailor your book's message to help promote it as a potential theme for the media outlet to hook into. Whether it's a holiday, a national awareness month, a local news story everyone has been following, or an anniversary of something, by giving your press release a REASON, you better your chances for a little attention.

One of the common mistakes with press releases is to write about your book in a way that positions your book as important for simply existing. That's an express bus route to the recyling bin. By making your book relate to something a media outlet's audience will be interested--instead of relating it to yourself and your book's existence--your chances are far better. The question every audience member asks about information is, "How is this important to me?"

The answer about your book to them better not be, "Because I wrote it."

A Fact Sheet

Before you get into the long-winded body content of your press release, consider having a simple fact sheet on top. Most media content deciders are scanners. They give information a cursory glance before passing it on to someone else. If you provide a simple bulleted fact sheet, you help them process the important information quickly. Also, you provide easy access to the main information you want to share so it can be used as a televised graphic, a calendar entry for events, or as a short blurb on a page (and any coverage is good coverage).

An example of excellent fact sheet fodder is the following:

WHY: Mother's Day is May 10th!

WHAT:"Surviving the Battlefield of Motherhood" written by local author Posie Buttons

WHY: A hilarious look into the rough-and-tumble world of mothers. The perfect read for mothers, children of mothers, fathers, and those on their way to motherhood status.

QUOTE: "I used to chronicle the funnier or more difficult motherhood moments in a diary for my children while stationed in Iraq, but when I'd filled up too many notebooks, I realized it was time to put it into a book to share with others," said Posie Buttons, local author and former U.S. Marine, about her new book, Surviving the Battlefield of Motherhood.

EVENT: Buttons will be reading from her new book at Hastings Books on 16th Street on Saturday, May 9th from 2 p.m. - 4 p.m. Free.

CONTACT: For more information, contact Buttons at pbuttons@notrealemail.com

This gives them content, a sound bite, and a hook. And they didn't have to call you on the phone! (Perfect for when those other stories didn't come through at the last minute.)

High-resolution images

Newspapers always need quick stories of local interest that they don't have to spend a lot of time on that MOST IMPORTANTLY have a full-color high resolution image they can run with it. Next time you meet a newspaper reporter, ask them if the story they are working on has "art." Watch their face crumple a bit. Good art is hard to find and is really important for page designs. YOU have amazing art. You have a book cover and probably an author photo. You are already headed for gold! The best art gets the best play.

TV and radio have a similar need. TV needs something they can make into a graphic. Radio needs something they can post on their website along with the show's online feed.

A Short Headline

One of the most difficult jobs for media outlets is coming up with headlines that are short enough for the audience to get through but that still have the correct information. (Here's one way to see this at work: You often see headlines that use the word "dead" instead of killed, murdered, or homicide. This is because those words actually have different legal connotations. In order to get it right without getting in trouble with lawyers, line lengths, and syllables, they use "dead." Just a little insider trick!)

You can help get your message out correctly by providing a short headline option on your fact sheet and on your press release.

Instead of writing:

"Local author and former Marine pens book about the trials and tribulations of motherhood"

Try something more wieldy:

"Ex-Marine pens book on motherhood"

The Press Release
Now the press release! Your press release should include a city and dateline and then go right on into the body copy. Again, a sample press release format is available in our free book marketing guide.

The content of your release should be tailored to the angle of the story you want to present. In our example above, the author is a local one, a former U.S. Marine, and she has written a book about motherhood. The book is what the author is selling and why the media outlet is interested in her. What makes her interesting to the audience (and why the media outlet might contact her for an interview) is that she is local and a former Marine.

You don't want to structure your press release content to simply celebrate your ability to publish a book. With modern technology, lots of people are doing it. Your press release should highlight why you are different and why your particular book will be of interest to their audience. Again, "Because I wrote it" just won't cut it.

Keep your press release article short. If a media outlet is interested, they'll most likely rewrite it anyway using the facts you present as their jumping point.

Quotes

One thing that will help get you into an article is providing quotes in the press release. Feel weird inserting your own quotes into your own press release? Think of it like acting. You are acting as a reporter. You aren't writing about "I" your are writing about "an author" who happens to be you.

By including quotes you'll give the reporter the extra flavor they need to write a great story, again, without even having to call you on the phone. If they DO call you, they'll have better questions for you to help futher your book's cause because they'll already have some background on you!

Contact information

Make sure that your contact information is on your fact sheet, your press release, your email signature, and on your cover letters. Do not let anything stand to chance. Don't think, "I'll tell them about my website when they call." More likely your website will get them to call. Make sure any number is made available to them where you would like to be reached: cell numbers, home numbers, email, websites, Facebook, MySpace, etc. Most media outlets are on deadline. If they can't reach you on their schedule, they may just pass you by.

Now you are armed and ready to get started on your next press release. Remember, as you gain great clips for your book, you can include them in your burgeoning press kit for media outlets to draw on. Not only does it give them something to quote, but it shows how in demand you are!