The Publicity Hound’s Blog  

Frustrated because your book isn’t selling as well as you had hoped?

PMA Independent, the newsletter for members of the Publishers Marketing Association, includes a great article in its March issue on times of the year when sales spike. Publishers pass along these marketing tips that are effective during the holidays:

 —Market cookbooks during and after Christmas, when people cook more.

—Lori Hatcher of Urban Land Institute, whose company has a few titles that make holiday gifts, does a self-mailer to a select part of their mailing list in early November, showing books as gifts. For a small fee, the company offers to print bookplates and affix them to the inside front cover with the company name, logo, and a message from the sender. 

—Pitch your books and related products to Holiday Gift Guides.

Jan Nathan, executive director of PMA, author of the article, said one theme seemed dominant when she asked publishers about when their sales spiked and dipped:

“When I market, publicize, and advertise my titles, I can see an upward spke. When I stop pushing my product, I experience a slump.”

Surprise? Hardly.     

Posted In: Authors & Publishers
posted On: 3/27/2006: 8:20 am: By Joan
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If you’re trying to figure out how to be a great guest on a radio talk show, just exhibit the same traits that stations demand in their hosts.

In the February issue of Talkers magazine, talk show consultant John Mainelli who also covers radio for the New York Post, lists these six traits of the best hosts:

1. A sense of humor. The most important. 
2. Misanthropic/sarcastic. ”Cranky, curmudgeonly” such as Don Imus in New York and Larry Lujak in Chicago.
3. Passionate: If you don’t have passion, forget about faking it. 
4. Boldness: He chides the wimpification of hosts like  Imus, Rush Limbaugh, Neil Rogers and Howard Stern who he says “started out boldly but, sadly…they’ve become increasingly accommodating, wishy-washy, and even annoyingly self-indulgent.” His definition of bold? Bob Grant, Opie & Anthony, Michael Savage.
   
5. Phone flair: As in Joe Pyne’s ”Go gargle with razor blades” line or Bob Grant’s “Get off my phoooone.”   

Exhibit those same six traits and you’ll probably be invited back, especially if you disagree with the host. In talk radio, the more heat, the better the show.

Posted In: Radio Publicity
posted On: : 8:12 am: By Joan
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If you’re pitching a story about a food product, offer the nutritional benefits of the product at the front of your pitch. 

That’s one of three tips offered by David Ward in his article in the March 20 issue of PR Week. Other PR tips for foodies include:

—Look beyond newspaper food pages and the Food Network for placement. The Travel Channel does stories on things like factory tours. The History Channel has covered the process of how foods are made. 

—Partner with local restaurants that are using your product. This is a great strategy if you’re trying to pitch to get into business journals published by American City Business Journals or business magazines.

—Pitch food trend stories to lifestyle sections and programs such as iVillage. They have big news holes to fill.

On the CD “Publicity Tips for  Restaurants, Chefs & Foodies,” I mention other pitching tips:

—Don’t forget talk radio shows. National Public Radio probably has dozens of shows that might be a good fit with food stories. 

—Write articles about your product for print newsletters and ezines.

—If you can tie your food story to tourism in cities served by airlines, pitch in-flight magazines. (See Special Report #29: Fly High with Publicity in Inflight Magazines.)

Everybody eats. Think creatively and figure out the type of angle you can use so your pitch does double- or triple-duty for various audiences. 

Posted In: Business Promotion, Magazine Publicity, Newspaper Publicity, Photos & Graphics, Pitching the Media, Publicity for Niche Markets, Publicity on the Internet, TV Publicity
posted On: : 7:54 am: By Joan
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It’s a great day to be a PR person and a bad time to be a journalist.

So says the March 20 issue of PR Week, in an article commenting on the third annual State of the Media Report written by the Project for Excellence in Journalism.

The report found that the newspaper industry, in shreds because of staff layoffs and diving circulation figures, chronicles complaints by journalists, who will rely more and more on PR people as they face increased pressure.

Writer Hamilton Nolan quoted Jonathan Capehart, a former head of the editorial page at the New York Daily News, who said the report offers a chance for crafy PR people to deliver complete story ideas, in-depth story ideas.

“Because reporters are so stressed for time and for ideas, the PR person who can give the reporter a complete package, if you will, is the PR person who stands a greater chance of piquing the reporter’s interrest.”

That means smart Publicity Hounds will:

—Offer not only themselves as sources, but others, along with contact information.

—Find sources with opposing viewpoints.

—Suggest sidebars for articles. That is, facts or statistics or a smaller story that can accompany the main story.

—Make sure pitches are short and compelling, preferably in less than one screen of type or in fewer than 30 seconds.  

—Send press releases only when there’s legitimate news.

In other words, make the media’s job easy. Which is what PR people should have been doing all along.

Posted In: Newspaper Publicity, PR Consultants/Publicists, Pitching the Media, Press Releases/News Releases
posted On: 3/25/2006: 9:12 am: By Joan
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If you’re an expert who can share advice, write a how-to article, create a quiz, take a poll or survey, dream up a clever holiday, offer a Q&A, or show someone how to do something, don’t forget the kids.

I don’t have children. But while at the local library last week, I paged through three magazines for parents, including Parents and Parenting, to see what kinds of publicity tips I could find. The exercise reminded me that experts in a wide variety of specialty areas should be pitching articles aimed not only at adults, but at children, or articles dealing with children.

Here’s what I found:

—Information from the Asthma and Allergy Foundation on whether your kids’ symptoms are allergies or a common cold. Doctors, health clinics and other health-related groups could pitch something like this.

—Tips on how to teach your children to save money. Couldn’t bankers, financial planners and stock brokers offer this kind of advice?

—Clever ways to get rid of kids’ clutter. I’ll bet any professional organizer or any store that sells storage containers could share tips on keeping a kid’s bedroom clean.

—Caring for kids’ hair. Specifically, curls, kinks and cowlicks. Many hairdressers, whose clients include children, would be able to share their best hair care tips for the little ones.

—I even found a feature called “Diaper Dramas: Everything you ever wanted to know about baby’s poop.” What a great story idea for pediatricians! (Wouldn’t you love to see the face of the journalist who was on the receiving end of that pitch?)      

—How to prevent children from getting fat. Fitness centers, chefs, nutritionists and food scientists should be able to rattle off a dozen tips in no time.   

—And, finally, The Publicity Hound’s favorite: How to raise a media-savvy kid. It offered tips on how parents can teach their small children to recognize the difference between paid ads and the actual TV shows. Couldn’t ad agency execs and PR people pitch a story like this?

TV reporter Shawne Duperon, who did two teleseminars with me called “116 WOW! Story Ideas from January through June” and “103 Sizzling Story Ideas from July through September” says that stories about children play a prominent role when assignment editors decide what gets on the air and what doesn’t. They particularly like kids’ stories that tie into the four seasons of the years, and holidays and anniversaries.

What’s your area of expertise and how many ways can you spin it into a pitch for children?

Posted In: Business Promotion, Magazine Publicity, Pitching the Media, Publicity for Niche Markets
posted On: : 5:44 am: By Joan
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