I’m mentioned in more than 50 books on marketing, publicity, media relations and small business, and I’m always amazed at the number of leads and sales that result.

Publicity Hounds who want to promote their expertise should be trying to get into as many books as they can, too.

But how do you track down authors who are writing about your area of expertise?  Start by subscribing to Dan Poynter’s excellent newsletter “Publishing Poynter’s Marketplace.”  It’s packed with queries from authors who are looking for certain kinds of sources to interview, or for experts who can write entire chapters.

Today’s issue, for example, includes this fun query:

I am compiling stories for a possible book on funny, interesting or unusual and amazing stories of THINGS THAT HAPPENED IN CHURCH or during a solemn occasion.  Email your stories along with your name and e-mail address to mailto:jaybcain@gmail.com. You can contact me 423-472-3658.  Betty Cain, http://www.bedfordpublications.com/

If you need stories for your own book, send them to Dan at DanPoynter@ParaPublishing.com and put “Stories Wanted” in the subject line.  Focus on a single topic and provide your contact information.  Write tight.  Limit your listing to 100 words.  Conform to the format so he can copy/paste with no editing.  Listings are free.

Two more tips:

• Before you send that article or chapter off to an editor, include an enticing title or headine.  I have several dozen sample headlines in my free article Headlines for How-to Articles. 

• If you have a vitual assistant, put her to work tracking down authors who are writing books on your area of expertise.  Don’t have a virtual assistant to do your grunt work?  Read my free articles Hire a Virtual Assistant to Help with PR, Publicity and Train Your Virtual Assistant to Help with Publicity. (VAs, have you thought about adding PR to your services? If so, this article will give you lots of ideas about skills you can learn, then raise your hourly rates!)