This guest post was written by author Marcia Yudkin, whose books include, Publicity Tactics and 6 Steps to Free Publicity as well as the new Kindle ebook, The Sound Bite Workbook. She lives in Goshen, MA. Visit http://www.yudkin.com for more information on her work.

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Snagging an interview makes it possible for you to get quoted by the media. To boost your chances of actually getting air time or column inches from what you say during the interview, however, spend time beforehand creating a set of sound bites. These delicious word morsels are fun to hear or read and irresistible for the media to pass along.

Here are six sources of ideas for sound bites.
    

1. Triples.

You may have noticed that a lot of jokes start off with a priest, a minister and a rabbi. That’s because our minds like triples. That’s why although Winston Churchill said in a famous speech, “I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears, and sweat,” many people remembered his point afterwards as just “blood, sweat and tears.” Make a list of keywords for your subject matter and look for catchy combinations of threes. For example, if you’re a personal trainer, you could tell a reporter that you “help out-of-shape people get fit without pain, tedium or humiliation.”
     
    
2. Tweaked clichés.

Everyone loves an unexpected version of a familiar saying. Look up your keywords at www.westegg.com/cliche or www.clichesite.com and then start twisting what you find. For instance, if you’re a credit union commenting on recent developments in the world of banking, you could play on a common motto with “Money doesn’t grow on trees, but it does grow faster in credit unions without those greedy big-bank fees.”
     
    

3. Contrast, conflict or paradox.

A statement combining opposites commands attention. An ad for my local hospital used this principle effectively in its headline: “Nationally Ranked. Locally Loved.”

Likewise, my local paper ran a story about two guys who once made a feature film that flopped and created a documentary about their failure. The promotional line for their documentary contained interesting tension: “They don’t teach failure in film school.”
     
    
4. Clever mnemonic.

If you studied music as a kid, you may recall the formula naming the lines of the treble clef: “Every Good Boy Does Fine” (E-G-B-D-F). Create a sound bite for yourself by making the initials of a key phrase used in your business stand for something interesting. Someone who trains virtual assistants – VAs – to make a healthy income could say, “My graduates know that ‘VA’ actually stands for ‘very affluent.”
     
    
5. Details.

Review your case studies, client advice, bio and blog for details that can take on iconic significance. Have you noticed how often the number “99%” has been repeated in the U.S. political arena in the last few months? For you, the key detail might be your percentage of repeat customers, your documented accuracy rate, your carbon-neutral score – or something other than a number, like “The only thing left after the tornado destroyed our office was a teddy bear we used to keep in the waiting room to comfort our young patients.”
     
    
6. Bare-bones story.

If you can boil down a dramatic transformation into just one or two sentences, that can become a powerful sound bite. “She used to wait forever for elevators rather than take the stairs. Now she uses the stairs to train out of season for her mountain climbs all over the world.” “When it came to women, he used to be the king of the locker-room brag. Now he helps couples in marital trouble restore fidelity and mutual respect.”

After you’ve settled on the rough idea for a sound bite, fiddle with the wording so you make it as tight and pointed as you can. Often you can heighten the impact of an already good idea with a pleasing rhythm, rhyme or alliteration (as with the repeated f’s in “They don’t teach failure in film school”. And did you notice the emotion in my sound bite examples? That’s one more element that contributes to their quotability.

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The Publicity Hound says: Marcia Yudkin writes fabulous guest blog posts. But she doesn’t blog. And she says you don’t have to, either. Read why here.

Poor authors place their hopes, dreams, sweat, blood and money only into their books.

If the book fails, the author fails.

Rich authors use the book as a calling card to upsell readers to a wide variety of other products and services like: coaching programs, board games, wall calendars, membership programs, and more. That’s one of the key differences between rich authors and poor authors.

Learn the other six at a free 75-minute telephone seminar hosted by Steve Harrison of Radio-TV Interview Report, at 2 and 7 p.m. Eastern Time on Thursday, Oct. 13. Even though the call is free, I promote it as a compensated affiliate because I’ve seen hundreds of authors miss this important distinction and tie up their life’s savings in cardboard boxes of books they can’t sell.

Register for the call, “How to Achieve A Lot More Success As An Author By Discovering The Seven Things Rich Authors Know That Poor Authors Don’t.”

Daniel Hall, webinar presenter

If you have valuable information that helps your target audience solve a problem, host a free webinar.

Then after you’ve wowed your audience with content-rich information, make them an offer they can’t refuse.

That’s what Daniel Hall has done for my customers  three times in the last year. He explained how to speak on cruise ships all over the world for free, how to format ebooks for the Kindle, and how to format ebooks for Barnes & Noble’s Nook eReader.

You may have been on one of the calls and emailed me about how much you loved his step-by-step instructions.

Daniel’s webinars have been so popular that he’s been inundated with requests from people who want to know how they can host their own webinars. 
     
    
Join Us on Wednesday, July 27

I’m hosting another free webinar with Daniel this Wednesday, July 27. It’s called “Step-by-Step Insider Secrets To Producing Highly-Profitable Webinars” and it will be from 3 to 4:30 p.m. Eastern Time. ( 2 Central, 1 Mountain, 12 Noon Pacific).

Grab your spot here.

You’ll get the exact template that Daniel uses for consistently producing webinars that make mountains of cash. This training will be literally step-by-step.
     
    
Our Big Fat Promise

In fact, here’s our Big Fat Promise. 

You’ll get the exact template you need to create profitable webinars. Period. Don’t be fooled by the fact that this webinar is FREE.

Daniel Hall is known for delivering lots of immediately usable content on every webinar.

And yes, there will be an offer for Daniel’s new training on how to produce, promote and deliver profitable webinars.  But you will only hear that offer AFTER Daniel has delivered on our promise.
     
    
****Bonus for Live Attendees Only****

If you are on the webinar live (as opposed to catching the replay) Daniel will also reveal one of his most powerful, money-making closes—a close you can effectively use to sell just about anything on a webinar, including your product or service. It would be well-worth coming just for this close.

Register here.  See you on Wednesday!

Here’s one more reason to make sure your ebooks are available for the Nook (the Barnes & Noble e-reader) and Amazon’s Kindle.

In a review in today’s Wall Street Journal, columnist Katherine Boehret cautions against relying on the iPad if you’re planning to read ebooks at the beach.  The iPad’s screen has a glare that’s accentuated in bright sun, even if you’re under an umbrella and wearing a hat and sunglasses.

She likes the Nook and the Kindle and says that “at least for now, the Nook is in the lead.”

The Nook, she points out, has something that the Kindle doesn’t:  a touch screen.

“While Amazon’s Kindle has a physical keyboard for inputting text, and directional buttons for painfully sluggish navigation, users of the Nook can make their way around it using screen taps or swipes; its onscreen keyboard appears when needed.”

The popularity of both the Nook and the Kindle should be the nudge we need to make sure we offer our content as ebooks for customers of both brands. But formatting your content can be tricky if you don’t know what you’re doing.

I hosted two free webinars recently with Daniel Hall, who explains how to format your content for those two readers:

Publish an Ebook Today Using Barnes and Noble’s Nook

Publish Your Ebook Today with Amazon’s Kindle

But of these webinars are very long, but Daniel explains within the first 90 minutes how to format your ebooks. Each webinar is offered as a series of smaller videos,  so you can return and watch a certain segment if you need to review his instructions.

Recruitment & Retention Tips Booklets

Information products can become out of date so quickly, particularly those dealing with social media sites or any type of technology.

For that reason, I’m cleaning out my massive inventory and practically giving away more than 20 titles.

CD and transcripts, regularly $39.95, are only $5 each, plus shipping.  Tips booklets on employee recruitment and retention, regularly $5 each, are $1.35, and include shipping.

Even though many of the products are out of date, all of them include valuable tips that are still as good today as they were when I created the them. Topics include Facebook, how to get PR clients, press releases, nonprofit publicity, how to get your own TV show, special event planning and promotion, employee recruitment and retention, and more.  Here’s the complete list of titles.

Some of the CD titles are gone already, and we aren’t reordering, but you can still order the transcripts. Grab them while you have the chance. 

Questions? Contact my assistant, Christine Buffaloe, at 619-955-5772 or Chris (at) SerenityVA.com.

Author coach Ann McIndoo

Many of my friends have written books, so I’ve heard one sob story after another on how long it takes.

One author I know spent four years writing her book, and another frustrating year rewriting, proofreading and doing all the other little things associated with finally getting it onto the shelves in bookstores.

If this sounds like you, or if you want to write a book and avoid these hassles, help is on the way.

You’re invited to a free webinar or telephone seminar on Thursday, June 16, with host Steve Harrison who will interview Ann McIndoo. Ann has developed a unique system for writing a quality non-fiction book in 90 days.

I’m promoting this call as a compensated affiliate because far too many authors spend far too much time producing books that, in many cases, don’t even sell. Ann’s system  works best for authors who have written non-fiction books, particularly how-to, leadership, business, self-help, autobiography, etc.  It doesn’t work very well for children’s books, novels or poetry.

Discover the speed writing system she’s used to help 268 authors get their books done quickly. Register here.

Tom Antion, My Internet Marketing Mentor

Publicists, how many more clients do you think you can attract if your name comes up on the first page of Google every time someone searches for a PR person with your expertise?

Tom Antion, my Internet marketing mentor, can help.

Tom is looking for four select people who have expert skills in certain areas of PR and who are willing to work 10 to 15 hours a week in exchange for a scholarship to his new, licensed Internet Marketing certificate school.

Tom is the real deal, and you’d be crazy to pass up this offer. When he called me this week and asked me if I’d extend it to you, I said I would, but only if he promised to give my Publicity Hounds first crack at applying and being considered.

Hundreds of publicists and PR people follow me, so he could find exactly who he needs within a few days. Snooze, and you’ll lose. 
   
  
What Tom Has Taught Me

The training I’ve received from Tom has allowed me to enjoy a great income for many years from my home office. Much of it comes from my more than 150 products which I sell online, even on days when I don’t feel like working, or when I have a doctor’s appointment or other family obligations.  

Tom taught me the secret of how to capture the Number 1 and Number 2 spots on Google for the phrase “publicity expert”:

He also taught me how to earn affiliate commission promoting other people’s top-quality products and services that I can stand behind. I’ve done it so well, that I couldn’t stop the commission checks from arriving in my mailbox even if I tried.

Tom showed me, step by step, how to publish a profitable electronic newsletter. As  a result, The Publicity Hound’s Tips of the Week has been going strong, for more than 10 years. You can learn what I learned and lots more. And if you’re chosen, you can spend a day with him at the Great Internet Marketing Retreat Center at his home in Virginia Beach. I’ve been there four or five times.
     
    
How to Apply for a Scholarship

Tom is looking for the following publicity experts:

• A print specialist
    
• A radio specialist
    
• A TV specialist
    
• An online specialist

As you can imagine, there will be fierce competition for these spots because people pay Tom $58,000.00 to work with him personally for a year and $9,100.00 for tuition to his school.  He’s a cut-to-the-chase guy who doesn’t have time for busywork. And he knows you don’t either.

You don’t need a portfolio or even a resume. Just email him with a quick synopsis of your experience and publicity successes and explain what you want to accomplish on the Internet. He’ll follow up with you by phone.

Check out all the details.
   
  
But Is He a Good Media Interview?

Tom is an excellent media guest and has done more than 1,000 radio interviews and many for TV, newspapers and magazines. So if you know what you’re doing, generating publicity for him will be a piece of cake.

He’s also got the credentials. The Internet Marketing Training Center is currently the only licensed Internet marketing school in the United States. 

If you aren’t interested, but you know a crackerjack publicist who is, let them know about this. And spread the word on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.

When I shared a link on my Facebook page to the replay of a webinar I hosted recently with Daniel Hall on how to format an ebook for the Nook, Barnes & Noble’s eReader, one of my fans wanted to know if formatting books individually for different eReaders was better than simply using a site like Lulu.com which offers diverse publishing services for self-publishers, including ebook publishing.

I forwarded the question to Judith Briles of The Book Shepherd, who has published 26 of her own books, including 18 with major publishers, and also has her own imprint. Here’s how she responded:

“Lulu is expanding its operations to the ebook world, and who isn’t?

“Lulu falls into the vanity press/subsidy publishing arena.  Nothing is free, I don’t care what they say or promise. You pay for what you get.

“Designed for the person with limited money, the published book product that is produced reflects it. I’ve seen books fall apart, pages fall out, print slanted, back copy fuzzy—you name it.

“The ebook world uploading needs to be compared—apples to apples.  Lulu charges a fee per book, which is higher than most, plus the various platforms pay a percentage. With Amazon, if you have a printed book, the percentage can be as high as 70 versus a low of 30 without a print book.

“The $1.49 fee on ebooks is a money grab. It sounds low, but it’s tough to find out what the charge is on the site.

“They say free ISBN numbers (some ebook platforms, like the Kindle, don’t need one, but the Nook and iPad do and some of the others do, so I think it’s smart to have one). You want your own ISBN.  There are other choices.

“Lulu says that the author will make more. Its price example uses the normal prices of major publishers for ebooks, which is $13.99. It doesn’t represent that the real world is well under that—in the $6 to $9.99 range.  Only the bestsellers are commanding the higher price.  If you sell your book on Kindle, Nook, etc., it would mean you would have to literally tack on the additional fee–making your ebook more expensive than the others in your genre.

“Lulu will say the fee covers the ‘host’ costs. Nonsense. They’re basically the same files—once they are at the platform—for Kindle, iPad, Nook, Smashwords, etc., so there is no hosting expenses.  Lulu becomes the receipent of any revenues from the online retailer, then to you.”

Authors, Share Your Own Stories

There you have it, authors. Now, share your own stories.

Have you had experience with Lulu? Did it meet your needs? What’s your advice to other authors who are thinking of using it to publishe hard-copy books or ebooks?

Have you published ebooks for the Nook or the Kindle? If so, how easy or difficult was it?

Three fast facts that show you why publishing ebooks for Amazon.com’s Kindle are such a big deal, especially if you’re an expert in your field:

1. The New York Times is now adding ebooks to its best-seller list.

2. For every 100 hardcover books Amazon is selling, it sells 143 Kindle ebooks.

3. Every ebook in the Kindle store is available worldwide within 60 seconds. (Authors, how long does it take you to ship your hardcover book to a customer?)

If you’re not publishing ebooks for the Kindle, you should be. But where do you start, especially if you don’t even know how to write an ebook?

Let Daniel Hall give you step-by-step directions. He will be my guest during a free webinar at 4 p.m. Eastern Time on Wednesday, Dec. 1.

Register here.

Please set aside at least two hours for this session. Daniel stays on the line until everyone’s questions are answered.