author publicity

Authors, the media don’t care about your books

2/23/2011 By Joan Leave a Comment

I know that sounds harsh, but it’s true.

If you’re trying to generate publicity for your book, you’re going about it all wrong. You should be generating publicity for your expertise.

That’s one of the topics I discussed when I was a guest on Stacy Harp’s Blog Talk Radio show for Active Christian Media on Friday. If you missed it, you can listen here.

Authors, do these 2 things before writing a book

8/11/2009 By Joan 2 Comments

Here we go again. Yet another author who shall remain nameless emailed me this week asking for advice on how to market her new book and generate publicity for it. She says she’s “too close to it” and doesn’t know where to start.

If you’re thinking of writing a book, I beg you to do two things before investing months or even years writing and editing it, and thousands of dollars publishing it.

First, read my article 10 Questions to Ask Before Writing Your Book. These aren’t trick questions. But if you can’t answer most of them, you have no business writing a book on the topic you’ve chosen.

Second, instead of trying to reinvent the wheel, learn from other authors who have figured out how to make their books best-sellers. Join Steve Harrison for a free telephone seminar this Thursday, August 13, at your choice of two times: 2 and 7 p.m. Eastern. It’s called “How To Make Your Book an Almost Instant Bestseller and Sell Tons of Copies Even If You’re A Marketing Novice”, and it will show you an ingenious, yet simple method any author can use to make their book an almost instant bestseller and sell tons of copies.

As a result of applying the “Bestseller Blueprint,” you’ll discover this Thursday how:

Peggy McColl’s book hit the Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble and New York Times bestseller lists.
Gary Renard sold over 10,900 books and hit #2 on Amazon.
Kristie Tamsevicius got a deal to sell 25,000 books to ONE company and got national bookstore distribution after becoming an Amazon Bestseller.
Gary Rebstock hit #1 on Amazon and landed a deal with Random House.
Sandy Forster sold over $50,000.00 of books in a week and hit #5 on Amazon.

Plus, you’ll also learn how to adjust your bestseller campaign to accommodate recent rumored changes in how some top bestseller lists are calculated.

Even if your book isn’t going to be out for a while, this is a call you won’t want to miss. Register here for Thursday’s call.

The method you’ll hear requires no marketing expertise, no marketing budget and no technical expertise. It works for works for all types of books, fiction or non-fiction, regardless of subject—whether your book is self-published, POD, or an ebook; newly-published or even a book that has been out for years.

Filed Under: Authors & Publishers Tagged With: author marketing, author publicity, best-seller books, book marketing, Book Publicity, book sales secrets

Meeting a journalist? 9 magic phrases the media love

7/27/2009 By Joan 2 Comments

One of the best ways to generate publicity from traditional media outlets is to form a relationship with reporters, editors, broadcasters and freelancers.

That’s a critical step that 99 percent of the people miss!

And what a shame. If you know what they’re looking for, how to talk to them, how to help them, and how to stay on their radar screens, you’ll have a huge advantage.

When I worked as a reporter and editor for 22 years, I was able to tell within about 15 seconds if somebody pitching a story idea was genuinely concerned about helping me, or if their Number One goal was to simply generate free publicity.

If you’re meeting reporters face to face, or pitching an idea by phone or email, nine magic phrases can help you build a relationship with them. This video, created with a cool program called Animoto, explains all about the phrases I loved to hear when I was speaking with somebody who was either pitching a story idea to me, or wanted to get to know me better and genuinely help. It also explains one opportunity to meet journalists face to face.

What other phrases do you use when talking to journalists to help build the relationship?