Getting media exposure for your newly published book can greatly enhance the sales of your book and build your credibility. Key to getting publicity for your book is finding the right angle to pitch. When you are pitching to get an interview on a TV show, radio or podcast, or an article in a magazine or newspaper, think about how your book relates to the particular audience of the program you are pitching to, or to current events, breaking news, upcoming holidays or celebrities, advised Ann Convery in this month’s SkillBites Show. Ann has helped authors and business owners pitch their book or their business for over 21 years. She blends neuroscience and storytelling for book pitches that bring immediate attention from producers, publishers, agents, podcasters, and audiences for fiction and non-fiction books. She has spoken over 150 times in the U.S., Europe and Mexico.
Today, if you can connect your book or expertise with Covid-19, you have a good shot at getting a media interview. For example, if you are a chef and have written a cookbook, your angle might be your ability to help people to make use of what is in their pantry. If your expertise and book are on child-raising, your angle might be the advice you would give parents on how they can homeschool their kids and keep their kids active and engaged while they are working from home.
Don’t expect to be able to be successful using a pitch that garnered you a media interview from one outlet to get a media interview from another outlet. You need to be flexible and revise your pitch to fit the audience and/or current events for the new outlet. When determining the angle that you want to pitch, keep in mind that shows are looking to book interviews with people who can share a great story that will make their audience happy.
Another tip that Ann shared is to create a powerful “logline” or one to two sentence description of your subject. She suggested going to Amazon and viewing the description of best selling books and movies. Those descriptions that create intrigue tend to get better sales, and also win more publicity. Examples include “the secret behind X”, “the #1 myth about Y”, “how doing this the normal way can backfire on you” and “3 10-minute ways to revive your marriage while quarantining with your spouse”.
Make sure you send your pitch to the right person at the right media outlet. You need to do your research to determine who is likely to be interested in your topic. The pitch should be no longer than 2 short paragraphs, from which the reader can quickly determine whether your story will be of interest to their audience.
If you would like any further information, Ann has various resources available on her website, PRforWriters.com. Ann can be reached at Ann@speakyourbusiness.com.