Bernadette Boas advises authors to pitch internet radio shows like BlogTalkRadio using a customized email that explains what value you'll bring the host's audience. Target shows matching your book's genre, use directories like RadioGuestList to find them, and follow up persistently by email, phone, or website contact.
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Hi, welcome back to Rich Tips, where I take your questions, stories, and challenges and provide you tips, advice, and some tough love. I'm Bernadette Boas, and we're going to dive right in. A Rich Tip question comes from Cheryl Crossman. I have a book coming out and I want to promote it, and I was thinking of radio programs. How do I go about doing that? And that's real simple, because you know I do that each and every day promoting my own book. It's as simple as go and first address internet radio programs. So go to the stations that are online, such as BlogTalkRadio. Look up your genre for your book, and in that genre there'll be tens, if not hundreds, of different radio programs, different hosts that you can pitch to in order to get on their show. But first, you want a pitch email or a pitch letter. Basically, write a standard email highlighting what your subject matter is going to bring to their listeners, what value, what's in it for them having you as a guest on their radio program. And be sure that it provides what your audience is gonna get out of it. Also, make a note of how you're gonna promote it, how you're gonna support it, how you're gonna make sure that before, during, and after that program you're kind of sponsoring and supporting them in any way, shape, or form to get that program heard. Have a standard one, but then tailor it to each program. Make sure you use the host or the manager's name, and make sure you actually reference the particular show and why your program, your book, your subject matter will be relevant for them. It's that easy. Now, apart from BlogTalkRadio, there's others. So search online for internet radio shows, and most likely you're gonna find stations all right, of which then breaks down to channels. So for instance, Shedding the Bitch radio program is part of BlogTalkRadio station, all right. There's a lot of them out there, go for it. After that, you can also go to radioguestlist.com. It's an online radio directory where they have all the online radio shows listed. Not all of them maybe, but a good amount of them. So you can also go through that directory and find radio programs that are relevant, but be sure they're relevant. Do not, for instance, send a pitch to a business program when you talk about parenting or some other subject, that technology that doesn't relate to that business or relate to business. Now granted, parenting subjects can relate to executives within the business, that, you know, you can certainly stretch it, but I would first go to those genres, those shows that are one-to-one direct relationship to what you're talking about, because that's going to give both of you the biggest bang for your buck. So after you've done that, you go to the radio list, you then send them that note, but make sure you follow up because a lot of them won't respond right away, and/or they don't respond, maybe it went into their spam filter, or or maybe they just don't see the relevance, and maybe you need to follow up and provide more details. So, like any PR that you might do, like any marketing or advertising you might do, don't just send the email and think you're done. Make sure you contact them. A lot of them have a website, a lot of them have a phone number you can call. So, be interactive, be professional, and be your own PR agent, and you can find a lot of opportunities for radio programs. All right, that's your Rich Tip, Cheryl. That's your Rich Tip, Cheryl, regarding how do you promote your book.
