Julie Broad (founder of Book Launchers) examines whether paid media interviews/features are worth it for authors. She describes frequent solicitations via LinkedIn/Instagram/email, shares that she paid a company (negotiated $1,200 down to $750) for a magazine feature to satisfy a green-card application, and warns that many paid offers are scams or low-value "pay-to-play" placements. She contrasts paid placements with traditional outreach and recommends careful vetting and earned media for credible long-term results.
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Is this happening to you every day? I'm getting contacted on LinkedIn, Instagram, and through email from someone saying that I can pay to be on this amazing article or this amazing TV show or radio show, and all I have to do is pay $500, 700, 2000, 4000 for this featured opportunity. If this has happened, are you wondering if you should go for it and if it'll be worth it? Well, if you said yes, well, then here's the good news. This video is for you. Hey there. I'm Julie the book broad. I'm founder of the full service self publishing company, Book Launchers, that will help you write, publish, and promote a nonfiction book to grow your brand and your business. Of course, we help you from idea to writing, to editing, to design. We help you create an awesome book. And then we surround you with marketing support as we pitch you for media podcasts, live appearances, bookstores, libraries, run ads, and so much more. So, yes, I come at this topic with a bit of bias because my team does media outreach for our authors. But you might be surprised to know I paid for one of these offers. But first, who isn't getting inundated with these? Tell me your secret in the comments below. And also, commenting on the day a video is released gets you entered to win some fabulous swag. And it's fun. But here is an example of one of these many emails that I get so you can see what this offer looks like. Essentially, it varies, but they are always including some sort of a feature in something that that sounds high profile. Sometimes it's even alongside a big name. And so you think, wow, wouldn't it be incredible to be beside Tony Robbins or Brian Tracy in this amazing top 10 list? Or sometimes it's a solo feature for you in something that sounds like a really popular publication. So you might think, well, maybe if I pay for one of these things, something cool will happen. So I did it. I paid for one of these companies for an article. Now, it started at $1,200 and I negotiated it down to 750. I don't know if you can always negotiate. You can, because wait until you see how this shakes out. But why did I pay for this? Well, I was curious, what's going to happen? What's it going to look like? Where would it appear? And I don't know if I should tell you this, so just come a little closer because this is a little bit of secret. It's not totally locked down yet, but I needed to have an article that explained what my company did and highlighted me as a super cool founder for my green card application. I had articles but my lawyer kept saying, well I need one that looks like this. And I didn't really have that. And well, by the way, our green card was approved. Ah, we're not done yet. So lots of paperwork and costs and all that fun. But we're so much closer. So I didn't have this fabulous article that met all of my lawyers criteria. I said what the heck? Because I got this invitation to be in Inc. Magazine that's credible. It's a feature on me. Even if it only ever appears on the web, it's good enough. I got interviewed an interview over email. I just filled out a bunch of information which is fairly normal for a lot of magazine articles I've been a part of. And I did in fact get an article. Here's what it looked like. Now do you notice anything? Post it in the comments below. If anything is standing out to you right now, go ahead, rewind the video if you need to look at it again. When I first got it, my reaction was, dang, they need some better designers at the magazine. This is kind of ugly. But then I thought, well, maybe this was just a PDF example of what's going to be online. Then I wrote her and I said, is this actually in the print magazine? And she said, yes, it's in the print magazine. I thought that was really odd. But I sent it to my lawyer. He was happy because it was exactly the kind of explainer content that he looking for and it had the credibility of Inc. Magazine. So check, check, check. I kind of forgot about it. And then a while later I was thinking, hmm, I paid for it. I probably should go see if it got posted on Ink's website. And then I thought, maybe I'll share it. I don't know. I didn't really know if I wanted to share it because I paid for it. It didn't feel credible and legit. So when I went back to find it, this is what I discovered. This is the Inc Magazine we all know, love and respect. This is the Ink magazine I was featured in. Go ahead, laugh. It's hilarious. It would not be hilarious if I actually thought I was going to become some credible, respected expert after this feature. But this is also why I'm warning you about these things. They are total scams. And you probably already knew in your heart of hearts that INC magazine or Forbes or this Florida magazine that wants to feature you, even though it's for a fee that it's not legit but looks legit in a world where a lot of authors are want to become thought leaders, they want and need to stand out. And these offers do what they need to do, which is appeal to that feeling of you need more exposure and you need perceived high level media exposure. So given that there's always unscrupulous people ready to take advantage, this is definitely one of those arenas Writers Beware recently featured a scam warning on TV offers like this. Here's what they said in their email. The most prolific sellers of vanity radio and television, though, are the scores of publishing marketing fake literary agency scams that are Author Solutions direct descendants. If you ever see anything from Author Solutions run that was mine, not theirs, this is what they go on to say. Although with other marketing services of dubious worth, these ripoff factories aggressively shill pay to play interviews to authors, both as individual offerings or as part of a costly republishing and re branding package. In this article that I'll link to at the bottom they have examples from great writers Media cost of just 4,500 from author's reputation, press cost of just 2,500 good river press and media cost of just 2,000 these are of the reasons why I always suggest you run from guarantees or give them a really good hard look. If somebody is guaranteeing you large media exposure, it's probably pay to play, because how else can they guarantee it? And if it's pay to play, what is the audience? There's a lot of things to understand about it. Is it actually the outlet? What's the audience? Is it really the credibility you want? Ultimately, I think the message here for every author is there is no easy button. Paying your way to a feature might feel easier than outreach. Outreach, networking, outreach, outreach, follow up and waiting while your marketing team, whether it's book launchers or another company, is pitching and following up. That takes time, doesn't have guaranteed results, and can be slower to build momentum. But then again, you'll probably be a lot more likely to end up on the real Inc Magazine and not the fake the Inc Magazine, which likely has a reader base of 0. When you do get high quality media wins, and I know you will, here's what you need to do to leverage them for successful brand and business growth and book sales too. And if you know influencers are your ticket to this, well, this video is an awesome one on how to do influencer outreach and how not to do outreach to an influencer. Both are guaranteed good watching. So click on over and when you get there, say hello in the comments below.
