Self-Promote and Succeed Chapter 13: Pitch Yourself to Media + Podcast Promotion

Chapter 13 DIY PR that's a OK on the set of CTV Vancouver, I couldn't believe the number of cameras in front of me. I had been told to ignore them and focus on chatting to the host of the morning show. For the first minute of our conversation it was going fine, but then she stopped looking at me. She asked me a question and turned away while at the same time motioning for me to keep talking. With her other free hand, she frantically signaled to someone on the side that she needed something. I realized she didn't have a copy of my book and was trying to get it for the rest of the segment. Meanwhile, as a cameraman pushed his camera closer to me, I did my best not to look at him and concentrate on what I was saying. Ah, live tv. There really is nothing like it. Zoom interviews just don't have the fun or energy or anxiety of of being in a studio. It's really fun to do media interviews and you might be excited at the idea of being on local or national television. But getting that three minute segment isn't as easy as sending a press release, nor will it likely have the impact on your book sales that you hope. That doesn't mean it's not worth doing, especially if your goal is to be known as a thought leader or to gain more speaking engagements. Television interviews can be really useful for those goals. Let's get into how you can land some great media how to Pitch Yourself to Media A press release is good for corporate announcements or mergers, management changes and new launches. It doesn't get you media coverage, especially if you send it through a newswire service. What actually works is crafting targeted pitches for specific outlets. It's what our team of marketing and PR professionals do for our authors every day at Book Launchers. Now you can do it for yourself if you want. Media outlet pitching 101 first, put on your research cap. You need to find potential media outlets that may be interested in what you can contribute to their audience. To begin, you'll need a list of relevant, active and niche driven media contacts that publish content within your area of expertise. Please don't waste your time or money on a media list someone else put together. You can, however, ask your AI bot of choice like Jasper or ChatGPT to begin the research for you. It will need your vetting, but it's better than starting from scratch. For example, you could ask it for a list of your local news stations. Then ask for a list of the producers of the business segment or the reporters who can cover your area of expertise like health or education. Of course, you can do your own research online for this too. Researchers are also easy to hire on upwork or guru and they often have databases with media contacts which can be a great shortcut. After you have an initial list, see if the outlets publish content relevant to your book. If so, grab the producer's contact information, which is usually found in their website bio or social media. Compile a spreadsheet for easy organization and access. This way you can also record each time you reach out with your pitch and follow up. Online resources also contain contact information for members of the media. Sites like Muckrack or Cision can give you information, but they are pricey and aimed at big publicity firms and agencies. Comancy Constable has started a new service called PR Pitches which might be more valuable to authors. It's more affordably priced on a monthly basis with a strong database of speaking, PR and corporate consulting opportunities. Another good starter resource could be a newstip.com it requires you to sign up, but it has a free option for search. I also like Haro, help a reporter out for uncovering opportunities. Good old fashioned social media outreach can work to introduce yourself as well. Second, craft your pitch. This is not one pitch fits all. Customize your pitch based on whom you're pitching and whom they serve. Are they a magazine journalist, a podcast host, a TV host, or a book reviewer? What topics do they usually cover? Your pitch needs to highlight how you and your book can help them with their specific audience, specifically how it fits in but stands out from what they normally discuss. Yep, your research hat is still on, but now instead of looking at whom you're targeting, you're researching what you're pitching. No two outlets are the same, even if they're within the same genre or cover the same type of topics. That's similar to books, right? Game of Thrones and Lord of Rings might sound like the same thing if you describe them in a general way, but every fantasy fan knows the two are worlds apart. The same could be said of nonfiction books. Of course. Of the countless real estate, financial or memoir books out there, what makes each unique to their readers? If you answered their hook and imagine me giving you a high five right now because I am. A well crafted hook makes your book stand out and also makes your pitch stand out. Individualized pitches tell media outlets why they should care about you and how you bring value to them. That's the hook you need when pitching to the media outlets you've got your eye on. When I was in the real estate space, I built a really strong relationship with the editors at Canadian Real Estate wealth magazine. I read months and months of their back issues. I knew the kind of tactical numerical articles they liked, and I knew some of the topics they hadn't covered that were within the range of topics they liked to cover. I sent a pitch for two articles I could write and why they were perfect for the magazine. Sure enough, I was invited to write one of them. After the first article was submitted, I followed up with a new pitch and I ended up being a regular contributor. I even graced two covers. This partnership led to me being a keynote speaker at their events across Canada many years in a row, and my business was heavily promoted in every magazine and many of the ads they ran outside of the magazine too. You can imagine what that does for a goal of being a known name in the industry. It was an enormous boost to my brand and reputation across the country to get that regular exposure from the only major magazine in the industry. For investors, it didn't happen in an instant, but it all started with a good pitch. The time I put into researching and thinking about how I could offer something different but similar to what they had already covered paid off for years and years. Just like how you crafted a hook for your book, a successful media pitch highlights an audience problem and the solution that you and your messaging provide. You could even reference another expert in your space, perhaps someone else they covered, and say something like I saw that you had Eric Brotman featured in issue 32. He did a great job sharing why retirement can be a new phase of your life versus the end of work. My strategies for choosing a low cost country to live in during this new phase of your life could be the perfect angle for your audience to follow that story. Complete with my detailed research on the three best places in the world to retire to, I can offer tips to make it work with health insurance, finance, and family, then include a sentence or two with your bio. Devote time to diving into the outlet's website and social media. Scroll through their past content and figure out how your expertise can help their audience by solving a problem or adding value to their lives. When the media contact at the outlet reads your pitch, it should be specific and targeted enough that they can see you did the work and took the time to research who they are, who their audience is, and what you're looking to give them. If you present a strong enough hook, they should be able to see how they can present it to their audience right off the bat. Do not start the pitch off by saying you're a big fan if you're not legitimately a big fan, I spoke with a podcaster who says he gets about 40 pitches a week and almost all of them start off that way. If you're legitimately a big fan, show it by saying your interview with Sally made me cry. It it should come with a tear warning. Keep it short, clear and direct. A snappy subject line under 10 words and a pitch no more than two paragraphs is what you should aim for. And if two paragraphs seems too short to say what you want to, then go back to that part where we talked about hook and messaging. A hook is called a hook for a reason. You're using it to bait the person reading so they want to learn more. Even in pitching, your hook should be one or two sentences max. The third step is to send your well crafted, well researched email. You should always attach a professional media kit. It should include your bio, sample, speaking topics, headshot, book description, and any social media links. We'll get into details on media kits in just a moment. Be sure to also offer to send them a copy of your book, either physical or digital. Even if they pass on your pitch. You never know what could happen if they decide to pick up your book anyway. It never hurts to send a copy if they say they're interested. And now for the fourth step. Wait, then wait some more after you send out your pitch. Patience is most definitely a virtue. Media pitching is not an overnight thing. It can take weeks or even months to hear back from outlets unless sometimes your book or expertise can be tied to breaking news or time sensitive event. It's important to remember to keep your chin up and don't be discouraged if you don't hear back right away. Our team does a round of outreach, then follow ups, more follow ups, and even more follow ups. The number of times we have a win come in three to six months after the initial pitch would surprise you, but it doesn't surprise me anymore. Give it two weeks and then follow up with another personalized email. Any sooner and you risk bothering and annoying them or getting sent directly to that dreaded spam folder. The best wins though, can come from follow ups. Check back in after a couple of weeks. Carefully considering and crafting each pitch you're sending can be a slow process, but it's worth the time and effort. All that research and writing may mean that you only get to do 20 pitches this month, but that's okay. Better to have directed pitches with two to four yeses than throwing away your time and money on pitches that will get you absolutely nowhere. Timing is even more important to keep in mind when it comes to media. Podcast hosts often have a backlog of interviews and can be months ahead on scheduling. If you want media appearances to coincide with your book launch or some other event, you have to start pitching weeks or even months in advance. It's also worth noting that a pitch sent in mid December could get lost in the holiday shuffle. You're probably better off either saving it for the second week of January or getting the pitch in by end of November if you can, unless your pitch is very specific and tied to current news or events. Fifth step Be ready for last minute opportunities and short notice invites. You are busy so it might be tempting to skip answering emails or calls from numbers you don't recognize, but you could miss your big media moment. We landed a client on a PBS show because there was a last minute guest cancellation. Our initial pitch hadn't received a response, but a month later we got a call asking for our author to appear the next morning. Especially when it comes to tv, you can get bumped for a big news story or brought in due to a lack of news programs are often booked the day before and the first potential guest to answer the phone gets the spot. Media does not wait. If you are not ready, they will move on to the next source When a good media opportunity comes up. Be as flexible as possible with your time. So can you. You can take advantage of it, but what about press releases? Do you really not need one at all? A well crafted press release can be part of a media kit and can accompany those well crafted pitches we just discussed. Book Blobbers, Book blobbers, book bloggers or print media like local magazines can take the press release, tweak it a bit and publish it or use it for background after an interview, saving them time. In other words, the press release does the work of producing content for some media outlets that choose to use it verbatim or as background to supplement an article. That's where there is still value in a press release. For most authors though, it's really not worth paying a lot of money to get a press release written or distributed. You're better off to take that money and research specific media that may be interested in your pitch and your angle and create that all important, short, very personalized pitch. For example, if you're Imani Roberts, authors of DJs Mean Business, you'd be better off pitching all the DJ podcasts, DJ news and other specialized media first using concise targeted pitches instead of writing a press release and distributing it to mass media. While his book could potentially be picked up as something cool for the general media to talk about because you get to learn interesting business lessons during a night in the life of a dj, the reality is that mainstream media is unlikely to be as interested as an outlet that covers the industry. Whether you write a press release or pitch your book by email without one, the most important thing to know is that you're publishing a book is not news. It's not a big deal to anyone other than you and your family and close friends. So don't just write something like there's a new must read book out right now. That's not a hook. What you need to figure out is what is relevant and timely or new in your book or your personal story. You may or may not need a press release in your media toolbox, but one thing you'll definitely need is an Author Media kit. Next up, I'll go into what you need to know to create one or to improve your existing kit if you're already ahead of the game. Author Media Kit Creation Tips Author media kits are an important tool in your book marketing toolbox. Sometimes they're called a press kit and it's typically an electronic document to be emailed or downloaded from your website. We make them so they are easily downloaded, but also look great when printed. Every media kit we do at Book Launchers is a little different as we tailor it to the author's strengths, goals and project. Some things will be different, but every single media kit has the following front and center a picture of your book with your title and subtitle, and your name. The front page of the media kit should immediately grab attention with its great design and your cover. Your book description and metadata. This should include information like the ISBN, available formats, pricing, word count, and publication date. Your contact information including where to connect with you online. Specifically, make sure you include your email address, phone number, up to date, social media account links, and anywhere else that showcases your expertise and credibility. If you're working with a publicist or a marketing team, their contact information can go in this section as well. An author bio with your professional author photo. The bio should contain details that are relevant to your book and the area of expertise you're highlighting. My current bio doesn't mention my MBA in real estate and finance or any details of my time as an investor. Instead, my bio details include my Author Awards, Amazon Bestseller status and book launchers because those details are most relevant interview topics or questions. If you're looking for media attention, you need to give them some ideas of what is a good fit and what you should be asked. Ideally, include questions or topics that will be of interest to larger audiences. The idea here is you want to make it as easy as possible for an interviewer or journalist to interview you by providing five or so topics or questions. You let the outlet know where your expertise lies and the type of topics you cover with ease. Don't be afraid to get specific. For example, let's look at a generic topic. Tips for new parents the audience is obvious, but the angle isn't. A media member won't automatically know what you offer in terms of tips, how you can help, or even what's interesting about your pitch. Instead, let's try a More specific topic 3 unusual tips to get more sleep as a new parent why ice baths make you a more patient parent how to nurture other relationships in your life when your new baby seems to take all your love and time, by adding a few more details, you generate interest. Pro Tip hosts, journalists and media outlets love numbered tips or lists. It translates well for the audiences they're hoping to capture. Look at the headlines on Huffington Post or other news sites and you'll get a sense of the kind of titles that get attention and clicks. Those are similar to what will be attractive in a pitch topic. We'll cover sound bites in a second, but thinking about how you can deliver high quality content in 20 to 30 second chunks is a savvy media move. Spend some time narrowing down your questions and imagine what would be most interesting to you if you heard it for the first time. What would pique curiosity and invite discussion. Other media kit items, testimonials or endorsements if you have them. These are best if they come from other established experts in fields related to your book's topic or anyone else with name recognition. Like a celebrity as featured on or previous media coverage Details A media kit is meant to establish your expertise and be easily used by a media member to get all the info they need for a story or interview with you. If you've done media interviews and appearances, had speaking engagements, or have recognizable clients, use logos to showcase that. Images or logos are easier to view than blocks or lists of text, so use them where you can a book excerpt, article or advertisement about the book. Finally, include a link that can be used to easily download pictures of your book cover and your author photos. If you know you're going to be printing these kits on a regular basis, then you should get an actual URL. What I would recommend is to find a template you like and visit Upwork, Guru or even Fiverr to hire someone with great graphic design experience to make your media Kit. Make sure to have your brand or book colors available for them. Finally, you don't want this file to be too enormous to email. Ask your designer to compress it to 1 megabyte or less. Author Media Kit Use Best Practices 1. Remember the media Kit is an all purpose tool. You still need customized pitches to get results. The Media Kit doesn't do that work for you. 2. When it's done, don't mass mail your Author Media Kit. It should have a place to live on your website and it will be used either after you have a pitch that gets a nibble of interest or sent out as an attachment with a well researched targeted short pitch. If you get that nibble of interest, that's when you send your reply and the media kit. 3. Get your press kit documents proofread before you start using them. These are professional documents meant to put your best foot forward. 4. If you hire a designer on Fiverr, there's an option to get the source file for an extra fee. I highly recommend you do that. Similarly, when you hire someone on other sites like Upwork or Guru, ask for that source file because chances are you're probably going to want to change or update these documents at some point in the future. 5. Review the kit carefully before using it. Does what you drafted showcase who you are and make you and your book look compelling and stand out from others in your field? It should. 6. Do your research on how editors, journalists or hosts prefer to receive media kits. Some like attachments so you can send your media kit as a PDF. Others prefer links so you can include a link to download. Pay attention so they don't immediately put your media kit and pitch in the spam folder at Book Launchers, we include ours as an attachment, but we have established relationships ahead of time. If you're not sure, ask. Your Author Media Kit is important. It makes it easier for media to feel comfortable calling you an expert because a lot of the work they have to do in researching you is done for them in this package. It also shows you're a professional because you've invested the time and money in yourself to assemble a professional package, and while we focused on its purpose for media, it really is an informational brochure that helps anyone interested in you or your book learn more how to leverage a media appearance for success. Your work paid off and you're booked for an interview. All that's left is hair and wardrobe, right? Well not exactly. You need to be ready for that appearance with sound bites and be prepared to leverage all the benefits of the media appearance Media Appearances are awesome. Being interviewed on live TV is absolutely one of my favorite things. Yes, it's high stress with so much happening all at once, but it's also a huge adrenaline rush and it's fun and exciting. You feel like a real expert when you get to drop knowledge bombs for two or four minutes on a news segment. As exciting as this all is, the sad reality is that TV appearances rarely sell books. If you do it right, though, the actual media appearance is only a quarter of what you do to get the full value from it. Let me say that again, it's not just the media appearance that has value, it's what you do with it afterward. We're going to cover what to do to leverage it in a second, but first let's make sure you're media ready. Sound Bites do you know what's better than giving an awesome interview? Getting quoted from that interview over and over and over again and having that one interview lead to others. The next thing you know, everyone is talking about you and your book. Often all you need for that to happen are some well crafted sound bites. Learning to talk in sound bites for interviews work not only save you time when prepping for media appearances, but it also makes it easier for outlets to quote you directly and for listeners to remember what you've said. A good sound bite is snappy, easy to remember, and hits on a key point in 20 seconds or less. There are various types of sound bites, but to make it really easy for our clients, we teach them to prep three different kinds for their book promotion interviews. Type 1 quotes what is something you say? Or even a popular line from your book that others quote? Here's a couple from Self Publish and Succeed that I use all the time. Your book might be about you, but it's not for you. It's for your reader. Focusing on becoming a bestseller makes you the product, not your book. One of the biggest mistakes authors make is putting their book on Amazon and then figuring out how to sell it. The work should have been done before they even started writing. If you're familiar with me or Book launchers or our YouTube channel, you've probably heard me say these lines before. You might have even memorized them yourself. Once your book has been out for a bit, you can pull out your Kindle app and see what people highlight to help you find a sound bite. If you're not sure how to find this, just go to the little lines you see on the top left and click Popular Highlights. You'll see that people highlighted quotes that they found impactful. Type 2 Comparisons how can you draw comparisons between two unusual things to illustrate a point in a memorable way? This can be a brilliant way to create a lasting visual picture in the mind of a viewer or listener. Take Ted Lasso. If you haven't seen Ted Lasso the TV show, do yourself a favor and watch this show. It's so good. Who said taking on a challenge is like riding a horse? If you're comfortable while you're doing it, you're probably doing it wrong. Just make sure if you're going to use metaphors in your sound bites, that there's a clear parallel. Otherwise your listeners will walk away confused. Type 3 triples next try to hit triples. Here's an example At Book Launchers, we help professionals and subject matter experts write, publish and promote a nonfiction book to build their business and grow their brand. Write, publish and promote One2Three if you have three simple steps or a point that has three descriptors or three bullet points that you can share, memorize it. The human mind likes things that come in threes. If you can deliver three key points, three simple steps, or three ideas in a single sentence, your point will come through powerfully in an interview. And because the art of threes makes our brain happy, that point is more likely to stick with your listeners. Bonus points if you can make a triple that is in alliteration like media, market and money or publish, Promote and Profit Learning to talk in sound bites might take some trial and error. Brainstorm some sound bites and share them with your friends and family. Do they think it's something they would remember? Does it effectively illustrate your main takeaway or point? Does it make them curious to hear more about you or your book over time? You should continue to develop your sound bites and keep them on note cards near your computer or wherever you do your interviews. When you prepare for your interviews, it's a huge relief to have them. With strong sound bites and note card reminders, you can rock the house, get invited back, and build your profile and platform with every media appearance. Make the most of every media moment. Closing the zoom meeting or walking out of the studio after an interview doesn't mean you're done. Now it's time to make that one media appearance count in a big way. You need to post it on social media. This is the thing that gives you credibility. You are a featured expert for a third party. Woohoo. Use the best image from the appearance for your ads. This is especially true if you're on tv. The image can be really powerful for your ads and promotions. A picture of you on TV or a feature on a major media doesn't look like an ad, which means you can potentially get a lot of clicks if you add an interesting call to action or a promise in the text attached to it. It also quickly establishes you as an expert. Put the media logo on your website and media kit. Yes, that means you will be doing the whole as seen on thing. People ascribe importance to appearances and showing that a third party deemed you an expert worthy of interviewing and helps establish your credibility. Now many people do those things already, but here are two things that aren't as obvious. Repost on social media this time use a lesson learned from being on TV or mention what you talked about. In other words, talk about one of the questions you were asked and the answer you gave or an answer you would give today. You had a great media appearance. Spread the word. William Hung, author of Champion by Choice and and former American Idol contestant, does this brilliantly. He repurposes his moments on American Idol, on stage with Ricky Martin and many other major public appearances. He never just reposts though, he always shares new lessons along with behind the scenes memories. Follow Williams approach and use the best moments over and over and over again because not everyone sees your content the first time. In fact, the way social media algorithms work these days, you're lucky if 20% of your audience sees any one of your posts, so use them again. Just change up the messaging a little each time to share a lesson that others might find useful. Follow up with a thank you, show your gratitude to the media outlet and open the door to another appearance. If you have the budget, send a gift basket with a thank you note and a few relevant topics you could speak about in the future. Make sure you include your card and maybe even another copy of your book if you can. And if something newsworthy happens in the future that hits your expertise, reach out and suggest an angle you can address. If you were a good interview the first time, they will be highly likely to invite you back. Media builds credibility. It also gets you seen, which is really valuable when you want to become the known expert in a space. It may not sell a lot of books, but you can leverage it to do much more for you and your business. Hopefully these five tips help you make the most of any media coverage you land for your book. Now that you know how to take the media world by storm to promote your book and grow your reach. Let's talk a little more about podcasts in the next chapter and why they're important for Authors Chapter Summary 1. Media appearances aren't always going to directly sell books, but they are perfect for growing a brand and becoming a recognized name and using your book to get there. 2. Mass press releases rarely result in media coverage. Instead, you need to use a targeted and well researched pitch to get high value appearances. 3. Research your media opportunities with an attention to detail. Understand the most interesting angles of your topic and prepare a short, pointed and personalized pitch. Attach or link to your media kit or press release. 4. Prepare sound bites in advance so you have quotes, comparisons and triples to give an audience some gold nuggets to remember you by, especially if you do a short segment. 5. Leverage every media appearance by showing up prepared, posting it afterward on social media and sending a thank you. Repost the best images with lessons or insights you can share. Oh my gosh.