Paula Rizzo, a former TV producer, breaks down the five questions authors need to answer to pitch themselves to media: what makes your hook different, how do you pitch fiction, who should you contact, how do you follow up, and what sales should you actually expect. She also covers whether hiring a publicist makes sense.
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Hey there, welcome to Inside Scoop. I'm Paula Rizzo. I recently did a webinar for the Authors Guild all about how to get and keep media attention, because it's very important for authors to not only write their books but to also get them out into the world. And how do you do that? You talk about it in the media. It's what I help authors do as a media trainer and coach, and also I do it for myself for my own books. And my background is as a TV producer, so I know the ins and outs of what is happening in the newsroom, what producers are looking for, and how to get your books out there. And this works for fiction and non-fiction authors, believe me. Uh, there are ways to get both kinds of books out into different kinds of media. So we're going to talk about the top 5 common questions that come up when it has to do— when we're talking about media pitches. Specifically. So we'll get through those. And, uh, but first I have a little freebie for you that I want to share that I've developed from years of working as a media trainer with authors. It is the 10 questions every author needs to answer. And that means anywhere you are at a signing, on stage, on the air, on TV, you know, creating your own videos. You can grab that if you go to paularizzo.com/10q. And I'm also a LinkedIn Learning instructor and I have a bunch of courses about productivity and list-making, but also media training. This is one that I did recently called External Communication Skills for Leaders. Now this is very much, um, based on what leaders do, uh, and for leaders, but it, you can use these concepts for anything really, because I do train all kinds of people, authors and beyond. So I think that would be helpful for you. And, uh, I want to hear from you throughout the, uh, the whole thing I'm doing here. If you have questions, if you have a friend or an author, uh, friend of yours who you think they might be interested in learning how to pitch the media, tag them below and leave your questions here. If you're watching the replay, I'm going to be checking back. And so I'll be happy to go back and check out all of your questions. So let's get to those top 5 most commonly asked questions. First, what should a media pitch have in it? Well, there are 3 elements to a really great pitch: the hook, the twist, and the takeaway. And that goes for anything that you're going to pitch. Okay, so the hook is why now? Why is this important right now? Maybe it's a topic that's in the news or something happened, uh, that's topical, like there's a, you know, I don't know, a celebrity who is going through a divorce and you wrote a book about divorce. And so that makes it topical right now. The twist is how is this pitch different than every other pitch or every other story that you've ever heard about it? How are you going to tell me that bacon is good for you? You know, some of the stress is actually very good for you. I mean, these things have to actually be true, but that is what's helpful. So that's the twist. And then the takeaway. Think through what now will the audience take away from this segment? What will they literally do tomorrow after reading the story that you're quoted in or after watching the interview that you did on TV? What will they do tomorrow? So those are the 3 elements: the hook, the twist, and the takeaway. Every pitch should have those elements in them. And, um, if it doesn't, I'm pretty sure producers will be looking elsewhere to see. You don't want to give them too much work to do. Okay? So you want to be able to lay this out right for them. And you can do this both with fiction and nonfiction, which brings me to question number 2. What do fiction authors have to offer in the media? Well, a lot of times, and it's harder, it's definitely harder. I will, I will say that for sure. And I'm working on a novel right now, so I'm trying to crack this code for all of you fiction authors out there on pitching media, but it can be done. I have definitely media trained a whole bunch of fiction authors for not only book events, but also for panels. And for television. So it's about taking your book and looking at it through a nonfiction lens. What is it in that book that can be pitched as maybe as a nonfiction element? Jodi Picoult does this really great. If you follow her, any of her books, all of her books are very much, uh, timely, right? She's written books about abortion, she's written books about school shootings, things that are topical in the news. So she's able to talk about these topics. I get it, she's famous, I know you're thinking, but she, she wasn't always famous. She's been doing this for a very long time, and that has always been what her books have been about. Now she talks a lot about book bannings, unfortunately, uh, so that is keeping her in the media quite often. But look to her to see what sort of things you can do. Also, I had a client once who wrote a book about, um, it was, it was like a Christmas, a Christmas book, and, and part of it was a Christmas letter that was like the crux of this book, right? This Christmas letter, and things went haywire when people got the letter. And so the media was pitched by her publisher, and they pitched how to write the perfect Christmas letter, what you should or shouldn't put into it. And she was able to look through the lens of her characters and say what things went wrong with the way that they wrote their letters, how you should do it if you want to write your own letter. So she took that as a fun way to sort of be topical, but also mention her fiction book. And I did some training with her and it was a fun look, but there are ways definitely for fiction authors to do this. So those are two examples for you right there. Let's go to question number 3, which is, "Who do I contact and how do I get their info?" This is the whole thing, right? The whole shebam. If you can have the best pitch ever, but if you don't know who to send it to, what's the point? Well, you have to watch the show that you're interested in being on. You have to read the magazine, you have to read the newspaper or the podcast. Uh, and for television specifically, because that's, you know, where my background is, I would say, you know, a lot of times now you can find on LinkedIn, you can find it on the website for the, for the, um, for the station. Um, you know, you can also— there are a lot of very, very expensive services like Scission or Muck Rack that you can go to. I do not advise you paying for types of things. That's really for industry people, PRs, PR people who will pay for that kind of information. You can definitely find some of this yourself. You can also call, just call the station and ask who, who's the best person to pitch a story idea or who handles authors. You know, not every show is going to have authors. That just isn't the way that the show, the shows all run. So you want to watch the shows and make sure that they actually have authors on. It might be different time slots than what you think. Definitely watch, definitely read. And a little bit of an insight here into which shows to pitch or which magazines: you want to look at the advertisers and see who's— who is the, the demographic, who's the audience reading these magazines or watching these TV shows. If you look at the ads, those advertisers pay a lot of money to know exactly who's watching or who's reading. Those pitches of yours need to be focused towards that audience. Otherwise, you will never get booked. So you really need to hone in on who the audience is before you contact any journalist because they have to serve who the audience is. For sure, they could love your book, but if it doesn't fit their audience, they're never going to pick you. Number 4 on our list of the top 5 is, how should I follow up? Okay, so you've written a perfect pitch. It has the hook, the twist, the takeaway. You're feeling really good about it, and then you hear nothing. This happens a lot. Okay. You could have the best pitch. This happens to me recently, actually has happened to me. Um, and so what you do is that you have to follow up. Now you want to follow up after, let's say a week or 3 or 4 days, depending, right? Give them a chance. Journalists get so much email. There are so many things coming into their inbox. So you have to be kind and know maybe they saw it and maybe they liked it, but then something else happened. And that used to happen to me all the time as a producer. I would just get distracted by other things that were more pressing and I would forget to go back in my email. And look at that pitch again. So to be kind, you re-pitch. So what you should do is go back to your original pitch, reply all, and don't just say, hey, what do you think of the below? That gives the journalist more work to do. So then they're gonna have to go back down and say, who are you and what is this? Don't do that. Make sure you re-pitch right there. You don't have to copy and paste the whole thing, but maybe you take a different approach and you say a little bit something different. And then you say, you know, here's my ideas and there's more complete details below, something like that, something to grab their attention. Remember, you only have a few seconds to get their attention, and if you don't, they have moved on and they will never look at this pitch ever again. So you have to be clear about that. And number 5 on our top 5 is, how many books will I sell if I do a media interview? Aha, this is the big question everyone wants to know. And wouldn't it be great if I could tell you tons and tons of books? No, that doesn't really happen. Okay? So I want to manage expectations here. It depends on what kind of media you do whether or not you will sell books. And I know there have been people through the years who have been on the big ones, the Today Show, Good Morning America, and they think, "I'm going to sell out. This is going to be amazing." And they have not. Unless you're a celebrity and you go on TV, you probably won't sell that many books. And the reason is because the people who are watching, let's say a morning show like Today Show or GMA, They're in the middle of getting ready. They're halfway out the door. They're not, you know, on their phone like finding out, what was that person's name again? Let me find out what their book was. That doesn't happen. So there's not a direct correlation there. Of course, it gives you the gravitas of being able to say that you were on the Today Show or you were on a major TV show, even if it's, you know, local news. You get to say that. You get to use that to then pitch with other media. But it might not equal book sales. Podcasts, however, are much more successful at getting people to buy books because think about it, if you're listening to a podcast, you have chosen to listen to that podcast at that exact moment. And you probably really like that host and you trust the people they have on and you want to know what kind of recommendations they have. So it's a different kind of audience that listens to podcasts versus someone who's watching television. They are both definitely worthwhile. Radio as well, you know, magazines, the same thing. Think about magazine, you're seeing it in print. Do people really go and go to their phone or on their computer to then buy the book? Maybe, maybe not. It's, it's not as easy. So manage your expectations there. And before we go, I did say 5, but I have one more bonus tip for you. One more question that I want to answer. Do I need a publicist? This comes up quite a lot. The answer is yes and no. It depends on what your goals are, right? So it depends on what kind of media you want to get and how much you're investing in the book to get out there. The book launch is a long, long, long game, okay? And I want you to know that it's very helpful to have a publicist in the beginning to get it out in the world, but then you're not going to have them with you all the time. So it's important for you to know the principles of how to get your book out into the world again and again, how to pitch yourself for not only media but for speaking engagements or for book events with other authors. It's a good skill to have. It's nice to have a publicist if you have very specific goals of places that you want to be featured in because they will have contacts there. It is difficult for you to have contacts in a world that you've never been in before, right? So for the contacts alone and the know-how, I think it's really helpful to have a publicist to guide you, but it's not necessary. You can start to do some of this stuff on your own well before your podcast comes out. Okay, um, so your podcast— your book, sorry— uh, before your book comes out. So, uh, I hope this was helpful for you. If you have additional questions, please leave them below. I also have an added resource for you. It is an Inside Scoop episode all about the top tips and resources for authors, which I think you'll find really helpful. It's all of my favorite things, um, that, that does help authors through the years. And also, I do have a media training course called Media Ready Author that I think will be very helpful to all of you fiction and non-fiction authors who are looking to get out into the media. Um, it is a self-study course, is about an hour and a half, uh, that I lead. And if you go to mediareadyauthor.com, you can check that out, or there's a QR code right there on the screen so that you can Go ahead and take that for yourself. If you have questions, leave them in the chat boxes below. I will still be looking out for those. Thanks for joining me, and I'll see you next time.
