10 Media Relations Tips for Authors and Publishers

The Publicity Hound

Writers and publishers in the St. Louis area are blessed to have the active and resourceful St. Louis Publishers Association right in their backyard. In addition to monthly meetings and an annual class on getting your book published, occasionally a national speaker is brought in. Such was the case last Saturday when Joan Stewart, aka The Publicity Hound, came to St. Louis for a jam-packed three hour workshop on tips for profitable self-promotion. Joan is a publicity expert, speaker and trainer who works with businesses, authors, marketers and many others who need assistance with their publicity endeavors.

Saturday's workshop covered working with the media, creating video and audio, blogging (and repurposing your own content), press releases and pitching to journalists. Here are my top ten takeaways from Joan's presentation:

10. Pinterest is one of the fastest growing forms of social media. This visual platform is predominantly used by females.

9. Join LinkedIn groups that contain influencers who can help you with your promotions, not just author and/or publisher groups.

8. The Freelance Directory of the Society of Professional Journalists can help you locate journalists who write about your topic.

7. Once you have identified the journalists who represent what you write about, then read their blogs. Research them before you pitch to them.

6. Authors need to blog. Ideally, a blog post should be around 700 words so Google can find it.

5. Repurpose your content. Turn blog posts into podcasts, create YouTube videos, put tips on Pinterest.

4. Review existing podcast topics. Small, niche topics do well here because not too many people are doing it.

3. Complete a Google profile, and make sure that you have linked all of your websites to it.

2. Creating videos and audio content is imperative if you want to be found on Google, and to be recognized as an expert in your field.

And the top tip learned from Joan...

1. Promote yourself as an expert, do not promote your book. If the media sees you as an expert, they will call upon you for stories. The publicity for your book will follow.

Joan's presentation was professional, entertaining and enlightening. The fifty some attendees were attentive and engaged. What a productive way to spend a Saturday morning.

If you are not currently following Joan, I would highly encourage you to do so. Her publicity tips are priceless, though many of them are offered for free. To receive her free DIY publicity tips, you can subscribe here.

Thinking about Writing a Book?

Most people have writing a book on their bucket list. For those who live in the St. Louis area, the St. Louis Publishers Association (SLPA) has an upcoming event to help turn that dream into a reality. On Wednesday, August 14th the SLPA is hosting a Vendor Service Provider Showcase at the Lodge Des Peres. Free and open to the public, the night will feature 17 vendors who offer services ranging from editing, book coaching, printing, design, publishing services, illustration and videography. For more information, visit the SLPA website. Hope to see you there!

Sock Puppets

Sock Puppet

Do you know what sock puppets are? I thought I did because we made some with my Brownies while working on the Puppets, Dolls & Plays Try-It. Apparently it means something else that authors need to be aware of when seeking book reviews. Urban Dictionary defines sock puppet as "an account made on an Internet message board, by a person who already has an account, for the purpose of posting more-or-less anonymously." As it applies to books, these would be people who post reviews writing under false names and/or false pretenses. There are services that pay people to write favorable book reviews with or without the benefit of having read the book. And authors are the ones who are paying for these services.

As someone who has published several books, I know how hard it is to get someone to write a review on your book. I can see that it might be tempting to pay a service to solicit reviews. It is hard to garner attention for a new book, and certainly having positive reviews can help especially if you are selling on Amazon. But paying for reviews certainly seems disingenuous to your readers. There are many legitimate people online who will review books, including a multitude of book bloggers. As with all other things in the self-publishing world, there are no shortcuts.

Book Expo America Day 2

I've been delayed in posting this because my flight home from New York was canceled and I had to spend an extra night with a total stranger in a hotel by LaGuardia - but that is a whole different story covered in my personal blog at http://tinyurl.com/27muns8, if you are interested. Back to Book Expo...I attended the adult author breakfast first thing in the morning. While standing in line waiting for the doors to open three men came down the stairs of the convention center. The center man began yelling, "Yes! Yeess! Yeeesss! This is going to be great!" The ladies in line ahead of me had to inform me that he was Jon Stewart. Being a person who spends way more time in front of a computer than a t.v., I did not recognize him. But I could tell it was going to be fun to have him moderate the roundtable discussions. And fun it was! He kept the audience in stitches during his monologue as well as his introductions of the other speakers, which included Condoleeza Rice, John Grisham and Mary Roach. My favorite Jon line was "Hope you enjoy the show, the boat show comes in at 2:00 so get the hell out!" Although his reference to our "breakfast in a bucket" (referring to the fact that breakfast consisted of a few muffins and bagels served in a basket) was pretty amusing as well. And you could just tell that as the other speakers gave their presentations he was gathering fodder for the next "Daily Show".

Condoleeza Rice gave a poignant talk about her upcoming book, which describes how she went from being a poor black child in Alabama in the '60's to working in the White House. She describes her parents as being extraordinary ordinary people. When she concluded, Jon Stewart said, "Don't....make....me like you!"

John Grisham didn't really talk much about his new book but instead described how the idea for the only (?) non-fiction book he has written came from a newspaper article about a man who had been on death row was found to be innocent and set free, only to die a few days later of a disease. This got him wondering about how many other innocent people are on death row, and he now works for an organization trying to help death row inmates.

Mary Roach is an author I am not familiar with, but she was hilarious. Her new book, "Packing for Mars", will be out in August, though we were given an advance copy. She commented that if you think it takes a long time to send a man to Mars, just try waiting for a response from NASA when you send them an email with the subject line reading "Intercourse in Zero Gravity."

Best advice from the Q. & A. session:

Grisham: Until you are writing a page every day, you are not a writer. Have a routine.
Rice: Seek your mentors as people who are interested in you, not people who look like you.
Roach: Trust your instincts, believe in yourself.

Following the breakfast basket, I again made my way through the exhibit hall. I met with some fantastic authors, enjoyed my time chatting with other attendees as we waited in the lines, and picked up some interesting marketing materials from publishers and authors. As I had an afternoon flight (or maybe I should say what was supposed to be an afternoon flight), I only was able to spend half the day in the hall before shipping my prized autographed books home to St. Louis. Book Expo America was a fantastic experience and now that I know the ropes I will be able to get the most out of future BEA meetings. Congrats to all on a great meeting!