Book publicist Chelsea McLean

It pays to listen when bestselling Australian author Rachael Bermingham gives book marketing advice. Recently Rachael spoke at a breakfast event organised by Terri Cooper to share how she came to write and publish four bestselling books in four years, including the mega-successful 4 Ingredients.

When I asked Rachael about her most effective book marketing strategy, she was quick to reply with this ‘zero-cost’ technique:

1. Write a kick-ass media release that is eye-catching – don’t be afraid to break the rules and use colours, images, bold and italics to capture the media’s attention.
2. After you send the release, personally call everyone you sent it to within 48 hours.
3. When you get a journalist on the phone, say you are calling to see if they received your media release. If not, tell them about your book.
4. Tell a story and explain how your book benefits people. Don’t ever sell your book – instead, get the right angle for a topic that will engage the media audience.
5. Make it about the community – what they want and need. Appeal to people’s emotions.
6. Watch the media and comment on what is happening within your area of expertise.

You have to sell 300,000 copies to have a bestselling book in Australia. Rachael and her co-author Kim McCosker sold over 950,000 copies of 4 Ingredients 1 which was named bestselling book of 2008 in Australia. You can see their hugely successful media release here -

Sample media release – 4 ingredients

And you can get the book’s media kit and more on 4 Ingredients 2 and 4 Ingredients Gluten Free on this web page

Rachael has also self-published How to write your own book & make it a BESTSELLER which is full of secrets for how to make your book into a bestseller.

Go here to get your copy of this easy to follow guide to writing, self publishing and promoting your own book by a woman who has sold over a million copies of her own books.

Yours in book publicity

Chelsea McLean

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So you are about to launch a new book with high hopes of attracting national TV coverage and appearing on the likes of A Current Affair, Today Tonight, Mornings with Kerri-Anne, The Morning Show, Sunrise and Today.

When you pitch to these programs, they show interest! But alas! There’s a catch! Turns out every show wants to be the first to have your story go to air. That means you have to choose and risk disappointing the other programs. What to do?

For most authors, the unfortunate reality is you may not be able to appear on more than one big TV show at the time of your book launch. The producers will ask you if you are appearing on another show and if you have already committed to an interview, they might pass on your pitch because they are worried their viewers will switch off if they have already seen your story.

So what is the best way to handle this when you are seeking to maximise publicity for your book?

You can either stagger your pitches to your most promising TV programs first and wait for their response before moving on to the next one. But this takes time and you need to be ready to start pitching about a month in advance of your book launch. If time is an issue, the other option is to pitch to all your target TV shows at the same time.

A plus for pitching simultaneously is you could play interested shows off each other to encourage them to be the first to say yes to an interview. It might help you move things forward faster if you have more than one major program interested at the same time.

The downside for this is, once you have committed to an interview, it could be too late if another show asks you later. This can be a downer, especially if the other show reaches a larger audience!

Ranking which programs you would prefer to be on first can help you manage your approach and seek the most exposure possible for you and your book. There is no hard and fast answer for how to approach this, but it helps to be prepared and know how it works with TV.

Yours in book publicity

Chelsea McLean

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If you want to get print media coverage to coincide with your book release in stores, you have to be ready to contact magazine editors 3 to 6 months before your book is printed. That’s how far in advance they plan their editorial.

That means if promotional timing is critical for your book to sell, you must start work on publicity before your book is ready for sale. You can send copies of the book manuscript to key target media who ask to see it in advance. Often, the media want to see your book content before they agree to endorse it.

Print lead times vary for different magazines which can be categorised into:

Long-lead magazines

Annual, quarterly, bi-monthly and monthly magazines plan their editorial content with really long lead times. These are the ones you have to be ready to contact at least 3 to 6 months before your book is out.

Short-lead magazines

Fortnightly and weekly magazines have shorter lead times. This could be good news if you want faster results. Still, they work months in advance – similar to newspaper magazines.

Newspaper magazines

Magazines inserted into newspapers have much longer lead times for production than general news pages. If you are interviewed by a newspaper reporter, generally the story could be published the very next day. Not so for newspaper magazines – they tend to work to production deadlines around one month in advance and plan their content even further ahead.

So don’t wait to put together your media kit – you can get ready to contact the media before your book is in its editing and printing stages.

Yours in book publicity

Chelsea McLean

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When you get an interview on TV, it often means national coverage and this is one of the best ways to get mass awareness and orders for your book. 

To help you prepare for a TV interview, I’ve put together these five tips, in addition to the general interview advice in my last blog.

Non-verbal communication – 93% of the message a TV audience gets from you is non-verbal so be aware of your facial expressions, body posture and hand movements. You can practice interviewing on your personal video camera to pick up any non-verbal habits to be aware of during your interview. 

Be confident – just be yourself! As challenging as it may be, try to calm your nerves and stay calm so you can get your message across clearly. Try not to think about the viewing audience and just focus on having a chat with the interviewer and feel comfortable answering their questions. They asked you on the show because you really do know what you are talking about.

What to wear – never wear white, black or small prints. Instead wear bright singular colours that ‘pop’ like red, pink, orange, etc. You can try your outfits on home video to see how they look. It’s a good idea to bring one extra change of clothing as a back-up just in case any accidents happen at the last minute or if by remote chance the host is wearing the same colour as you!

Hair and make-up – most TV stations will do your hair and makeup for TV because the lights wash you out. You can check with the producer beforehand to see if this is the case. If in doubt, have your hair styled and make-up done before arriving at the studio. Men go easy on the make-up!

Bring your book – always travel with extra copies of your book and when you leave the station sign the book to someone, preferably the person who has interviewed you.

Usually the producer will already have a copy of your book ready to show on screen, but be sure to bring one just in case. You can ask the producer whether they will include a link to your book website on the TV show’s website, along with any fact sheets or summary of tips you gave during your interview. 

Always thank the producer and person interviewing you when you leave the studio and follow up with a hand-written thank you note in the mail.

Next time, more interview tips especially for radio.

Yours in book publicity

Chelsea McLean

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Recently in this blog I talked about how to mention your book in an interview. There are a whole host of tricks and tips that can help authors prepare for media interviews – for print, radio and TV, whether over the phone or in person. Here are some of the best I have found:

Before an interview

• Be familiar with the show – tune in before the interview if you can

• Be on a mission to share something with the world

• Know the audience listens with WIIFM (What’s In It For Me)

• Understand you are there to teach – and the more you teach, the more the audience will want to buy your book

• Teach the audience at least three things that will change their life today

• Ask the interviewer if they will give your website address or if it’s okay for you to give it at the end of the radio or TV interview

During the interview

• Smile – even over the phone – you can hear it in your voice

• Just be yourself and do your best

• Always give your best information first – work it into the conversation in case you don’t get the chance later on

• Always stay focussed on your message you want to get across – don’t get side tracked

• Mention the title of your book – it is okay to slip it in during interviews 

• Give tips from the book

• Always agree with the interviewer

• Avoid industry jargon – use simple, easy to understand information

• Use humour only if you absolutely feel confident

• Speak at the pace of the interviewer

To end the interview:

• Tell the audience where they can purchase your book

• Give your website address or let the host do it for you – tell the audience they can get FREE information – tips, recipes, information, reports – on your website to get them to go there

• When they get to your website, include links to buy your book. 

After the interview:

• If pre-recorded, ask when the interview will be aired

• Get a testimonial if you can – write down what the interviewer/producer says about you

• Tell all your contacts when the show is being aired so they can tune in

Some of these tips were reprinted from “Rick Frishman’s Author 101 Newsletter” Go here to receive Rick’s “Million Dollar Rolodex” free – featuring 45 pages of contacts and resources for book publishing and publicity the USA.

Stay tuned here for more interview tips specifically for radio and TV interviews in Australia.

Yours in book publicity

Chelsea McLean

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As an author, before you invest substantial time and money in the writing, publishing and promotion of your book, you need to plan how you intend your book to work for you as a sales and marketing, revenue-generating tool.

Most authors don’t get rich from the sales of their book. That’s why it’s so important to view your book as a platform that works for you by:

• Positioning you as an authority in your field,
• Opening the door to other promotional opportunities such as speaking engagements, 
• Boosting sales of your other products and services, and
• Giving you content to re-purpose into other products you can sell at a higher price.

These are just some of the ways you can use your book as a marketing tool for your business. And that’s why I’m so passionate about books. A good book gives you the kind of credibility money can’t buy – similar to how publicity works to establish you as an authority.

US book publicist and publisher Rick Frishman says before you write a non-fiction book, make a long list of all the ways you can use that book as a springboard to other products and services. “Too many authors view the book as the end product. Then, if the book doesn’t sell, they’re stuck,” Rick said. He and other successful book authors and publishers know that books need to upsell readers to other products and services. 

Two years ago I heard Rick speak at a book marketing conference in LA where many book experts such as Alex Mandossian talked about how you can repurpose your book content for CDs, DVDs, workbooks, courses and seminars. 

The fact is there is more money to be made in how you can re-purpose your information than there is in book royalties and sales.

Smart authors view their book as a platform with an end purpose in mind to drive awareness towards their real reason for writing their book in the first place.

Yours in book publicity

P.S. Get your free subscription to Rick Frishman’s newsletter by clicking here. No, I don’t get paid to recommend these links – I do it to help you find more useful book publicity information!

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Today online book publicity goes hand in hand with traditional media publicity. Journalists are looking online for stories, so book authors must have an online presence.

Book marketers in the USA are so far ahead when it comes to promoting their books online. Recently I found a book on Amazon called Red Hot Internet Publicity by Penny C. Sansevieri, published in 2007. I recommend all authors read it as it’s a great starting point if you want to learn more about online book publicity. Click here for the link. 

Every day I receive an email alert from USA-based ‘Publicity Hound’ Joan Stewart featuring hundreds of useful tips including stacks of online publicity information. You can subscribe too – from the welcome box at the Publicity Hound website. Go here to subscribe.

In one of her great tips, Joan told how most journalists are no longer “print journalists” or “broadcast journalists.” They are all “multi- media journalists”. That means book authors and publicists must think “multi-media” when pitching to the media and that could mean offering a video clip for a newspaper’s or TV station’s website.

For most of us, it’s a challenge to find the extra time it takes to learn about online media and take the necessary actions to get results. Joan says if you’re obsessed with generating publicity in traditional media, you at least need to have a presence on the social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook, where many journalists hunt for stories. 

Chelsea McLean

The Book Publicist

For more useful links like this, follow me on Twitter

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Every day journalists need content for their stories. Often this means interviewing someone who is an authority on whatever the story is about. Authors are perceived as the ‘authorised knowers’ in their field and they can help journalists by providing relevant comments and information.

Writing a book gives you instant credibility because it shows you have done your research and know your topic. You can own your area of expertise by writing about it. Your book works for you as a marketing tool and can build you a solid platform as a speaker and educator.
 
Recently I have been working with dietitian and author Amanda Clark on the launch of her new book Portion Perfection – A visual weight control plan. The media love Amanda because she understands how journalists work and is always keen to help out with interviews on a broad range of diet-related topics at the last minute.  That makes her a wonderful client too! She is now a repeat guest on 7’s Sunrise and 9’s Brisbane Extra, and the producers plan to call on her again because she is great talent. Click here to see our recent media results and scroll down to view TV interviews.

Chelsea McLean
The Book Publicist

PS Here is Lisa Messenger from Messenger Publishing talking about how she pre-sold her book to corporate and niche markets without relying on bookstores. Click here to see this short video on You Tube.

For more useful book marketing links, follow me on Twitter at http://twitter.com/chelseamclean

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