When I visited the store to talk about getting it on shelves there, the store representative said that wouldn’t be possible. There wouldn’t be enough demand for it, she said.

She changed her mind quickly, though, when I told her the local daily newspaper was interviewing me for an article on the topic and that I’d be speaking about it at a local conference.

That’s because she knew that the local publicity would help sell books.

Local book publicity tips

Would you like to sell more books locally, whether it’s through local stores or online retailers? Here are tips for getting the free local publicity that can help make that happen.

1. Research your local media outlets.

In most areas, these include some or all of these:

• Daily newspaper
• Weekly community newspaper
• City business journal
• Radio stations
• TV stations
• Community bloggers

After you’ve identified your local media outlets, read/watch/listen to them so you can identify the publicity opportunities.

What kinds of articles do the daily and weekly newspapers use? Do the radio stations have talk shows with guests? Do the TV stations have early morning or noon news casts that feature in-studio interviews with community residents?

2. Determine where you fit in.

Studying how each media outlet handles news and information helps you figure out where you fit in at each.

For example, you might discover that anything related to your book’s topic is too “soft” for TV evening newscasts focused on hard news. But you might see that the local noon news broadcast often has a sit-down interview with a news anchor and someone in the community who’s doing something interesting – you.

And you’ll probably see that weekly newspapers cover just about everything. Honestly, they’re a gift to local authors because of that. They’re also widely read because they’re hyper-local.

3. Get contact information for the section or segment that makes the most sense.

Once you understand where you might fit in to the programming, determine who to contact at each. (Learn how to do that in my article, “How to build a killer book publicity media list.” Tip #3 is especially relevant.)

4. Figure out your “news hook” – your angle.

Your “hook” is what makes you or your topic newsworthy or interesting.

A journalist needs a good reason to interview you. What can you talk about that will interest a diverse audience?

If you’ve written a book about composting, for example, you might pitch the newspaper on an article about local businesses providing composting bins in office kitchens, or about how to compost at home.

A romance novelist might pitch an article on how to add romance to your staycation this summer. (Get more fiction news hook ideas in “Finding the hidden news hooks in your fiction.”)

Ideas like this can work for radio and TV talk shows, too.

For a community blogger or weekly paper, “local author writes book about X” or “local author sets new thriller in (your community’s name)” is often enough. That sometimes works for local TV talk shows, too. It depends on the size and sophistication of your market.

It’s rarely enough for a daily newspaper, though. (And bookstores pay attention to dailies, so if leveraging publicity to get store distribution is your goal, you want publicity in your daily paper.)

5. Propose your idea.

We call this a “pitch.” You’re pitching your article or segment idea or topic.

You do this via email. Here are a few things to keep in mind:

• When pitching radio talk shows, offer to provide questions in advance for your host to ask.
• With TV talk shows, you’ll need an interesting visual – a prop. If it’s a “local author writes book” segment, your book will be enough.

When I was a guest on “Home & Family” talking about how to get a good holiday gift from the man in your life, I brought the winning entries from my “Worst Gift from a Man” contest.

• For daily newspapers and magazines, help the reporter by suggesting other people to interview for your article idea.
• Understaffed weekly newspapers often welcome articles that are written for them. Offer to do that.

Need a little help? I can give you shortcuts that save you time! There are templates and examples for media pitch letters and sample questions (and many other book publicity tools) in my Build Book Buzz Publicity Forms & Templates. Get your copy now.

You can do this!

via GIPHY

I always advise authors to start their publicity efforts locally to get the experience needed before approaching national outlets. Starting locally also helps you figure out which hooks or angles resonate with the press.

Local media outlets are also more forgiving of a pitch that isn’t as slick as what they might receive from a publicist with far more experience. If they see a germ of a good idea, they’re more likely to hang in there to determine if it will work.

Most importantly, they want a good story. If you’ve got something to say that’s interesting to your local community, you’ll get a fair shot at it.

The resulting visibility will help you sell more books in person and online, boost your profile locally, and open doors to other opportunities that can include public speaking and consulting. Give it a try!

Have you received local publicity? Tell us about it in a comment!

Promoting your book: 8 ways to pitch media outlets

By Cathy S. Lewis

A common misconception new authors have about book promotion is that their topic is so fascinating, different, and groundbreaking, the media will automatically want to interview them once they hear about it.

Unfortunately, that’s not how the media works. Columnists, editors, bloggers, and producers aren’t just waiting for the “the next big thing” to land on their doorstep. More often, they create the next big thing by seeing potential in a good story idea that’s been pitched to them.

And that’s where a good media pitch comes it. Your pitch should position you as an expert, and offer story ideas that are so compelling that the media contacts will feel they’re missing out on something if they don’t run with the story before anyone else picks it up.

It’s all about content 

As an author, you need to shift your perspective. It’s not the media’s job to promote your book. It’s your job or that of your book publicist to come up with content for columnists, editors, producers, and bloggers that features you and your book.

There are so many online publications, TV channels, blogs, and 24-hour radio talk shows now that there’s not enough quality content to fill them up; the media is always hungry for more. Knowing this, you can produce well-crafted pitches that, in effect, solve a problem for your media contacts.

8 ways to create compelling content

Let’s look at eight ways to create compelling content in a pitch so media people will “bite” on the story idea and want to create a piece that features your expertise and your book.

1. Do their work for them.

Draw from your book or area of expertise to come up with five to seven useful tips, and then incorporate them into a short piece of around 700 words. The media pitch presents the idea, tells them why it’s important, and then offers print-ready tips. Often, a busy media person will take the tips, add their name to the byline, and print them verbatim, naming you as the source. Or you can do what we did for one client. We offered a tips-based article called “Six Natural Ways to Lower Cholesterol” as a bylined guest post, and the site published it under the author’s name. That was easy!

2. Link your story idea to a new study.

Let’s say you’re a parenting expert, and the American Pediatric Association has just released a new study on the harmful effects of TV viewing on toddlers. Create a pitch that includes a link to the new study, and offer yourself as a knowledgeable expert to elaborate on it. If you have a contrarian or unusual perspective to add to the topic, all the better.

3. Spin a recent poll finding in a counter-intuitive way.

One of our author’s companies sponsored a poll that asked American workers about their loyalties. We combed through it for the most surprising finding–that employees are more loyal to their favorite soft drink than to their employer–and created a pitch around that idea. News media from around the world picked up our story and ran with it.

4. Present yourself as a contrarian expert.

If everyone believes in heart surgery, and you’re a cardiologist who believes that most heart surgery is invasive and unnecessary, then by all means highlight that perspective and frame a pitch around it. The media loves controversial experts as long as they’re not crackpots. When we did this for one of our authors, a health reporter for the The New York Times wrote a whole story on it.

5. Hitch a ride on breaking news.

Let’s say there’s been a horrific shooting that’s getting national attention, and you’ve just written a book about post-traumatic stress disorder in teens. You or your book publicist could quickly do a pitch positioning you as a TV or radio guest who can talk to parents about how to help their children with fear and anxiety.

6. Write a pitch linked to current culture.

Pop culture is rich with trends and ideas that can be incorporated into a good pitch. A new movie that’s coming out about elder romance. Or a sports celebrity who has a drug problem. Whatever your area of expertise, be alert to pop culture news that gives you an opportunity to offer advice, strategies, or pithy commentary.

7. Draw from real-life case studies.

Are you a professional who can share valuable lessons learned from real client experience? Using some real-life examples of business decisions that looked bad at first but turned out well, based on our authors’ book, we created a pitch that appealed to a reporter at CNBC, who liked that we had found all the examples for her.

8. Tie in to holidays and national themed months.

Don’t let holidays pass you by. Think of ways your expertise might fit in to a Father’s Day, Thanksgiving, or National Diabetes Month theme, for example. Virtually every media venue does themed stories that correspond with noteworthy times of year.

Have you tried a pitch that worked? Tell us about it! Just comment here.