• Magazine
• Newspaper
• Online media outlet or content site
• Radio station
• TV program
• Blog
• Podcast

It’s more powerful than advertising and other paid-for marketing tactics because it brings with it far more credibility. That’s because when you’re quoted by the press, you get an authority boost.

People are smart enough to know that journalists are selective about who they use as sources. So, if a reporter chose you, you must know what you’re talking about.

What are the easiest and most effective ways to get publicity? Here are my top three.

1. Write and distribute a publicity tip sheet.

A tip sheet is a type of press release that offers tips or advice in a bulleted or numbered format.

Like a press release, it’s written like a news story so that a media outlet or blogger can run it as is. No additional research or writing is necessary.

Media outlets, especially newspapers and magazines, like tip sheets because they can pull out just one or two tips to fill space. They also run them as short articles or use them as a starting point for longer feature stories.

Radio stations like to share the advice in snippets or, like TV talk shows, build author interviews around the tip sheet topic. Bloggers run them as new posts because tip sheets with substance help them deliver useful information to their followers.

Learn how to create one and see an example in “How to create a book publicity tip sheet.”

2. Blog regularly.

When I’m looking for sources for my freelance writing article assignments, I often start with a Google search.

I might type in my article topic, or, when I specifically want to interview an author, I’ll type the topic plus the word “author.”

More often than not, search results take me to blog posts. I contact the blogger via email; if they respond (and sadly, it’s “if,” not “when”), we do an interview … and that expert scores free publicity.

Here’s how you can leverage your blog’s content to get publicity:

• Provide your email address on your “contact” page, not a form that people have to type into. Because I rarely get a response to my form-based inquiries, I try not to use them when I find a source I’d like to interview. If I can use only one of the two experts I’ve found, I’ll start with the one who provides an email address.
• Respond to media inquiries quickly. Most of us move on to the next option quickly when we don’t hear back from someone we’ve contacted within a reasonable amount of time.

3. Subscribe to HARO.

HARO – Help a Reporter Out – is a free service that helps journalists find sources to interview and quote in articles and broadcast segments.

It is one of the easiest – if not the easiest – ways to get book publicity.

HARO is every book publicist’s secret weapon because works. That’s why every time I coach an author who wants media exposure, the first thing I ask is, “Are you using HARO?”

And it’s free.

HARO feeds you requests from journalists

When you create a free HARO account, you’ll get three emails a day. Each of these emails includes a collection of brief messages from journalists who are looking for article or segment sources. We call those messages from journalists “queries.”

I use HARO regularly to find people to interview or quote for my freelance writing assignments, and, sad to say, I rarely hear from authors.

Worse, those I hear from don’t respond in a way that makes it possible for me to interview or quote them.

That’s because there’s a right way and a wrong way to respond, and many sources of all types, not just authors, respond the wrong way.

HARO response secrets

I teach how to use HARO the right way to get publicity for your author career and your book in my course, “Get Quoted: A Journalist’s Strategies for using HARO to Snag Book Publicity.”

Mastering HARO will give you a competitive edge that will not only help you sell more books, it will contribute to the platform you need to get a traditional publishing contract.

And, for those who consult, coach, or speak, it will boost your profile in ways that attract more clients and allow you to charge more for your services.

Get more information on the Get Quoted course description page.

Publicity begets publicity

It’s important to use any of these methods or others, including contacting media outlets directly with article or segment ideas, because publicity begets publicity.

Here’s what often happens once you’ve been quoted a couple of times:

• You, your book, and your website show up higher in search engine results when people, including journalists, search for your topic.
• Journalists who see you’ve been quoted already are more likely to contact you for an interview. That’s because another reporter has vetted you, and because it’s clear that you’re willing and able to talk about your topic.

You also earn the right to share media outlet, blog, podcast, and content site logos on your website in an “as seen on” banner.

Don’t wait to pursue publicity. Let this free strategy help you reach more of the right readers.

Have you snagged publicity? Please tell us how you did it in a comment!

True Enough: Learning to Live in a Post-Fact Society*

It’s Not About the Coffee: Leadership Principles from a Life at Starbucks*

Smart, eh? I mean, really, who doesn’t like to receive books? There’s always a book or two under the Christmas tree every year at my house.

Books are wonderful gifts! So let’s make sure that yours gets into the hands of a lucky reader this holiday season.

Ideas for publications and TV

Here are six ideas you can use to get your title included in gift round-up and other stories in the coming weeks.

Your book might be in a different category or genre from those listed here, but you can still use these suggestions as idea-starters.

These ideas can work for newspapers, blogs, media outlet websites, and TV talk shows. If using them to get television publicity, be sure to include suggestions for visuals in your pitch. In most cases, that will be the gift suggestions involved.

1. Pitch a cost-related gift round-up.

A “roundup” article usually gathers up the best, worst, most, least, newest, top, funniest, etc. products related to a specific category or theme.

Around the holidays, these tend to be things like, “X gifts for under $XX” or “X ideas for stocking stuffers under $X.” Like me, you probably see them every year.

Using sports as an example, pitch “5 great gifts for sports fans for under $25 (or another price).” Include your book and pull in four other products representing different sports so that you’ve got diversity in your gift collection.

2. Send a how-to press release.

For a romance novel, send a press release on how to create a romantic gift basket for that special someone this holiday season. Your book is one of the basket items.

How can you apply this “how-to” approach to other types of books? 

3. Create a gift guide for different reader types.

If you’ve written a memoir, for example, distribute a press release listing memoirs as gifts for different types of people on the typical gift list. Offer one for men, women, teens, and other categories. Your memoir, of course, is identified as the choice for your target audience.

You can do this for other types of books, too, from science fiction to health to mysteries. Simply select age-appropriate books for each reader type. 

4. Create a book list.

Using my opening example of books I’ve received as business gifts, send a press release listing 10 books that would make good gifts for business associates.

Offer advice about who’s an appropriate recipient for each book. Perhaps one is a good choice for an entrepreneur while another is appropriate for someone who works in finance.

Offer as much diversity in your list as possible. The more types of readers you touch on, the more likely you are to see your list published in newspaper business sections and city and state business journals. 

As with the other ideas here, you can use this concept for many different types of books.

5. Recommend gifts specific to a topic.

Books and other items that can help improve our lives make thoughtful gifts.

If your book is about health or fitness, write a press release sharing a list of six gifts that will improve the recipient’s health in the coming year. Your book as one of the options (and the only book), of course.

Let’s say you’ve written a cookbook. How about a gift guide listing five things every home chef needs to have in the new year? One of them, of course is your book.

How can you apply this approach to your book? 

6. Write a tip sheet.

One of the best approaches is to write a tip sheet offering advice on a topic related to your book or its category.

For holiday gift-giving, that might be how to select age appropriate books. Along with your advice, recommend one book for each age group – including yours, or course.

Covering different age groups gives your content wider appeal and makes it less self-serving, which is always the goal. Always remember that tip sheets, press releases, and other publicity materials offer useful editorial content. They’re not advertisements.

Start thinking about this now

Work now to get your book included in those gift idea round-up articles that will appear in daily and weekly newspapers and on blogs in the last weeks of the year.

Remember to subscribe to Help a Reporter Out — HARO — so you can respond to queries from journalists looking for gift suggestions for their guides. They’ve already started researching these topics — don’t miss out.

My new course, “Get Quoted: A Journalist’s Strategies for Using HARO to Snag Book Publicity,” teaches you how to do that and gives you everything you need to succeed. Learn more here.

If you need help writing the pitch letters, press releases or tip sheets you’ll need to follow up on these six ideas, take a look at Build Book Buzz Publicity Forms & Templates. It includes templates, samples, and instructions for creating and using these and other essential media relations tools.

What are you doing to make sure your book is featured as a gift idea?

*All Amazon links are Associate (affiliate) links.

(Editor’s note: This article was first published in November 2012. It has been updated and expanded.)

HARO’s publisher batches source requests from journalists and sends them to subscribers via e-mail three times a day. The queries are grouped by categories that include biotech and healthcare, education, general, lifestyle and fitness, and several others. The query titles are listed at the top of each HARO e-mail; click on the one that interests you and you’ll jump down to the full query.

All replies to queries go through HARO’s internal system rather than to a reporter’s e-mail address, which isn’t provided.

Don’t make these 3 mistakes

As someone who uses HARO to find sources on a regular basis, I’m sharing here the six elements I look for in a HARO response to help me decide if a source is a good fit for my article. Before I do that, though, I want to make sure you don’t use these three surprisingly common (and inappropriate) responses. They will guarantee that you won’t be interviewed or mentioned:

1. “You should call me. I know a lot about this.”
2. “I saw your HARO ad. If you’re ever looking for a source about (insert random topic unrelated to query here), call me.”
3. “Read the article at this link for my opinion about this. Feel free to use anything from my article in yours.”

Respond with this information

Here are the six elements you do want to include in your response:

1. The title of the “query” you’re responding to in your e-mail subject line. Every query has a title – for example, “Cheap, healthy holiday fare” or “How to keep employee morale up.” Copying and pasting the query title into the subject line of your message helps the busy journalist organize and track responses.
2. Your credentials. What makes you qualified to contribute to this article or segment? Why should the reporter interview you? In addition to summarizing your relevant expertise in one or two sentences, include a link to your bio on your website.
3. One or two sentences to offer your perspective. Maybe it’s your opinion, something counter-intuitive, or information that validates the article or segment premise. Try to offer a few thoughts that the journalist won’t get from the many others who are responding. Be as specific as possible.
4. Tips or advice when appropriate. If the journalist seeks an expert and there’s enough information in the request to offer tips, use bullets to present three or four.
5. Brief anecdote when requested. Sometimes, reporters are looking for anecdotes, not advice from experts. If you’ve got one to share, keep it brief and to the point.
6. Contact information. This one is so obvious that it’s often overlooked. Make sure you include your full signature with name, e-mail, telephone number,  URL, and book title.

Finally, don’t include attachments. While HARO responders can attach files to their e-mail responses, HARO doesn’t pass those attachments along in the e-mail responses sent to  journalists. (Odd, isn’t it?) If it’s important to include the information, copy and paste it into the message.

What’s your best tip for making sure your HARO response gets you and your book included in an article, segment, or blog post?