He knew what he wanted to say, he knew how to say it, and he said it well.

Not surprisingly, when I checked his Amazon sales rank two days later, his book was the top seller in one of its three categories and the second-best seller in the other two.

It’s proof that messaging matters.

Message development

That’s why you want to spend time on message development as you formulate your book marketing plan.

Message development helps you determine what to emphasize when communicating about your book, whether it’s on social media or during media or podcast interviews.

It’s not hard to do, but it does take thought, testing, and tweaking.

Here’s how to do it.

7 steps to messaging that matters

Follow these seven message development steps before posting about your book on social media or doing an interview. They will help you get clarity and focus.

1. Review your book to determine the three most important points you want to communicate.

This applies to both fiction and nonfiction.

With a novel, you might want readers to know that it’s a fictionalized version of a true event or that you used your great grandmother’s diaries to help write the setting for your historical fiction.

For nonfiction, think about what you want readers to take away from your book. Why did you write it? What do readers need to retain when they’re done?

Write down all three points you want to make.

2. Identify supporting information for each point.

This can be statistics, compelling facts, and anecdotes that illustrate the message point.

Relevant facts for the great grandmother’s diaries might be the number of diaries, the years they covered, or how you came to possess them.

For a nonfiction book on the impact of climate change on endangered species, for example, you might use eye-opening statistics from scientific studies to support a message.

3. Create draft messages.

Brainstorm possible messages, but remember: You want messages that resonate with your target readers, not anyone else.

That’s why knowing your ideal reader is important. 

4. Test your draft messages.

Try them out on people you want to influence – people who read the types of books you write. They can be friends or colleagues, but they need to be able to provide honest feedback.

• What language seemed to resonate with people?
• What language confused them?
• Where did they get confused?

Listen carefully to their responses and take their input seriously. 

5. Refine the messages.

Take what you learned from the testing process to make any necessary changes to the messages. 

6. Test again.

The repeat testing is important because you want to be certain that your key messages are appropriate and can influence the behavior you’re looking for. 

7. Adjust again.

Keep making changes — and testing — until you’re confident that you’re using language that will generate the reaction you want.

Do your messages do the job?

As you work on your messages, make sure they:

• Contribute to your goals.
• Resonate with the people you want to influence — even if this means they don’t resonate with you.
• Get a response when you use them. If they don’t, they might need more work.

Message examples

For an example of a message you’d communicate about a work of fiction, let’s revisit great grandma’s diaries.

A message with supporting information could look like this:

Message:

I used my great grandmother Tillie’s diaries to make sure I recreated the 1920s as accurately as possible.

Supporting information:

• I read through 7 of her diaries to find what I needed.
• My book is set in the 1920s, so while I had diaries from other decades, I focused on the period I wrote about because I knew that going through all of them would be too distracting.
• The diaries almost left the family. My great aunt owned them and forgot they were in her attic when she moved. Fortunately, I discovered them when I was helping her.

Now let’s look at that nonfiction book about the impact of climate change on endangered species. (Note that I’ve made everything up for the example; I haven’t researched the topic.)

Message:

If climate change conditions don’t improve, we will completely lose at least 15 percent of the world’s endangered species every year – and more will be added to the list as time goes on.

Supporting information:

• According to the Endangered Species Research Foundation, global warming has already altered the habitats of more than 100 endangered species.
• Researchers at the University of Wauwatosa report that they can no longer find evidence of three types of endangered lizards, including the Eight-Toed Lounge Lizard.
• Scientists at the Global Warming Institute report that the melting polar icecap will have a significant effect on all wildlife, not just endangered species.

Use your messages

Once your messages are final and you’re confident they communicate what you want them to, work them into:

• Media interviews
• Press releases
• Tip sheets
• Website text
• Social media content
• Marketing materials

You might need to massage them to meet the needs of these different communication vehicles, but stay as true as you can to the language you’ve tested and refined.

Need help? Build Book Buzz Publicity Forms & Templates has a simple fill-in-the-blanks form you can use to create your messages. Learn more here. 

What message do you want to communicate from your book? Please tell us in a comment.

5 easy steps to a successful media appearance

By A.G. Billig

If your goal in 2021 is to serve more readers by inspiring or entertaining them with books, consider doing more audio and video interviews. Emerging authors with small audiences can especially benefit from the large followings of established platforms – if they do it right.

A high-impact appearance on a podcast, a radio or TV show, or even on an online summit, will grow your fan base and book sales. It also gets people talking about you in a positive way, and all of us here know that word-of-mouth is still king.

You need to take the right steps to ensure your media appearance is a success. What you do before the show is equally important as what you do during the show, while being interviewed.

Here are your five easy steps.

1. Sharpen your core messages and talking points.

Think about your writing objectives, your book, your target audience, and your author brand and identify the top three messages your readers need to know (these are your core messages). One of your core messages should be your book pitch.

Also come up with five short phrases that describe the topics you can address and are passionate about. These are your media talking points.

As a publicist, an author client’s media talking points help me pick the right media channels for the author. They can also serve as a discussion guide for interviews. You can do the same for yourself, without a publicist.

Having clear core messages and media talking points will help you be sharp and to the point during the interview. It will also put you at ease since you will sit in the front of the microphone or camera with the confidence of someone who knows what they are talking about.

I always remind my clients before an interview to write on a small piece of paper the ideas/information they absolutely must convey, including their social media handles.

(Editor’s note: Build Book Buzz Publicity Forms & Templates has a message development template plus samples to help you with this. Learn more here.)

2. Become familiar with the show and the host.

As a former radio and TV host, I promise you that the host of the show has your best interests at heart and wants to put you in the best light. But she also has an audience to please.

So get familiar with the show by listening to or watching at least one episode.

Pay attention to the type of questions being asked. Identify the common ground between your books and the show’s theme and build your answers around that.

In doing so, you will get your message across in an interesting and engaging way for the audience – and benefit from a successful media appearance.

3. Test your equipment and setting.

Some interviews are live and others, recorded. Either way, you need to be ready to roll as soon as you are “on air.”

Make sure that your microphone and camera are working properly. If you have a new generation laptop, its camera and microphone should work fine.

However, if you’re serious about doing interviews and even starting your own podcast, it’s worth investing some money into a microphone you can plug into your computer.

For video interviews, check your background and make sure it looks nice, but not distracting. Avoid a blank wall, though—it will come across as cold and impersonal.

Also ensure that your face and body are properly lit so you don’t appear too dark or, the opposite, washed out.

4. Show up as the best version of yourself.

The camera and microphone easily give away how you feel in that moment. So, when you do a radio or TV interview, whether live or recorded, you need to show up as the best version of yourself.

Here’s how you can do that:

• Make sure you build inner excitement about it before the interview starts because that will show on your face and in your voice.
• Speaking of voice, warm it up before the show by singing a song you like, reciting a poem, or reading out loud the book excerpt you will share with the audience.
• Shake your body, dance, or walk briskly in the room to get the blood circulating in your veins and build up your energy levels.
• If it’s a video interview, women need to apply a minimum of makeup—foundation, powder, eye shadow, mascara, and lip-gloss.
• And, even though nowadays authors are being interviewed from the comfort of our own homes, you need to look professional and not as if you just got out of bed. Wear nice clothes that are consistent with your author brand.

5. Be yourself.

As with other aspects of our lives, preparation is key. However, leave room for spontaneity.

In order to have a successful media appearance, you want to be present in the moment, listen carefully to the host, and let your creativity fill your mind with brilliant answers. Don’t be afraid to use humor. It is much needed, especially in times like these.

Remember to stay authentic and shine your true colors, and you will captivate the audience.

Do you have a question about interview prep for A.G.? Please leave it in a comment.

Tip of the Month

I like to share a “Tip of the Month,” a free resource or tool for authors, on the last Wednesday of the month.

This month it’s StoryOrigin, a site that helps you:

• Distribute review copies
• Create country-specific purchase links
• Build your email list
• Offer audiobook promo codes
• Organize newsletter swaps

It’s free while in beta mode, so create your account and give it a try.

It happens to the best of us — including me.

I know it has happened to some of you, too, because I’ve heard from you.

Authors ask me, “Why wasn’t I quoted?”

Why you want to be quoted by the press

You want to be quoted by the press because when that happens, your book’s title is included in the article or segment because it’s your credential — it’s why you were selected as a source. And the free exposure that results brings with it great credibility.

If a journalist sees you as a subject matter expert, well, then, you must be one!

This is also why it’s kind of a big deal to be selected as a news media source. Sure, it gets your book title out there, but it also positions you as a trusted source of information on the topic.

Why your comments aren’t used

That’s one reason why it’s frustrating to have invested time in an interview, only to discover that you and your book aren’t even mentioned in the end product.

It’s hard to know why that happens without talking to the journalist involved, but as someone who’s been interviewed hundreds of times and has interviewed hundreds of people, too, I can offer a few possibilities.

When I’ve interviewed people for articles but didn’t use anything from the conversation, it’s usually because of one of four reasons.

More often than not, the source:

1. Answered the questions he wanted me to ask rather than the questions I asked.
2. Provided a perspective that I had already received from another source.
3. Didn’t share information in a way that made it memorable or quotable.
4. Was too slick or glib.

I don’t like it when I can’t use material from a source, but there’s not much I can do about it. You, on the other hand, have a little control over this as a source.

What can you do about it?

You’re always taking a chance that your comments won’t make it into the final piece, but to increase the odds that you’re quoted (and help make sure that you aren’t wasting your time with the interview), follow this advice:

1. Study the media outlet interviewing you.

What types of information does the outlet typically attribute to outside sources like you?

When you have a good sense of what reporters pull from an interview, you will know how to prepare so that what you share is more likely to run in the print story or in the broadcast segment. (And getting quoted is how you get your book title mentioned.)

2. Study your competition.

Make a note of what they usually say when they’re interviewed about your topic.

Then say something different.

Your goal is to say what they don’t say so that you’re bringing something new and useful to the interview. You know you’ve nailed it when the journalist says, “I haven’t heard that before!”

3. Take time to craft your key messages.

Spend time writing and re-writing a few messages with memorable language. This takes thought, but that process is necessary for most of us because we don’t usually speak in “sound bites” that introduce pithy, memorable insights.

We are often too wordy, or our language is too plain.

(For help with this, use the “message development” and “sound bite” templates in Build Book Buzz Publicity Forms & Templates.)

4. Use language that’s catchy or emotional.

You want someone to react when they hear or read what you’ve said.

Rather than just stating the facts, whenever possible, add a little drama.

For example, instead of saying, “Research shows . . . .” say, “I was caught off guard by research that revealed . . . . ” or “I was as surprised as anyone else by study results that revealed . . . . ”

5. Say something counter-intuitive.

When you share a thought that’s the opposite of what they’re expecting or have heard from others, you get a reporter’s attention.

6.Use alliteration or repetition. 

These audio tricks help us remember what you said because they make your message more interesting to hear.

For example, if you have a list of three things, try to find words for them that all start with the same letter.

7. Twist a famous phrase or cliche.

Get a list of clichés and famous quotes and play with them. The more well-known they are, the more likely they are to work for you.

For example, let’s say you’re doing an interview on how to be prepared for a weather emergency. You could tweak Franklin D. Roosevelt’s famous “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself” to get “The only thing we have to fear is not preparing for fear itself.”

8. Get to the point. 

If you ramble or go off topic, a reporter will lose interest and tune out.

Stay focused.

Practice makes perfect

Being a good interview subject comes easily for some and not so easily for others. With a little effort and practice, you will make sure that what you have to say gets included.

What’s your best tip for making sure your comments aren’t cut from a story or segment?

(Editor’s note: This article was first published in October 2013. It has been updated and expanded.)

Tip of the Month

I like to share a “Tip of the Month,” a free resource or tool for authors, on the last Wednesday of the month.

This one is from me.

It’s a fill-in-the-blanks press release template you can use to get more publicity when you’ve interviewed and quoted someone in your book.

You add the missing information, then send it to media outlets where your source lives. Learn more about how to use this strategy to get more free book publicity in my blog post, “Did you quote someone in your book? Use them to get local publicity.”

Download your free fill-in-the-blanks template here.

The experience was painful for both of us.

I’d ask an open-ended question . . . she would answer with one sentence.

I’d try to draw her out a bit with another question on the same topic . . . I’d get one more sentence — maybe.

She wasn’t uncooperative — it’s just that she was shy and not terribly comfortable with the telephone interview process. I eventually got what I needed, but I had to work twice as hard to get half as much information as usual.

If this had been a magazine, newspaper, or newsletter assignment, I would have concluded the interview quickly and found another source. Time is money in this business.

Talk — and talk some more

There’s a lesson in this for authors fortunate enough to get interviewed by the media: Talk. And then talk some more.

When you do media interviews, you don’t need to be a Chatty Cathy (pictured — pull the string in her back and she talks!). But you do want to answer most questions with more than one sentence. It might take a little practice to get the right rhythm — how much is too much . . . how much is not enough? — but you’ll get a sense of it with experience. It’s OK to ask the interviewer if you’re sharing too much or too little detail, too.

Note, too, that even if the interviewer has asked you a “yes/no” question, you don’t want to answer with just “Yes” or just “No.” Provide that information, then explain your answer.

Be quotable

The best way to be quoted by the press is to answer questions in a way that makes you, well, quotable. Think about what you need to communicate ahead of time, plan the best way to say it, and then answer questions as well as you can without being too brief or too wordy. If you need help, Build Book Buzz Publicity Forms & Templates has templates you can use to develop your messages and create soundbites with them. (Soundbites make you oh-so-quotable!)

If you don’t, your information might not make it into the article or segment, and you will have wasted your time and the reporter’s.

What do you do to make sure you get quoted when you’re interviewed by the press?