How to be media friendly to sell more books

By Betsy Talbot

Are you making it easy for the media to help you promote your books?

I’m an author, too, so I understand your frustration at sound-byting the book it took you months or years to write. But I’m also the co-host of a popular weekly podcast and see the media side of this situation. If you aren’t easy to work with, you often won’t get the gig. And if you don’t get the gigs, you won’t sell books.

You have to promote yourself in brief if you want to sell your work in full.

Today I’m going to show you how to be media-friendly so gatekeepers at blogs, newspapers, magazines, radio, podcasts, and television will be happy to promote your work to their audiences.

Create a compelling brief bio

When thinking about a good media bio, imagine a radio announcer introducing you. What would she say to make the audience want to hear more?

Spend some time crafting a solid short bio, about 3-4 sentences long, and practice saying it out loud. Share it with some trusted peers and ask for feedback to make it better. Then write a medium-sized bio and a longer one. (Or work in reverse order if it’s easier.)

We have a full bio at the start of our press page (different than our About Us page, which is geared toward readers) and a medium and short version via links on the right.

Provide candid and professional photos

To add flavor to an interview or story, media outlets often want photographs. At the very least you should have a good, clear headshot and an image of your book cover. To add even more interest, add a couple of candid shots showing a more personal side.

You don’t have to spend a lot of time and money doing this; we had a friend take our headshots. But you should put some thought into how you want to be portrayed to an audience of people who know nothing about you. Click here to see our media photo gallery for inspiration.

Script the conversations you want to have

Think about what you want to convey to the audience about your book. Then create the questions or list of topics that will lead that conversation.

When you provide these to a journalist, you are guiding the conversation and making it very easy for her to promote you. Remember, it is her job to make you appealing to her audience. The more you can do to help that along, the better.

Click here to see how I structured the Suggested Interview Questions to promote our book while still giving the interviewer space to personalize the interview.

Tie it all together

Now that you have your basic media materials, it’s time to put them all together in one neat and simple sheet you can use any time you need to quickly convey what you and your book are about for someone who doesn’t know you.

It’s called a Media One-Sheet for a reason: it’s just one page. This is a great exercise for honing your message and giving the journalist just enough information to want more. I put mine together in Pages (the Mac version of Word), so you don’t have to spend a lot of money or design effort on it. Click here to see how I did it.

Most authors can put a basic media kit together in just one day. You (or your teenager) can post it to your website in minutes, and you can be pitching the media like a pro with your first cup of coffee tomorrow morning.

(Editor’s note: For more on this topic, read “Must-have online press room elements for authors and books” on this blog.)

What’s in your online press room? Will you add anything after reading this?

What’s worst, since this was for publication rather than for personal research, I wanted to make sure I had the facts straight about the paid version of the product. I looked for a phone number to call; there was none.

My fact-checking choices were e-mail or online chat. I chose the chat, but even then, initial answers seemed so automated and unconnected to my request that I had to confirm I was talking to a person.  I found it hard to believe that the company wanted to handle a media inquiry through the website sales chat function, but that’s what we did.

What does “media friendly” mean?

Does your website make it easy for a journalist to get the information needed from you? Is it media friendly? And what does that mean, anyway?

A “media friendly” site makes it easy for the press to find, copy, and use important information about your book. There are two easy ways to do this:

1. Create a media section that journalists access on your toolbar. Whether you label it “media room,” “for the press,” “press kit,” or “media information,” you’re saying to any journalist, “Click here to get the information you need.” Make sure that section has the information they need, want, and expect. (More on that below.)
2. Add a “contact” option to your toolbar and include not just your name, e-mail address, and telephone number, but your city, state, and country so that the reporter can calculate your time zone before calling. Too many authors leave out this information on their site, preferring for some reason to remain almost anonymous. Make it clear that you welcome media inquiries by encouraging them and making it easy to connect with you.

Should it be this difficult?

At a minimum, you want a description of your book on your home page or another prominent place on your website. Here’s the path I had to take to get enough information to write a 200-word piece on the app:

• Grab the product description from the “about the company” link buried at the bottom of the page.
• Take notes on product features and benefits by watching the video on the home page.
• Snag a few more tidbits from the “support” page. (“Support” was the last place I checked for product information because I didn’t need support for an app I wasn’t using. I needed descriptions and details.)
• Review blog for “news.” Find nothing useful.
• Conduct five-minute e-chat with sales support staff.

Please don’t make it this hard to get information about your book.

To learn what you should include in your press room, read the “Must have online press room elements for authors and books” blog post. If your site needs a spring tune up, check out this free Author Website Checklist from the Duolit team.

Take the time to make sure your site is media friendly. It’s an easy thing to overlook — so easy in fact, that many do. Give yourself a competitive advantage by being the author who recognizes the importance of this and acts on it. You’ll stand out.

(Photo by Nathan Rupert via Compfight.)

What’s in your website press room?