Background
Many first-time authors are at a loss when it comes to promoting their books and/or themselves. And even if they literally wrote the book on an issue, speaking about it to a journalist, whether on TV, radio or print, is a whole other thing.
Challenge
Client C was a first-time author, whose publisher did not have a dedicated marketing and promotions department to raise awareness effectively about his book. Though his book had been out and available for purchase for several months, there had been no media coverage on it, no interviews scheduled and no pitch materials or media lists put together.
Strategy
Since this was a three-month engagement, we had to maximize our time. Our first priority was to identify the audience for this book, which would then allow us to define the media outlets and journalists we wanted to target for pitching. In addition to reading the book, we had several lengthy interviews with the author to understand his goals: Who was his ideal reader? What did he want them to take away from the book? How is it relevant to today? We used the information to put together a comprehensive media strategy that included a curated list of target journalists, a media one-pager, press kit, author biography and a social media strategy. We created book accounts on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn using images and templates created by our designer. We posted content on each account several times daily, leveraging peak traffic times and tracking engagement for each post. We did four major media pushes, highlighting a different aspect of the book in each pitch, that went out to our media lists. Each pitch was customized according to each media group’s focus areas, i.e., sports, social issues, books. We conducted several media training sessions — for TV, radio and print— with the author, who had never done media interviews before, and prepared talking points for each interview.
Results
In three months, the author did a national interview for CBS, which was picked up by at least 15 major markets across the country, from New York to Los Angeles. He was a guest on several radio shows, one in which he was asked to return for a subsequent show, and was a guest panelist for a local NBC station. We collaborated with him on two commentaries, which he published and widely shared. Through our media training and talking points, the author feels more confident going into interviews and has continued to use the tools and marketing and communications assets we provided him with as he promotes his book and positions himself as a keynote speaker.