Category: News

Finding the Best Way to Sell Your Book: Non-Fiction

Posted on by Claire McKinney
Academics, experts, spokespeople, business owners–many of them publish non-fiction books.  To look at these books as one giant group of promotable content packs is to ignore the fact that there is likely a “best way” to sell your book.  There is not a set of “book media” who generically cover anything that is made between paper covers.  And there is no giant pool of people who are awaiting the next “book”.  There is much more to the story.  How the book is structured and what it is about will determine how you sell it.  Some books are idea driven, others are more “how-to” focused.  Some are both.  Do you know which one applies to you?

Selling Ideas

Is it an idea book, a how-to or both?  It is one thing to pitch a mystery novel or a book on weight loss.  It is an entirely different approach if what you want to sell is a new concept or a new spin on something we all know.  Let’s break it down with one of the more difficult “idea” categories using some of my favorite tools from economics class.

Faux Title Study I: Selling The How-to Book

“Dominating the Widget Market for Investors”

Let’s say you are publicizing a book about investing in the widget market.  Your book describes the market, it’s history, sample strategies, tips, potential outcomes, etc.  It is a prescriptive book that can help people make money from widgets, and in general help them learn more about the stock market.

You would likely employ a strategy that included:

  • a “top ten strategies/tips” list
  • soliciting radio interviews
  • pitching long lead magazines and soft financial publications for the average investor,
  • trying to get on a morning TV show or other talk show that features self-improvement topics
  • outreach to digital networks about making money in the market

With this book you have a clear direction and advice you can impart.  You are also directing your message to digital and traditional communities that want to know how to improve their financial situations. Now let’s look at the other side of the coin.

Faux Title Study 2: Selling The Big Idea Book

“Dominating the Widget Market in a Changing World”

This book is similar to the first in that the author talks about the market and history of the widget industry.  He will also probably share some case studies of investors both successful and unsuccessful as a way of illustrating the changes.  Theories of the future of widgets and why things are or are not improving will be in the book.  The conclusion may be more gray than black/white and the author will present a picture of what things are going to look like.  He may also suggest ways we might adjust to allow for a more (or less) volatile environment.

What Makes These Books Different?

I’m sure you are getting where I am going with this.  Title 1 is a clearer “how-to” offering whereas Title 2 is based on a hypothesis and theory based on research and/or data.  There may be some takeaways that suggest what to do, but they will be implied rather than listed as “tips”.

Clearly these are simplistic examples, but I run into this all the time.  The thing is, we almost always want to try to promote the theory the same way we would promote the prescriptive, and it just doesn’t work.  First of all, authors who are writing about theory usually have a combination of academic and applied credentials.  They generally don’t want to give people “advice”.  The kind of interview where “tips” are the goal is often awkward for this kind of person.

The other author loves giving workshops and presentations about how to do things better. For her topic, how we got here isn’t as important as what we are going to do about it.

It is challenging to make these distinctions, but it is important.  If you do, you will be much more focused.  You will see your path to selling your ideas and achieving your goals.

Our 6-Step Guide to Earning Local Media Coverage

Posted on by Keely Flanagan
If you recently launched a new product or service and do not have the slightest idea where to begin with your promotional efforts, look no further than your very own backyard.

Whether you’re looking to raise awareness about yourself, your book, your business, and/or your brand, local media coverage can be the most successful form of publicity that can offer the greatest amount of impact. And guess what? You don’t have to spend a penny on advertisements. Here’s how to do it:

Step 1: Streamline Your Story

Streamlining the story you want to present to the press is essential when it comes to landing local coverage. Why should they cover it? Is it compelling? What value does it provide? Keep these questions in mind as you develop your story.

Step 2: Do Your Research

This may come as no surprise, but one of the most crucial parts to securing an interview, review, or feature stems from the amount of initial research you put in. Start by making a list using the 5 W’s:

  • Who is the best person(s) to pitch?
    • THINK: Editor in Chief, News & Program Directors, topic-specific reporters
  • What segment of the outlet would be the best fit?
    • THINK: News, Sports, Art & Entertainment, Politics, Opinion sections
  • Where can you find journalist contact information?
    • THINK: Contact sections of the outlets’ websites and Twitter handles for direct messages
  • When is the best time to pitch them?
    • THINK: Trend stories and news cycles
  • Why should the outlet be interested?

Step 3: Formulate a Pitch

At this point, you’ve established a story and figured out where and whom you want to go after. Naturally, it’s time to sit down and actually write the pitch. The key here is to share who you are and your story in the most concise way possible – ideally in one or two short paragraphs. If you’re looking for an interview, it might be in your best interest to include a press release and talking points in the body of the email (after your signature) so the receiver doesn’t have to click on multiple attachments. It’s also imperative to highlight the fact that you are local and any noteworthy contributions you have made to the community. This can be done in both the subject line and the body of the email in your introduction. For example:

SUBJECT LINE:
“Portland local takes action against homelessness through new initiative”

INTRODUCTION:
“Dear Journalist,

My name is John Doe, a local Portland businessman and philanthropist…”

Step 4: Connect with Your Contacts

Now, you’ve sent your pitches out and are awaiting responses. In the meantime, don’t be afraid to follow them on social media and engage with their posts. Sometimes all it takes is seeing a familiar name to evoke a response.

Step 5: Follow Up

Another vital step toward earning local media coverage is your follow up. If the contact you pitched hasn’t responded to your email, ping them again. Give them a call. Shoot them a message on Twitter explaining who you are and what you’re looking for. It’s okay to be relentless in your pursuit as it can take multiple follow-up messages to elicit a response.

Step 6: Stay in Touch

Whether your inquiry is accepted or denied, don’t be afraid to ask about the types of stories your media contact typically covers so you know for the future and keep in touch with them over email and/or social media. It’s always advantageous to maintain a good rapport.

For more publicity tips, check out our Publicity 101 series.

Personal Branding on Social Media: 3 Tips for Instagram

Posted on by Liz Bachmann

Personal branding is important. Whether you are looking to sell a product online, get a job, or become recognized in an industry, your personal brand can help (or hinder) your ability to accomplish your goals. 

In this blog series, Personal Branding on Social Media, I am going to share a series of tips for developing your personal brand. Today I am starting with Instagram tips for beginners because of Instagram’s increasing importance for B2C marketing — that’s you selling a product or service directly to customers. 

Although Instagram can be overwhelming, there are three things that are essential for creating a personal brand that can help you achieve your goals: engagement, value, and planning ahead. 

Engage with your Community

Instagram is a social media platform. Social being the focus. To be successful on Instagram, you must develop a community that engages with you, and you have to engage back. This includes engaging with hashtags that are relevant to your niche and engaging with your followers. 

Create Content with Value

You need to create Instagram content that gives value to your followers. Content that is valuable is content that entertains, informs, or inspires. This blog post, for example, is a form of informative content intended to provide value for our target audience. 

Plan Ahead. 

Trying to create a personal brand on the fly will not work. You need to plan out your content in advance so you can insure you stay on brand. Additionally, planning ahead by using a content calendar reduces daily stress around sharing content and allows you to develop a visual identity. 

Digital PR and personal branding have become an essential part of successful public relations. Without a claimed and planned online presence, you can lose the ability to share your story the way you want as well as credibility and authority in your area of expertise. 

If you are interested in utilizing social media for your personal brand, stay tuned for the rest of this series. 

Why is Your Digital Personal Brand Important in 2021?

Posted on by Claire McKinney

Why should you care about your digital personal brand?  It’s not just your reputation, it is also the 21st century platform that enables you to work, socialize, sell a product, and plan and achieve goals. I was speaking with an author recently who publishes a book every year.  Prior to 2017 he says his books would sell 2,000 + copies in paperback.  Since then, he is lucky if he sells 200.  What happened?  Did his fans abruptly change their minds about his books?  Was he blackballed from Facebook? Since he is a self-published author, his primary means of selling was online, but somehow it was as if he had disappeared from cyberspace.

How do you disappear in cyberspace?

Sometime in the last five years between changing algorithms, and a critical mass of over three billion people on social media, the rules changed.  When once you could post a few times a week on a platform, build a reasonable audience, and become more popular, now you have to have a brand and a plan.  Enter CoVid, the constant stream of bad news and politics, stores shut down, and more people online than ever before, doing everything from work to school to entertainment.   Do you think this is temporary? Nope.  Even when more of us venture outside of our homes,  experts say the move to digital was fast-tracked by necessity, and much of it is here to stay.

How does a digital personal brand work?

Imagine that you are a high school science teacher by day and host a podcast on sci fi entertainment by night (or any other time).  As a teacher you go to school, see students, engage with colleagues and parents, and have a reputation as an effective educator.  You tell people about your podcast and you gain a few downloads from your connections, but nothing that will justify the time it takes to put your shows together.  How can you solve this problem and make your podcast successful?

If you had a digital personal brand with a presence on social media platforms and a business page for your podcast, you would have a base from which to start growing an audience.  You could utilize Instagram and Facebook to post your audio and link to iTunes and other streaming services.  You could research people interested in your topic and connect with them to get listeners as well as potential guests and topics for your show.  As you build your audience you could offer promotions and incentives for them to provide content for you to repost, tagging the original user.  Then you will show up in that user’s network with exposure to all of their friends and followers, and so on, and so on.(Anyone remember that Faberge commercial for shampoo?)

Why do you need to put YOU first to get noticed?

The science teacher may think creating her podcast is the hard part, but it isn’t.  The first step is having the content.  Then she needs to plan on how she is going to be in front of people who are spending time in the digital space.   Brian Solis says that we have become a society of digital narcissists.  To make that premise work to your advantage, you will need to figure out who you are; who you want to be; what you are promoting; and how you are going to communicate all of this in a consistent, branded manner on digital media.

 

What is your social dilemma? Symptoms and insights for an internet culture

Posted on by CMPR

 

Do you want to watch a scary movie this Halloween season?  Watch The Social Dilemma on Netflix.

I’m out there telling people to watch it and my teenage daughter is telling me to stop it because I’ve been on her case since I saw it.  For ninety minutes you get to hear “interviews with tech experts, including many former employees of Silicon Valley giants, and PSA-style dramatic scenarios.”(CNBC)  From giant media rooms with rows and rows of servers crunching algorithms and storing information, to the spread of misinformation, to the addiction people have to their phones, the film does not hold back.   The experts claim that the experiment has gone wrong and even the people who started it do not know how to stop it.  Or, they just don’t want to.

Here is why I’m bugging my teenager about her phone.  In the film, a teenage boy is clearly stuck to his phone.  Behind the scenes are three “AI” guys who use different tactics to get the teen’s attention.  Some of the things they do stretch the truth, like sending alerts from people that the kid interacts with unbeknownst to the sender.  I disabled Facebook alerts on my personal account because it seemed like they were coming in every hour, and I just do not have the time to keep track of other people’s lives 24/7.

What are the symptoms of a social dilemma?

  1. “Phoneicitis”: Where you are and who you are with can’t match the exciting world of your phone.  Have you ever gone out to eat at a nice restaurant (before CoVid perhaps) and seen a family all on their phones?  Or a couple, both on their phones?  That’s romantic.
  2. “Toomanycoincidencists”: Your life is starting to seem like a series of topics where everything you see and hear is related to a comment you made or a purchase.  I’ve had the experience of talking about something in my house and then seen things pop up on my phone related to what I was talking about.  I even get spam calls phone from locations I’ve mentioned in passing. Did you know flat-screen TVs can “hear you”?  Alexa isn’t the only one listening.
  3. Time warps: You sit down to read a message on Facebook and an hour later you realize you don’t know where you are.
  4. Jump scares: You notice your phone lights up and you jump or start because you haven’t had a moment’s peace and you are exhausted.

How did our social dilemma evolve?

As creepy as this sounds, many of us take it as a necessary evil of being a part of modern society.  Televisions were modern once.  Back then it was exciting for advertisers.  They could finally reach a national audience all at once.  So the internet and digital marketing are just the next steps, right?

The answer is one of those “yes” and “no” propositions.  The difference is that we have evolved along with the technology.  So a programmer who understands how to employ algorithms can do so and then a company can match its marketing strategies to the way the algorithms work.  Computers can review the data, cycle it, add to it, recycle it, learn something new, shift to fit the new information, try again, and so on.  It is amazing to think that people have created mechanical brains that can reason.  I believe the only things machines do not have are our emotions, but hey, that’s coming too right?  (Read AI: What it is and how it really works)

 Simple solutions

Is there a social dilemma, like a war between good and evil?  Absolutely.  I mean, the end result of the investigations over the past four years has confirmed that a foreign government (Russia?) interfered with our election process.   But we also need to take responsibility for our own actions by:

  1. Educating ourselves and listening to a wide range of voices to come to our own conclusions about what is true or false
  2. Not clicking on every link.  You wouldn’t want to invite a virus into your computer’s hard drive, so consider what you are seeing and clicking online so a virus doesn’t get you.
  3. Setting a timer when you start scrolling so you can keep tabs on how conscious you are of what you are doing
  4. Check the settings on all of your accounts and adjust them for privacy and not clicking “order now” without looking at what boxes are checked automatically.  Maybe you do not want to be on that newsletter email list.

Many of these were suggested as parental controls for my kids’ devices.  Now I’m thinking we all need some boundaries.