Book publishers often think of publicity as the Holy Grail of marketing and for good reason: Media attention has the potential to skyrocket sales.
So how does it all work and what do writers need to know about attracting media attention?
To find out I turned to 20-year book publicist Heather Adams of Choice Media and Communications. Heather has extensive experience securing attention in the most desirable outlets for authors of every background—from those who have large followings to those with almost no following at all. Questions I asked Heather include:
- What is publicity and how does it differ from other forms of marketing?
- How can writers make themselves or their stories as attractive as possible to media outlets?
- Do all writers need publicity to be successful?
- How do writers make a publicist’s job easy?
- Do you have a story you can tell us about a writer who didn’t have a massive platform but still managed to attract strong publicity and saw a lot of success as a result?
- What if a writer (or a writer’s publisher) can’t afford (or doesn’t have the budget) to hire a publicist? What advice do you have to offer a writer in this situation? Is there such a thing as DIY publicity?
- What’s the #1 thing writers need to know about publicity?
Enjoy! If you’re interested in a transcript of the interview, see the link below the video.
For a transcript of this interview, click here.
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[reminder]How did this interview expand your understanding of book publicity?[/reminder]
Hey Chad. Thanks for this. Very interesting. Toward the end Heather talked briefly about how to filter opportunities by nature of the subject but that’s an area I’d like to know more about. At the moment, I’m trying to limit PR-type stuff, mainly because I only have so many hours in the day and am working on a manuscript deadline, which needs to be my first priority. At the same time, I’ve had a few publicity opportunities come up that seem to fit well with my audience and message. I don’t want to default to “no” and then miss opportunities that may not come around again. Then again, I *also* don’t want to overextend myself while I do my best to “keep the main thing the main thing.” I thought perhaps one filter could be the news outlet’s distribution/readership. (i.e. I’ve said “yes” to a recent interview request with the Daily Mail Australia, which is one of our top five national news outlets so seemed like a given.) But besides actual numbers, what other things should I be looking for to serve as filters for yes/no when time is precious? (To clarify, for the time being I’m talking about proposals that come to me, not things I’m searching out.) Thanks for any insight you or Heather might have.
Adriel, what a great question, and I heartily support your desire and efforts to stay focused in on your most important priority. It sounds like you already have a good filter in place. The only thing I might add to it is inquiring of the media outlet if they’d be willing to interview/feature you when the book releases. You could offer to follow up with them at that time. I hope this is helpful, Adriel!
Thanks Chad. This video came at the perfect time as I’ve been grappling with a few interview requests and trying to discern what is “smart” publicity to move me/the message forward. Cheers.
This was such a great interview! I learned so much. Thanks Chad and Heather.
Terrific! Glad it was helpful to you, thanks for taking the time to comment.