You’ve finished your book and you’re exhausted.
Who wouldn’t be after all that time you spent writing it? But that’s no excuse for slapping together a sloppy, incomplete media kit.
Even if you’re an indie author who can’t afford a publicist, you need to pay special attention to this most important package of marketing materials. It brands you. It brands your book. And it helps others promote you.
You have a dizzying choice of what to include in the kit. Aside from the staples like an author bio, book synopsis, contact sheet, reviews and an order form, you can include extras like interview questions, little known facts about you, even short bios of your fictional characters.
As you decide, keep in mind seven important audiences. I’ll discuss them all during the free webinar “The Indie Author’s Guide to Creating a Killer Media Kit” from 6 to 7 p.m. Eastern Time today—Thursday, May 19—with book publishing expert Joel Friedlander. We’ll go into full detail on exactly which materials you should include in your kit. Until then, start thinking about these audiences and what they need.
Your media kit must please all of them.
1. Journalists
These include print reporters who will want high-resolution photos (300 dots per inch) that will reproduce well.
If they’re on deadline, they’ll want to find within the kit copy they can cut and paste into an article quickly. That’s why your press release should be written like a news story. Your book synopsis should let writers choose from several different lengths, depending on how space they have to fill.
You can be sure most radio hosts who interview you won’t have time to read your book. They’ll welcome—and even expect—a list of interview questions.
2. Bloggers
They might want to review your book, write about you or feature a guest post from you. Or they might be on the fence about whether to write anything at all.
That’s where the Book Review Samples sheet comes in handy. It’s one page that includes an image of your book cover, pertinent information like pricing and ISBN number, and snippets from the best reviews you’ve received so far. You should be soliciting pre-publication reviews. But if you don’t have any reviews yet and you’re book is launching, you can add this piece later.
Bloggers might also appreciate a quirky little feature within your author bio called “5 Fun Facts You Didn’t Know About Me.” You can find examples in blog posts I wrote here and here.
3. Reviewers
Many authors don’t get book reviews unless they ask for them. That’s why Joel Friedlander and I will be discussing the importance of writing letters to individual reviewers asking that they review your book.
What if they review it?
They’re busy too, especially the Amazon top reviewers. They’ll want easy-to-find information like links to places where readers can buy your books.
Register for today’s free call here.
4. Retailers
Some of the big retailers like Walmart and Costco will tell you that they don’t carry self-published books. But I’ve found books from indie authors (the preferred term) at both chains, so there’s an exception to every rule.
You’ll need a “sell sheet” for the decision-makers who will ultimately decide if your book deserves a spot on their shelves. One of the most important items on the sell sheet is the long list of what you’re doing to market your book. Before they take a chance on you, they need to know you’re already working your butt off and making it easy for them to sell those books!
You can list things like book signings, blog tours, national media campaigns, outreach to librarians, and even videos you’re uploading to your YouTube channel.
5. Individual Buyers
This is the one group on this list that will have the least need for a Media Kit. But you never know when one of those buyers might also be a blogger who suddenly decides, after seeing your kit, that you’re worth an interview.
Some buyers turn into super fans who want to read every word written by and about the author. So they might peek inside your media kit and love those “5 Fun Facts You Didn’t Know About Me.”
6. Event Planners
These include the people who plan industry conferences, hire speakers for conventions, and recruit experts to sit on panels and lead workshops. These are all opportunities that will help your publicity efforts, and you’ll want to give them exactly what they need. That means having a “speaker introduction” inside your media kit, ready to go.
These busy event planners won’t have the time to plow through a long, 500-word bio and pluck out 50 words that will appear on the bio. They’ll love finding your author bio in a variety of sizes.
7. Anyone Who Wants to Promote Your Book
These include people who host Google Hangouts, Blabs and their own shows on Periscope and want to invite you to do an interview. They might include podcasters who have a ready-made audience that’s perfect for you. Or an ezine editor who needs a quick list of tips from your non-fiction book for this week’s issue. Where to find those tips? In your press release, of course, if you’ve written it the way we recommend.
As you can see, you have a lot of different people to keep happy. Joel Friedlander and I will show you exactly how to do that, the drop-dead easy way, during today’s webinar. Click on the ticket below to claim your seat:
Thanks, Joan –
Very helpful article, and I’ll use this. Will attend your webinar.
Can’t wait!
Thanks again,
Mike
Glad this helps, Mike. See you on the call!
My book, The Woman in the Photograph, has been out for two years and done pretty well, especially on Kindle. (It also won BAIPA Best Memoir for which I am so grateful). But pretty well is not as good as it could be. I have been frustrated by my confusions and overwhelm about getting the news to the right people in the right way.
Your webinar was great and yesterday I bought and downloaded the Media Kit. Can’t wait to really use it and report back my great results.
Thanks so much to you and Joel for putting everything in one place, WITH TEMPLATES for the tech impaired. Thank you.
Mani, I hear you! I will be the first to admit that I am tech impaired. That’s why you’ll love the templates. I had to create something that was so easy, even I could tackle it! Our three beta testers loved it and made several suggestions we incorporated to make the product even better. Be sure to less us know how you like it.
Hi Joan,
Thanks for the invite. Will the webinar deal with non-fiction how-to books as well as fiction?
Looking forward to the event.
Wally
Yes, Wally, everything we will show you works equally well for fiction and non-fiction.
I look forward to the webinar. I like how clear and concise this post is.
Many thanks!
Suzi
Thanks for your kind words, Suzi. See you on the call!
Hi Joan,
You had me at HOUND:-)
I’ve been following you for a very long time, enjoying and learning from your words of wisdom. Looking forward to this generous giving of your time to teach us even more.
Many thanks!
Prissy
Glad you’ll be able to join us for the call, and thanks for the nice words. You made my day.
Thanks for this fantastic info, Joan! Can’t wait for Wednesday’s webinar.
One quick question: on the sell sheet, supposing we don’t have advance reviews yet, would it be appropriate to list a national writing award I’ve won? Or is it best to only include info specific to the book (instead of me in general)?
Thanks!
Jenni
Jenni, there are hundreds of ways to create a Media Kit for a book. And the process I am suggesting is only one way. You can tweak it according to your needs. If you don’t have pre-publication reviews yet, no sweat. You can certainly list the writing award and then come back to the sell sheet later and update it once the reviews start rolling in.
Wow! Amazing article! Thank you! With three books coming out in the next year, this is extremely helpful!
You found me just in time, Natalie! Thanks for letting me know.
Great advice, Joan, and like many others have already mentioned [above] I look forward to your webinar this week! Thanks for these helpful tips~
Thanks for stopping by, Therese! See you on the call.
Thanks, Joan. This is extremely useful information, clearly presented. It’s also an important reminder to weary indie authors that our job isn’t finished when the writing is completed.
Shelley, an indie author’s work is never done! You should always be marketing. This is a marathon, not a sprint. Thanks for joining the conversation. Hope you can join us on the call.
Rats! I was very excited about this–then realized I have a conflict in my schedule and can’t make it. Will you be offering a similar workshop in the future?
Not to worry, Ev. I’m recording this and you’ll be able to register to hear the replay at a wide variety of times and dates. Stay tuned.
Joan,
You and Joel have been very encouraging. Also have three works in the pipleline, using vanity press, but open to ideas. Concerned about the outreach as I discovered who makes the best sellers and who doesn’t seems more often than not directly related to who publishes your work.. How do we get past that without vanity in the beginning?
Missed this time but will watch for future offerings!
Mark
Mark, I’m so glad you stopped by.
First, I want to tell you that you didn’t miss yesterday’s webinar on “The Indie Author’s Guide to Creating a Killer Media Kit.” We’re offering replays every four hours until 9 p.m. Eastern Time on Monday night, May 26. Go over to http://www.onlinemeetingnow.com/register/?id=011b904537& and register at your choice of times and dates.
Now, onto your questions. When you say your are published by “vanity press,” do you mean you’re paying a publisher to publish the book? If you are concerned about selling books, I urge you not to go the vanity press route. Create your own publishing company, give it a name that is in no way connected to you or your business, get a company logo for $5 over at Fiverr.com, and refer to yourself as an indie author, not a “self-published” author. It will give you more credibility than the vanity press route.
Judith Briles wrote an excellent blog post that outlines the difference between vanity press, independent press, self-publisher, etc. at http://authoru.org/dont-confuse-independent-publishing-with-self-publishing.html
At her Author U Extravaganza in May, Mark Coker from Smashwords spoke. He gave some startling statistics about how Indie ebook authors would capture 50% of the U.S. ebook market by 2020. He also said the indie author community is on track to surpass traditional publishers in money earned. Read more about it at his blog at http://blog.smashwords.com/2014/03/indie-ebook-author-community-to-earn.html. His point was that indie authors need to stop apologizing for the fact that they aren’t with a big publishing house. In fact, they’re in a great position.
Read his Indie Author Manifesto at http://blog.smashwords.com/search?updated-max=2014-05-09T14:19:00-07:00&max-results=7. It should make you feel really good about being indie author. But it can’t help you if you’re published by the vanity press.