“I’m a best-selling author and my last book, The Life Organizer: A Woman’s Guide to a Mindful Year, got a call back from an Oprah producer in March 2007. They called us saying, ‘We love the book but don’t know how to use it. We will be in touch.’
“Nothing since, even though we have repitched.
“The book is for women who juggle conflicting roles and schedules. It shows them how to slay the ‘time monsters’ that keep them from following their dreams. It has 13 planning sections with four weeks of theme-based questions and includes true stories of other women who have used the program to improve their lives and discover their soul’s purpose.
“I want to repitch again with a new angle but am so close to the material, I’m clueless. My wonderful publisher, New World Library, will do the pitching, but they are out of ideas as well.
“Anybody have a good hook?”
(Photo by Shutterstock)
How about pitching that you work with a “client” who follows your system, per your book, with you coaching along the way — and Oprah’s film crew documenting the transformation?
Since you’re talking about a “Mindful Year,” how about using the New Year as an angle? If you bring the book out before the holidays, your angle can be something like, “Remember to let this be an organized year!” And while I know that half the world wants their products given away on Oprah’s Christmas show, she’s already interested in you! So this would REALLY be a great gift for her audience that day. She holds the book up and Bingo, women run to buy it.
Hope that helps.
Roberta
You didn’t say what your first pitch was. Was it just sending the book and assuming Oprah would know what to do with it?
I know NWL well and think the publicists are great (they used to send me stuff when I was an employed editor). How about pitching yourself as a teacher a la the guy who cleans up clutter or Suze Orman who rescues people in trouble with debt? You could offer to work with selected Oprah viewers to change their time management habits using your plan. Then Oprah can do a before and after with on-site footage of your interventions.
Why not have one of the producers or Oprah herself utilize tips from the book to show the impact it has them. Have them give tip a try for one week.
For starters, redesign your website. It needs to be inviting to your readers and promoters alike. Right now, it’s clean but uninviting, and the home page is 95% text. Of the two testimonials on the home page, one is too long; I’m disengaged before I ever start reading. The rest of the home page text is marketing copy. You need to change the focus of the home page so it’s angled toward the reader — the individual woman you’re tryng to reach — not the marketing department. You can still keep the pared down marketing copy in a sidebar, so promoters can easily see what the book is all about. But I think you need to focus on your target readership, and design with them in mind. The page lacks emotion that can only be conveyed through design (colors, graphics, photos). If you want to engage people like Oprah and other harried women, you’ve got to capture that emotional pull through something other than marketing copy.
I think your pitch should revolve around how harried and jumbled life is before reading your book and then how organized and peaceful it is after employing your techniques.
Your pitch — Hook:
Tired of Juggling?
This is followed by a picture (can be a posterboard for in person, or a graphic for Internet use.)
A woman juggles six balls. Each ball has a picture of an activity on it.
Followed by a 1 minute pitch about your book, The Life Organizer: A Womans Guide to a Mindful Year.
Then another picture (or graphic), showing a timeline starting at 6 Am with a sun shown rising. Then the six balls lined up over the pertinent times and ending with a smiling moon.
If you want to pitch this to Oprah, use large balls (like beach balls) with the picture glued to each. First, show them in a pile then put them into a day’s timeline with depressions for the balls. You can then put the time of day in front of each ball.
There are also possibilities for short videos using a clock and a calendar.
Audios can be employed, using people talking at different speeds (fast and at normal speed) to illustrate the before and after effects as a result of reading your book.
Even though they nibbled at your pitch before, don’t pitch your book.
Pitch an entire segment with multiple guests. And if you can throw a little controversy into the line-up of guests, all the better.
This is what Susan Harrow, the Oprah publicity expert, recommends. She did a 70-minute telesemninar and shared tips galore on “How to Get Booked on Oprah.” Learn more about it at http://tinyurl.com/855eb
I like the idea of taking real moms, explaining your system/ideas, and transforming and organizing their lives. You may even be able to book multiple episodes with this approach. You should be able to find plenty of volunteers with your website. Best of luck to you, I’ll be watching!