Do you know what book reviewers at newspapers and magazines do with those fancy press kits you send them?
They throw them away. Or, if it’s Bob Minzenheimer of the New York Times, he throws away the contents and takes the folders home to his kids.
A panel of book reviewers told members of the Publishers Marketing Association’s annual conference last week that sending press kits to book reviewers is a huge waste of time and money.
Piggybacking off current events is one of the best ways to a get a book reviewer’s attention. For example, if your book happens to be on interviewing with the media, or media ethics, or how to be a newspaper reporter, you might piggyback off the identity of Deep Throat.
I’ll be writing more about what the book reviewers said in upcoming issues of “Craigslist: A Valuable Publicity Tool.”