If you're going to New York City next week for the BookExpo America convention, don't miss Steve Harrison's media panel on Saturday. I'll be there. I attended this last year when it was part of the convention, and it was one of the highlights of my trip. A panel of top-tier print and broadcast journalists offered their best tips on how … [Read more...]
How an author/therapist piggybacked onto runaway bride
As I was writing last week's tip about how to piggyback off the runaway bride story, my friend Barbara Bartlein was doing just that. Barbara, a professional speaker and author of the book "Why Did I Marry You Anyway? --12.5 Strategies for a Happy Marriage," saw all the attention the Runaway Bride was getting and fired off [Read more...]
Publisher starts speakers bureau
Today's Wall Street Journal (Page B8) says HarperCollins Publishers Inc. is starting a speakers bureau in the U.S. to arrange speaking engagements for its authors. Its best-known authors are Michal Crichton, business author Jim Collins and children's book writer Daniel Handler. The publisher says the bureau is expected to generate a … [Read more...]
Do homework before hiring a publicist
One of the most frequent complaints I hear from Publicity Hounds is the one about what went wrong when they hired a big PR firm, or a lousy publicist. The nightmares sound like this. Whopping monthly retainers but few media placements. Fresh-out-of-college graduates with little PR experience assigned to major accounts. Sweet-talking publicists who … [Read more...]
Author gets tips for promoting suspense thriller
Edward Motketsan of Winona, Minnesota gets some super ideas for promoting his suspense thriller titled Logo. It's about a government conspiracy. Combating terrorism, the National Security Agency sets up a surveillance network using a privately owned company to manufacture and distribute their device all over the world. The hero, Edward Davis, is a … [Read more...]
Don’t pitch your books as the story idea
If you're an author and you want to get onto Fox & Friends (or any other show for that matter), avoid the Number One problem authors make when pitching. Don't pitch your book as the story. In the April 11 issue of PR Week, Jess Todtfeld, an associate producer at Fox News, says authors sometimes make the mistake of pitching book titles, rather … [Read more...]
How to make book reviewers open your package
Book publicist Kate Bandos says authors who send their books to book reviewers, reporters and other media people must know how to make their packages stand out from all the rest. That could mean sending the book in a purple envelope so that when you make your follow-up call, you can remind the reporter to look for the purple envelope. It also … [Read more...]
Hotmail, Yahoo email addresses scream “cheap”
When it comes to deciding if I want free publicity or a paid ad, I’m the Queen of Cheap. I’ll choose free publicity almost every time. You should, too. But if you’re submitting articles to online portals, where you're promoting your expertise and attracting the attention of editors and publishers, you don’t want to broadcast to the world that … [Read more...]
Hounds help author of book on grief
Fourteen Publicity Hounds had advice for Julie Berry of Rivendell Communications in Sugar Grove, Pennsylvania. Julie's company represents an author who has become an expert on grief and loss. The author is also a mountain climber and nature lover who enjoys sharing the lessons she learns from physical challenges with nature. Julie said typical book … [Read more...]
Author gets tips for promoting SAT book for students
Jacqui Byrne of Fanwood, New Jersey gets great tips from Publicity Hounds on how to promote her SAT Vocabulary Express, a book of word puzzles to teach high school students to play with words, to take them apart, and to increase their vocabulary and, ultimately, their verbal SAT score. From Carol Johnson of Schaumburg, Illinois: "Consider … [Read more...]