Publishing a book doesn’t guarantee success, so let’s talk about five ways to get publicity for your book.
Whether you’re writing your book, thinking about writing a book, you just finished writing a book and you’re in the publishing process, or you’ve written your book and had it published by either a traditional publisher or self-published it months or years ago, you can use the tips that I’m about to give you.
- Press releases.
The first way to get some publicity for your book is press releases. You can have a press release written by someone like me or you can try to teach yourself how to do it.
Basically, a press release has the who, what, why, when, and where of journalism. (I was a journalist for 17 years.)
A press release should be 350 to 1,000 words, and it needs to have some quotes — like what you see in a newspaper or a magazine article. The quotes shouldn’t just be from you; journalists call that a one-source story. There should be another quote from somebody. Not a family member, but maybe a colleague, supervisor, or someone else who has been really transformed by your book or your other work.
- Blog tours.
The second way to get publicity for your book is to do what is called a blog tour. This is still very much alive, although some people claim that it’s not. And you don’t have to necessarily have a blog. However, I highly recommend that you have a blog if you’re an author or are aspiring to become one.
You can run a Google search for blogs that are in your niche or topic area and see if they’re looking for guest posts.
A disadvantage, especially if you’re writing it yourself or paying someone to write it for you, is that you can’t use the same blog post on multiple sites; they need to be different. Some websites will republish content, but most will not.
Also, I just want to emphasize you are rarely going to get paid for this. You’re doing this to drive traffic to your website or your book. And these things require investment of your time and skills or someone else’s time and skills. So do it yourself or have someone else do it for you.
- Podcast interviews.
These are extremely popular nowadays. And one of my mentors, Kathleen Gage. teaches on this a lot. And I’ve been working with it a lot as well. I practice what I preach; I receive services and I give services. I don’t try to do everything myself because that’s just the way to failure in anything you do (in my opinion).
So, you can do a podcast book tour.
How do you find podcasts? Well, there are booking services. I do it on a limited basis, Kathleen does it, and lots of other people do it. You can try to do it yourself in various Facebook groups where they have “find a guest, be a guest” posts. You can go to the Clubhouse app, where people are literally talking out loud about finding podcast guests.
If you try to book yourself through Facebook groups, researching podcasts and reaching out via email, or going into rooms on Clubhouse or similar social audio apps, ALWAYS focus on what you can do for that podcast’s audience. Don’t talk about me, me, me, my business, my business, my business, my book, my book, my book, or you’re not going to get booked.
- Newspaper interviews.
The next way to get publicity for your book is to give newspaper interviews. A lot of people tend to forget about these because newspapers have changed. However, they’re not necessarily dead. Yes, there is a much stronger online presence now. But you can still get newspaper interviews again. You can
have somebody do it for you or do it yourself; the same principles apply.
When you reach out to a newspaper reporter, you’re probably going to have to try multiple times. Use email, LinkedIn, the telephone, etc.
If you have the press release from the first tip I offered earlier, that’s really helpful. If not, you can still try it on your own or have somebody else do it for you.
Always focus on your connection to that newspaper’s readership. Most newspapers are still highly local. That doesn’t mean you have to live in that city now. It could be a city that you used to live in, a city that you grew up in, etc. But again, you need to focus on how you and your stories will be of interest and value to the readers of that newspaper.
- TV interviews.
These have always been a little complicated to get — but actually, it became easier during COVID. Now, TV stations don’t always require people to come into the studio. So, they can take more chances by meeting with you on Zoom or Skype.
Thanks to Clubhouse, I’ve talked to national producers — including ones from MSNBC. Have a few videos of yourself on Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, etc. that show your personality and what you can talk about.
And again, whether you’re approaching local, national, or international TV, you want to focus on what you can bring to the audience. Your book is awesome, but it’s not always enough to get you in front of all the audiences you want to get in front of. For that, you need to clearly define your areas of expertise and what you can offer audiences.
If you liked these five tips and are interested in getting help with book writing, editing, publicity, etc., click the pink button on this page to apply for a complimentary discovery session. Don’t let your book collect virtual dust!
