Market Yourself as a Speaker

Authors and Speakers: Don’t Pitch Your Books or Programs as Story Ideas

Posted on August 20th, 2007.

Today I had one of the hardest days with technology. Does that ever happen to you? I am laughing about now but when it was happening I was not a happpy camper.

Here’s what happened when I attempted to conduct the second complimentary teleclass for the MediaSpeak Symposium and somehow, due to a combination of circumstances I managed to lock most of the attendees out of the call including my second guest and then I could not connect with my first guest. Apparently he was not in the host room as I was and I muted everyone out.

I did manage to record the call and if you can handle the first few minutes of me yelling, can you hear me? wait, stop talking, I want to introduce our guest speaker…you might want to listen in or download the mp3. Michael Dresser, our guest took over and handled the call until I managed to get the reigns back. It did feel like I was on a run away horse or train. The call is quite interesting-all about how to sell your services on the radio. Click here to listen

So this post today is from my colleague Joan Stewart, The Publicity Hound- about not pitching your books or programs as story ideas with many helpful hints. Joan has a great website, blog and tons of articles, products and special reports on her site. Visit her website to learn more tinyurl.com/yv7s9e

Here’s Joan

When I speak to groups of professional speakers, authors and small publishers throughout the U.S. and Canada, they look at me dumbfounded after I tell them the Number One thing they must do if they want more media attention for their books and programs.

They must stop pitching the books and programs as story ideas. Immediately.

With an estimated 175,000 news book titles published last year, and millions of presentations given by speakers and trainers, is it any wonder we’re turning off journalists by pushing our books and programs?

When I worked as a newspaper editor, we routinely hauled boxes of unsolicited new books to the local library or Goodwill. If we were in a hurry, we threw the books—complete with expensive, gold-embossed press kits—into the wastebasket.

I know this is painful to hear. But unless you’re contacting a book reviewer, few if any media people care what’s between the two covers of your book.

What the media do care about, however, is what’s between your two ears. They want to know about your expertise. They want to tap into your brain. They’re overworked and underpaid. And they’re eager to know how you can help them do their jobs more easily.

• Can you help them write a good story?

• Can you give a lively radio interview without constantly hawking your book?

• Can you offer free advice for their audience?

• Can you create a clever quiz on your topic of expertise for a national magazine?

• Can you talk in pithy sound bites that will make their viewers smile?

• Can you take a strong position on a controversial topic that will make their readers angry?

• Most importantly, can you offer solutions to people’s problems?

If so, and if they cover you, guess what they’ll probably mention in their article or on their program? Your book, of course.

While other speakers are zigging, you should be zagging. So position yourself as a valuable source that reporters flock to again and again. The following strategies will really catch the media’s attention.

Promote your expertise

Media people seek out, interview and want to stay connected to experts.

Yet many authors are either reluctant to position themselves as experts, or they call themselves experts when they really aren’t. Read the excellent White Paper titled “The Expertise Imperative” written two years ago by five members of the National Speakers Association, some of whom are authors. It outlines the six levels of expertise and what you need to do to get to the next highest level.

You’ll see that expertise isn’t only about how much you know, but how much you do.

Once you become an expert, tout it in your email signature file, your media kit and on your other marketing materials. Make sure the homepage at your website states your expertise.

For example, my homepage has this statement at the top: “Publicity expert Joan Stewart shows you how to use free publicity to establish your credibility, enhance your reputation, position yourself as an expert, sell more products and services, promote a favorite cause or issue, and position your company as an employer of choice.” When a reporter Googles “publicity expert,” my website is usually at the top of the list.

Go deep, not wide

Too many authors make the mistake of playing the lazy numbers game. They wimp out and waste money by relying only on blast fax services to distribute their news to a gazillion media outlets. Truth is, blast faxes are effective in only a small percentage of cases.

Why? Because when you send them, you treat the media like cattle—herding them all into the barn at the same time, force-feeding them from the same trough, then herding them back out again, all with the same story.

You must convince each media outlet that your story is customized only for them. But you can’t do that if you’re targeting 3,000 media. So start by hand-picking only 20 or 30 newspapers, magazines and TV stations. I call this creating a Top 20 Media Hit List.

Let’s say you’ve written a book on customer service. Choose 20 metropolitan newspapers and write a news release that’s almost identical for each newspaper. But in the release you send to the Chicago Tribune, name three Chicago companies that you think treat their customers like royalty, even if those companies aren’t mentioned in your book. Mention three San Francisco companies in the release you send to the San Francisco Examiner. And so on.

Each newspaper will immediately notice “the local angle.” And that makes your story stand out from the rest.

Ask the magic question

While lots of other authors are trying to cram their books down the throats of talk show hosts, assignment editors and beat reporters, you will stand out if you take a different approach.

Start by developing a relationship. Call a media contact, introduce yourself and explain your areas of expertise. Then ask the most important question you can ever ask someone in the media. “How can I help you?”

Repeat after me: “How can I help you?”

Media mutts never ask that question. Publicity Hounds always do. Pay attention to what the journalist tells you, then help however you can.

When I worked as a reporter, my best sources were those that would let me call them at home late at night, when I was on deadline, to ask a question about a complicated topic I didn’t understand. Other golden sources let me check in with them every few weeks and pick their brains about trends they were seeing within their industries. Position yourself as a valuable source and the media will come back to you again and again.

Publicity Hounds use these other magic phrases to build media exposure

• “What kinds of sources are you looking for? Perhaps I can help you find them, even if the story doesn’t have anything to do with me.”

• “If you have a last-minute cancellation, call on me to fill in as a talk show guest. I’ll move a mountain to help you.”

• “On a slow news day, call me if you’re desperate for story ideas.”

• “If I find articles in my trade magazines that I think would help you cover the banking industry, is it OK if I send them to you?”

The Publicity Hound website is loaded with free tips and tricks and valuable educational tools. Get tips on selling books from someone who really knows how to do it.v I recommend her enthusiastically. Visit her website to learn more tinyurl.com/yv7s9e

Note: If you are interested in booking yourself for radio interviews I recommend checking out our affiliate Alex Carroll, the Radio PR. He offers a comprehensive list of talk show producers. Click here to learn more.

Join us for the 3rd annual MediaSpeak Symposium, October 11-13 in Los Angeles where we will be discussing and practicing Media and PR skills plus pitching live to the media..

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