Authors Need Help Speaking their Books
A few days ago Jack Barnard and I met John Kremer www.bookmarket.com at his Book Marketing Blastoff Seminar in Los Angeles. He had asked us to talk with his authors about how to speak their books and also to introduce Speaker Services to his attendees.
John Kremer
In the short time we had Jack shared a few tips ie: you need to solve a problem and to be able to speak it in 2 or 3 sentences so people will ask you to tell them more.
It was quite an eye opener for John to see that the authors were challenged to do the exercise. I told John months ago over lunch that most authors do not know how to speak their books and needed training. He got it!
John suggested that we join together to offer a Book Market and Authors’ Speak Easy Workshop which includes a one camera shoot. We like that idea and also we are looking at doing a one day seminar with John just before the Book Expo which is in Los Angeles at the end of ‘08.
John suggesst that authors have video on their website and was thrilled to learn that we offer video in a few of our worskhops. Whether you are an author or a professional person or a speaker it is a great marketing idea to have video on your website. Video inspires trust. I know for sure that the speakers who are listed on my website get booked much faster then those who do not.
Take a moment and check out some of the one camera video work we have done. See BizSpeak and Video Workshop and Authors’ SpeakEasy Workshop . For our three camera shoot see Video Demo Showcase .
I am sharing a few items with you today about soundbites and MediaSpeak that Jack offered as a handout when he spoke to John’s folks.
The soundbite
Sound-bites are those few words the media extracts from everything you said and puts on air, to show you at your best…or worst. Sound-bites should be planned by you, not found by them. Here are some tips:
Keep them short. Watch and listen to the media. Sound-bites are rarely longer than 15 seconds, and more frequently five to ten seconds.
Pithy: Concisely meaningful, forcibly convincing, terse, interesting. And juicy. Especially juicy.
Carefully crafted: take your time, test your efforts on colleagues or even the public. Make sure there are no unintended inferences or hidden meanings.
Specific meaning: Each message point should have a specific, clear intention with regard to the particular audience.
Specific effect: Each message point should be designed to generate a specific effect…arouse an emotion, stimulate an action, clarify a point, be memorable, create a background for other messages.
MEDIA SPEAK (The Questions)
√ Audience…Who exactly is your audience?
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√ Message…What exactly do you have/need to say?
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√ Different Media…What language does this media speak?
• live interview • radio interview • panel • book signing • TV interview • print interview
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You need to be able to speak your book/product/message/theme/
philosophy in various formats. In any media encounter or speaking opportunity, this is the key question: what is your intended outcome?
