Marketing is sharing what you love with people who want to hear about it. But, it can be tough to find your niche. Follow these five tips on how to land an interview, and you just might find marketing isn’t as daunting as it may seem.
- Don’t always think bigger is better. Sometimes what God wants you to do is not “big” in the ways we tend to measure success. Sometimes He doesn’t want you to be on Good Morning America; maybe he’s calling you to reach out with your book’s message to your community or a suffering neighbor. Pray and think about what God is calling you to do with your book. Land an interview with your church bulletin, your local radio station, your archdiocese’s newspaper or with the forums or blogs you frequent. Also, try a local university that might be searching for speakers for a class lecture or guest speaker at an event.
- Send out press releases. TV stations and radio shows are always looking for fresh content. Send out your press release to targeted journalists, and you could gain attention.
- Build your contact list now. Even if your book isn’t published quite yet, send a synopsis of your book to the media. You know what your book is about, so you can still talk about it and promote it before its release date. This relates to my next tip…
- Build your author platform before your book is published. This is a crucial point many authors overlook for various reasons. In order to gain credibility, you should build a blog, set up your social media accounts and print out business cards before your book is available for sale. That way you already have a community of contacts who consider you an expert in your field. Plus, you have tangible evidence for TV, radio and newspapers that you know what you’re talking about.
- Set up your own online podcast. You don’t have the time or experience to do that? Hire an intern who has experience with setting up, recording and editing podcasts. Make it just a weekly, hour-long podcast, and place it on your author website. Have guests for the first 30 minutes then talk about recent events and tie in your book or read a few excerpts of your book.
Remember, you don’t have to do it all by yourself. WestBow Press can help you with your radio interview, press release, author website and publicity campaigns. How did you land your first author interview? Share your advice in the comments below.