Book Reviews VS. Feature Stories - Which Sells More?
I personally don’t believe that book reviews sell as many books as do feature stories. Yes, they have a role to play, but it’s actually a very limited role. The real gains are to be made with galvanizing feature stories.
The key to understanding this is that book reviews tend to simply show and tell the book and what’s inside the book while good feature stories are designed to galvanize and get people emotionally involved. If what people see gives them an experience, then they are far more inclined to take the action desired, which is to step closer to the book and the author. Articles about the author also tend to produce a professional branding effect. this means that if people read and like what they see, then they will be inclined to buy everything the author has for sale.
This means that if you put down the book, stop selling the product for a second and focus on doing what you do best – entertaining your audience and giving them your best, then this is when you stand your best chance of saying and doing something that will really turn people on.
Give people an experience. Make them laugh, cringe, make them hungry, solve a painful problem, make them feel good, feel bad, feel sexy, or feel awed and inspired.
Do that and they’ll remember you.
That’s what really causes people to pay attention and buy what you are selling.
One of the members of the POD Publishing discussion group asked the following question:
When do you recommend going out with the press release (i.e. on the release date, a month before, etc.).
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Timing news releases depends what you are trying to accomplish and where you are at in your publishing or product release schedule. You must first recognize the key event date and then take media lead times into account. If this is associated with the publication of a book or a new product, this is usually associated with the official publication date or release date.
I do not generally advise sending out a news release till you can satisfy media requests for review copies or product test samples and interviews with the right person or people. If you can’t satisfy the media then you hurt yourself since you get a request which opens the door of opportunity but then you can’t satisfy the media’s request immediately. So you reduce the chances of getting the coverage you seek. So it depends when your books are available to you and that usually is a month or so before an official publication date, but this varies and is often a flexible date.
Second, the public has to be able to buy the product when the media publishes the news. So that means it has to be available at Amazon and/or BN.com plus any number of other web sites, and possibly be available in bookstores and or through bookstores so you can financially benefit (that is sell product) from the national or targeted demand your publicity seeks to create. This means you should not launch a news release or publicity campaign until the business system is totally operational. If you need to book to be in the bookstores or retail shops first, then you have to wait until your distributor tells you it is time to hit the switch. You have to be prepared to do what’s necessary to publicize and promote so that the window of opportunity doesn’t slip by and the lack of demand results in returns. Timing so that publicity hits when the product is in the stores is pretty crucial. If you are selling totally online, then this is not as crucial a factor.
You have to factor media lead time into account. This means you look two to three publications cycles ahead of the media you seek to get coverage in or on and then also take into account things like media response time to your pitch, mailing and delivery time, assignment time, the time it takes to read, write, review and then actually publish an approved article. For daily newspapers, this means a week to two weeks minimum and many times usually requires a month; for weekly newspapers, this is four to six weeks or more; for magazines this is four to six months. For radio and TV, it’s seven to ten days minimum, and preferably two to four weeks. Online media can of course react very quickly but many of the response and review times do factor into how soon these media can respond effectively. That’s all assuming you want media to do something with your book.
This means that you really have to stagger your news releases and target your media carefully if you are to take advantage of the medias needs. magazines require four to six months, so you hit them first. You do the short term media two to four weeks before your official public availability date. If you wait till the one month before launch date, then magazine publicity will come last and in some cases you lose the opportunity to time the coverage that you need at the time of product release. Still magazine publicirty at the back end can be a very helpful thing to have indeed since it will sustain your sales once the impacts of the short term efforts and coverage start to diminish.
Let’s say though that you are publicizing an event like a book signing, or a conference, or a work shop or a speaking event. If it is deemed to be newsworthy event or a hard news happening or something you propose media to witness of go to that involves people and photographers and interviews, then the minimum media times apply. We’ve seen newspaper, radio and TV camera crews get sent out and show up within 30 minutes of transmittal holding their Blackberries and iPods in their hand reading the news release and say “where do we set up?”
Finally there’s the day to day timing question. Which day of the week is it best to send out a news release to the media? The prime media tends to work on a five day work week schedule and that means they work Monday through Friday. Saturday and Sunday they have off and fewer people really are working in the office. Monday is a bad news day because the media show up to work and have staff meetings and have to recover from the weekend. Friday is also a bad day since they are wrapping things up and are trying to leave for the weekend. So unless it is really hard news, transmitting a news release on or near weekends is not going to get the best media response. But it really depends again what you are asking media to do. If all you want them to do is say yes to you sending in a book for review, Friday morning may be OK.
Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays give you the best opportunity to catch media when they have the least amount of competition for their attention and the maximum opportunity to devote resources to your project. So that is when I prefer to news releases to be delivered.
Finally, after the book is published, the publicity you seek may be far more issue and content focused and related to current events or some other angle. Regardless, you seek to get coverage for the best ideas, education or entertainment you can offer. This you can do whenever you want to do, but it really helps to get out in front to media and look four to six months out. So for example, today is March 25 so Mother’s Day is six weeks away, Father’s Day is two and a half months away, Earth Day is a month away, Independence day is three months away, Labor Day is four months away and so on.
I’ve created a free publicity calendar to help identify opportunities for people which is a free pdf file download. It contains a lot of unusual holidays so that you can really get creative and think up ways to tie-in to calendar events well in advance of the day they occur. Here’s the link:
The lesson learned is to be prepared, plan things out carefully, andthink through what you are asking media to do when you send out a news release.
If you’ve done your homework and you know you are offering something that interests a lot of people, has real value to the audience, and you also offer the media what they need to do their job easily and quickly, then when you send out a news release and get it to the right media people for action, then you will often times get what you wish for (which is media coverage).
If you want to get more publicity, then you need to look ahead and identify the opportunities that will be coming your way.
So get out your calendar and think about what sort of article you’d like to see come out in the months ahead.
Identify the holiday or date or season that allows you to create a tie-in.
Then craft a news release or an article that’s appropriate for that date or event.
Pay attention to the crucial lead times and transmit the pitch idea to the right media to ensure that your proposal gets the timely consideration and attention it deserves.
To help you identify what’s coming up, here’s a quick look ahead at the next few months of opportunities.
Today is August 19, 2008
Ramadan begins Friday
Labor Day is three weeks away
Columbus Day is three weeks away
Grandparents Day is three weeks away
Rosh Hashanah is one month away
Yom Kippur is one month away
Fall is one month away
Halloween is two months away
Election Day is two and a half months away
Thanksgiving is three months away
Christmas is four months away
New Years Day is four plus months away
Valentine’s Day is five months away
Critical lead times: Daily Newspapers, Radio and TV – seven to ten days. Weekly newspapers – four to six weeks. Magazines – four to six months.
Best days to transmit your news releases are Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. Plan and write copy Friday through Monday. Plan ahead and start writing early.
>> If CNN does decide to interview me, or if I’m scheduled for an interview on
>> any of the other cable news networks I’ve approached, I’m going to want the whole world to watch and learn about my concept.
>> I need to hire someone who knows how to use the Internet to make that happen.
Actually, I don’t think you need to hire anyone. I can’t imagine lots of people being motivated by a message that says ‘watch me on CNN!’ Think about it. You might send out an email to friends, colleagues and your mother, but most media won’t tell their audience to go watch you on another channel or network.
What I think you really need to do is refine your idea until it flies by itself when you present it to anyone and to everyone.
You’ll know you’ve got what it takes when it happens repeatedly and reliably and a level that produces a sustainable yield.
I call this the miracle of the microcosm. If you create something good and can communicate it so that people want it in your little neck of the woods, then when you go on CNN and say the same thing, it will have the same effect on millions of people.
But if what you created isn’t all that great, and what you said to people to get them interested wasn’t all that persuasive or galvanizing, then it won’t matter at all what you say even if you are on CNN.
You can develop your ‘mar-com’, script, or that magic sequence of communications yourself right in your back yard. You create the interview script that goes A-B-C-D-E and produces action XYZ.
This works because we are a nation of people who have been raised to respond to media communications the same way. We laugh at the same jokes and cry at the same sad stories, we cringe at the same pictures of tragedy and disaster and squeal with delight and water at the mouth when promised something sweet to eat.
Here is an article which describes a method for developing your own galvanizing communications sequence and testing it till you know it works.
To me and based on my experience with my own books, databases, inventions and clients, perhaps the most powerful thing you can do is make your presentation in the form of a helpful problem solving article or interview. Being helpful is the most important thing you can do to get people interested in what you have to offer. What you offer has to be truly remarkable and useful.
So here’s one more set of ideas for you all about:
If you do create a script that produces reliable action when you present it to people, of course, then it’s time to incorporate it into news releases and other business proposals and send it out to media and companies and organizations everywhere, so you can use the power of the media as a force multiplier.
I’ll be happy to see that ‘mar-com’ once you’ve created and feel like it’s ready to be pitched.
This unique publicity planner provides a month-at-a-glance roadmap to holidays throughout the year and identifies the lead time for each holiday.
Each year I create an annual publicity plan to help people look ahead and map out their ideas for acquiring publicity throughout the year.
The special design makes it easy to develop a detailed personalized framework of key dates and events so that you map out your strategy and ideas to promote your book or your writing in 2009.
The new planner for 2009 is now available as a free pdf file.
Anyone who is interested can send me an email at Paul@DirectContactPR.comand just ask me to send you the 2009 Publicity Planner
A response to idea that PR isn't necessary any more
People are talking about how Vincent Bugliiosi has sold lots and lots of books by word of mouth, blogs, and without reviews and commentary by major media.
One comment on one of the discussion lists I follow stated:
“So I would advise writers who can’t afford a real PR firm to find a niche magazine for your work with ideally national circulation and get an article on your stuff in there.”
My opinion is that this is good advice for some and not for others.
What you see as being a vehicle for your success with PR is not what others may see when using PR. Media PR and marketing success is based on what each target audience reads, watches or listens to particularly when they are in the receptive mood or mode for whatever is being offered.
In one case it makes perfect sense that certain magazines are a good place, one type of products and services while radio and other places won’t be fruitful at all.
This is because media publish or cover based on the answers to just two key questions:
1. how many people in the audience will be interested?
2. what’s in it for the audience?
The answer to both questions has to be:
A = A lot.
This varies by the type of product or service or information offered and to what people are accustomed to reading, hearing or watching in the target media. My experience is that everyone needs to figure out what works for themselves. There is no single process or technique that works for everyone.
The chord you strike, the media response you get, and the actions you see once published depends on the perceptions and expectations you create with your news release.
This week, we saw blogs produce significant and near instant success for a book about remarkable artwork created by people with autism. We saw TV and radio and print respond well to a timely problem solving tips article and interview pitch based on a book about career re-invention for people over the age of 40. We saw FOX TV and national and local business magazines and newspapers respond well to an article based on a book for CEO’s. We saw magazines and newspapers and radio and tv respond well to a new high fashion cosmetic product. We saw radio and TV respond well to a country music video titled ‘pain at the pump’.
Each message was different and went to different media. What’s interesting is the number and quality of media who responded favorably, and what happened after the publications came out. In some cases the article were published within 24 to 48 hours and results were observed immediately. In other cases, requests were made, interviews were booked and results won’t be ascertained for a while to come. But we saw the right media audience respond predictably to each.
The experience shows that the media response depends what you have to offer and what the message is. Each product and message has to be tailored and targeted intelligently. The message has to be galvanizing to produce the desired action. If it’s not, then the publicity fails to produce the desired sales.
The media response will tend to parallel the market response very well. This is critical business intelligence for people with startup products. This intelligence can be used to grow a business. It’s valuable information if properly used.
The goal of publicity is to create national or targeted name recognition in the right pool of people. Targeting and mastering the messages that produce the action you desire (e.g., sales) takes research and intelligent design and repeat practice so that the message produces results reliably and consistently.
But this often takes time to develop.
Just think how much time and effort and repetition goes into mastering your particular product mix or skill set. You go to school for years, get degrees, then work gaining experience, all so that you get versatile and know what to do in a range of siutations. You wouldn’t use specific tactics in all situations. You’d only use specific tactics in certain situations.
The same type of decision making processes apply with PR to produce sales. You have to develop the experience and knowledge regarding where and when and how to use which tactics and messages.
And once you figure out what works, then you can use technology as a force multiplier and repeat the message in front of the right pool of people.
Of course, this is a process of testing and improving. Many first time publishers can only afford to do it once and the economics then don’t allow them to continue on. If they survive the startup process and do actually create a business, then doing PR regularly helps them grow their business. It’s the same with marketing.
One thing is for certain. If you stop marketing, your business dies.
PR is not a substitute for direct marketing. It’s a tool to help your marketing. It has to be wisely and properly used. Often times, it’s not only the instant effect on sales that the publication has when it is first released that is most valuable. Often times the follow on effect of the author/owner when using the PR success for marketing afterward is what produces most sales. The article has the effect regardless when it is seen or heard.
I wrote an article that’s worth looking at if you want to see a systematic view of how to evaluate and track the effectiveness of pr efforts. Here’s the link.
But when I clicked on the link to Google I fiddled with the quotes to turn the broader search into a very specific narrow search. I wrapped quotations around the words “most effective pitch”
When I clicked on this search, I only got 13 results.
The third one on the list is a treasure to behold.
What I found was a golden nugget available for free download a pdf file of 48 pages published by the Asian American Journalists Association titled “How to Get Your News in the News” written by Scott Nishimura, business editor ot he Fort Worth Star.
David Weinberger explains his theory on 'everything is miscellaneous' and why this is good for us
David Weinberger, co-author of the bestselling book The Cluetrain Manifesto, gave a one hour talk at Google in June 2007 as part of the Authors@Google series. His new book describes how the digital revolution is radically changing the way we make sense of our lives. He argues and illustrates how the digitization of everything is changing the way human beings function in the world.
In this incredibly lively talk, he covers miles and miles of intense intellectual concepts at lightning speed, talking about and explaining the contents of his new book titled Everything is Miscellaneous.
This is a wonderful presentation replete with brilliant ideas, humor, breakthrough glimpses of the past, present and future and observations that will make you think the world indeed is flat.
His photography is extremely engaging and his personality and style is part of the phenomenon that he creates as he speaks. He communicates by building vivid theoretical frameworks and colorful imaginary pictures simultaneously. He’s educational and entertaining.
Every now and then he’ll take a breath of air!
His basic idea? The world is clustered into categories and the way the world is organized by us humans is pretty nice. The one who gets to classify is powerful. The classic order of the world is changing and what used to be understood as stable is no longer operable in the dynamic digital new world in which we live.
This has important implications to how we function and communicate with each other in the future.
What happened to books before, during and after the development of the Gutenberg Press.
The Seven Powers of Book Printing
What happened to books before, during and after the development of the Gutenberg Press. This wonderful video provides you with a perspective that should make any author or publisher think twice before finalizing their creative work.
http://www.youtube.com/v/g6Hr1P3F-M4
How do you write something that will sell?
Rewrite, rewrite, rewrite.
How do you know when you are done? When one prospect after another picks up and doesn’t let go.
