Publicity Consultant Dan Janal

Reporters need ideas from you to write their stories. But there is a right way and a wrong way to pitch your story. Here are a few tips on what not to do. Don’t even think of breaking these rules if you want to get published.

1. Don’t assume they have all the time in the world to talk to you. They don’t. They are always busy.

2. Don’t assume they want to hear new pitches. Some columnists create their own ideas and don’t want to hear pitches.

3. Don’t pitch off topic. Do you homework to know which reporters cover your topic and are a good fit for your story.

4. Don’t threaten reporters with pulling your advertising. Reporters don’t care if you advertise with the publication or are best friends with the publisher. They want info their readers care about.

5. Interrupt them on deadline. Since you don’t know their deadline, always ask if this is a good time to talk. If it isn’t, ask them when you can call back.

6. Don’t run on and on with your story idea. Pause and ask them if they are interested, if they want more info or if they have questions. That shows respect.

7. Don’t pitch them the same feature story idea they just wrote about. In most cases, they are done with that story for a while. If you are pitching on a breaking news story, they could be interested in info for a follow up story.

8. Don’t offer an exclusive. You could probably do more harm to yourself than good.

9. Don’t be ignorant. Read the reporters recent articles so you know what they right about and can comment on those articles. That shows a great deal of respect and that can open doors for you.

10. Don’t be unprepared. Think of the questions reporters will ask and have a ready answer. You want to sound a prepared and professional as possible. Put yourself in the reporter’s shoes and consider the likely questions. If the reporter still asks a question you can’t answer, tell her you’ll get back to her promptly – and then do so.

If you follow these tips, you’ll have a better chance of being quoted.

There are reviews of hotels, restaurants and movies.

Why isn’t there a review of reporters?

Now there is one!

“Pitching Notes recently launched to create a database of pitching tips and reporter reviews. Their objective is to have a profile for every reporter out there, so every PR pro can benefit from a wide database of pitching notes. How can you help? Add the reporters you’ve worked with, and your tips and notes on the experience,” according to the company.

“The goal: to take our industry to the next level by pooling our knowledge to create more solid, targeted pitches, better PR-journalist relationships and more collaborative relationships among PR professionals. And if the site helps PR pros keep their sanity and feel some solidarity, well, that’s just icing on the cake! Share your tips at www.pitchingnotes.com or follow them on Twitter @pitchingnotes.”

What a fantastic idea! I wish I had thought of this! I hope they make it big. There are some reporters out there who deserve to be outed! I’m thinking of the ones who use info but don’t give credit to the experts. There’s a special place in hell for those people – and now it is online! <g>

Imagine a Yelp! focusing on reporters. I’m all for it!

I don’t know how the owners of this site are planning things, but if it were me, I’d have categories like:

·      Attributes quotes to experts
·      Responds to expert’s requests for “When will the story be published?
·      Doesn’t use cryptic messages like “Thanks for the info” but instead says, “Yes, I will use the info.”

Of course, there are a great many wonderful reporters as well – and they deserve honors, recognition and respect.

But for the few bad apples, well, let’s hear it!

What other suggestions do you have?

Any good music teacher will tell you that it is more important to practice for 10 or 15 minutes a day, every day, then it is to practice for an hour once a week.

If you can learn to play an instrument in 10 minutes a day, why can’t you get publicity with just 10 minutes a day.

The truth is, you can.

I’ve been preaching this philosophy for the past 12 years that I’ve run PR leads and helped literally thousands of people get publicity.

It shouldn’t take more than 10 minutes to scan leads, respond to a reporter and get back to doing whatever you want to do.

I have a zillion time-saving tips in my new book, “Reporters Are Looking for YOU!” If you are serious about getting publicity, but say you don’t have the time, then you need to buy this book.
I priced it at $9.99. I didn’t want to charge a fortune for it. That’s my sense of fair play. Other people would charge $1,000 for a “system.” That’s just the way I am.

Here’s the link to buy the book (yes, I said buy, not invest or grab your copy or some other sleaze-ball technique.)

Here’s the link to buy the book for only $9.99:
http://ow.ly/a1My1  

Thanks to the Internet and social media, it’s never been easier to build relationships with reporters and get quoted in their publications. Journalists from all types of publications, including The New York Times and Harvard Business Review, are always looking for sources for their articles. And if you can capture their attention, they will turn to you.

“There are reporters in every field that want to get sources for their stories,” says Dan Janal, author of Reporters Are Looking for You! Get the Publicity You Need to Build Your Business. “And they don’t care if you’re a big name or not. They just care if you have good information. So, it’s great if you’ve written a book, it’s great if you’re a CEO, but what they’re really looking for is someone with a unique idea or good tips.”

If you can get quoted in a publication, you can use that publicity to grow your business, he says.

“I can tell you hundreds and hundreds of stories about my clients being quoted in everyplace from The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Harvard Business Review and business-to-business magazines, and it’s led to increased traffic to their sites, as well as increased credibility because then they can say they were quoted in The New York Times,” Janal says. “And that just elevates your whole brand. So, when you get publicity, you can tell the world that you were quoted here.”

Listen as Janal discusses how to get on a journalist’s radar, as well as how to:

• Develop relationships with journalists
• Respond to journalists’ queries so that they want to quote you in articles
• Connect with journalists via Twitter and LinkedIn
• Use publicity to get new clients

Listen to My Rain Today Interview on How to Get Quoted in The New York Times
Here’s the link. http://ow.ly/a1Mrt   

It’s free. It’s about 15 minutes long.

Then get my book, “Reporters Are Looking for YOU!” Its almost free – $9.99. I could have charged a lot more for this, but I hate info-marketers and their sleazy overpricing. Support honest and fair trade.

Here’s the link to buy the book for only $9.99
http://ow.ly/a1My1

David Koop

I thought I was at the “Lady and the Champs” conference for speakers, but I might as well have been at the David Koop “How to Sell Books at a Conference” conference.

David’s one of my favorite PR LEADERS and he was racking up sales of his book, even though he was a participant, not a presenting speaker, at the conference.

I asked David to share his tips for selling and serving.

How do you sell so many books?

I am asked that question more and more often. First and foremost, I drafted and put into place a multi-faceted marketing plan. As time went on, I updated the plan based on where I was in the life cycle of the book and took into consideration the results, or lack thereof, on each of the components in my plan.

My book hit the Bestseller list because I crafted an effective plan and I work it every day no matter where I am. If you have written a book, you know about Amazon Bestseller campaigns. That is not what I am talking about; that is a scheme to artificially push a book to the top of their sales list for an hour or a day just to have it fall back down to its real level.

My book has been on the Bestseller list for two entirely different months and for the entire Calendar year 2011 (even though it was only out for 7 1/2 months of the year) based on real purchases by real people, day after day after day and so on.

One of the key components of my success is that I am always selling my book no matter where I am. Our society makes that very easy, one of the first questions asked when meeting someone new is, “What do you do?” (Thank you Jesus, a soft ball right over the plate, why wouldn’t you swing?) “I am the Author of a Bestselling book” is my standard reply.

“Really what is it about?” Usually comes next.  At that point I always hand them a copy of my book. That’s right, I never go anywhere without them. I suggest that they read the back cover of my book, which usually gets them to make some positive comment. “Wow I would like to read that someday, I have a brother who needs this book,” or one of many variations of a buy sign. To which I always reply, “Well I can personally autograph this copy for you at a special price, cash, check or credit cards all work just fine.”

Every meal at conferences I eat with a different group. The cover of my book is depicted on the front of my card that I pass around to introduce myself. People are always intrigued and I normally sell several books. The back of my card has directions on how to get more information on my book and a discount code for ordering your copy off my website if you failed to purchase during our meal.

There is a small pocket in the folder that the waitress brings your bill in. You know the one that you put your credit card in. Well once my bill is paid, I remove my credit card and replace it with one of my book cards – every time!

Every break, I again find new attendees to meet and I sell more books. Traveling to and from each conference, I ask virtually everyone I meet, “Do you like to read?” Ticket agents, shuttle drivers, gate agents, flight attendants, pilots, hotel personnel while checking in. “Do you like to read?” as I hand them my card I share, “Well this is a book that I wrote that made the Bestseller list.”

The bottom line is if you don’t ask you won’t sell. I am not rude about it; I am not pushy. I just answer their questions and share what it is that I do. Well that’s mostly true, I am an Author. But what I really do is sell. Everywhere, every time, I do not miss an opportunity.

As I attend different conferences I see people who don’t take full advantage of their every opportunity to promote and sell themselves. Just recently, I was at a marketing conference. During a Q&A session, I saw/heard person after person get up and say; “Hi my name is Bob and my question is…” Or they would just skip their first name altogether and go straight to their question. When I am called upon, I share my name, David Koop, but I don’t stop there. “Hi my name is David Koop; I am a Bestselling author, keynote speaker and a Certified World Class Speaking Coach.” This is about marketing, why wouldn’t you? I have even been pointed out on many occasions by the speakers for doing it.“See that’s how it’s done” they say. When it is appropriate I also share my URL.

In addition to the 20 books I sold at that conference, I also booked three new coaching clients by using that simple technique. This is just one small part of the many ways that I market my book. In addition to all of the larger, far more productive ways that I sell my book, I get to add these ideas which add an extra $10,000 each to my yearly total.  It all adds up, large and small. Remember you are going to be there anyway, why not spread your message and profit from it too?

If you need help marketing your book, I am happy to help. Just email me.  <david@somedaygroup.com>

David A. Koop,
Bestselling Author, Keynote Speaker and Certified World Class Speaking Coach
http://www.somedaygroup.com  
“Cancer It’s a Good Thing I Got It!   The Life Story of a Very Lucky Man”

Who designed your book cover?

My new book, “Reporters Are Looking for YOU!” has been out for a few weeks now and people are asking me, “Who designed your book cover?”

The answer is the amazing Jim Kukral. You can see the cover here I picked the art, but he skillfully arranged the very long subhead in a very artful manner. I thought that added real, super real value. If I had put it sentence style (as most people do), it would have been next to impossible to read. That’s the kind of talent Jim brings to the project.

Plus, he’s affordable! Most book cover designers charge thousands of dollars. Jim charges only $199! And he supplied 3 different ideas to choose from. For more info, go to http://ow.ly/9za64

Jim wrote a great article on how to get your book noticed on Amazon a few weeks ago. Here’s the link:

http://www.prleads.com/how-to-get-your-book-cover-noticed-on-amazon/

Reporters Are Looking for YOU!

Who said publishing an ebook was easy?

I thought it would be a snap.

That’s what every author in the Wall Street Journal said when interviewed.

But as I discovered when writing “Reporters Are Looking For YOU!”, there are about 100 extra steps you never thought about. Here are a few:

1.     Book cover has to fit many different sizes, from Kindle to Create Space. They all have different sizes and formats.
2.     Amazon doesn’t automatically take your info and update your book page. You have to do that yourself. That makes sense. However, you have to figure out how to register and then load your info. Then you have to wait for the info to go live – which takes about a week. You need to plan your launch to coincide with this.
3.     Just because Create Space says your book is done, that doesn’t mean it is immediately available on Amazon. It takes a few days for Amazon to process the info. Don’t start promoting your book until you know it is posted properly on Amazon and any other sites (i.e. Kindle, Nook).
4.      Create Space is a wonderful tool to create your print on demand books. I love that it has a very fast and automatic tool to see if your interior pages or cover has any errors. What a godsend! Of course this means you have to fix every error…
5.     Just because you use Create Space, doesn’t mean your book is available as a Kindle download on Amazon. That’s another step.
6.     Just because you post your info to Kindle, doesn’t mean Kindle actually saves it! Be sure the info is saved. I had to do this several times before it took hold.
Publishing an ebook isn’t as easy as it looks.

Richard Oppenheim

I’m glad I had a great consultant to help me along the way. If you need help with the interior layout of your book, posting it Amazon and walking through the steps to get published at Create Space, call Rich Oppenheim, <richopp@oppenheimgroup.com>

Also, Author’s Marketing Club is a great site with lots of free information for aspiring authors for ebooks:

http://authormarketingclub.com/

My pal Jim Kukral has created a library of great, free ebook production and marketing materials to help non-fiction authors. Check it out!

Now’s the time to create your editorial calendar for 2012.

What articles should you write to tie into themes that your customers want to know about? What articles will reporters write that you can contribute to?

I can help you create your editorial calendar as part of a one-time coaching session so you get all the attention you deserve and the media doesn’t bypass you. Email dan@prleads.com for details.

Don’t let another year go by wondering “Why did all my competitors get quoted and why not me?”

If you’ve ever wondered “How can I sell more books on Amazon,” or “How can my book stand out on Amazon,” then you’ll enjoy today’s guest blog  by Jim Kukral, who designed the cover for my new ebook. Stay tuned for details about that!

Jim is a 15-year Internet marketing expert who has a design team he guides. This is important because it’s not the best thing to just hand things like book covers to artists. Artists like to make things look pretty only. Marketers know how to direct artists to make them sellable. Isn’t that why you’re writing a book?” You can learn more about his book cover designs – they are hot – here  http://prleads.jfksell.hop.clickbank.net

I’m a happy customer and a sponsor!

How To Get Your Book Covers Noticed on Amazon

By Jim Kukral

If you haven’t noticed there’s a major publishing revolution happening these days. Now anyone can easily and quickly put a book up on Amazon for sale, without having to have a publisher. This has begun the official gold rush for existing and new authors. Now, hundreds of thousands of writers are able to sidestep the middleman and go direct to their readers. Oh, and also make a lot of money doing it.

Jim Kukral

When you self-publish you have to take on a few of the responsibilities that a publisher used to do for you. Those include things like editing, proofing and of course, cover design. All three can be outsourced to professionals you can find in your area or online. Today I want to talk about effective digital book cover design and how it can affect your Amazon sales.

So what makes an amazing digital book cover? As we all know the attention span of people who use the Web (me and you) is very low. We have become accustomed to finding what we need online as fast as possible and have learned how to scan massive amounts of information with our eyes in seconds flat.

For consumers that’s a great thing. But for anyone trying to sell anything online, it makes our challenge greater. As an author, we have only seconds (sometimes less) to engage a Web visitor and tell them a story about what the book is about.

Do a quick search over at Amazon.com for books in any genre, it doesn’t matter which one. Notice how you quickly look at the book icons on the page along with the book title, and quickly scan down the page. Notice how your eye is drawn to some covers and others not so much.

As an author with a new book coming out, if you don’t have an amazing and eye-catching book cover you’re going to have a tough time making sales on Amazon.com. Here are few tips to help you out.

Image Is Everything

First off, it’s important to realize that design matters. Sure, you could do your book cover yourself, or pay your nephew who’s in college $10 to do it for you, but what you will probably end up with is a home-made book cover. Readers are expecting more, especially on Amazon.com. Your book is going to be sitting right next to thousands of other books with professionally designed covers. Chances are that if you don’t fit in to what’s expected, a potential reader isn’t going to take a chance on your work.

The Thumbnail Matters
When you upload a book to Amazon, the Amazon system automatically sizes your book cover to an appropriate, preset, size for display on their website. There are a few thing you should know at this point so that your book looks as good as it possibly can.
Number one, you should follow the sizing guidelines on the Amazon KDP page to the tee. If you don’t, your book cover may end up looking garbled and hard to read. That’s bad. The other thing to worry about here is that if you have designed your book cover with small type, it’s probably not going to be able to be read without zooming in on it. That’s also bad.
When you’re scanning through Amazon notice how all the top selling books have great looking thumbnail images. That’s because the authors and their designers knew how to design the cover for maximum readability.

Images Count

Whether you want to use a photograph, or an illustration, or whatever, you should know that images help make your book cover get noticed. As most Web designers will tell you, when you add images of people, places or things into your design you have a much better chance at getting the viewer to relate. Why? Because pictures tell stories better than words.
If you have a book about aliens from outer space, there’s not going to be a better way to convey that than to have an alien like image on the cover of your book. If you’re writing a book about butterflies, well, you get the point.
The bottom line is that if you don’t have a readable and beautiful digital book cover your sales are going to be compromised.

Jim Kukral is the CEO of Digital Book Launch, a company that helps authors market and sell a ton of books. He is an author of five books of his own, and has been working on the Web as an Internet marketer for over 16-years. You can read more about Jim at www.jimkukral.com

Arielle Ford, the force behind the 21st Century Book Marketing Conference is a best-selling author in her own right. Here are a few tips she shared with the 300 or so attendees she used to promote “The Soulmate Secret:”

Arielle Ford

1. Start promoting early. She built her website six months before the book launch.

2. Build your list by offering valuable content, such as a teleseminar, webinar or first chapter of the book. But get the name and email address of the prospect in exchange. This is known as the “squeeze page” tactic and the “ethical bribe.” It’s all very legit and it works great to build a list. If you need help doing this, email me and I’ll refer you to a webmaster who can do this for you quickly, easily and inexpensively. (dan@prleads.com) She created a telesummit featuring other relationship experts. 62,000 people joined the list.

3. Create a press room on your website. It should include your bio, contact information, articles you’ve written, a list of media you’ve appeared in and links to TV or radio shows you’ve appeared on, if possible. Don’t forget photos.

4. Amazon best-seller campaign.

She also noted what doesn’t work:

1. Video book trailers. “It didn’t work at all.”

2. The Today Show. “It used to guarantee a listing on the New York Times best-seller list,” she said. But no longer. Shows that have dedicated followings and where the host endorses the book (not merely conducts an interview) work best. The one common denominator she’s noticed among clients she’s coached who have reached best-seller status is: “They were on a mission to change the world.”