Q & A a la Ann Landers: You Want Me To Do What with That Media Kit?

I occasionally blog in a question and answer format on this blog similarly to the way I do it on my editing, grammar and formatting blog. This question came from one of my readers and fellows on the MuseItUpClub list serve:


QUESTION:

Carolyn, I’ve been reading Chapter 3 in The Frugal Book Promoter about media kits. It seems there is a lot that goes into one of these. What I haven’t been able to figure out is why I need to gather such extensive information. The editor at my local newspaper would probably go cross-eyed before they would read all that stuff. I know if I received one with all the info you talk about, I wouldn’t read the whole darned thing, just skip here and there.

Can you help me out here? Thanks!

Katie Hines
Children's Author
Coming Summer 2009: "Guardian"- A middle grade urban fantasy.


ANSWER:

Yes, Katie. You're on the right track. You want to make it easy on your editor--above all. The thing is, that kit is designed to do just that. That editor would rather browse through a bit and then, when she's grasped onto something she can use, know that everything she needs is right there. Any kind of a question she has that isn't answered right there may become a stumbling block to her using your material at all.

Your editor is one busy woman, probably doing about four jobs that I didn't have to do when I was sitting at a news desk back at the beginning of my writing career. So you want to give your editor stuff he can use exactly as you present it.

As an example, if your kit is an e-kit, then he doesn't even have to retype, just copy and paste. And if he needs that first person essay during a busy holiday season, he just uses it, because you've written it with a word count he's most likely to need, edited it for him and given him permission to use it, too. That's it! No work for him! And a filler? Editors are always needing fillers! Then you've provided them with your Seven Tips page and he can use any one of them and just drop in your name.

Having said that, every segment I mention in The Frugal Book Promoter doesn't go into every kit you send out. Take out the stuff you're sure your editor won't need or want. Except for the mass mailing after your book is issued, most times you can tailor your kit to fit an editor's specific need.

Generally, though, too much is better than not enough. A busy editor is a whole lot less likely to contact you for more info (unless she plans a whole feature on you) than she is to use what you have given her. I know. I once worked on a news desk. And I even find that true now with my newsletter. That's why I keep nagging in my newsletter about a full autosignature in e-mails, even for people you know well.

And when you are using most every segment I tell you about in your kit, the Table of Contents I suggest is a nice extra. (You can learn how I did it my TOC by downloading one of my kits from my website, www.howtodoitfrugally.com. Go to the media room for links on several kits--all differently focused.)

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Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of This Is the Place; Harkening: A Collection of Stories Remembered; Tracings, a chapbook of poetry; and two how to books, The Frugal Book Promoter: How To Do What Your Publisher Won't and The Frugal Editor: Put Your Best Book Forward to Avoid Humiliation and Ensure Success. She is also the author of the Amazon Short, "The Great First Impression Book Proposal." Some of her other blogs are TheNewBookReview.blogspot.com and AuthorsCoalition.blogspot.com, a blog that helps writers and publishers turn a ho-hum book fair booth into a sizzler. She also blogs at all things editing, grammar, formatting and more at www.TheFrugalEditor.blogspot.com.

Q&A a la Ann Landers: Getting Publicity From Grumpy Editors

Your Media Kit: Or How To Get Publicity from Tired, Grumpy Editors

Question: Because I know editors are busy I just send them a quick paragraph with a link to my website . . .

Answer: It's precisely because they are busy you don't want to do this. Our job as publicists for ourselves or our companies is to make the job of the editor as easy as possible. Telling her to go search a site is not the name of the game. Sure, you want your query to grab her interest, but maybe the query she read just before yours did that, too, but that person gave her what she needed right then and there.

So, yes. Capture her interest. Pitch your idea and a bit about you. Give her enough that if she is really time-constrained, she might not even have to check your website. Not pages and pages but a tightly packed, well-written page!

Of course, you also offer a link to your pdf media kit--directly to it. Don't make her go searching around your site to find the kit. You can offer to send her a kit by attachment, too, but often presses and other media don't want them, won't even open them.

You can also offer to help. Give her your phone and e-mail address. Let he know you're considerate of her time.

And the media kit itself--if she ever even gets to it? That's all about making her life easy, too. What an opportunity! Here are just a few things your kit needs to take full advantage of it.

 There should be items in your media kit (Like a 10 Tips piece) that can be published as is or in part by an editor who just happens to have a few inches available at deadline.

 Your media kit should be designed with ease in mind. If your kit is extensive, a Table of Contents (but call it CONTENTS, not TOC) is in order. That will make it easy for her to find what she needs from your kit.

 In addition to the usual stuff, include a complete, well edited first person essay. It could land in a first column on the front page of a newspaper.

 Include a one-page biography, but also include a prewritten short bio or tagline. The editor can just copy and paste it. No rewriting necessary.

 Most kits include a sample review and interview. Many authors forget to make it clear that they may be published at no charge and with permission of the reviewer and/or interviewer. If you don't do that, the editor will have to call you or do a rewrite. Also make clear the conditions. Does the reviewer require that the piece be uncut and that a tagline be included?

There are lots of good books on the subjects of queries and media kits written by experts. My The Frugal Book Promoter is specific about media relations, kits and queries. The Frugal Editor gives tips on how to avoid query-letter faux pas straight from the mouths of some of our nation's top agents.

I recommend that you read more than one book. There is more than one way to do a thing. Here are some other books besides mine for you to look at:

 John Kremer's
 Allan Shepherd's
 Janet Elaine Smith's new PromoPaks
 Fran Silverman's
 My new Amazon Short on writing book proposals (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000YG6O5U/ref=cm_arms_pdp_dp)
 Michael Larsen's
 Terry Whalin's

The biggest mistake is not supplying the editor with what she needs to make a decision on the spot.

I'm ranting, here. Sorry. But having worked in journalism, I know how frustrating incomplete information can be. Even these days, as the editor of my own newsletter, you'd be surprised how many posts I get from people who:

• Do not tell me what they want (these are query letters I'm getting, after all! So they should ask a question or QUERY!)
• Don't even give me a hint about how they want me to use the information they've sent.
• Don't use an autosignature telling me how to reach them in case I have questions.
• Give me links to sites that have no media rooms so I'd have to search many different pages to put a story together.
• Give me a homepage URL rather than the media room URL.
• Don't give me any information on themselves. Without that, how would I know if I'm interested in their story?
• And when I get that media kit, there is no first person essay, no article, no interview, no review, no... . You get the idea. This person wants ME to do all the work. (-:

So make 2008 your be-kind-to-editors year. You may find your queries start getting more action.
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Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author THIS IS THE PLACE; HARKENING: A COLLECTION OF STORIES REMEMBERED; TRACINGS, a chapbook of poetry; and two how to books, THE FRUGAL BOOK PROMOTER: HOW TO DO WHAT YOUR PUBLISHER WON'T; and THE FRUGAL EDITOR: PUT YOUR BEST BOOK FORWARD TO AVOID HUMILIATION AND ENSURE SUCCESS.
Her other blogs include TheNewBookReview.blogspot.com and AuthorsCoalition.blogspot.com, a blog that helps writers and publishers turn a ho-hum book fair booth into a sizzler.