You're the Expert: Don't Get Grumpy. Get the Mention!

Maybe we all have a tendency to feel disgruntled when our local newspaper quotes an expert who isn’t—really!—as expert as we are! Worse, what about when CNN features a talking head on the subject of their book and they disagree with you! Seems you have a choice. You can grumble or you can take action.

• Use your Googling skills to contact whoever was in charge (or to blame!) for this lack of foresight. Journalists. Producers. Talk show hosts. Give yourself enough time to cool off and put your tactful hat on and contact them.
• Introduce yourself being very clear about your credentials. In fact, put the credentials upfront before your name unless you’re already famous. (For a script/template of how to approach reporters and others responsible for stories from master marketer Raleigh Pinskey, see the Index of The Frugal Book Promoter (www.budurl.com/FrugalBkPromo).
• Follow up with a personal cover letter and a copy of your book. Oh, and your media kit!
• Follow up again when something similar hits the news. You may be remembered. In fact, expand your campaign to include others who might cover the story.

Don’t assume that because you write fiction, you can’t be an expert. Of course you can! I am an expert on tolerance, polygamy, and a host of related subjects based on the theme and setting of my novel This Is the Place (www.budurl.com/ThisIsthePlace) and on my life’s experiences on those topics. And yes, I was a guest on at least a dozen radio shows because of that expertise. All you have to do is examine the subjects of your fiction and see how it relates to what’s in the news.

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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 how to books for writers including the award-winning second ediction of, The Frugal Book Promoter: How to get nearly free publicity on your own or by partnering with your publisher; The Frugal Editor: Put Your Best Book Forward to Avoid Humiliation and Ensure Success; and Great Little Last Minute Editing Tips for Writers . The Great First Impression Book Proposal is her newest booklet for writers. She has three FRUGAL books for retailers including A Retailer’s Guide to Frugal In-Store Promotions: How To Increase Profits and Spit in the Eyes of Economic Downturns with Thrifty Events and Sales Techniques. Some of her other blogs are TheNewBookReview.blogspot.com, a blog where authors can recycle their favorite reviews. She also blogs at all things editing, grammar, formatting and more at The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor . If your followers at Twitter would benefit from this blog post, please use the little Green widget to let them know about this blog:

Author Michelle Dunn Shares Secrets for Getting Quoted Big Time

Michelle Dunn is a an author I fell in love with a long time ago because she is such a great marketer. You should know that my definition of great marketers is those who are so warm and sharing that their products sell on their own. Today Michelle is sharing--once again--as a guest blogger on Sharing with Writers.

How I landed a story on CNN & get quoted in the Wall Street Journal

by Michelle Dunn

It has taken me years and it is still slow sometimes but then suddenly
something like this CNN interview comes along and it seems
worthwhile.I have been being asked how I landed these stories and I
want to share with you what I did to get interviewed for stories like
this one and others in the Wall Street Journal or other publications:

I made a list of what I wanted to accomplish, getting to be a regular
contributor to the Wall Street Journal and getting on Television are
two examples. Then I made a ?sublist? for each of those goals, what
I would do to accomplish each one.

My sublist for getting on Television was to do more public speaking
and teaching, learn more about being on Television and how to do well
at it, such as learning how not to talk with my hands, always smiling,
listening, being clear and concise, learning what clothes and makeup
were best on TV to appear professional. Then I started out by pitching
myself to cable television shows locally and in my surrounding states,
NH, MA, CT. I landed many spots and was always asked back. Once I
taped these shows I would get a DVD copy of the shows and I had them
all put onto one DVD that I could then send out to the national
television networks showing I had experience.

My sublist for getting national print publicity, such as the WSJ, CNN,
or Forbes was to provide helpful content that focused on their
stories. To do this I had to get a subscription to the WSJ so I could
read it and know the journalists, what they wrote about, what was up
and coming, just to familiarize myself with their publication. I did
this for every publication I was going to try to get quoted in.

I would write letters to the editors about stories that pertained to
what I know and my books, I started including them on my medial list
to receive my press releases. I also joined HARO which is run by Peter
Shankman, Help a Reporter Out, it is free and you get an email each
day with listings from journalists on what stories they are working on
and what information they need. You can pitch them and if they are
interested, they email you or call you.

I hope this helps you to gain more publicity! If you want more tips
or information on how I have gained worldwide media attention you can
also check out my newest book ?Mosquito Marketing for Authors? it will
tell you how I self published an award winning book that is a
consistent best seller in its category as well as how you can get
worldwide media attention for yourself and your books or business.

Sincerely,
Michelle Dunn
Author of the award winning book "Starting a Collection Agency, how to make
money collecting money" and many other titles in her "Collecting Money
Series".
Now Available! "Mosquito Marketing for Authors"
http://www.amazon.com/Mosquito-Marketing-Authors-self-published-consistent/dp/1453605304/

Join her on LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/creditmd



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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 how to books for writers including, The Frugal Book Promoter: How To Do What Your Publisher Won't; The Frugal Editor: Put Your Best Book Forward to Avoid Humiliation and Ensure Success; and Great Little Last Minute Editing Tips for Writers . She is also the author of the Amazon Short, "The Great First Impression Book Proposal". She has three FRUGAL books for retailers including A Retailer’s Guide to Frugal In-Store Promotions: How To Increase Profits and Spit in the Eyes of Economic Downturns with Thrifty Events and Sales Techniques. Some of her other blogs are TheNewBookReview.blogspot.com, a blog where authors can recycle their favorite reviews. She also blogs at all things editing, grammar, formatting and more at The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor . If your followers at Twitter would benefit from this blog post, please use the little Green widget to let them know about this blog:

Peer Reviews Are About More Than Content and Expertise

Let's Talk Peer Reviews . . .

When many of us write nonfiction, we ask for peer reviews. We ask if experts in the field might give us input on our book before it is published. But there is more to it than that (especially for writers of fiction so keep reading!). Some of us are fully cognizant of what that "more" might be and others are not.

For many miss a couple of vital elements of a peer review that Susan D. Daffron mentions in her front page article for Span Connection (Nov. 2008) and that is the author will find more peers willing to help if he or she is asked to review only a chapter rather than a whole book. The other is that the peer review process might well contribute to the gleaning of absolutely great endorsements/testimonials for the cover or inside pages of the finished book.

What I like best about the peer review process is that is can be tailored to benefit writers of the so-called hard-to-promote books--fiction, poetry and memoir.

Writers in those genres often think they can't find interested experts but experts come in all stripes. They can be editors, teachers, authors of similar genres, and on and on. In other words, the peer review process can work well for any author. It's only a matter of figuring out what is in your work that you might have reviewed, finding people with expertise in that area and in blocking out a period of time in the writing process just before sending your manuscript off to a publisher to let the peer review process work for you in all the ways that it can.

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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, a blog where authors can recycle their favorite reviews. She also blogs at all things editing, grammar, formatting and more at The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor blog.

Q&A a la Ann Landers: Becoming Known As an Expert

Question:

Publicist Mindy Phillips Lawrence asks:

I have a client who is an academic. Do you have any suggestions to help him with being viewed as an expert by the press and others in the publishing world?

Answer: You client's website should tout him as an expert in specific fields, areas of study, etc. Authors can do that by being sure that their awards are listed and that they have a media room and that they have a page that lists seminar and workshop topics. Check out my site and snoof (yes, I make up words!) around. I'm serious. I'd direct you to one page but I've used methods of doing this throughout the site. Endorsements. Places where I've already served as an expert. There's even a video so people who might use me can see that I'm full of information but also pretty casual. So your job is to analyze those things and see how they might apply to anyone who wants to position himself as an expert.

And then there is our new Authors' Coalition speakers' bureau and others (far more expensive) where he can become listed. Once listed, tell him to include his URL in his signature, etc. to let everyone he knows (all those academics as an example!) that he is featured on a speakers' bureau. He should even do that on his letterheads and business cards. Maybe his older contacts haven't thought of him as a speaker! This cards might read "expert" but also might include "specializing in" "consulting on" etc., all of which connote "expert." He could even add a motto like "Sharing his expertise on the world of XXXX."

Hey, what about a newsletter or blog that does the same thing? Whatever he does, though, his credentials should be upfront and center. I have a client who is an MD. In an effort to be modest, she didn't those initials in her byline for her book. Next time she will! But remember, credentials aren't only about a string of neat letters behind your name. They're also about experience.

He can also get himself listed on sites where people go to find expert. Sites like: http://www.experts.com/
http://www.expertclick.com/
http://www.refdesk.com/expert.html

Sites like these are used by editors and program directors much as speakers' bureaus are. Each one operates differently. Use a search engine to find others in any given field.

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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.