Radio Guru Shares Radio Resources with Authors

One of the complaints I hear from my clients is the time it takes to scrounge up appropriate resources for radio gigs--and everyone loves the ease and effectiveness of doing radio, right?

Fran Silverman is a recognized expert on radio with a huge reference book in print published by McFarland (just in case one of these categories isn't a fit for your book). However, she also has less expensive and targeted books of resources by genre or subject matter available that she keeps updated. I thought it important that you have the one best suited to your title so I asked her to send me the rundown. At first glance, these categories seem more suited to nonfiction writers, but they can work for fiction writers--and even poets--by following the advice I give in The Frugal Book Promoter. That is, to reread one's literary book for the angles or broader topics at work within in it.  Here is the information I asked Francine to share with you:

The following ebooks for radio guests are available. Each entry contains show title, host name, theme, guest criteria, email, website, phone and Best Method of Contact – everything a potential guest needs before contacting a host. To order any of the e-books, please contact Fran at franalive@optonline.net.

Animals ($12 for 42 shows) - Covers animal advocacy, health, care, competition, communication, behavior, longevity, dog relationships, pets and the paranormal, pet peeves, wildlife, training,

shelter and rescue.

Authors ($12 for 64 shows) - Covers writing, editing, publishing, marketing, literary agents, Christian authors, author spotlights; genres include thrillers, suspense, action/adventures, novels, teen/YA, romance, poetry, science, historical, baseball, screenplays, songwriting.

Business ($25 for 261 Shows) - Covers workplace issues, innovation, entrepreneurship, business strategies, careers, finance, small business, sales, home-based businesses, law, investments, insurance, money management, customer service, and real estate.

Entertainment ($15 for 172 Shows) - Covers art, fashion, movies, music and comedy.

Environment ($12 for 37 shows) - Covers green lifestyles, sustainable communities, conservation, cleaner energy, natural healing and medical remedies, environmental news, non-toxic living, wildlife, and activism.

Food and Travel ($12 for 64 shows) - Covers grilling and barbecuing, wines and spirits, tea, chefs and recipes and raw food, parties, special event planning; all kinds of travel: budget, frequent, upscale, good deals, cruises and medical and health tourism. 

Health ($20 for 161 Shows) - Covers healthy living and lifestyles, fitness, health as a business advantage, natural healing, alternative medicine, medical travel, issues, education and treatment, and overcoming adversities.

House and Garden ($12 for 25 shows) - Covers gardening, growing vegetables, going green, home improvement, repair, and remodeling, healthy home design trends, buying and selling homes, feng shui, organizing vegetable gardens.

Men and Women ($15 for 67 shows) - Covers chick lit books, female and Christian entrepreneurs, fun for women over 40, men's comedy, girl's math and science, women empowerment, life makeovers, interesting women, women's health, parenting, women's ministries and spirituality, women in business, medicine, politics, gay, lesbian and transgender issues.

New Age - ($20 for 200 Shows) - Covers astrology, metaphysics, Tarot, Angels, psychic development, paranormal, parapsychology, holistic health, healing, mysticism, occult, and mediums.

Parenting ($15 for 60 shows) - Covers parenting issues and pressures, education, security and safety, family life, parenting parents, health, home-school, child development, schooling, charter schools, mom entrepreneurship, home birth, adoption, marriage, military moms, single mothers, childhood cancer, and money management.

Politics ($20 for 190 Shows)- Covers current events, conservatism, Christian conservatism, liberalism, Libertarianism, government, pop culture, U.S. Constitution, Tea Party movement, democracy, the military and labor.

Relationships ($15 for 72 shows) - Covers dating, relationship strategies, weddings, marriage, sex and divorce.

Science and Technology ($12 for 49 shows) - Covers hardware, software, wireless communication, clean energy technology, nanotechnology, engineering, film and video production, biology, astronomy, geology, robotics, physics, and outer space.

Self-Help ($20 for 217 Shows) - Covers personal and professional goals, growth and empowerment, emotional freedom techniques, motivation, creativity, living one's calling, making for a better world, transforming your life and self-realization.

Sports ($15 for 101 Shows) - Covers wrestling, biking, gaming, fantasy sports, golf, fitness/health, football, baseball, basketball, hockey, tennis, thoroughbred racing, hunting, fishing, camping, birding, hiking, skiing, kayaking, and performance.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR OF THESE BOOKS

“Talk Radio Advocate” Francine Silverman is a multi-published author, publicist, radio host, newsletter editor and compiler of 16 e-books of talk radio shows. To view the e-books, please visit http://www.talkradioadovate.com and click “E-books."

PS: There are more tips and suggestions for making radio work for your marketing campaign in The Frugal Book Promoter and and in Fran's book Talk Radio Wants You!  just in case you plan to go at marketing with radio with a vengeance or just to become the best possible radio guest.

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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 edition of, The Frugal Book Promoter: How to get nearly free publicity on your own or by partnering with your publisher; The multi award-winning second edition of The Frugal Editor; 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 .

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.