I recently spoke at a writers' club and, of course, came back with a stack of business cards and bookmarks. I am giving all those authors applause for having cards or bookmarks, but after visiting their Web sites I was so disappointed!
Many of them had no way to contact the author. Their main Web site page is only a marketing page and the link takes visitors directly to a sell page on Amazon or elsewhere). One didn't even include a review. None included a media room.
This kind of inaccessibility violates one of the most important Web site rules for authors. It appears on one of the first pages of The Frugal Book Promoter. That is: " Don't pretend that people have come to your Web site only to buy a book."
A free page at AuthorsDen.com is better than something like this. AD doesn't have the ability to offer a media room per se, but an author could just offer a media kit using e-mail.
But more heinous even than no media room is that there was no way to reach the author. Sometimes there was no e-mail address even on their business card!
Authors! These are your READERS. Or your future readers. Let's treat them with respect. If you are one of those who are doing this for security reasons, for heaven's sake, get an e-mail address separate from your personal one. Put it on you business cards, bookmarks, Web site and everywhere else you can. Your readers will respond with book sales and with compliments that can be used as blurbs or endorsements.
-----
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 . 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:
Showing posts with label media rooms. Show all posts
Showing posts with label media rooms. Show all posts
Sunday, October 24, 2010
Tuesday, December 02, 2008
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.)
Technorati Tags:
book marketing, book promotion, editors, getting publicity, Q & A a la ann landers, sharing with writers, media kits, media rooms, the frugal book promoter
-----
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.
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.)
Technorati Tags:
book marketing, book promotion, editors, getting publicity, Q & A a la ann landers, sharing with writers, media kits, media rooms, the frugal book promoter
-----
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.
Tuesday, September 02, 2008
Karina Fabian Guest Blogs on Your Website's Media/Press Room
Often overlooked by authors is a media room on their website. I cover that in The Frugal Book Promoter: How To Do What Your Publisher Won't but I thought this article by Karina Fabian (with her permission, of course!) would remind those of you who have the book to go back and review the stuff on websites I've given you there. I figured it would be especially useful for those of you who don't have the book. (-: )
The Woefully Overlooked and Neglected Media Room
By Karina Fabian
A media room is a marketing tool for you and a research tool for folks who want to write about you--reporters, bloggers, or reviewers. It's your place to brag, to advertise, to really promote your book and yourself.
It's part of your website, but not necessarily for the casual reader. This is not the place for the "bells and whistles" like glitter graphics, your favorite song streaming or pop-ups. This is the working part of your site. Here's where people go when they have a definite purpose. They're looking at you as a potential interviewee, and expert they can question and quote, a "new find" they can impress their editor with.
In order to reach them--and keep their attention--you want a media room that's easy and full of easy-access information and ideas. The easier you make it for a reporter to write about you, the more likely they will. The more useful you make yourself, the more likely they'll come back when they have another topic.
In some ways, an on-line media room can mimic the kind of media kit you may have already prepared for advertising your book. On the other hand, the ease of the Internet (and the fact that you can add or change things for free) means you can do a whole lot more. Media rooms can contain any and all of the following. The ones marked * are pretty much mandatory, though they may already be on your website and you can just link to them.
* Contact information
* Author bio
* Publishing credits/experience (can be part of bio)
* Book summary/blurb
* Book cover image
* Media Releases and/or News and Events
* Downloadable Press Package (either PDF or .rtf or both)
--Book Reviews
--Sample Interviews
--Awards and Publications
--Essays/Articles for Reprint
--Available seminars, speaking appearances
--Transcripts/audio recordings/video clips
--Ideas for story angles
--Fellow experts
--Downloadable items--business cards, sell sheets, etc.
--Sample chapters of published works or snippets of works in progress
--FAQ or Facts File
Why bother? (I'm not published. I’m not well-known. My publisher handles publicity…)
More and more people are turning to the Internet for their information. Students use it for homework. People surf it just for fun. Reporters turn to it as their first line of research.
Because of that, a web presence is very important for writers. The world has gotten simultaneously too small and too big for us to rely on verbal word-of-mouth to get our names out to readers. A website will help you with that. A media room on your website, however, gets more than your name out--it gets you into the hearts and minds of your readers or potential readers.
A media room complements your media releases; gives your publisher or publicist a link to direct others to; makes it easy for reporters to get what they need for the story, and can draw in the casual surfer. In this technological, information world, it's a must-have for your marketing arsenal.
Technorati Tags:
karina fabian, media rooms, press room, book marketing, book promotion, website promotion, Catholic writers
-----
Guest blogged by Karina Fabian. After being a straight-A student, Karina now cultivates Fs: Family, Faith, Fiction and Fun. From Nuns in Space to a down-and out Faerie dragon working off a geas by St. George, her work takes quirky twists that keep her amused--and others, too. Winner of the EPPIE award for best sci-fi and the Mensa Owl for best fiction. In addition to juggling the stories from at least three different universes, Karina is President of the Catholic Writers' Guild and teaches writing and book marketing seminars on-line.
Karina's Websites:
www.fabianspace.com, where you'll find info about her, her writing and her eclectic writing/homeschooling/humor/just-gotta-say-it blog
www.virtualbooktourdenet.blogspot.com, where she'll gladly advertise your book if you'll return the favor to someone else
www.dragoneyepi.net, where you can learn more about the fantasy noir dragon detective Vern, his partner Sister Grace, and the world of Dragon Eye, PI.
The Woefully Overlooked and Neglected Media Room
By Karina Fabian
A media room is a marketing tool for you and a research tool for folks who want to write about you--reporters, bloggers, or reviewers. It's your place to brag, to advertise, to really promote your book and yourself.
It's part of your website, but not necessarily for the casual reader. This is not the place for the "bells and whistles" like glitter graphics, your favorite song streaming or pop-ups. This is the working part of your site. Here's where people go when they have a definite purpose. They're looking at you as a potential interviewee, and expert they can question and quote, a "new find" they can impress their editor with.
In order to reach them--and keep their attention--you want a media room that's easy and full of easy-access information and ideas. The easier you make it for a reporter to write about you, the more likely they will. The more useful you make yourself, the more likely they'll come back when they have another topic.
In some ways, an on-line media room can mimic the kind of media kit you may have already prepared for advertising your book. On the other hand, the ease of the Internet (and the fact that you can add or change things for free) means you can do a whole lot more. Media rooms can contain any and all of the following. The ones marked * are pretty much mandatory, though they may already be on your website and you can just link to them.
* Contact information
* Author bio
* Publishing credits/experience (can be part of bio)
* Book summary/blurb
* Book cover image
* Media Releases and/or News and Events
* Downloadable Press Package (either PDF or .rtf or both)
--Book Reviews
--Sample Interviews
--Awards and Publications
--Essays/Articles for Reprint
--Available seminars, speaking appearances
--Transcripts/audio recordings/video clips
--Ideas for story angles
--Fellow experts
--Downloadable items--business cards, sell sheets, etc.
--Sample chapters of published works or snippets of works in progress
--FAQ or Facts File
Why bother? (I'm not published. I’m not well-known. My publisher handles publicity…)
More and more people are turning to the Internet for their information. Students use it for homework. People surf it just for fun. Reporters turn to it as their first line of research.
Because of that, a web presence is very important for writers. The world has gotten simultaneously too small and too big for us to rely on verbal word-of-mouth to get our names out to readers. A website will help you with that. A media room on your website, however, gets more than your name out--it gets you into the hearts and minds of your readers or potential readers.
A media room complements your media releases; gives your publisher or publicist a link to direct others to; makes it easy for reporters to get what they need for the story, and can draw in the casual surfer. In this technological, information world, it's a must-have for your marketing arsenal.
Technorati Tags:
karina fabian, media rooms, press room, book marketing, book promotion, website promotion, Catholic writers
-----
Guest blogged by Karina Fabian. After being a straight-A student, Karina now cultivates Fs: Family, Faith, Fiction and Fun. From Nuns in Space to a down-and out Faerie dragon working off a geas by St. George, her work takes quirky twists that keep her amused--and others, too. Winner of the EPPIE award for best sci-fi and the Mensa Owl for best fiction. In addition to juggling the stories from at least three different universes, Karina is President of the Catholic Writers' Guild and teaches writing and book marketing seminars on-line.
Karina's Websites:
www.fabianspace.com, where you'll find info about her, her writing and her eclectic writing/homeschooling/humor/just-gotta-say-it blog
www.virtualbooktourdenet.blogspot.com, where she'll gladly advertise your book if you'll return the favor to someone else
www.dragoneyepi.net, where you can learn more about the fantasy noir dragon detective Vern, his partner Sister Grace, and the world of Dragon Eye, PI.
Thursday, May 15, 2008
You Have a Bedroom, a Workroom, a Playroom. How About a Media Room? And Not in Your House!
Most rooms we think are essential -- even bedrooms -- we could easily do without.
Look at all the people who live in studio apartments! The one room everyone seems to think they can do without (and shouldn't!) is a media room.
I'm not talking about a room in your house with a screen, stereo and a popcorn machine. I'm talking about the room on your website that makes life so easy on an editor, agent, blogger, reviewer or publisher that you'll have an edge with them over those who don't have one. Some people call them press rooms, but that's sort of slaps at nonprint media like web editors and radio hosts. So, if you have a "press room" you may want to change its moniker so you look like the professional you are in front of those who can make a difference for you.
But that isn't all you should do. Take a minute to look at this article to see if you're making your media room (aka press room) into the Clydesdale it should be rather than a little pink (and possibly useless) pony.
The media room is an integral part of your website but it is not a place for your readers. It's only for that list of gatekeepers above and it's all business. Meaning no cutsie stuff. Just simple, easy-to-download media kit(s) and a few other possibilities I've listed below. If you think of something else to add to the list, ask yourself, "Will this feature help those who need information access it more easily and save them time?" and "Will this feature only clutter my media room like so much unused furniture and make it harder for editors to find what they need." If the feature is not suitable for the media room, save it for somewhere else on your site.
Because this room will not have music or graphics or any other gee-gaws, you may need to duplicate some information that you have in your media room elsewhere on the site for the casual visitor. Your list of awards is a good example. They'll be in your media kit but you'll probably have a separate page or area for them elsewhere.
The best way to give editors and others who visit your media room is to have a downloadable .pdf of your media kit. Include in that kit:
1. Contact information on every page of the kit and on the media room's home page.
2. A cover letter that's relatively generic so that it will work for most any kind of person who downloads the kit.
3. Your book cover image(s), in high resolution in case the editor needs to use it for print purposes.
4. A professional head shot of you -- also in high res.
5. Two author bios, one very short that editors can pick up and use as a tagline without rewriting it and one that's longer to give them a better flavor for possible feature stories, etc.
6. A page of your publishing credits and experience similar to what you would use in a resume. Keep it simple. Bullet it if possible.
7. A synopsis of your book. A strong, short pitch is even better. Or both.
8. An assortment of endorsements or blurbs.
9. Two sample book reviews, one long for print media, one short for use on the Internet. Both should be available to reprint at no ch * rge and you should say so on the review pages.
10. At least one sample Interview, though you may use several, each with a different focus.
11. An awards page, both publishing and writing awards.
12. A first person essay available for reprint with permission to do so.
13. A list of available seminars or keynotes for your speaking appearances. You might also include ideas for feature stories.
14. A fellow experts page. This makes it easy for an editor or moderator to put together a panel and include you, of course.
Your Media room should also include or have links to:
1. Your Media Releases for news and events, most recent first.
2. Transcripts/audio recordings/video clips and podcasts.
3. Downloadable aids like business cards and sell sheets.
4. Sample chapters of published works or snippets of works in progress. Nonfiction works should have your Contents page available for perusal.
5. FAQ or a facts file.
Don't even ask why you should do this. You don't have time. It is essential this very minute and if it isn't, it will be the minute you have a book, set yourself up as an expert, have a business, begin to consult or whatever work you plan to coordinate with your writing career. You need a media room at least as much as you need a website.
A media room will do for you what you can't possibly do for yourself and what your publicist can't do for you either. It makes your book, your business available to everyone and puts you upfront and center where you'll be on their minds.
You'll find this list with the complete details of writing a media release, putting together a media kit, etc. -- right down to the correct font, structure and indentations -- in The Frugal Book Promoter: How to Do What Your Publisher Won't http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/193299310X/. You'll find a sample media room (with several media kits each with a different focus) on my website at www.howtodoitfrugally.com.
PS: The photo is one taken by Nancy Cleary, author and publisher. It is of her well-used copy of The Frugal Book Promoter.
-----
Carolyn Howard-Johnson edits and consults on issues of publishing. Find her The Frugal Editor: Put Your Best Book Forward to Avoid Humiliation and Ensure Success on Amazon. Learn more about her other authors' aids at www.howtodoitfrugally.com.
Look at all the people who live in studio apartments! The one room everyone seems to think they can do without (and shouldn't!) is a media room.
I'm not talking about a room in your house with a screen, stereo and a popcorn machine. I'm talking about the room on your website that makes life so easy on an editor, agent, blogger, reviewer or publisher that you'll have an edge with them over those who don't have one. Some people call them press rooms, but that's sort of slaps at nonprint media like web editors and radio hosts. So, if you have a "press room" you may want to change its moniker so you look like the professional you are in front of those who can make a difference for you.
But that isn't all you should do. Take a minute to look at this article to see if you're making your media room (aka press room) into the Clydesdale it should be rather than a little pink (and possibly useless) pony.
The media room is an integral part of your website but it is not a place for your readers. It's only for that list of gatekeepers above and it's all business. Meaning no cutsie stuff. Just simple, easy-to-download media kit(s) and a few other possibilities I've listed below. If you think of something else to add to the list, ask yourself, "Will this feature help those who need information access it more easily and save them time?" and "Will this feature only clutter my media room like so much unused furniture and make it harder for editors to find what they need." If the feature is not suitable for the media room, save it for somewhere else on your site.
Because this room will not have music or graphics or any other gee-gaws, you may need to duplicate some information that you have in your media room elsewhere on the site for the casual visitor. Your list of awards is a good example. They'll be in your media kit but you'll probably have a separate page or area for them elsewhere.
The best way to give editors and others who visit your media room is to have a downloadable .pdf of your media kit. Include in that kit:
1. Contact information on every page of the kit and on the media room's home page.
2. A cover letter that's relatively generic so that it will work for most any kind of person who downloads the kit.
3. Your book cover image(s), in high resolution in case the editor needs to use it for print purposes.
4. A professional head shot of you -- also in high res.
5. Two author bios, one very short that editors can pick up and use as a tagline without rewriting it and one that's longer to give them a better flavor for possible feature stories, etc.
6. A page of your publishing credits and experience similar to what you would use in a resume. Keep it simple. Bullet it if possible.
7. A synopsis of your book. A strong, short pitch is even better. Or both.
8. An assortment of endorsements or blurbs.
9. Two sample book reviews, one long for print media, one short for use on the Internet. Both should be available to reprint at no ch * rge and you should say so on the review pages.
10. At least one sample Interview, though you may use several, each with a different focus.
11. An awards page, both publishing and writing awards.
12. A first person essay available for reprint with permission to do so.
13. A list of available seminars or keynotes for your speaking appearances. You might also include ideas for feature stories.
14. A fellow experts page. This makes it easy for an editor or moderator to put together a panel and include you, of course.
Your Media room should also include or have links to:
1. Your Media Releases for news and events, most recent first.
2. Transcripts/audio recordings/video clips and podcasts.
3. Downloadable aids like business cards and sell sheets.
4. Sample chapters of published works or snippets of works in progress. Nonfiction works should have your Contents page available for perusal.
5. FAQ or a facts file.
Don't even ask why you should do this. You don't have time. It is essential this very minute and if it isn't, it will be the minute you have a book, set yourself up as an expert, have a business, begin to consult or whatever work you plan to coordinate with your writing career. You need a media room at least as much as you need a website.
A media room will do for you what you can't possibly do for yourself and what your publicist can't do for you either. It makes your book, your business available to everyone and puts you upfront and center where you'll be on their minds.
You'll find this list with the complete details of writing a media release, putting together a media kit, etc. -- right down to the correct font, structure and indentations -- in The Frugal Book Promoter: How to Do What Your Publisher Won't http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/193299310X/. You'll find a sample media room (with several media kits each with a different focus) on my website at www.howtodoitfrugally.com.
PS: The photo is one taken by Nancy Cleary, author and publisher. It is of her well-used copy of The Frugal Book Promoter.
-----
Carolyn Howard-Johnson edits and consults on issues of publishing. Find her The Frugal Editor: Put Your Best Book Forward to Avoid Humiliation and Ensure Success on Amazon. Learn more about her other authors' aids at www.howtodoitfrugally.com.
Saturday, January 26, 2008
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.
-----
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.
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.
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