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Being an author myself, I had to check out a book called Sell Your Book on Amazon. The rather long subtitle explains what the book offers: The Book Marketing COACH Reveals Top-Secret “How-to” Tips Guaranteed to Increase Sales for Print-on-Demand and Self-Publishing Writers . My two self-help books were published by a traditional publisher, but I found the tips in this book to be very helpful.

Not only does author Brent Sampson give you a wide variety of strategies you can employ to sell more books, he also rates them from one to five stars as to how effective they are.

Whether you are self-published, or traditionally published, I highly recommend this book.

While your at it, you can also read the first chapter of my book, You Can Be Famous! Insider Secrets to Getting Free Publicity, on Amazon too.

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Before embarking on your road to fame, you better have a
map. Otherwise you’ll just spin your wheels. Or worse, get lost
along the way.

In order to get the most from fame, think seriously about why
you want to be famous.

But isn’t fame an end unto itself?

For many people, it may be.

But there are other, better things you can do with fame than
stroke your ego.

Here are a few things fame can do for you. Some of them I’ve
already mentioned, but they are worth repeating so that your mind
can start thinking of all the benefits and possibilities. Fame can:

• Help you sell more of your product or service—for higher fees
• Bring new customers to you
• Bring former customers back
• Get you recognition on the job
• Help you get a new job
• Bring more job applicants to your company
• Get volunteers for your cause, issue or organization
• Raise money for your cause or organization
• Help you become recognized as an expert in your field
• Make you the go-to person at your company
• Get brand recognition
• Improve your social life
• Get a book deal
• Promote your book
• Promote your career as an entertainer or artist

Take a moment and think about the level of fame you want
and how it can help you to achieve your dreams.
Armed with your goals and insights about yourself, you’ll be
able to choose which of the tools my book You Can Be Famous will best serve you.

Adapted from the book You Can Be Famous! Insider Secrets to Getting Free Publicity.

Read the 1st Chapter for Free
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Parts 1 & 2 of This Series Are Below

QUESTIONS TO ASK THE BOOKER

Your pitch doesn’t have to be elaborate. Most bookers will accept
a few paragraphs about your topic that cover some of the key
points, though they may have to clear it with the president or a
board. Most will let you send an email pitch.

While talking with the booker, ask how many people usually
attend. If you’re new to public speaking, you may want to start with
the smaller organizations and make your mistakes with them while
you build up your skills and confidence.

If you want the most return for your time, you may want to focus on the larger groups. Keep in mind that most of the clubs within a given organization, say Rotary, are in contact with other local groups; so it might be worth speaking to a small group and use them as a reference to get booked in the larger clubs, for which there is more competition among speakers to get speaking engagements.

Also try to find out more about the interests of the group. Ask
what some recent topics have been and those that they would like
to have. It will help you to zero in on a topic that is most likely to
interest the club.

Another good reason to find out the size of a club is to make
sure you have enough handouts for everyone. Even if you don’t have a handout, create one to leave behind. It will remind people about you and give them a way to contact you later on.

Other possible venues for giving free speeches are local businesses.
Those with 100 or more employees often have speakers come
in at lunchtime as part of their employee benefits package.

Your best contact is usually the Human Resources Department,
better known as HR.

You may also want to see if any of the local libraries have a
speaker series. In many cases, you don’t have to be an author if you have a topic that appeals to a large audience. The bestplace to start gathering information is with a reference librarian.

DO YOU WANT TO BE INTERVIEWED ON RADIO TALK SHOWS?

My new list of 150 talk shows that interview authors, health experts, biz experts and other self-help people like you. Best of all they will interview you on the phone, so you don’t have to go anywhere.

The introductory price is only $21. Includes show name, host, topics, contact info and website address.

If you want to increase your level of fame, this is a great way to do it. Order by March 1 and get a FREE list of editors of 50 of the biggest newspapers in the U.S.

Write me at: dkaus@sbcglobal.net (copy & paste into browser)
Put Radio List in the header.

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This is Part 2 of my series on getting FREE PUBLICITY by speaking to local groups, such as Rotary, and others.

If you missed Part 1, it’s right below.

HOW TO FIND THEM

You can find these clubs on the Internet and the phone book.
One of the best ways to get information on each local club is tocall
the Chamber of Commerce in your community and nearby ones.

Most chambers are extremely helpful, though often shorthanded,
and keep lists of clubs in the community. Ask them for contact information for the groups you would like to speak to. While you’re at it, ask the chamber if they are looking for speakers. Many chambers now have links to member organizations in the websites, but again, usually to the contact person, not the group as a whole.

Most groups have a contact person listed with the chamber.
Call that person and ask who books the speakers. It is usually someone else, either the president or another volunteer. Be forewarned; these positions turn over frequently, so you may end up calling several members to find the right one.
When you determine who the current booker is, call them to see if they are interested in the topic you want to speak about. They will probably want to see a written proposal that includes some background information on you.

It’s a good idea to have two or three topics to pitch. If they don’t like one, they might pick another.

Your pitch doesn’t have to be elaborate. Most bookers will accept
a few paragraphs about your topic that cover some of the key
points, though they may have to clear it with the president or a
board. Most will let you send an email pitch.

NEXT: Questions to ask the booker.

Adapted from the book, You Can Be Famous! Insider Secrets to Getting Free Publicity. Read the 1st Chapter.

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One great way to promote yourself is by giving free talks to local
organizations and businesses.

There are several benefits to giving speeches.

You get to meet people face-to-face, which can help you to
create new social and business relationships.

If you have dreams of becoming an author, it can help you to
build what is called a platform, a base of fans or people who know
your name, which can make you more attractive to publishers.

You can get additional exposure by letting the media know
where and when you are giving your talk. They might list the event
in their calendar of events or even send a reporter out to do a story.

It might lead to a lucrative career as a paid speaker.

And most important, you get free food, because most of the
groups you will talk to meet either for breakfast or lunch and they
pick up the tab for your meal.

SO WHO ARE THEY?

Business organizations and service clubs offer great opportunities
to speak. Among the better known are Rotary, Kiwanis, Knights of Columbus, Soroptimist, and Lions Club, though there
are many others.

These and similar organizations have memberships that can
range from a couple of dozen or so to over 100. They usually meet
once a week; and most of them have speakers at these meetings who will talk for a predetermined time, usually 15–30 minutes.

Generally, they do not pay, but if you’ve written a book, most
of them will let you sell it at the meeting.

NEXT: How to Find Them

Adapted from the book, You Can Be Famous! Insider Secrets to Getting Free Publicity. Read the 1st Chapter

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One of the best ways to get repeated publicity from the same media outlet is to become an expert source. An expert source is the go-to person that a reporter calls whenever they are working on a story related to a certain topic

So how can you achieve this status?

The first thing to do is establish a relationship with a local journalist who covers your area of expertise. If you don’t know of one, read the local papers or watch the local news broadcasts to see who covers what.
If you’re in the natural health field, for example, find out who covers health. Then think of some possible ideas that might make good stories for the health reporter.

Next, create a list of local experts who can address the topics. You might want to contact these experts to be sure they want the publicity. Be sure to include your own name and contact info on the list if you are an expert on any of the topics.

The stories must have a news angle and are not simply a promotional pitch for natural health. Often, you can get ideas from trade publications, that is, magazines that are written for professionals in your field.

Look for stories about trends, new products and such. Brainstorm ways in which they might have a local angle.

One great way to get attention from the media is to generate controversy. Journalists love controversy. If you come across a controversial topic, consider adding that to your list of story ideas.

Next, call or email the journalist who covers health. If you call, introduce yourself briefly. Very briefly. Journalists are usually on deadline. Tell him or her that you would like to send some possible story ideas from time to time on natural health, with a list of local experts who will speak to these issues. Then get off the phone and send your story pitches.

Or, simply email your list of story ideas. Introduce yourself and mention your credentials in the beginning of the email. Indicate that you will send ideas from time to time. You can usually get the email address of a journalist by calling the main phone number of the media outlet.

If the journalist likes any of your ideas, you’ve helped her in two ways. First, you’ve given her a great idea. Second, you’ve saved her a lot of time doing research because you’ve provided a list of experts to interview.

When the reporter does the story, a couple of things might happen. You can be one of the experts who gets quoted. Or, you might not.

Either way, you win.

In the first case, you’ve gotten some publicity.

In the second, you’ve at least established the beginning of what could be a long-term relationship. The journalist now knows who to call to find out who some of the experts are on certain topics. If you don’t know who might be appropriate for a given topic, offer to find out. Your help will be remembered because journalists are always on deadline and are short on time.

If you are continually helpful, eventually, you will be one of the experts who gets quoted in some of the stories. Plus you have an open door to pitch stories that might feature only you.

Need help getting Free Publicity? Write me: dkaus@sbcglobal.net (copy & paste address)

Read the 1st Chapter of You Can Be Famous! Insider Secrets to Getting Free Publicity.

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Let’s face it.

Few of us lead lives that would make a great movie. But that doesn’t mean that your press kit bio has to be a snooze. Most press kit bios are boring because they are essentially a rehash of someone’s’ resume or CV, with the possible addition of some awards they might have won.

The key to a good bio is to look for the story or stories within your life. What obstacles have you overcome? What revelations have come to you? How did your life change or how did you change somebody else’s life?

You have to tell your story within the context of the press release. That is, it should not be the story of your entire life. It should be  the part of  your life as it relates to the release. The good news is, you can have several bios. Just pick the one that fits with whatever news story you are pitching at the moment.

The bio should be short. One page long, two at the very most.

It should also be written in the 3rd person. If your name is John Smith, put that centered at the top with the word Bio centered and double-spaced below it.

The first time you mention your name in the body of the bio, use your full name. After that, it’s Smith only. Resist the urge to use your first name instead of your last name. It screams amateur to the journalists who read it.

If you want to include awards and  honors, try to weave them into the bio or list them at the end. If you have a lot of them, you may want to attach them on a separate page.

Do these things and you’ll lift up out of the dull, dark land of the boring and rise into the bright, colorful skies of the “Hey, here’s someone with an interesting story to tell. Let’s do an interview.”

Danek S. Kaus is the author of You Can Be Famous! Insider Secrets to Getting Free Publicity. Read the 1st Chapter on Amazon

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Thanks to the Internet, you can find out a lot of information about media outlets without leaving home. However, it can be a long, slow process.

Fortunately, there are several media directories available in book form and online. The problem is, they can be expensive.

Most public libraries will have one or more of these publications in their reference room and may subscribe to the online editions. However, because of the cost of the hard-copy directories, many libraries do not have the most recent edition. This can be somewhat problematic because journalists tend to be a nomadic lot, taking better jobs at different outlets when the opportunity arises.

Here are some of the better-known media directories:

Bacon’s Media Directories

Gebbie Press

Writer’s Market—Although intended for writers, this book has a great list of magazines, including trade publications.

Literary Market Place (LMP)—Also for writers, this publication has a great list of newspapers, magazines, and columnists.

I also offer custom media lists for  your target market. Contact me at dkaus@sbcglobal.net (copy & paste)

Need a Press Release or other writing and PR services?

Read a chapter of You Can Be Famous! Insider Secrets to Getting Free Publicity

Social media sites like Twitter,  Facebook and others offer the chance for you to promote yourself, your creative endeavor or your business for free.

Social media is all the rage, so much so that many people think that it is no longer valuable to seek publicity opportunities in the “old media.”

The owner of one business networking site wrote in an article to his members that getting media in his local daily newspaper was a complete waste of time because it was rapidly losing subscribers. Of course, he also bemoaned his own inability to get an article about his business in that same newspaper.

Now, I think that his article reflected two things. The first was his own inability to effectively promote himself to the paper.  Sour grapes. The other reason  was his own self-interest in positioning his business as the better publicity opportunity.

And yes, the old mainstream media is hemorrhaging audience at an alarming rate.  But they still have tremendous influence. Just look at the popularity of shows like American Idol. Winners and runners-up have launched  successful music careers because of the exposure they received on the show.

And your local newspaper, TV and radio stations can still help you to get free, positive exposure to tens, even hundreds of thousands of potential customers.

Don’t get me wrong, I use Twitter and Facebook to promote my books and PR business, even though I made my bones as a newspaper reporter. I also continue to promote myself through the traditional media.

I do this because we don’t live in an either/or world. You don’t have to choose one means of promotion over the other. You can use both.  Done right, each one is effective in its own way.

So I strongly suggest promoting yourself or your business using both traditional media and the new Web 2.0 world we live in. Don’t limit your opportunities. Expand upon them and watch your name recognition, credibility and bank account grow.

Thanks for reading,

Danek

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Need a new Press Release or a Professional Writer?

That’s a pretty nasty headline, isn’t it. You might even find it offensive. But I’ll bet it got you to read at least this far.

So why do I make this controversial and confrontational assumption?

The answer is simple. Before becoming a publicist, I worked as both an editor and a staff reporter. Part of my duties included wading through the countless press releases sludged out by people who didn’t know what they were doing.  Many of these writers were in-house publicists for one company or another.  Others were the owners of small businesses that knew they needed publicity, but didn’t know how to go about writing an effective release.  I’m not alone in this observation.

My fellow journalists also have this complaint.  It is the number one gripe I found when interviewing journalists for my book, You Can Be Famous! Insider Secrets to Getting Free Publicity.”

With journalist-aggrivation in mind,  I’d like to share a few tips that can help  you to write powerful, attention-grabbing releases that will get read and help you to get the publicity you deserve.

Let’s start with the headline.  It is the most important part of the release. It must get the attention of the editor or reporter who reads it.  If not, it will be thrown in the garbage without a second thought.

Think carefully before writing it. It must convey the essence of the idea, story, product or event that you are trying to promote.

Once you’ve decided on the main idea for your release, consider how to make the headline say, “Hey, look at me.  Read me.” There are several proven headline templates, many of which come from the world of advertising.

You can:

Make a controversial statement

Ask a question

Offer a benefit

Arouse curiosity

State a surprising fact

There are many more, but these samples will give you some idea of what I mean.

Compare the following headlines:

XYZ Company Announces New Tax Software

New Tax Software Helps Businesses Slash Tax Bill by 30%

Which headline would make you want to learn at least a little more?

Now, the headline has to be true, and you have to back it up in your release. Which leads me to the second most critical part of the release — the lead. The lead is the first one to three sentences of the body of the release.  It’s purpose is to convey in a little more detail, the essence of the story.  The lead should be short and punchy and get to the point immediately.

Don’t drown your lead, like way to many people do, in a swamp of company background as if its some kind of warm-up to the real deal.

For example, don’t write something like: XYZ, a leader in business software with a history of blah, blah blah, has announced the release of it’s new tax software that …

Instead, write something closer to: New tax software published by XYZ guarantees that business owners who use it will dramatically reduce their tax bill by as much as 30 percent.  Tax Monster, as it is called, searches the tax return and does a cross check of all recent legal deductions ….

See the difference?

You can also power up a press release by fueling it with a few relevant quotes from the company spokesperson.  If you’re a small business owner, that’s probably you.

And try to make those quotes distinctive and memorable. Use images and metaphors, if you can. Something like:

“Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for  your country.”

“Speak softly and carry a big stick.”

President John F. Kennedy uttered the first one about 50 years ago. President Theodore Roosevelt said the latter about a century ago. Both those phrases are still with us today.

So, there are a few ideas to keep your press release on the journalist’s good pile and out of the recycling bin, or the nether-world of deleted emails. Start using these principles and you’ll soon start getting the all-imortant media coverage that can propel your business to greater and greater success.

Thanks for reading.

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