Not too long ago, radio was a community based media. Small towns and big cities had home grown stations with locally produced programs, and they needed interesting people to talk to everyday. If an author was willing to dedicate many hour of blah-blah time from a home phone, books orders often followed. Has local radio programming become a seriously endangered opportunity?
You need to be a member of writersnetworks to add comments!
Replies
Jeff, Thanks for posting this question. It created a chain of comments that I find very helpful. Mary Treacy O'Keefe thank you for sharing your knowledge and experience. Thanks to all who have shared.
I am considering trying to get on our local morning television show. Now ya'll have me thinking about radio. However, my book is a picture book. I'm trying to figure out my hook. The book is about the relationship between a long distance grandchild and her faraway grandparents. They all learn how to use their memories, imaginations, and natural surroundings to feel close when they can't be together. I am thinking my expertise is being a long distance grandmother and learning the best ways to remain close to my grandchild over the miles. Does anyone have any thoughts?
A little more info: On my website, I have a list of fifteen ways to use nature to connect across the miles. I also have some crafts. I am wondering if something like that might be good. My sales tend to increase significantly around Grandparent Day and Christmas. I'm guessing most book sales increase at Christmas. Grandparents Day seems to be key to promoting my book. Yet, I have not found the best way to take advantage of that knowledge. I would appreciate any thoughts or suggestions. Thanks, again.
www.butterflykissesgrandparents.com
Hi Alayne,
Glad to hear these comments are so helpful.. they are to me too! Another benefit of doing the radio/TV interviews and giving presentations is that all these events enable you to personally connect with your audience. And when you offer something that helps them, they like you even more! You then develop a relationship that encourages book sales. So, do come up with some great ideas for how grandparents can stay close to their grandkids who are far away. Then contact the radio/TV stations and let them know about grandparents day (when is it?? ) along with your 8-10 questions. If you (or anyone reading this) would like, I can email you one of the pitches I've received from PR pros. Just send me a note at mary@marytreacyokeefe.com. Good luck!
Thank you, so much, Mary. I will definitely send you a note. I would love to see a pitch from a PR pro. That would be extremely helpful.
Grandparent's day is September 9, this year. So, I better get busy with my pitch. How far in advance would you suggest I contact . . . wait a minute . . . who do I contact? The producer?
I never knew about that day. You should obviously pitch your book around it to all media. Jeff
Thank you for your encouragement, Jeff.
Jeff,
I've appeared on many radio programs to promote my thriller. It was a good experience and ego booster, but as John Locke commented in How I sold 1 million eBooks in 5 months, " The money I spent in PR did not return my investment." The reality is--people who listen to radio talk shows-- don't buy books.
Eric
http://www.sericwachtel.com
I appreciate your comments, Eric. However, I don't know of any radio shows that charge an author for an interview. If they did, I wouldn't be a guest on that show. So as long as we authors--and not a PR firm-- do the research to find the shows that are a good fit, there's no cost, except of our time. And it is nice to have both radio and TV interview links on our websites and to use for promoting our work on social media, blogs, newsletters, etc. But I suggest authors ask about the size of the listening audience for the show. Some of the internet shows get less than 1000 listeners/week, so those are probably a waste of time. I also must add that I've bought many books after listening to an author discuss his or her book.
You're quite right Mary. Radio stations do not charge an author for an interview. My point , however, is that while being a guest on a radio talk show is an opportunity to talk about your book, the actual impact it will have on sales has been shown to be minimal.
My experience is that you have to select the right venues for the product, and make sure that the product is being pitched appropriate for the audience. PR is free advertising, and a lot of advertising doesn't work. However, we in the business never blame the venue or the audience, we simply evaluate what we did wrong. Where there are human beings there's a market, the rest is up to the marketer. Jeff
There's more to PR than just sales...every time you go on radio, or TV, or maybe you get a write-up in the newspaper...if you and your product are interesting, and professional--it will at least give you credibility as an author, or an expert. I feel that being an award winning Physical Fitness Expert, ignited the interest of the TV booking producers to interview me, then it's really up to me to deliver an interesting, and informative interview. Make sure they do a call-to-action, and show your website or a way to order the book, or services.
PR interviews say, that you have earned the respect to appear as the expert-go-to-person in your professional field of endeavor...advertising says you had to pay someone to brag about yourself, it lacks respect, credibility. When the smoke clears--it's all about having a credible product or service. I agree with Jeff, as I never blame the venue, host, or audience...you must first evaluate your interview, and try to improve it.
When speaking to a big-shot from B&N in NYC; she said that she refused 600 self-published books as they were not up to the standard of quality, for B&N...and many of the authors were angry and blaming B&N, Ingram, and IBPA, for their refusals. The truth is, they were delusional about the quality of their books, they didn't take time to evaluate their product and they never even hired a professional editor or designer. If you repeat mistakes, you'll get the same results.
-
1
-
2
-
3
of 3 Next