A Successful Book Pitch
A Fabulous Pitch to the Right Media Contact Equals Book Sales
Pitching to Media Contacts
One of the hardest and most time-consuming parts of book marketing is pitching to media contacts. First, as I wrote in a substack article “to sell your book, you need a toolbox,” you have to take the time to identify media contacts. Then you have to come up with a pitch to send to them. Then you have to send it, follow up with it and hopefully provide what the media contact wants for their review, mention or interview.
Note: You are pitching for a review, interview or mention
o Review: a book review, of course
o Interview: an interview of you about your book or the subject of your book
o Mention: the media contact simply writes about you and your book or your message without a formal interview. It’s simply a mention!
I want to help you pitch and pitch well so that you will get hits.
One Media Contact at a Time
One: Keep your goal in mind. When you pitch to a media contact you are hoping for a book review, an interview about your topic, or a mention of your book. Repeat after me: review, interview or mention….review, interview, or mention. Those three things are always your goal.
Two: Mass emailing equals mass rejection. I know it is tempting to write a generic pitch and to send it through Mail Chimp or Constant Contact or a string of every email in your contact list but this is bad form for a couple of reasons. First, putting media contacts in a constant contact database is a no-no. You technically have to have the permission of the contact to add it to constant contact, correct? Second, media contacts can spot a blanket pitch from a mile away and they will ignore it.
Three: You will be pitching your book for years to come. Take a minute and have a breather. I know the pitch process is overwhelming. I can remember panicking at the sight of the grocery store magazine rack at every checkout counter when marketing my first book. Every magazine was a potential media contact…how was I going to pitch to them all? The answer, one media contact at a time.
Tips to Pitch to Your Media Contact
1. SINCERITY - take the time to read the media contact’s website or work so you get to know them a bit. Sincerity ALWAYS wins the day. Every successful hit I have ever had has included a sincere and well thought-out pitch. The key when pitching to a media contact is quality over quantity.
2. Write a pitch that makes it easy for the media contact to say yes.
3. Gently follow-up with the media contact.
You can come up with great media contacts and great pitches, too. When you take the time to create thoughtful pitches and media contacts, your book will be seen and sold. YOU are the secret to a successful pitch.
Next week I am going to share a specific example of how a thoughtful media contact list and pitch led to huge book sales!