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MEDIA COVERAGE ABOUT YOUR BOOK IS JUST A PIPE DREAM – IT’S TIME TO LOOK FOR PROMOTION ALTERNATIVESBy Annie Harrison

Like every published author I harbored big ambitions for securing acres of mediacoverage to promote my first book. I had put in thousands of hours of writingand editing of my self-help genre, Finding Mr Right: The Real Woman’s Guide to L

anding That Man, and preview copies had already been well received by a group agony aunts. With my background in public relations, I was certain the media coverage would flood in and a bulging envelope of press cuttings would arrive in duecourse. For six weeks I worked alongside my publisher to contact over 100 journalists by phone and distribute versions of electronic press releases to the international media. Requests for sample copies from journalists came in thick andfast. Finding Mr Right began winging its way through the postal system and even by courier to apparently eager editors and journalists.

Now, journalists lead busy lives, so it wasn’t surprising that several journalists ‘lost’ their hot-off-the-press, much-awaited media copies. Second and even third copies were duly dispatched along with pdf and jpeg bundles of photos, biog

raphies and sample chapters.

Still awaiting my anticipated media coverage, a couple of months after the ‘press launch’ of my book I met a friend in London for lunch. After lunch, she insisted that I accompany her to visit her daughter Katie, a graduate trainee at a large magazine publishing house on the South Bank, where she works on a leading woman’s magazine title.

The magazine’s offices were large, open-plan and modern with lots going on. Butwhat really intrigued and later appalled me were the rooms that Katie showed uscalled ‘the grotto’. These were a series of huge lockable closets, stuffed with ‘freebies’ and press samples – fashions, accessories, cosmetics, non-perishable food, jewelry, watches, cookery equipment, tableware, CDs, DVDs, software, ele

ctrical and electronic equipment. And lots and lots of books. I even saw two pristine copies of Finding Mr Right complete with inserted press releases at thebottom of a towering pile of books!

Katie explained, ‘These are recent press samples which have been sent in. Someof them we feature in our magazine, but that is probably only about 3 per centof what you see here.’

‘So what do you do with all this stuff – either written about or not written about?’ I demanded, keen to find out the fate of Finding Mr Right sitting up on theshelf.

‘Oh, we divide everything up amongst the staff. We get to keep anything we wantor give it to friends, but most of us relist it on Amazon or ebay and sell it on. We can make quite a lot of money that way. In the past, we used to give crates of goodies to charities for them to use in tombolas, raffles or even auctions to raise money, but now it’s so easy to sell on, we don’t bother any more. Wesee it as our right to take this stuff to supplement our quite low levels of pay. Over the years the number of foreign press trips has dwindled, so these goods are the main perk of the job.’

Hmmm. So the journalistic enthusiasm isn’t necessarily for the product itself,but for its resale value on the open market. Obviously there isn’t room in a journal to give editorial coverage to every sample submitted, and publications doneed to be selective in what they include in their editorial content. But there

does seem to be an abuse of goodwill of epic proportions here. And hey, why should a journalist worry about securing media coverage if the sample sender isn’ta paying advertiser anyway?

8/14/2019 MEDIA COVERAGE ABOUT YOUR BOOK IS JUST A PIPE DREAM – IT’S TIME TO LOOK FOR PROMOTION ALTERNATIVES

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s exhausted, the media sat up and took notice. Then the editorial and effusivecomments started to proliferate and the book went on to sell and sell, establishing itself as a bestselling modern classic in the process.

My own book, Finding Mr Right, has enjoyed some success, without help from the press. One of the UK’s most respected agony aunt has recommended it so many times that it reached 192 in Amazon’s listings. My website has hundreds of hits fro

m an electronically generated press release held by PR Web in the USA with hitscoming from every corner of the globe. With PR Web, the press release stays online and is picked up in Google searches even years later. I also piggyback onother far more successful books in the same genre by including my book on an Amazon Listmania list, which I compiled. Anyone looking for a best selling book ondating gets my Listmania list next to the page of the book they have selected.I have shifted a lot of books via Amazon in this way – and it’s completely free.

I think unestablished authors need to put less store in the effectiveness and achievability of media coverage. Coverage can be gained, inexpensively with the right press release, website, Google Adwords and by targeting other audiences. W

here is your book set? Send press releases to bookshops in towns featured in your book. If you’re writing historical fiction, send press releases to historical societies and gift shops at historical attractions. Check out websites/Facebook groups read by your target audience and tell them about your book. Identifyyour target audience and go after them on blogs, forums and via book groups. GoListmania crazy and capitalize on the success of others. Get to know your local bookshops and start signing. Carry a couple of copies of your book with you at all times – keep a spare in the car. With the exception of journalists, people tend to be thrilled to meet a ‘real’ author. I have sold over 100 copies of my book to friends and acquaintances. Bizarrely, I’ve even managed to sell Finding Mr Right – a book aimed at real-life Bridget Joneses (single, thirtysomething,slightly desperate women) to happily married men – and they’ve enjoyed it.

Today’s authors need to be more resourceful and use the wealth of alternative vehicles for developing interest in their books. The goodwill of the press seemsto be mostly one way at the expense of authors. If you can dispense with the myth that press coverage is vital to a book’s success, you will be pleasantly surprised when journalists eventually track you down for an interview because everyone has heard about your book.

Annie Harrison is the author of Finding Mr Right: The Real Woman’s Guide to Landing That Man published by JR Books in June 2009.www.findingmrrightthebook.com