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Get Organized to Keep Media Outreach Easy and Routine
Dear Author Friends,
Have you taken action in the last ten days in keeping with our September media focus? Have you made a wishlist? Have you begun incorporating media outreach into your Do 5 Things a Day commitment?
Let's get those ducks in a row...
- Realize that getting free media exposure is critical for anyone's author life, book promotion, and author business.
- Decide to make media outreach a routine part of your book marketing and author outreach efforts (ideally daily in some way) and get your share of visibility with new audiences.
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Commit to your media contacts:
- Discover them and grow your lists.
- Capture them in a useful organization system.
- Nurture them by reaching out often and with good content that meeds their needs/the needs of their audiences.
Today's the day (or this weekend)...but soon, very soon
Use today or this weekend or another day ASAP to...
- Think about your media contacts,
- Decide how to best organize them, and
- Figure out how to keep growing your list
...all in light of the fact that you will be contacting them regularly from now on.
- If you have no better method, start a spreadsheet to keep track of all your current and future media contacts (IMO, this is still as good as any other method for most people unless you have a better CMS or CRM system).
- Create tabs in your spreadsheets that make sense for how you promote or should be promoting yourself and your books. Some options may be by media type (blogs, newspapers, magazines, radio, TV, podcasts, other) or geography (local, regional, national, international, online) or approach (send monthly press release, book news only, top 10, stretch goals...whatever) or niche (books, local, book theme 1, book theme 2, etc.).
- I think some combination of the above plus the use of cells within each worksheet to "tag" contacts for useful future sorting works best (customize over time).
- Begin adding your current media contacts to their respective sheets in your file. You may want to put some people on more than one sheet. Do not feel the need to enter all the data for all the contacts at once, though you may if motivated. Perhaps start with name and email addresses.
- Make a plan and commitment to build up this database of media contacts over time and into the future.
- Make a plan to nurture these contacts by reaching out to them with useful content and on a schedule that makes sense.
- Come at it from the point of view that you aren't bothering people you are offering helpful suggestions. The best way not to feel like a pestering imposter is to actually send helpful, newsworthy, shareable content and angles. Think of yourselves as partners.
Help! Get Used to Asking for Anything and Everything in Your Author Business
Wednesday, September 18, 12pm CT
Asking for help. It’s the hardest thing for many of us to do and, in some ways, it’s the number one, all-purpose business hack. If you are hesitant to reach out and ask for help in your author business—or have been in the past—you are not alone! Join us for a lunchtime discussion that will encourage you to regain the youthful mindset of asking for assistance whenever you need it. Come prepared to tell other participating authors what kind of help you’re looking for and offer others your ideas, contacts, and support in exchange. Set the wheels in motion to create a sustainable author life that you love!
RSVP here.
You need answers, verification, and forward momentum?
This September, take advantage of our special On-Demand Email Advice offer. I'm celebrating 30 years in publishing with this 30% discount for you. Normally $210, you can now secure 70 minutes of email advice on demand for only $147 through 9/30/2024. Get expert answers to all your author, publishing, book marketing, and book business questions. Most questions take just 3-5 minutes to answer, and you’ll receive responses within 24 hours on weekdays. Don't miss out on this opportunity to save time, money, and effort—just ask us! (Minutes never expire.)
What's coming up?
- All my coaching pacakges will be 20% off in October in anticipation of price increases in January. (Sessions can be used in 2024 and 2025.)
- All my coaching pacakges will be 10% off in November in anticipation of price increases in January. (Sessions can be used in 2024 and 2025.)
- Come January 2025, I will offer a $60 annual subscription through Substack that will give you 1) Access to all my new content, 2) Access to my archives of about 300 articles on book marketing and author businesses, 3) Access to the Profitable Author Life You Love community (now on Facebook for free, but soon to end), and 4) Free attendance at our monthly Zoom call on hot topics and fundamentals in book marketing and author businesses (otherwise $15 per session).
- Also in early 2025: My new book that condenses the best of my 300 articles into a handy reference guide.
Thanks for reading and do not let the opportunity to put the pieces of your author business into place go to waste. Take action today to make media outreach an easy and routine part of your author life.
Sharon
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Sharon Woodhouse, Conspire Creative
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