How the Communications Department Helps Your Book Blast Off

Long Lead Print Campaign

The aim of the print campaign is to garner book reviews that will appear in traditional print publications (magazines and newspapers) during the month of the book’s publication. The publicist will create a long lead media list that includes book review editors at appropriate publications and pitch the book to be featured in a review or article.

• The press materials- The publicist will begin creating the press materials, which include a press release and extended biography. If the campaign is national and includes broadcast media (radio and television), a list of topics or interview questions may also be created.
• The tweets- The social media strategist (sms) will begin pulling Tweets from the book for the Twitter campaign.
• The facebook posts- The social media strategist will begin creating graphics for the Facebook campaign
• The coaching- The social media strategist will engage the author in a social media coaching session, to figure out how they can leverage their time on social media for maximum effectiveness.

The review copy mailing- The publicist will finalize press materials and begin compiling the review copy mailing (RCM) list. A copy of the final book and press materials will be sent to the RCM list of editors at targeted websites, newspapers, and broadcast outlets (if appropriate). The RCM list is created from a variety of sources—BK contacts, author contacts, and Cision, which is a media database that we subscribe to.

The outside strategy- If outside publicists are working on the project, the BK publicist will coordinate with them to reach out to the most appropriate media contacts.

Review copies will be mailed out of the BK warehouse in Vermont about a week after the ship date. Books will be mailed to the RCM list with press materials, and the BK publicist will follow up about ten days later.

• Media follow-up will continue for the RCM. The BK publicist will also continue to mail review copies at your request.
• Social media will continue by tweeting media hits, posting links to your articles on Facebook and Twitter, and posting information about your public appearances.
• The publicist will continually include any major publicity hits in a weekly publicity update that is sent to our sales reps. Please update us on a weekly basis.
• Berrett-Koehler will provide a list of all the media outreach and any clippings or links to media placements in a sales and marketing summary report.

What can you do to help with the publicity of your book?

• Send information about your book or copies of your book to media contacts who have previously taken an interest in your work or with whom you have a relationship (or would like to establish one), as well as any organizations, associations, or websites that would be likely to mention, review, or otherwise promote the book.
• Arrange to have articles based on themes from the book appear in key magazines, journals, newsletters, newspapers, and online sites that reach a good target audience for your book per the article-pitching information above. Be sure that the following credit line is included: Based on the book (your book’s title: subtitle), copyright (year) by (your byline). Reprinted with the permission of Berrett-Koehler Publishers, San Francisco, CA, www.bkconnection.com or 800-929-2929 800-929-2929 .
• Join www.helpareporter.com. This is a FREE service that puts authors in touch with reporters who are writing stories for major publications and are looking for experts to quote.
• Write opinion pieces or letters to the editor of your favorite/local newspapers on topics covered in the news related to your book.
• List your public appearances and speaking engagements on your website to help publicize them.
• If you have a blog, begin making contact with other, influential bloggers. Arrange for the bloggers to review your book or for you to be a guest blogger on their sites. Offer them the same opportunity on your blog.