The Worst Time to Start Pitching

Issue #1006 March 26, 2016
Publisher: Joan Stewart

“Tips, Tricks and Tools for Free Publicity”

In This Issue

1. The Worst Time to Start Pitching
2. Meet Newspaper Editorial Boards
3. How to Follow Up
4. Hound Video of the Week

This Weekend in the Hound House:

Easter Sunday means a huge dinner at a friend’s house and a cut-throat game of Shanghai Rummy afterward. We play for money, and I usually leave several dollars poorer–and a pound or two heavier.

1. The Worst Time to Start Pitching

When fiction author Ellen Malphrus set the launch date for her book, Untying the Moon, she hired publicist Lynda Bouchard who started pitching a full six months before launch.

Ellen made sure Lynda had the manuscript so she could begin working on creative angles, get early endorsements, help Ellen build her website, start pitching reviewers, plan her book tour schedule and take care of dozens of other little details.

The payoff?

“We hit the ground running the day her book launched,” Lynda says. Ellen is now in her third printing.

If you don’t plan, you’ll come to a dead stop after publishing.

In a guest post at my blog, Lynda shares A Southern Publicist’s Book Publicity & Marketing Secrets.
She explains how she builds relationships with the media, finds creative angles and hooks that have resulted in mountains of publicity for her mostly fiction authors, and gives you three important questions you must be able to answer before you publish. You can adopt her strategy for your own book, or any other product or service you sell.

Publishing expert Amy Collins has her own list of “5 Questions Authors HAVE to Know How to Answer.” Be sure to read the Comment I wrote.

Nine out of 10 authors who consult with me wait until after they’ve written the book to start thinking about publicity and marketing. By then, it’s too late, especially if they’re launching in just a few months and have an amateurish cover, a poor-quality website and no marketing materials.

To do: If you can’t afford a publicist (most authors can’t), make an appointment to Rent My Brain now, long before you launch. I’ll share things you can do while you’re writing that don’t take a lot of time. They will give you a stronger base from which to start a publicity campaign, even if you’re doing all the marketing by yourself.

2. Meet Newspaper Editorial Boards

The slow death of daily newspapers means that over the last 30 years, the once almighty editorial pages have lost much of their influence as well as many of their readers.

Regardless, Publicity Hounds still look for every opportunity to use opinion pages in a publicity campaign. If you live near Chicago, you can meet four editorial page editors who work for The Chicago Tribune, The Chicago Sun-Time, Crain’s Chicago Business and The Daily Herald. They’ll be on a panel at the April 13 meeting of The Publicity Club of Chicago.

Whether your goal is landing a meeting, neutralizing a heated issue, or securing an op-ed or an editorial, you’ll learn what topics are atop each media outlet’s agenda, and how to best drive value for both the editorial board and your organization or client.

To do: If you can’t attend, no worries. I have eight solid tips on how to meet and use newspaper editorial boards.

3. How to Follow Up

A decade ago, many publicists lived by the rule “follow up with journalists seven times after pitching.”

Do that today, and you’re toast. Quick tips:

• Never, EVER follow up and ask, “Did you get my press release and if so, do you know when you’ll use it?”
• You may get a much quicker response from journalists if you find them and start building the relationship on sites like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. They’re trolling social media for sources and story ideas.
• Don’t assume that if you follow up, and still hear nothing, that they aren’t interested. I know people who got calls from journalists two years after they pitched!

To do: Know how to follow up, when to follow up, and the 11 things you can offer journalists and bloggers during your follow-up so you sweeten the original pitch. I explain it all, including how to find a journalist’s email address quickly, in the video “The New Rules of Following Up Pitches to Journalists.” Cut the $49.95 price in half, but only until midnight Monday night, March 28, when you use the coupon code FOLLOWUP (Apply and Recalculate) at checkout.

4. Hound Video of the Week

When she isn’t running Pawfun.com, Publicity Hound BL Ochman of New York City is on the hunt for the best Hound videos for you. She’s found another. Watch as this adorable white poodle plays a song for you on the piano.

[Tweet “#PublicityTips from @PublicityHound–The Worst Time to Start Pitching #pitchingthemedia”]