And while we're on the subject of marketing...

Fifteen Things the Media Loves
By Rick Frishman

"Reporters are like alligators. You don't have to love them, you don't necessarily have to like them. But you do have to feed them."
--Anonymous

1. News

Above all else, the media wants newsworthy items. The first thing they ask is, "Will our audience care about this?" News is what affects people's lives, what they discuss at the dinner table and around the water cooler. For the media, news is not just about delivering information; it's about entertaining first and educating or selling second. So, provide your information in an entertaining fashion.

2. The Big Three: Sex, Money, and Health

Stories that involve sex, money, or health attract attention. The media believes that the public is obsessed with sex, money, and health, and if you link your story to one or more of them, it will increase its media appeal.

3. Brevity

Save everyone time and effort by sending short, concise messages, preferably by e-mail. Cut to the ch ase--be direct and without subterfuge. State what you're pitching and how it will help the intended audience. Long missives often go unread.

Warning

Faxes can be unreliable. Some newsrooms, stations, and offices have only one fax machine, or one per floor, and it may be operated by an intern or a clerk. In large organizations, faxes are often undelivered or delivered to the wrong person. If you send a fax, follow up with an e-mail to be sure it is received.

4. Targeted Pitches

Every story isn't for every outlet. Research the audience you wish to reach and identify which outlets best target that audience. Before making your pitch, study each media outlet: read its articles, watch and listen to its programs, and visit its Web sites. Customize your pitch to stress how it will benefit each outlet's specific audience. Send business stories to business reporters, not to lifestyle reporters, unless the story has a lifestyle angle.

5. Relationships

Media people like to deal with people who build relationships rather than merely try to sell a story. Although individual stories are important, people in the media know that careers are built by forging strong relationships. To the media, professionals build relationships and they prefer to work with professionals in their network rather than one-shot wonders.

6. Preparation

Do your homework. The media likes to work with people who have their acts together and can deliver what is needed. Focus on making the media's job easier. Know your subject inside and out and have written materials completed and on hand to send upon request. With products, send three copies of the product to the media. Being prepared shows commitment and that you're a dedicated professional.

7. Broad Appeal

The story behind your product or service should be able to reach a wide variety of individuals. You want something that makes audiences say, "I know someone who could use that." The media looks for stories that people will identify with. Search for broad themes that deliver some punch.

8. Tie-ins

The media wants stories that feed into larger items such as breaking news or trends. It looks for topics that will spawn families of stories. For example, during mining disasters they go for stories about safety, corporate greed, the closeness and tradition of mining communities, handling grief, treating trauma, technical and scientific advances, and the environment.

9. Experience

Reporters, editors, and bloggers like to see how others have covered your story; send articles that others have written about you or your product or service. Producers and podcasters want to know how you came off on camera or radio; give them a list of shows you've appeared on and offer to supply tapes for their review.

10. Visualization

The media loves stories that they can picture. In your written materials, use visual terms to create images and tell stories that illustrate your main points. The better the media can visualize your story, the better it can visualize its audience visualizing your story.

11. Celebrity Connections

Explain how your product or service is linked to well-known personalities. The public craves information about celebrities and products related to them get plenty of ink.

12. Prompt Response

Since the media works tight deadlines, time is always of the essence. Respond promptly to requests. Send requested material by the fastest route: hand delivery or overnight express. Delays can cause postponements or cancellations. You're always in a race with the clock.

13. Courtesy

Be respectful to everyone you come in contact with, especially those who answer the phones. Before speaking with media contacts, learn the proper pronunciation of their names. Butchering a media contact's name will get you off to a rocky start; it will put you in a hole before you begin.

14. Visual Aids

A picture is worth 10,000 words. Send charts, graphs, photographs, illustrations, and other graphic aids that reporters can stick under their editors' noses to show why your story merits telling.

15. Send Warnings

Before sending unsolicited material, you should notify your media contacts that it is coming with a quick call or e-mail. If they tell you not to send it, respect their wishes.

______________________

Reprinted from "Rick Frishman's Author 101 Newsletter"
Subscribe at http://www.author101.com and receive Rick's "Million Dollar Rolodex"


Reprinted from "Rick Frishman's Author 101 Newsletter"Subscribe at http://www.author101.com/ and receive Rick's "Million Dollar Rolodex"

No Time For Envy in Marketing

written by Karen Whiting

Sometimes we seem to be in a never-ending circle to market so we can write.

We write from a calling and passion and then must market so sales justify getting more contracts to write. If sales are low we try marketing harder and watch what others do to boost their sales.

Oops! Once we watch sales of others we can easily start to be jealous of those numbers. That can get us caught up in the ‘keeping up with the latest and greatest ways to promote’ and move us from passion for writing to stresses of selling.

Let’s talk about balancing marketing without envy and keeping up the passion of writing. Jealousy makes it a vicious circle.

John and Peter sometimes struggled with checking out each other and competing for the attention and favor of Jesus. Paul appeared more focused on his mission. Let’s look at each for insights into our own attitudes and reactions.

John in Mark 10:35-41 John and his brother asked to sit at Christ’s side and Christ rebuked them. He showed a competitive edge there. This vying for favor made the other disciples, including Peter, feel indignant and Jesus calmed them with words about putting service and humility above pride. He stated that He [Jesus] had come to serve and not be served. He worked at redirecting their focus outward.

At the resurrection in the gospel he wrote we see a little more. In John 20:1-8 John calls himself the disciple whom Jesus loved (and Peter was there too). The writers at that time did not normally call themselves by name, but this choice may not have made Peter happy. He describes how he got to the tomb first (he ran faster than Peter) and he saw and believed with no mention of whether Peter believed or not. Peter is not without fault. In John 21:21-22 after the discourse on “Peter, do you love me?” and “Feed my sheep.” Jesus describes Peter’s tough future. Then Peter asks what will happen to John. He wanted to know John's fate and what Jesus planned for him. Jesus responded, “What is that to you? YOU follow ME.” He pleaded with Peter to keep his focus on his task of following Jesus and off his neighbor.

Paul defended his calling as an apostle but considered himself so wretched due to his past persecution of Jesus (he realized from Christ’s own words that when he persecuted Christians he persecuted Jesus in 1Corinthians 15:9) that he kept his focus on following Christ. Paul continued to work as a tentmaker and didn’t expect people to cater to his needs (Acts 18:1,3). He so avoided competition that he declared relief that he baptized so few people (1 Corinthians 1:12-17; 3:3-6) and identified his calling as preaching and not baptizing.

We need to examine our motives for writing. Let’s check out a few:
Is it for money (we do need to eat and have a roof over our heads). If so, we may need other ways to supplement the income besides a particular book or two (articles, speaking, business writing, editing).

Is it for fame (alas only 2% of writers ever get this and even then only within the circles of the readers of that genre).

Is it because I want to help people avoid pain I’ve had? Then focus on reaching that reader and know the measure of success is not in great sales but in the responses of readers you have helped.

Do I simply love to write/tell a story? Then make sure you give yourself writing time and even in marketing use ways that let you tell a story (blogging and even media appearances can be opportunities to share stories).

We need to keep our eyes on what we can do and not the success of others.
Post your mission and what God has called you to do and read that each day.

Keep letters/emails from people who have been touched by your writing and reread those notes.

Remember that we build the audience little by little so don’t despise the small victories.

Do rejoice when others succeed
They are part of our network and we understand their struggles.

Each success is a time to be happy that God’s message has touched someone’s life.

Each success shows us that God opens doors and makes it easier for us to follow.

Market with passion and not envy

Market because you believe in your book

Market because you want to reach people with hope offered in your book

Market to your audience, even if it is a small one

Persist at marketing
Not for fame, power, or money, but because of the great commission, the calling of Christ to touch lives of others

Because anything worth doing is worth doing well

Be fruitful with love, peace, patience, etc and weed out the envy, strife, and bitterness

I pray that the Lord will bless your marketing efforts one-hundedfold!

Karen's website

twitterpated

My post from The Writer's View...

I started Twitter a month ago after Terry mentioned it on the view. After a month I have 1,060 "followers." These are friends, their friends, and friends of their friends.



Benefits:
1) People DO enjoy hearing about everyday lives. This is the Reality TV Generation, remember?
2) 75% of the people I've connected with are those who I haven't connected with before. Score!
3) My Facebook account is also connected with Twitter. When I update the status of one, the other is updated.

Fact:
Personally, I follow 1900 people on Twitter. NO I do not keep updated with this many people all day long. Rather, I have a select few that I follow via my cellphone. The rest (those I don't follow on my cellphone) I scan on the web 4-5 times a day and comment on their status as I feel led. The people I follow closely are writer friends and professionals in our industries, such as Michael Hyatt CEO of Thomas Nelson, Sheila Walsh, and Ed Stetzer CEO of Lifeway. And I can honestly say I know more about what's happening in the publishing industry today than I did a month ago.

I also follow a few "unfamous" people on my cellphone. One is Kristen a farm mom. Since I'm writing a series of books set on a farm. Free research!

I'm sure I'll include more thoughts later! I love Twitter!

Tricia Goyer
Freelance Panelist
http://www.triciagoyer.com/

Query letter advice from Debora M. Coty

This is some helpful advice I found over at Grit For the Oyster blog!

I received a letter from an aspiring writer this week. She had heard me speak about publishers' interest in a writer's "platform" and wondered what I meant by that. She had completed a children's book and in consulting Sally Stuart's Christian Writers' Market Guide, had learned that her targeted publisher first wanted a query, and then a request for the manuscript would follow if their interest was piqued. What was my advice?

Since the purpose of this blog is to assist aspiring writers on their journeys, I some of you might benefit from my answer:

That's terrific that you're to the point of shopping your manuscript around. I think you'll find the vast majority, if not all, publishers will want a query unless you attend a writers conference where you can meet them face to face (I highly recommend this approach if you're ready to pitch your proposal/manuscript). It's not cheap ($500 - $700) but well worth it to bypass the query step (often the queries are answered by "underlings" and the real editors never even see them).

You can Google "Christian Writers Conferences" to find one that emphasizes inspirational childrens publishing.

You should be able to click on a list of the publishers/editors scheduled to attend - do a little research and see if any of those are a good match for your book. Most conferences allow you to officially meet with 3-4 but you can also sit by them at meals and pick their brain or woo them while they eat. I'll be teaching a few workshops there as faculty.

I sold two of my books via this method (conferences) and I know countless other writers who have done the same. You have a much better chance if they meet you and hear your pitch in person. Plus, you get instant invaluable feedback if something needs tweaking so you can work on it before pitching it to another publisher.

If you decide not to go the conference route, I'd focus all your attention on crafting a killer query (one-page, single-spaced pitch letter). I spend almost as much time on my queries as I do on my manuscripts. Editors spend an average of 9 seconds reading them (because they receive thousands per week) so yours had better be good! Start with an attention-grabbing hook - no "throat clearing" introduction, just jump right into meat of your story.

In your query, Include a short synopsis, marketing plan, and bio paragraph explaining your platform. Your "platform" is how people will know about you and your book - are you a speaker? Expert on some topic related to your book? Do you hold public office? With my first book, The Distant Shore, I really had no platform (except my freelance magazine articles) and my only qualification was that I was a life-long Floridian and the book was set in old Florida. So I played that up. When I began shopping around Mom Needs Chocolate (to be released 3/09), I built my platform around my expertise as a mother (hey, I know whence I speaketh!) and connection with mom's groups.

Read the rest here!

Advice for Novelists (Part 50)

C.J. Darlington, co-founder of TitleTrakk, is running a great series on her blog: She started a series of blog posts in which industry professionals (editors, agents, publicists, authors, etc.) share their responses to this question:

"If you could say one thing to aspiring novelists, what would you say?"

So many great answers have rolled in thus far, and today we hear from best-selling novelist Beverly Lewis. This is from a recent interview CJ did with her.

Even though she didn't ask her the above question verbatim, I think this fits and we can all learn something from her thoughts.

C.J.: In a recent interview you gave advice to aspiring authors and said, “As I see it, it’s more a willingness to work hard and persevere” rather than pure talent. How important is it for an aspiring fiction writer to never give up?

Beverly: There comes a time, of course, when a determined writer who may not have either the talent or the drive to become published might simply channel his or her efforts into another avenue of writing. Wisdom comes from being open to professional input. I wouldn’t want to discourage anyone whatsoever, but after a long period of trial and error, one might redirect goals. There are many writers, of course, who WILL achieve their aspirations after much perseverance (just as I did), viewing rejections as stepping stones to eventual success.

--Beverly Lewis, author of The Shunning, The Parting, The Redemption of Sarah Cain, and many more. Visit her online at her website here.

His holy experiments ALWAYS succeed

Many people tend to think of me only as a novelist, but that is far from the truth. I still write articles when editors contact me. (I have a hard time saying "no"!) And I write for publications that I write monthly columns for. I write parenting material, mostly because I'm dealing with that on a daily basis and have this crazy obsession to write about every part of my life. I also blog, which is like therapy. (Hey, thanks for saving me the $150/hr. a therapist would charge!)

(photo courtesy of flickr)

Sometimes, people feel bad if they're not publishing novels or other types of books. For many years, God didn't make writing books part of His plan for me. Yet during that time God used me in other types of writing ministry.

This morning's My Utmost for His Highest reading is one of my favorites. Here's a quote from it:

"We have the idea that we can dedicate our gifts to God. However, you cannot dedicate what is not yours. There is actually only one thing you can dedicate to God, and that is your right to yourself (see Romans 12:1). If you will give God your right to yourself, He will make a holy experiment out of you—and His experiments always succeed. The one true mark of a saint of God is the inner creativity that flows from being totally surrendered to Jesus Christ." (Oswald Chambers, June 13.)

For YEARS God gave me many other writing assignments that had nothing to do with fiction. You can read about them on my website (Under "For Writers.")

What about you? Yes, do whatever God lays on you're heart. After all, His holy experiments ALWAYS succeed!

To compare or not to compare...

Today, do you feel discouraged? Do you see others having success at all levels and wonder when it will be your turn?

We all know we are special creations, unique and precious to God. Yet why do we struggle with comparing our lives, our bodies, our kids, our talents (or lack of talents) with others?

I do this with my writing. I look at the best-seller's list with longing. I consider the "big" advances and media fan-fare that some authors receive, and sigh.

I do this with myself. How come my friend can eat anything she wants and stay slim? Why do I have to walk and watch what I eat just to maintain?

I do this with so many areas of my life, "How come?" "What if?" "Why?" In reality, we (me included) need to look past who we "dream" to be and consider God's dreams instead.

In God’s word, we read: “God-of-the-Angel-Armies speaks: ‘Exactly as I planned, it will happen. Following my blueprints, it will take shape,” says Isaiah 14:24 (The Message).

The word “planned” here is translated “compare.” It’s as if God has weighed the different possibilities, looked at them from all angles, and then chose the best way. He makes the blueprints . . . then He constructs them into our reality.

The life we have is the one constructed for us. It's not the life, body, health, or circumstances we wished we’d had. Or the perfect life we can never attain. But the blueprints and the form He is transforming into reality.

“Remember your history, your long and rich history. I am God, the only God you’ve had or ever will have—from the beginning telling you what the ending will be, all along letting you in on what is going to happen, amazing you,” we read in Isaiah 46:10-11. “I’m in this for the long haul, I’ll do exactly what I set out to do.” (The Message)

It’s okay to have longings. But even before we worry about what we desire for our lives, the first step is to not let our dreams motivate us, but instead let His.

God has longings for us even greater than we imagine, and He’s willing to tell us these things as we seek Him out.

Will you seek Him today? Pray. Open your heart. And dare to listen to God's dreams for you.