Turn Your Book Into Income By Being Smart With Publicity
Entrepreneurs don’t write books so they can sell them in massive quantities.
They write books because of what a nonfiction book can accomplish for their business.
But first you need to market your book and yourself as a thought leader. In this episode of the Published Author Podcast, Sandy Smith reveals actionable tips on how to maximize book publicity so that you can grow your business.
An entrepreneur who studied art and architecture, Sandy has combined her creative bent and business expertise to launch Smith Publicity, a consultancy that works with authors to significantly raise their profile.
When that goal is met, entrepreneurs are on their way to winning new business and significant new revenue.
Sandy gives the amazing example of author Nicholas A.C. Read, who wrote Selling To The C-Suite. Within five months of working with Sandy’s firm, Nick generated $500,000 in new business.
DEFINE YOUR PUBLICITY GOALS
There is no checklist or winning formula to getting publicity for your book. It very much depends on an entrepreneur-author’s goals for themselves and their business.
Smith Publicity’s process is a creative one, focused on listening to what’s happening in the media, and matching that up with an author’s goals and passions to find just the right opportunities.
With the example of Nick, above, you might assume Sandy landed a profile about Nick in The Wall Street Journal to land such a large contract. But it was nothing that bit. It was, in fact, a trade publication that ran an article placed by Sandy about Nick and his book. This piece was read by a VP, who awarded Nick that massive contract.
The trick is to target the right media outlets, and ensure you showcase your worth. The results can be amazing.
TWELVE STEPS TO CREATING WINNING BOOK PUBLICITY
If you can’t afford to hire a publicist as successful as Sandy, here are the key steps to get noticed where it matters.
If you haven’t already, start thinking of yourself and your book from a branding perspective. How can you differentiate yourself from the competition?
Then ask yourself what you want to accomplish with your book.
What will be the messaging you want to deliver in your media coverage?
When you have the desired publicity, how will you leverage it to win new business?
How can you differentiate yourself from the competition?
Identify all the publications—trade, specialist, and general—you want to be. Don’t forget podcasts, too!
Do some focused thinking on how you match your brand, expertise, and book with the content, feel, or focus of the publications you want to reach. A PR freelancer can be a great help with this.
Develop a spreadsheet or whatever organizational tool you're comfortable with and list your target publications and podcasts, key messages, and the material you’ll need to issue.
Include your next steps—what you must do to build on your growing profile to take your business to the next level.
Create great blog content. You should begin this immediately, before you begin writing your book, if possible.
Use your network including LinkedIn to connect authentically with people who are writing about or discussing stories in your field.
Get help. There are many inexpensive publicists, writers, and designers who can brainstorm your approach and messaging, as well as design a media kit and support with other activities.
Sandy also encourages entrepreneur-authors to start thinking about themselves as experts in their field and comment on issues or questions about which you have knowledge. Sites like Muckrack.com list experts who can be readily contactable by journalists. Here’s show host Josh Steimle’s profile on Muckrack.
OTHER FORMS OF INCOME
Sandy also works with clients to help them identify other forms of income they can leverage with their book. This can include speaking gigs, passive income through courses, short-term consulting, or affiliate opportunities.
She encourages her clients to explore opportunities carefully and not to necessarily think an opportunity is too small, because you never know what can arise from an interview with a smaller podcast, library presentation, or interview with a weekly newspaper.
SHOULD YOU USE A BOOK PUBLICIST?
Some experienced authors have had a negative experience with PR, and Sandy acknowledges that it can be a leap of faith and a learning experience.
However, the key is expectations, and understanding that a PR campaign doesn’t bring success overnight. It can take weeks to yield results.
The next consideration is, of course, cost. The best book publicists are not cheap by some standards. But again, there are freelancers or smaller consultancies that can provide similar services at affordable prices. Just check their reviews first.
IF YOU LIKED THIS EPISODE AND SHOW NOTES YOU’LL FIND THESE EPISODES USEFUL:
Scott Schrober Publicized His Books With Local Speaking Gigs and Won New Business
Michelle Tillis Lederman On The Personalized Approach To PR For Book Marketing
LINKS
EPISODE TRANSCRIPT
Josh Steimle:
Today, my guest is Sandy Smith. Sandy is President of Smith Publicity, an agency dedicated to helping authors and publishers create awareness about their books and expertise. Sandy works with clients to design and execute creative and highly tailored book promotion strategies. And her passion is working with business authors. So it's a perfect fit for this podcast. Sandy writes about the book industry and speaks at book industry events as well on the topics of book marketing and author expert promotion. Sandy, welcome to the show.
Sandy Smith:
Thank you, Josh. It's wonderful to be here.
Josh Steimle:
So before we dive into all this talk about PR and marketing and how to get the word out there about your book, tell us a little bit more about yourself, where you come from, and how you got into this industry of PR and working with authors.
Sandy Smith:
Yes, no one wakes up when they're eight years old and says I want to be a publicist. So it's a very, very evolved process. But I grew up in Massachusetts, and you'll hear my accent, I'll drop my Rs and add them in where they don't belong. So you have to bear with me. They're my kids love pointing it out when I sound like my Massachusetts roots. But I went to Northeastern University in Boston. My dad is a true rocket scientist, and he did research for the university. So I got college for free, which was awesome.
Josh Steimle:
My dad's a rocket scientist, too.
Sandy Smith:
Really?
Josh Steimle:
Yeah, he worked on the Hubble Space Telescope. What did your dad do?
Sandy Smith:
Oh, gosh, he's a telemetry expert engineer. So he did a missile guidance system. He had a lot of projects with the Star Wars Defense Initiative. So he shot missiles up, but they were not the weaponry as much as defense. But he did weather balloons as well. He had experiments growing up in the space shuttle. So his research group at Northeastern was hired by the Air Force out in Hanscom Air Force Base here at Massachusetts. And he traveled all over the world. And sometimes we get to go with him when he, you know, daddy's on a trip, meaning he's shooting off rockets in Alaska, Brazil, New Mexico, a lot of times New Mexico. Did you get to travel with your dad?
Josh Steimle:
A little bit. It's kind of fun to be able to say that your parent was a rocket scientist, isn't it?
Sandy Smith:
I know, it's like, because people like wow, because like, oh, it's not like, it's rocket science. It's like, well, my dad's and so in my math homework, I was just kind of talking about this to my kids . Anytime there was a math problem, and no one could get it, the teacher would always say, okay, Sandy, go up to the board and do it. Because I always had a built in tutor who could help me with any math problem I could ever have. So that was kind of fun.
Josh Steimle:
I had the built in tutor as well. But the math really didn't stick too well with me. That's not one of the things I inherited from my dad.
Sandy Smith:
I had. And sometimes I would always cringe asking him for help, because the conversation goes off in 10 different degrees of math that I just need this one little problem so I can get back to what I didn't want to be doing, which is not my math homework. So, yeah.
Josh Steimle:
Perfect. All right. So now I'm curious to see how having a parent as a rocket scientist connects with going into PR and marketing that creative side of things.
Sandy Smith:
Yes. So I went to Northeastern and I was… my undergraduate degree was in art and architecture. So graphic design, communication. And I really loved it, it was just when kind of computer graphics were coming into existence. And it was fun. It was creative. The last, one of the last classes I took undergrad was an intro to business class. And I went, oh, my God, what is this great topic of business and then marketing. And then it really helped me and my first career right out of college to think about what I was doing in, you know, marketing communications, and the business reason why I was doing this. So I ended up getting my Master's in Business. And it was great, because I thought the two sides of my brain are talking about, you know, the creative side and the ideas, but with the why. And so I worked for a number of years at one of the Thomson Reuters companies in Quincy, Massachusetts, Thompson and Thompson. I took a little break from my career, had those kids and came back and wanted… didn't really want to work in corporate PR. I love books. Books are such a passion. Even business books in my spare time, I would, you know, read business books and just to do things more efficiently, you know, solve problems and just exciting to kind of put that all together. So in working with authors, you know, I thought my love was going to be fiction, because that's why I love fiction books too, children's books. And I have had, you know, lots of experience with that too. But it's really the business book that, from a professional perspective, was able to really help them. These business authors we could take from here and bring them up to here and to see their brand grow, to see what media exposure did for them for their career, for their business was just so fulfilling, and the word is exciting again. But with so much we could do with business authors. And I know that you work quite a bit in this field and know that kind of magic of what a good book can do for an expert. And one of my favorite testimonials that kind of really shifted my thoughts about this was this gentleman, Nick Read. Hello, Nick, wherever you are today, he wrote a book called Selling to the C-Suite. And we worked with him in like 2008, 2009, because Smith has been around for a few years now. He gave me a testimonial that said, and my first five months of working with Smith Publicity, I generated over $500,000 in new business. And that's what is the exciting part for the business author is to get their name out there, make those connections and grow their business. So again, it's a creative process. There’s no checklist in book publicity, whether you're doing yourself or whether you're working with a publicist, or your in house publicist at your publisher. It's that creativity of listening to what's happening in the media, and really matching it to pull out the author's passion and their expertise. So they are helping others. They're showcasing their worth. And so it's that, again, that creativity from my early days, and then the business sense, that entrepreneurial sense, it just matched beautifully. So that's kind of how it all merged together to this, to me really working with so many amazing business authors.
Josh Steimle:
Well, your Passion definitely comes through. And it's fun to be able to work with something that you're actually interested in, right? It's not just a job, then you don't have to really go to work, because it's just fun.
Sandy Smith:
It's just, yeah, exactly, exactly.
Josh Steimle:
So now you said there's no checklist, which is kind of a bummer, right? Because we all like checklists, we like formulas. So how do you work with your clients? When a new client comes along, how do you judge whether it's a good engagement, it's the right fit, and how do you get started working with them?
Sandy Smith:
Sure, we only take on about 5% of the authors that reach out to us, because we want to make sure that we're a good fit for them. And we ask a ton of questions. And what's interesting is the questions I'm asking, they kind of shifted and changed over the past few years. So the first big question I'll ask an author is, okay. And sometimes we work long before the book comes out or right at the book launch or even after the book launch, it just depends on the goals and the timeline. But the first thing I'll say, say I have a book coming out. And you know, today's April. I have a book coming out in September. First thing I'll say is, okay, next, April, how will you define this as a success? Like when you look back at your book launch, and I listened very carefully, and sometimes success is book sales. Most often with business books, book sales is pretty low on the list of priorities. So a question I ask them is, okay, if we get you the best publicity, you know, you're on all the right outlets, you get all your top choices, what are you going to do with that coverage? How are you going to monetize that? What are your next steps? Because without that kind of brand in place, or the way to engage in funnel, publicity is not going to be a great investment for your money or your time. So we really talk about that now. And it's interesting that the actual publicity is so far down in our list, we actually talking about more of a business plan, like what do you want to do with this fame and fortune that we hope that media attention gets for you, because if you have a great article in, you know, Harvard Business Review, you get a great piece in Fast Company, or even what we hear from our clients, you know, that niche trade publication. That's right, speaking to your target audience, what do you want to do with that? So that's a big part of our first conversation . Why is publicity important to you? And what do you want to do with this attention? And then we brainstorm from there. And most of the time I get back, wow, that's a great question. I haven't really thought too hard about that. And I'm, like, wonderful. And that's where my kind of creativity comes in, like, let's talk about that. So we dive into your ideal target audience and sometimes, most of the time they know, but sometimes they're still thinking that through depending on what stage we're at. So that's a big question I have is, what do you want to do with publicity? Because then that drives our goals and our plan.
Josh Steimle:
So, for example, Nick Read, the example that you brought up, he did 500 grand and what was it? Six months? Eight months?
Sandy Smith:
Five months.
Josh Steimle:
Five months?
Sandy Smith:
Yeah, five months.
Josh Steimle:
So he wasn't doing that off of book sales, per se, was what people were doing after they bought the book. What was he doing? What was he selling?
Sandy Smith:
Consulting services, and helping teams sell to the C-Suite. So he was a sales trainer. And one article we got with him, and I think it was like selling advantage or selling today, or it is some kind of, again, trade publication. A sales manager VP saw that when the article hired him. So that was one contract from one placement. It's $500,000 in business, which is what we love to hear.
Josh Steimle:
And that's interesting, because it wasn't the Wall Street Journal. It wasn't the New York Times. It wasn't one of these big places. This was a trade journal that got him that big deal. And I'm also guessing that he probably didn't sell a ton of books to get this business. It's not that he went out and sold 50,000 books. He may have sold 500, but it ended up in the right hands.
Sandy Smith:
Exactly, exactly. And that's an interesting point that, you know, depending on the goals of the author, if they come to us and say, I want to sell a million books, we'll say, well, if that's how you're measuring success, we're not likely the right fit. And then if they really talk about book sales, somebody we have strategies, and we talk through what good book sales look like, first time authors. But for someone like Nick, it was not about book sales. Yes, book sales are always welcome. They're great. And everyone wants, you know, to maximize book sales. But that's not where someone like him is going to make money as through book sales. He's going to make money through his consulting services. And that's really the goal of publicity.
Josh Steimle:
What are some other examples of clients you've worked with and how they've turned their book into income for themselves or for their business?
Sandy Smith:
Oh, gosh. Some good ideas. So there's an author we work with. Her name is Dr. Tasha Eurich. And she became a New York Times best…
Josh Steimle:
Insights, one of my favorite books.
Sandy Smith:
Yes. So we've worked with her, you know, many years ago now and her coverage, her media exposure, her book, her messaging, and we got some great media for her, turned into a speaking career for her. And I can't… I don't even know how many years we've been working with Tasha on and off, because actually just wrote down her name. We'll follow up with Tasha because she needs more hours with us, because she comes in and out. Because it's not necessarily about her latest book at this point. It's expert commentary, getting her out there. And then she, her career just completely changed. And she, trusts me . . . It's not just publicity, she put, she's a PhD. She's worked really hard and her brand and her speaking platform and everything she does, but publicity just helps spread the word about what she does, that enabled her to move to that next level of clients, and you even know who she is, which is really exciting.
Josh Steimle:
Yeah, she's a big deal. Because of you.
Sandy Smith:
Pick a path. Yeah, me and, you know, a few other people in her life, including her amazing education and support and all that. But, you know, Tasha is not an uncommon scenario with us. And one author that we're working with right now, I was so excited to get wasn't a business book, the nonfiction expert is the… he was a mold expert. And so it doesn't, you don't have to have like a big culture book or a leadership book. Entrepreneurs who are writing about their topic, there's, whether it's a sleep expert, or a mold expert, there's a lot to do out there. And we'll work with some digital marketing experts right now as well. Anyone who has put that time into their profession, what we have to do is help differentiate them, so that they can, you know, get out there and drive new business. And with our authors, sometimes it's, they'll say, I have my book for people who really can't afford me. And that's great. But then there's this really cool niche of people I'm trying to get in front of. And then we talk through about the different levels of services like the passive, like I have webinars I can sell. And then there might be a bigger engagement. And then there's like the big engagement where it's like a yearlong contract. So we talk through, again, going back to my first point of how do you want to bring people into your funnel. So, you know, Tasha is an example or the mold medic who's looking to get, you know, more business for his mold remediation and mold education. And, again, just really, really some cool people that we've worked with. With another person that is the type of author that we work with, this woman, her name is Shelly Archambault. And she launched her book last year. And she's a very cool woman. She was the first black CEO of a Silicon Valley tech company. And she had a phenomenal career at IBM. And she was, you know, giving her insights to help others with their career path, because she said, most people who talked to her said, how did you get to where you like, tell me about your path. We like those authors too who are really sharing those nuggets of knowledge. So she sits on several boards now. So there's someone like Shelly that's at a certain stage in her career where she's giving back and giving that passion. But other people are at kind of the hungrier stage of their career, meaning they're really trying to make their mark. And the publicity gets them speaking engagements. It gets them new clients. It adds to their resume. Again, no, it's no surprise to you or the people who are listening. The as seen, as seen and as featured on and when the media has vetted you, then that really helps. There's an author that we work with named Dr. Melonie Parrish, and she did some great podcasts last year, especially one through Harvard Business Review. And I talked to her a year after her lunch. We still kept doing small things with her. And she said that a year later, a client came to her for her leadership training and said, wow, you're a big deal. And that was purely because of her media list, nothing else to PhD. And, of course, she's a big deal. But the media made her a big deal. And she said that her potential client works for a hotel chain, and wants to cycle in all their executives to her program based on wow, you're a big deal because of the media placements. And that just made my whole day when Melonie told me that. So those are just a few examples of how people can use media exposure to further their brand, or, you know, build their company, build their network.
Josh Steimle:
So let's say that an author comes to you and says, I've got my new book coming out and I want to get speaking engagements or I want to drive traffic to my business and you decide it's a good fit. How do you get started then working with them? How do you decide, oh, this person should be in this publication or that publication or this show or that show? How do you go about figuring out what the tactic is going to be or the strategy or where they're going to be?
Sandy Smith:
Sure, first we have them fill out a very detailed author questionnaire so they can help get their business plan and their goals and their target audience on paper and start thinking about themselves in their book from a branding perspective. We take that and kind of reverse engineer like okay, they want to be in say Fast Company or hr.com or, you know, wherever they want to be in, you know, certain podcasts. And then we research. Well, first we prioritize with them. Okay. We look at cyclical opportunities, like is this the right time to talk about it? Or can this wait a month, because of, you know, out and awareness month or the timing of the book. So, we look at and research, okay, here's the person's background, here's what this media out that likes to cover, and we try to do that match. And we also go with the personality of the author. Some authors hate to write. So if that's the case, then we'll and they say I don't want to write. I hate to write. This book was torture. Then we'll push them more for expert commentary, interviews, or podcasts interviews. If they like to write or they have someone who can help them with content writing, we can help with articles too, but then we do byline articles. And so we look at their ideal media, we look at where their target audience is because oftentimes, we don't expect our authors to come in with their ideal media. That's our job. So if they say I want to reach, you know, HR executives in the tech space, we find out where they're getting the information, what blogs, what podcasts, what magazines they're beating, and then go in and look at the headaches, the stress points, those aha moments where the author can really help them, and then pitch them for expert commentary. They're booked for a book review or recommendation or excerpt, or, you know, talking points for an interview, but byline articles are a fantastic way. I'm sorry, my cat. She's a…
Josh Steimle:
Totally fine.
Sandy Smith:
Okay.
Josh Steimle:
We accept guests during the interviews.
Sandy Smith:
Yes, she was a stray who walked in our office and never left. And she picked me, the one who's allergic to animals, as her human! So the bylined articles as you know, that they're fantastic for getting your point across and for SEO purposes. So it's, there's all different ways that we work, but we start with, who's your ideal target audience, and what's the best way to get to them?
Josh Steimle:
So I know, often with the PR industry, everybody seems to have this story of when I went and I hired this New York firm for this retainer $30,000 a month. And after five months, I had one article in Forbes, and I paid $150,000 for it. And I'll never use PR again. So when you're talking to authors, and they're kind of afraid to make that commitment, because they don't know exactly what they're going to get back, how do you talk them through that process and thinking about the effort and commitment in the investment, they're going to put in?
Sandy Smith:
Sure. What… since we've been around for almost 25 years, we can give them some concrete examples of what to expect. And we'll tell people, we do not want to take your money if we don't think we can meet or exceed your expectations. And that's a big conversation is expectations and how fast things happen. PR is not overnight. It's not, you know, an overnight process. And it's, you know, they tease the… it's a marathon. It's not a sprint. It's actually accurate. So what we do is we can have them, you know, talk to people who have a similar goal, or they're at a similar stage of their career and say, okay, this is what Smith has been able to do for us. On an execution level, something that we do that is probably a little different is, of course, we have a team that just worked with business books. They eat, drink, and sleep business books. So we can tell by the book, the topic, the good sense of what might happen. Now, with news, you know, coming and going, it's like in 2020, especially, you can't predict what's going to be happening. Never could, but even more so it changes by the week, not just by the month. But something that we do is a little different is each week we send our clients a written weekly update. Here's what we've done. Here are the results. Here are our plans for next week. And the results are a cumulative list of all the media that have expressed interest in the book and the status of each opportunity. And in addition to that written update that’s sent out to the author and their teams, whether it's a publisher, their social, their distributor, whoever is on their team, we get everyone on the phone once a week or every other week of their preference, because they’re busy people to go over what we're seeing. And we're very transparent. This pitch fell flat. We're not happy with that. We're going back to the drawing board, or we're really excited about this one. So an author will never have to ask what's happening with my project. So that for people who have been kind of, you know, bitten and have a negative experience, we can say, let's start with a shorter term engagement. And at the end of, you know, X amount of time, we'll see, we'll tell you if we think it's worth moving forward, or you tell us if you like what you're seeing, so that they're not locked into, you know, a six month or a 12 month engagement, especially if they've had a negative experience. So we take baby steps, and at the same time having to show them in two weeks is not a good judgment of publicity. But we’ll say, you know, let's talk in a month, let's talk in six weeks, and to showcase our skills and to kind of try to pull out the best angles in them and see what the media thinks, and then move on. And that has really helped for people who have been a little more shy because, of course, I've heard those stories. I've hired a publicist, and they disappeared. I didn't even get to see my press releases, or it's like pulling teeth to get an update. And those, you know, in publicity, there's so much that’s out of our control. We can’t control the media, it's going to cover. We can't control if someone's going to like your book. We can control consistent pitching, consistent communication and really coming in with knowledge and creativity. That's something we can control.
Josh Steimle:
So what is the average length of time for an engagement with a client?
Sandy Smith:
It usually starts with a three-month minimum commitment, because that's when we start seeing the magic really happening. If we're working with advanced reader copies or galleys, four to six months, then it might be a six month commitment, but it might not be all full time. So it can be one month full time, three months part time, and then starting back up full time about two months before the publication can be based on the goals. If we don't have advance reader copies, we might start six weeks, eight weeks before the publication date and go a month after. However, at the end of that, if there is more to do, we keep going. We've had authors that have been with us since 2014 2015, full time. They just keep going and their book is crazy old at this point. But that, you know, we call it a personality cultivation campaign where we are promoting the expert. I have to say to every author, no one cares that you've got a book in the media. There are 4,000 that come out every day in the United States alone. What they care about is if you have something to share, that's again, educational process problems, inspirational, even entertaining. And the book is just this wonderful asset that just sets you apart and just showcases here tangible, this is what I stand for. So with the book, we can work with someone much longer after the book launch, or even a year after your book launch. If you're an expert, and you have this book, and you want to write and you want to talk and you're passionate about your topic, we can still work with you. So typically three months, it can be longer for working with galleys. And after that we can design a program. And people have come to us for their second and third book. They kind of phase in and out depending on, you know, what's going on in their life. So, but three months is what we recommend to really see the benefits of getting your name out there.
Josh Steimle:
So some people listening to this who have never been authors before, never been through this process, they might be surprised to hear that you do PR before the book comes out, let alone so many months before the book comes out. Why is that? And what are you doing pre-launch in terms of getting PR out there?
Sandy Smith:
Sure. So we don't even need a book if you even have them coming out in a year. And a lot of times agents hire us or recommend us so that when we start doing book publicity, there's some media traction happening. You're not starting from scratch. So there's that strategy where we can get you out there, again for expert commentary, bylined articles, podcast interviews. Now, when we're working with a book, and we are working, you know, four months out from the book launch. The reason for that is, say for book review, book reviewers need books to be submitted to them four to six months ahead of the publication date. That's what their timetable is. And before kind of before the pandemic and before Netflix, I used to use the analogy of a book… of a movie review. You never saw movie reviews of movies that came out six months ago. You were looking at reviews from movies coming out that coming up weekend. And in order to do that, you needed to have the movies in advance. So if someone's writing a book review, they want to do it for books that are forthcoming. So they need time to plan and write and read the book. So book reviews for business books, and nonfiction books, they are always welcomed. If this was fiction, that’d be a very different conversation. I'd rather see you in the business section of the New York Times in the book review section, if I had to pick one. So but getting up there in advance, we're looking at book reviews. Podcasts are also booking four to six months out now. So we want podcasts to land around the book review, especially if you're a first time author, if someone hears a podcast for you six months before your book comes out. While it's great, most people are going to preorder a book. They're going, if they're excited about the topic, they're going to find another book unless you already have a name and recognition, then people might preorder your book. So doing something, you know, four months before the book will be, say pitching podcast, but for the interview to land closer to when people buy the book. So we're getting your name out there. We're seeding those opportunities. And again, if someone is a seasoned author, and we're doing kind of a pre order, push, that's a different conversation. But for brand new authors, we want to build up media coverage so that when people can buy the book, there's some really nice traction happening and then we need that lead time.
Josh Steimle:
Perfect. So with the post publishing PR that you do, you said sometimes it ends as soon as a month afterwards. Sometimes it can go for years afterwards. How does the PR change from before to after? Is there a distinct change in strategy before and after?
Sandy Smith:
That's a great question.
Josh Steimle:
Or is a lot of it the same?
Sandy Smith:
It's the distinct change is we call it a two prong approach where we have a book centric, and then we have the author centric lead. In the media world, and in the book world, the publication date is an important date. And sometimes new authors will say, well, I put my book up last May, but I didn't mark it. It's still new. Well, might be new. The publication date does date the book as coming out in, you know, a year ago. So there are certain people who aren't interested in books that are old. So the book centric is where we get the book out to those who are interested in new business books. So whether again, it's the book review the excerpt, the listicles, you know, the top new books to look for in the second quarter or the book roundups. That's a strategy that we can only really do when the book kind of before or right after the book launch, but really shining the book, happy new, shiny new book to look for. After the publication date, that tends to decrease. And what really increases is putting the author out there as an expert and the book comes along for the ride kind of the author centric part of our work. There's not a real switch when it happens. But we want to maximize that new book as long as we can. And the book is still valuable a year or two later, because it certainly differentiates you from any other expert, especially for speaking. So the book is still important, but we're really leading with the author's insights, their expertise, rather than leading with hey, check out this new book.
Josh Steimle:
Got you. So now, of course, the golden question that every author wants to know is, okay, so how much does all this cost? So if you're doing a minimum three month engagement with your clients, is there a minimum fee that goes along with that? And how does… what can authors expect if they engage an agency like yours?
Sandy Smith:
Sure. So our price point is around $4,000 a month. It can be a little less if we're working with a nonprofit, or if it's someone who's just very new to the process, we might go a little lower. And it goes up to $4,500 a month, if we're looking at authors with big teams that we're managing, and we're coordinating content with their social team, or they have in house publicists that are doing certain things, or they're also doing International. We do English language international pitching around the world, if it makes sense. Or if an author is doing kind of a back in the day, and hopefully, in the future, if they're traveling. And there's a (unclear) when I'm in Austin, or if I’m in LA, I'm going to be in Chicago. So we're doing some local media pitching at the same time we're doing the general pitching. So those will get to the larger, a little bit larger fees. But it's, you know, generally in that range, and again for three months, and the only additional fee to that is postage to mail out the books.
Josh Steimle:
Perfect. So for those who are at a stage where they're saying, I can't even come close to paying for that, are there any tips that you have for authors in terms of do it yourself PR, what they can do on their own to get some results out there?
Sandy Smith:
Absolutely. Right content, that's my biggest tip that I'd love to see on your own blog to have consistent sharing of information. Once you have a pattern of that, and also on your website, to have downloads, to have videos. However, you want to share free information to showcase that you're an expert, that's what the media is going to look for. And to publish these not only on your own platform, even if no one's reading it, it's good for SEO, but to publish it also on LinkedIn. And there's whole strategies to getting into LinkedIn and getting your name out there with the right terms for your expertise. Once that's going, start following either on LinkedIn or on Twitter, wherever you live, the media contacts that you admire the people who are covering your stories and interact with them authentically. So if you are in the, you know, trying to think of we're working with an amazing author, his name is Dr. Richard Shell at UPenn on kind of a business ethic book on how to proactively manage your career that matches you to take that topic of saying business ethics, and look who's covering that. Follow them down on Twitter, follow them on LinkedIn, start the relationships, start commenting on them. And then Google the term and click the news and see who's covering these topics. You can pitch yourself for articles. You can pitch yourself expert commentary. And how you do that is get the media contacts name. You can get it by, you know, often through LinkedIn or, you know, Google the person's name and email address. There's different ways to get the media contacts name, and pitch yourself saying, I saw that you wrote x, I'd have something to share, which is a, b, and c. And if you're interested in talking or connecting, here's my information, and then you put your bio below your signature line, and some links to who you are. That's a really nice way to start a conversation. You don't do this in a blanket form, but very methodically and showing the person that you're contacting that you know them, that you understand who they are, and how you match their, you know, their subject matter that they cover. You can pitch articles to places like Forbes or Fast Company or Inc, or especially your own trade publications, most media looking for good content. And you know, you can Google how to write a bylined article, but it's usually about 700, 800 words, maybe 1,000 at the most. It can't say I or in my book, I say. But to really give I would say like five biggest mistakes and fill in the blanks to those mistakes, and share a case study, share a problem that people have in your industry and how you solve it. Pitch those out there to target and media. Podcast, if there's someone that you admire and like, there's often a way to submit yourself for a… to be a guest will get those opportunities as well. So there are ways to get yourself out there. And if you're not comfortable pitching yourself, like hi, I'm great. And you know, I'm an expert on this topic, and you need to talk to me. You can have someone on your team. You could write the email, just have a different email address or a different name, because sometimes it might be awkward to pitch yourself. But you can have someone else even if it's just you, coming from a different email address that can maybe take a little of the fright out of putting yourself out there so prominently.
Josh Steimle:
What are some of the typical mistakes that people make with their PR pitches when they're doing this for the first time, they've never done it before?
Sandy Smith:
They will write an email that's 50 paragraphs. No one's going to read that. Short to the point bullet points. They will, I hear this all the time, I mailed my book to the New York Times, and I didn't hear back. I expected to.
Josh Steimle:
You and 10,000 other people every single month.
Sandy Smith:
Exactly, exactly. You have to think about what in your book is going to have that aha moment. And it might just be one chapter. It could be one thought, one idea and to highlight that. You don't want to make the media work to figure out how you're valuable to them. So a mistake is just giving everything away to everyone. And this your email’s just going to be deleted. Another mistake people make is thinking that their book is for everybody. And then the email, or, you know, you're sending a pitch or you're talking about everything in too broad of terms. That's a mistake that we see. Everyone should read my career improvement book, like, well, when you really break it down, it's really for aspiring managers in their late to, you know, maybe late 20s to early 30s stages of a career who are in legal services. And that's very different from everybody. Now, could everybody benefit from certain parts of your book? Sure. But that's really where your book speaks to. And if you're not understanding that and you're going too broad, that's a mistake, because no one's going to take the time to figure that out for you.
Josh Steimle:
So good. Well, Sandy, thank you so much for being on the podcast here today. If people want to reach out what's the best way for them to connect with you?
Sandy Smith:
Sure. Sandy Poirier Smith is on LinkedIn. You'll see that. Welcome to connect there. If you want to email me, Sandy with a Y at Smithpublicity.com. If you want to send a general email to Smith, it's info at Smith. Welcome to call. We're pretty friendly and really like to connect with authors and if we can't help you, we still give you direction and ideas but look forward to meeting new people.
Josh Steimle:
Great, thank you so much for being with us on the show today, Sandy.
Sandy Smith:
Oh, thank you, Josh. This was such a pleasure.
