Contacting Your Local Newspaper

Here in Charlotte, NC I see that kind of thing in the (one) newspaper frequently. Usually written by a freelancer and (I imagine) sold to the paper.

There was one just the other day; some fella grew up here and is self-publishing his second book which is a collection including short stories and a play. He has one existing novel also self published. The article is more or less bare bones, picture of the man, a bit about the neighborhood he grew up in, some information about the books, a few quotes from him also.

At the end is a little bit of contact information for the freelance writer which says that if you have a story you'd like considered, to contact her. This is a standard format I've seen in that paper for similar articles.

No idea if other newspapers do this or not, but you could look.

Good luck!

I'm going to move this to Book Promotion Ideas and Advice.

It's not far-fetched, Undercover; if you have a professional well put together press kit, you can get attention from even larger papers. In fact, larger papers such as the Chicago Sun Times and The Dallas Morning News are somewhat easier since they do devote considerable space to lifestyle, books, highlighting local authors, and such.

We have an excellent old thread with a number of links on how to put one together: http://www.absolutewrite.com/forums/showthread.php?t=64071

Now I didn't check to see if those outgoing links are still active, but if you need assistance I'll be glad to help--I've put together many over the course of several corporate "lives". PM me if you're interested.

hth

Ari

Undercover said:

My publisher wanted me to gather contact info for them and when I went to the selected sites, I realized I could just contact them myself.

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Don't. Your publisher has more clout. If they contact the pubs there's a better chance they'll get you in. So just assemble the contact info like they asked. G'luck

I work for a newspaper. I get the review pitches. So I can tell you it's a long shot because the volume is huge. Just yesterday I received three emails about self-published books, and those are just the local ones. (I ignore the others; there are dozens per week from publicists.) And we're a small alt weekly with a circulation of 35K, not a huge, high-profile daily.

That said, it costs you (and your publisher) nothing to try, and it's worth a shot. I have written about books from small publishers and even self-published ones. The book needs to have stellar writing or a big local interest angle. The fact that a local person wrote it isn't enough (except maybe for the really tiny papers), because so many people are getting published or publishing themselves now.

If your book is a genre novel, I would check out the literary coverage in your local papers (don't forget alt weeklies, the free rags; we tend to run more book reviews than dailies because of our arty orientation). Look for a reviewer who seems to like your genre and target them. Many reviewers stick to lit fic and mainstream/commercial, but some have a genre they personally like; for instance, I always give a closer look to YA books and gothic horror, but would not even glance at romance.

When someone seems to have written a competent genre novel, but I'm not interested and don't think our readers would be, I encourage them to pitch blogs devoted to the genre. But your publisher probably knows to do that.

I can't emphasize this enough: if they say no, please do not send an email berating them for ignoring the book or your unique publication odyssey. (I'm assuming no one here would do this, but it does happen. Happened to me yesterday.) Don't burn bridges; if they didn't like this book, maybe they'll like your next one.

And if you write your own letter, make it short, punchy and to the point, get it proofread, and emphasize any local angle mercilessly. People really do like to read about their own town/region, especially if they live somewhere obscure. A local woman landed a big spread in our rival daily because she'd self-published a book about living in a supposedly haunted house in the area. I probably wouldn't have touched that one, but it does have local interest, because it adds to whatever legends surround that house.

Good luck!

I am amazed that, as a Chicagoan, you can only come up with "Chicago Sun-Times" and "Chicago Tribune." Really? Chicago has dozens upon dozens of newspapers of all types. When I published a newspaper in Chicago I also hosted a radio show and interviewed authors on a regular basis. For God's sake, look around, LOL. Take advantage of being in the 3rd-largest city in the country—a city with dozens of libraries, coffeeshops, a number of community radio stations … I could go on and on if I had the time.

Wow. You are completely missing what I'm saying—you're still restricting yourself to the Tribune and Sun-Times. Those are just the media outlets they happen to be affiliated with. There are many, many, MANY more. I don't know why writers are so clueless when it comes to promoting their books—and after so much work, too. It's mindboggling. I'm a media person (in addition to being a writer), so maybe I just don't get it. Anyway, I gotta get back to work, so good luck, and godspeed.

I was just in my local newspaper in Aberdeen, Scotland over the weekend. I contacted them, told them I had an upcoming event, and was asked if I'd like to provide an excerpt and did. I was just above the Gaelic column, which was cool!

Last year I contacted them and didn't get anything, though, but this time I could say my first launch was a success and I've been shortlisted for some awards, so I suppose they took me more seriously.

Undercover,

I have been a part of several book releases with a major publishing company for our clients, and I can tell you that as the author management company, we always make a concerted outreach efforts to newspapers, blogs, radio, and TV on our own, separate from the publishing company. I can also tell you that because we have done that, our authors have gotten much more publicity than many of the publishing companies other authors. In fact, the publishing company now comes to us for advice on how to reach out to these media outlets!

This may not be your experience, but our publishing company releases so many books that they don't have the time or resources to devote to our releases that we would like. So, we push all the different angles that we can.

I would definitely reach out to local newspapers, blogs, TV, and radio, just to start, regardless of what your publishing company is doing.

Who knows the connections that you could make for this and future releases?

Do local newspapers look at eBooks these days? Just cannot get the word out.

RickieRi said:

Undercover,

I have been a part of several book releases with a major publishing company for our clients, and I can tell you that as the author management company, we always make a concerted outreach efforts to newspapers, blogs, radio, and TV on our own, separate from the publishing company. I can also tell you that because we have done that, our authors have gotten much more publicity than many of the publishing companies other authors. In fact, the publishing company now comes to us for advice on how to reach out to these media outlets!

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What exactly do you do as an author manager, Rickie? It sounds as though the work you do is more marketing and publicity: how does this tie in with managing an author?

If you're going to approach newspapers, news stations and so on, you must liaise with your publisher to ensure that you don't duplicate or contradict one another's efforts. Don't just go ahead and start sending out press releases and arranging interviews: it won't necessarily help. Coordinate your efforts, don't risk working against one another.

This may not be your experience, but our publishing company releases so many books that they don't have the time or resources to devote to our releases that we would like. So, we push all the different angles that we can.

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"our publishing company"? So do you only work with one publishing company? Which one is it? I'm sure our members would be interested to know.

I would definitely reach out to local newspapers, blogs, TV, and radio, just to start, regardless of what your publishing company is doing.

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But don't even think of doing this unless you've already spoken to your publisher's publicity department, to make sure you don't tread on any toes or reduce the effectiveness of their efforts.

Who knows the connections that you could make for this and future releases?

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I hope that the person doing the reaching out would know. If they're not sure who they're connecting with, they're not working effectively.

Just to say, I work with a few authors who have retained their own publicists. This entails lots of meetings between their publicist and ours, to avoid duplicating effort and to agree strategy.

Indeed. I know of several trade-published writers who have used their own publicists to great effect, but it's important to use a publicist who knows how trade publishing works, and isn't someone who knows a bit about stuff like branding and thinks they can transfer what they know to book promotion; it won't work, it could be detrimental to your sales, and it will almost certainly be a waste of money.

A good publicist won't come cheap, and will be known to publishers. Midas springs to mind: expect to pay several thousand pounds if you employ them.

Old Hack,

One of the things we do for our authors is to manage their publicity and PR campaigns. We use outside companies to pursue the campaigns, for the most part, but we also oversee the outside companies' campaigns in house. Since that is the most relevant piece of our business to this board, I thought would speak from my experience in that realm.

I don't disagree that there should be discussion between the publishing company and the author about the outreach being attempted. The only points that I am trying to make is that you should not feel limited in reaching out to promote your book because your publishing company is as well, nor should you depend on your publishing company's marketing efforts.

In fact, Undercover, what we have done is exchanged lists in meetings with whichever publishing company we are working with at the outset of the marketing planning period (and kept each other updated on those lists leading up to launch). By that meeting time, we have already developed an long list of potential targets. If there is overlap, which happens from time to time, we choose based on who has the best relationship with the contact.

Many times, the best relationship belongs to the publishing company, but sometimes, they are using the same email address to the managing editor of the book review section that you are.

If they are reaching out to a cold lead, my question is this: Who is going to be more passionate about following up with that cold lead? The publishing company who has two more books coming out next week, or you, the person who has spent years pouring this idea on to the paper.

Sometimes you are your best promoter.

Sorry if that point was unclear in my previous message.

RickieRi said:

One of the things we do for our authors is to manage their publicity and PR campaigns. We use outside companies to pursue the campaigns, for the most part, but we also oversee the outside companies' campaigns in house. Since that is the most relevant piece of our business to this board, I thought would speak from my experience in that realm.

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I'm confused.

You manage publicity and PR campaigns for the authors you manage. You don't work for their publishers; and you don't run those campaigns yourself, because you use "outside companies to pursue those campaigns". So you work as a go-between between the author, their publisher, and a publicity company: is that right? Because if so, it sounds to me like you're providing services which just aren't required. It's not difficult for an author to liaise directly with a publicist, and I don't see why writers would need you to do that for them.

I don't disagree that there should be discussion between the publishing company and the author about the outreach being attempted. The only points that I am trying to make is that you should not feel limited in reaching out to promote your book because your publishing company is as well, nor should you depend on your publishing company's marketing efforts.

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I agree that it's sometimes useful for a writer to add to their publisher's promotional efforts. But it's not always necessary, and I don't think it's ever necessary for an author to hire someone to deal with their publicist for them. I know several writers who are world-wide best-sellers, and not one of them employs anyone other than their literary agent and a publicist.

If they are reaching out to a cold lead, my question is this: Who is going to be more passionate about following up with that cold lead? The publishing company who has two more books coming out next week, or you, the person who has spent years pouring this idea on to the paper.

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You're implying that publishers aren't interested in promoting their own books effectively, and while that's a common stance to take it's also largely untrue.

Consider: a publisher invests a lot of money in a book, sometimes tens or hundreds of pounds, and then doesn't bother to market or promote it because hey, another two are being published next week so there's no point!

It's just not logical, is it? Nor is it logical for publishers to employ whole departments full of expensive, skilled marketing and publicity professionals and not bother to market or promote their books.

As for who might be more passionate about following up a cold lead: passion is one thing, effectiveness is another. Very few newspapers are going to pay attention to press releases sent to them by writers, but they might well pay attention to press packs from publishers they know of and have worked with in the past. All the passion in the world isn't going to help you if the places you're contacting automatically spam-filter your press releases because they don't know you, and don't have the column-inches to give to you even if they did.

Tell me, Rickie, which publishers and writers have you worked with? I think I asked you in a previous comment, but I don't think you told us.

RickieRi said:

Undercover,

I have been a part of several book releases with a major publishing company for our clients,

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We want to discover that all of that is true. That you are a wonderful manager. That you can do amazing things for members, here and elsewhere.

However, the internet is kind of like an ethereal, interactive Missouri. It's a "show me because managing the flow of information is almost always a better PR strategy than waiting for the world to go unearth the information for themselves" state.

That's why the kind of claim of authority you are making is so dangerous.


To wit:

Which book releases?

Which major publishing company?

Which clients?

And, while we're at it, what kind of ROI did those clients see, and how was that determined, please?

You won't find a larger gathering of discerning talent who want you to be wonderful. Please, be specific, thanks.

Williebee,

I only say this because I like you.

I wish that would help. I could say that we work primarily with one of the largest faith-based publishers in the world. I could say that I have been a part of multiple New York Times Best-Selling books, both fiction and non-fiction. I could even say that the authors I work for make hundreds of thousands in royalties each year from their book sales. Unfortunately, that wouldn't change the nature of this board. It seems that somehow I have made an enemy of Old Hack.

I came to this forum to try to help authors with anything on the business side that I could. I now leave this forum believing, for the most part, that the authors abiding here truly just want to hear what they want to hear. Any different or new advice is cast aside.

It's unfortunate, really, Williebee, because I believe that people like you truly want this forum to be an open place for discussion. I truly believe that you want to help people. In its current form, it appears that new voices aren't accepted.

Honestly, I am ok with that realization. Best of luck, Williebee. I hope your efforts outlast the efforts of others here.