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| The mop that went off |
The media get back to you if they are interested in seeing the product, interviewing the person, etc. If you would only like the media to report on your story after a particular date then you set an embargo, which is a particular date set by you that stops the media from reporting on your product/story too early. Why set an embargo? In our case I am dealing with selling books and we don’t want the media publishing a nice big spread with an author interview, book review and extract a month before the book is actually available in shops. People will read it, say, ‘Hey, that looks like a good book!’ but then forget about it as soon as they find out it’s not available to buy yet.
Now because Exisle generally publishes self-help/health/parenting books, our media releases aren’t structured like a normal media release (you know the inverted pyramid for news stories: who, what, when, why, how). Instead they are more marketing oriented. Why? Because if I sent out a media release saying ‘Latest self-help book out now!’ I dare say not many would request a copy. My job is to sell the concept of the book to them, to make them want to read it so badly they should have had it yesterday. And I do this by writing a media release more like an info sheet with a catchy headline and smartly written words, all carefully plotted to make the book sound like the latest must read (which, of course, all Exisle books are!).
The process for writing these does take a bit of time. For me, I like to understand the concept fully and wholly. I read the book’s Advance Information Sheet sent by the editor, I read the author’s questionnaire we get every author to fill out, I read the book’s back cover blurb and finally I read the first or second chapters (I’d like to be able to say that I read all books that I work on cover to cover, but sadly time is limited). From this I start gauging a selling point; I look for the sizzle in the sausage. Here is what the book is about but how do I sell it?
The book I’m working on at the moment is called Mindfulness For Life. I could blab on in the media release about how mindfulness has been practised for millennia, how it will make you a happier person, how it’s about living in the moment. Boring! Boring! Boring! But what if I write it like this: ‘Stop daydreaming and start living your life in the present moment! These days we find ourselves in a fast paced world where we’re distracted and preoccupied with a past that has already gone and a future that has never happened — except those who practise mindfulness.’ Do I have your attention? I hope so.
If the media release is a success I get requests pouring into my inbox: Can I have a review copy? When can I interview the authors? Can we extract? etc, etc.
This may sound a bit off topic but on the weekend I went to the markets and as my boyfriend and I walked around we noticed that just about every third or fourth person was carrying a purple mop. When we finally got to the particular stall selling purple mops, there were a man and woman carrying out live demonstrations on a piece of lino showing everyone how spectacular this mop was. They were doing wet and dry demos, there was yelling, shouting — all with the aim of showing people how spectacular this mop was and for only $10!! There was a crowd of people gathered round, $10 notes were being flashed everywhere and the woman went round collecting them all. It was like a high-octane auction. Now if they had just stuck a bunch of purple mops in a box and sat in a fold-up chair with a magazine all day, do you think they would have sold as many? It’s all in how you sell it.
Happy selling :)
P.s Mindfulness For Life will be out in July!
*First posted on the Exisle Publishing blog
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