by Penny Sansevieri
A lot of authors skip media pitching when December rolls in. Did you know December is often one of the hottest times to market your book? This is because the media is always looking for feel-good stories or holiday-themed stories and angles. With all the bad news, there’s a big call for happy, helpful, and fluff pieces during the holiday season.
If your book is nonfiction, this promo project might be easier. We did a pitch years back for a book about kids and humor, the importance of humor to children, how it helps to facilitate their growth, and so on. Right after Thanksgiving, when the busiest shopping season commenced, I sent out this pitch:
Give Your Kids the Gift of Laughter this Holiday Season
This pitch got the author a lot of media interviews, because the theme came across as timely, topical, and helpful.
Another pitch I did was about the sometimes-lengthy family visits as the holiday season rolls in. The pitch was:
When Airplanes and Family Don’t Leave on Time
We pitched this to a variety of media and got some takers. Then when a big snowstorm hit the East Coast right after Thanksgiving, when most families flew home, we pitched it again and got a lot of play.
Your angle doesn’t need to be holiday-related, but it should be close. The tie-in you make should be obvious. Your pitch should also be unique. I like to call it “the HUH factor.” Your pitch should be Hip, Unique, and Helpful. Also, make your pitch timely.
Be mindful of the fact that most of the “get healthy” stories don’t pick up steam until after Christmas. If you have something that could be helpful, like a recipe book that incorporates fun, lean appetizer recipes, a “get healthy” angle could work earlier, too.
The other element of holiday pitching is pitching yourself talking about getting published, or more specifically, pitching about writing a book. You might want to dip your toe into this market. When the talk of New Year’s Resolutions rolls around (again, right after Christmas), this could be a successful pitch for you, and a way to share what you’ve learned as an author.
Holiday deadlines might be tight; in fact, they very often are. Also, people get pretty flaky around the holidays. You might get called at the last minute to do an interview. My recommendation is to never say no. Take any interview you can get, and explore as much of this pitching as is appropriate.
If you’re pitching a national market, the lead times for magazines close quickly. That’s okay, because other options exist, such as national radio, national television, national newspapers, and so on. If you’re considering getting into the top 30 media markets, click her to review my list (which has changed only slightly since first published in 2010).
Why do the top 30 media markets matter? Because in many cases, like Los Angeles and New York, the newspapers have a national audience and your piece could be seen by more people. In other cases, knowing whether you live in a top-30 media market could potentially mean more exposure for your topic because of the popularity of these media markets.
One final note for those of you in New York: The city itself doesn’t really have local media. New York is pretty much all national, with the exception of a few papers like the New York Post. If you live in New York, consider digging into the five boroughs instead. A lot of media is there for the taking, and the boroughs are often overlooked by authors trying to get into the New York market!
Penny Sansevieri, CEO and founder of Author Marketing Experts, Inc. (AME) and an adjunct professor at NYU, is a best-selling author and internationally recognized book marketing and media relations expert. Her company is one of the leaders in the publishing industry and has developed some of the most cutting-edge book marketing campaigns.