4 Ways to Write Winning Bylined Articles and Boost Your Book Publicity

Today more than ever, targeted online article placements are an author’s ticket to success.

In an era when content is king and more than 8 in 10 Americans get news from digital devices, authors must know how to write bylined articles that not only win over online media outlets, but also wow readers to view, click, like, and share.

Targeted online article placements are an author’s ticket to success — the quickest, easiest, and best way to boost a book publicity campaign. Especially en masse, they help build awareness, momentum, and social media traffic better than any other strategy.

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In These Difficult Times, Decide to Make Your Book Publicity a Force for Good

These are difficult times in America. The coronavirus has given way to a series of historic, cascading crises: a lethal once-in-a-century pandemic, Depression-era levels of joblessness and economic despair, and glaring racial disparities and health inequities afflicting communities of color, only to be exacerbated by the continued killing of Black Americans like George Floyd and Breonna Taylor at the hands of police. It’s no wonder that people of all stripes are living with unthinkable angst and uncertainty.

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The ‘So-What’ Is the Secret Sauce in Book Publicity

In a crowded, hypercompetitive, and oh-so-noisy marketplace, book publicity isn’t getting any easier. To succeed, especially at the highest levels, it’s important to know why a book matters.

I’m not talking about peppy platitudes, gross generalities, or heaven forbid, shameless self-promotion. I’m talking about current, concrete relevance — in the here and now, in the real world — preferably communicated in a sentence or two.

I call this “the so-what.” And in respect to every media decision maker — whether in print, broadcast, or digital — it answers an all-important question: Why should I care?

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7 Ways to Never Run Out of Book Publicity Content

By any measure, content marketing is the new and ever-expanding ‘it’ in business and branding circles everywhere. Regardless of type — consumer or B2B, digital or traditional — marketing campaigns now run on content. Today, even Coca-Cola spends more money creating its own content than it does on television advertising.

For authors, book publicity and promotion is no exception: Content is king — if you never run out of ideas. For articles, blogs, podcasts, videos, social sharing, media interviews, and more, you need a constant pipeline. Or as one content marketing expert put it, “you need to keep feeding the beast.”

But how can you keep the ideas coming? Here are seven surefire ways to ensure you never run out of content.

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Book Publicity Does More Than Promote Books. It Builds Brands

Why do authors write books? For most, their primary reason is clear: They want to build their personal brand — a smart first-line strategy, particularly now when the average nonfiction book sells less than 250 copies a year.

Today, book publicity — a must-have marketing tool in the new, overcrowded publishing world — does more than promote books. It is purposely designed to build brands.

Consider these key reasons, all proven brand builders, why.

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Can Facebook Advertising Sell Your Book?

A row of books sitting on a black bookshelf.

Ads on Facebook are creating amazing successes for many different types of products and services. As a way for an author to connect with the desired audience, these ads are a great tool and well worth considering. The social network has been deeply mining data for years — on what people like, find amusing and interesting, along with users personal information and demographics — and the result is a gold mine for hyper-targeted advertising. Costs are flexible, options are infinitely customizable, and the results generate powerful data in real time that’s easy to track and work with.

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Social Media for Authors—Part Two

In Part One of this two-part series, we talked about three strategies authors can use to maximize their social media marketing efforts—ways to create sites that are engaging, informative, and collaborative. Social media is a clever way to publicize a book, to create buzz for book-related events, such as signings and speaking engagements, and to position yourself as an expert in a your given field. Obviously, the end goal is increased book sales.

You Can Multiply Your Marketing Results Many Times Using Social Media.
Authors Can Multiply Their Marketing Results Many Times Over Using Social Media.

Let’s look at three more ways to enhance your professional brand using social media marketing.

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Is DIY Book Publicity Right for You?

Doing your own book publicity can be a daunting challenge.
Doing your own book publicity can be a daunting challenge.

A recent New York Times article (“Improving Your Public Relations Without a Public Relations Firm”) got me thinking about do-it-yourself book publicity. And as an author, new or seasoned, you may even be considering the idea for yourself.

But is DIY publicity right for you? Or would your book, not to mention your business and brand, be better served by you hiring an expert?

Yes, cost is a consideration. Today, though, there are scores of skilled solopreneurs and small firms whose fees won’t break the bank. As you consider being a do-it-yourselfer—an author, media strategist, content developer, and publicist all in one—I’d recommend also weighing this: what an expert can do for you smarter, faster, and better.

Here are some essential elements of a successful publicity campaign, ones that a good book publicist will be able to accomplish for you:

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When Publicizing Business Books, Target the Right Business Readers

In the past decade, business has become mainstream. The average person now has knowledge of stock market trends, corporate takeovers, and competition within global industries. From a book publicist’s point of view, this means that there are more “business readers” than ever.

Book promotional targets like Bloomberg, Forbes, Wall Street Journal & Inc. for business book publicity.

On the one hand, this is good news, because the universe of media venues that need business content has grown. On the other hand, serious business readers now have to be more choosy about the content they consume.

For Best Book Promotion Results, Target Top-Tier Business Media

For this reason, we like to target top-tier business media whenever possible. Why? Because when we’re trying to move and motivate leaders, managers, and entrepreneurs—and hopefully get these readers to buy a business author’s book—we have to go to the media places they frequent. We also always have to be agile and creative in our approach to book publicity. Every book has its unique promotional challenges and publicity opportunities to define, explore, and make happen with great success.

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Publicizing Parenting Books – 4 Common Questions

We love parenting books. We’re happy to promote parenting books that are well written and offer lots of fresh, practical advice that’s based on solid science or the author’s well-credentialed expertise in a discipline—such as pediatrics, pediatric psychology, pediatric nutrition, or child development, to name a few.

Four parenting books that CS Lewis & Co. did book publicity for.

Here are some of the common questions parenting authors ask us.

What Type of Parenting Books Are Most Successful?

Our decision to take on a parenting book is based on some of the same criteria we use for all our books and authors. Primarily, the reason we choose one book over another often comes down to where we’re going to place it. For example, when we took on Dr. Charlotte Resnick, a child and educational psychologist, author of The Power of Your Child’s Imagination, we were wowed both by her credentials and the originality of her strategies to help children solve problems using their imagination and creativity. We knew her upbeat, interesting ideas would be perfect for daytime TV, which is dominated by female viewers. We got her appearances on Good Morning America Online and the ABC morning show in San Francisco. She landed many high-profile print placements as well, from Good Housekeeping to USA Today.

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Book Marketing Tips: 6 Reasons You Don’t Have to Travel to Do Book Publicity

One of the questions authors frequently ask me is, “Do I have to travel to do book publicity?” The answer is no.

As a matter of fact, one of our longstanding clients is shy when talking on the phone. Another client doesn’t like to travel. In each case, we developed a robust campaign that accommodated the author’s communication preferences.

We’re a New York book publicity firm, with a satellite office in Florida as well, but our authors are from all over the country. We have authors from all the major media marketplaces, such as New York, LA, DC, Dallas, and Chicago, and many who live in more remote areas. However, you absolutely don’t have to live in one of these big cities to have a successful book PR campaign.

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Business Book Authors Expand Their Brand with Successful Book Publicist Strategies

Four business related books by publicist Cathy Lewis.We’ve publicized many business books and career books over the years. Business authors come to us with one goal: to generate book sales. But they end up with a great side benefit: they acquire a new source of prospective consulting clients and a stronger business brand.

That’s why we tell business authors to think of their book as a tool to build their  business. A good book publicist can shape a PR campaign that’s aligned with the author’s overall business objectives.

Here are some book and author publicity and promotion strategies we’ve used to help authors grow their business, brand, and book sales.

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From Health Author to News Maker: A Good Book Publicist Can Spread Your Message

Lots of doctors and health experts write books and ebooks. They usually do so because they’re passionate about getting important healthcare information out to consumers. Not only can a skilled publicist do book promotion for these health authors and sell their books, but she can turn them into news makers and position them as thought leaders so their message reaches the widest possible audience.

One of the genres our book publicity firm specializes in is health books, and we’ve helped nutritionists, naturopaths, pediatricians, cardiologists, spinal surgeons, women’s health specialists, and many others shape their message and spread it far and wide.

If you’re a doctor or other health professional with an important message to share, you can benefit from hiring a publicist who will customize a publicity campaign that brings your message to the healthcare consumers you’re trying hardest to reach. This will increase the success of your book promotion.

A Skilled Publicist Can Position You as a News Maker

Here’s how a publicist can promote your book and leverage your expertise to turn you into a news make

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6 Ways to Boost Your Book Publicist’s Success Rate

By Cathy S. Lewis

When I initially interview authors to assess whether they’re a good “fit” with what we do, I always remind them that book publicity is a collaborative effort. Contrary to what many authors think, writing the book and getting it published isn’t the end of their job. It’s the beginning. Book promotion works best when the author actively participates in coordination with their publicist.

When a book publicist has a highly motivated and involved author to work with, one who’s willing to put time, energy, and creative ideas into the publicity campaign, the synergy of efforts can produce results far greater than if the publicist worked on her own.

Bottom line: If you want to maximize your publicist’s success, reach a lager audience in your book promotion campaign, and increase book sales – try these six book publicity strategies.

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Promoting Your Book: 8 Ways to Pitch Media Outlets

By Cathy S. Lewis

This article originally appeared at Build Book Buzz.

A common misconception new authors have about book promotion is that their topic is so fascinating, different, and groundbreaking, the media will automatically want to interview them once they hear about it.

Unfortunately, that’s not how the media works. Columnists, editors, bloggers, and producers aren’t just waiting for the “the next big thing” to land on their doorstep. More often, they create the next big thing by seeing potential in a good story idea that’s been pitched to them.

And that’s where a good media pitch comes it. Your pitch should position you as an expert, and offer story ideas that are so compelling that the media contacts will feel they’re missing out on something if they don’t run with the story before anyone else picks it up.

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Authors: Be the “1 Percent” Whose Message Gets Through

By Cathy S. Lewis

This blog was originally published at Sellbox.com, an ebook consulting and publishing service for businesses, publishers, and authors.

You have a great idea for a book. Everyone has been urging you for years to write it. Your concept is truly original—it’s destined to be a bestseller, right? But here’s some news that may surprise you: It’s easier to write a good book than to sell one.

According to the most recent Bowker Report, 3 million books were published in 2010–and that number is growing. That’s a lot of competition for shelf space and media time. Meanwhile, book sales have been on a downward trend since 2007, according to Publisher’s Weekly

Are you going to be among the 99% whose book languishes boxed up in the warehouse, or the 1% who gets noticed by the media, generates a loyal fan base, and achieves steady and growing book sales?

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