COVID-19 has infected millions of people around the world. As of this writing, it’s killed more than a quarter of a million people in the United States. Has the pandemic also killed book promotion?
How Book Promotion Used to Look
Traditional book promotion has changed over the years. Promoting your book used to mean getting interviews on television or radio shows, or with newspaper and magazine reporters. It meant convincing journalists to review your book. Book promotion strategies of the past decades were pretty straightforward. You knew just what to do. You contacted the media. You pitched your story, and hoped they’d respond. That was a book promotion campaign.
An effective book promotion campaign was when a lot of the media (or the right media) responded favorably, and your book experienced a spike in sales. None of that was within your control (and it wasn’t completely within the control of your publisher or book publicist, either). You threw as much spaghetti as possible against the wall, and you hoped some of it would stick. But the walls belonged to someone else, and you couldn’t really control whether or not your book would adhere to it.
How the Pandemic Has Changed Book Promotion
Can you still garner promotional interviews and book reviews, and while the media seems focused on other things (the pandemic, the presidential election, and the economy)? And, frankly, while so many people are working from home? That depends.
If you want to exclusively promote your book the way we did in the past, you have a chance of garnering media interviews if you’re an expert in any of today’s hot topics. Anthony Fauci does not have (nor should he have) a problem getting media attention when he wants to give us medical advice. If you’re not a well-known expert but you still have information to contribute, you still have an opportunity to disseminate your messages. Be on-point, and be specific, in your pitches. It’s worth a shot.
For those whose topics are not within the scope of breaking news, there are still plenty of opportunities to get traditional media coverage if you focus on outlets that cover more than COVID-19, politics, and the economy. There are shows, newspapers, and magazines that target narrow audiences. Find the journalists and hosts whose stories engage parents, doctors, lawyers, real estate agents, educators, students, or whichever audience you’re targeting. Then try to make a match.
The television show you’ve targeted may be interested in your story, but in-studio guest appearances may have been suspended because of the pandemic. Producers, though, have responded quickly. They’re now arranging remote interviews. As long as you have the technical equipment you need, you can potentially do a television interview from home. Radio interviews are less of a challenge; most radio shows have always conducted telephone interviews (although some now prefer to use the internet rather than conventional phone lines, because producers claim the audio quality is better). Of course, many print journalists always conducted interview by telephone rather than in-person meetings.
Added to the mix of journalists these days are podcasters and bloggers who, obviously, are also glad to work with you online. Their audiences tend to be specialized, too. Find the podcasts and blogs that reach your target readers, and introduce yourself via email. Get to know the media that’s in your space, and make informed comments about what you’re hearing and reading. That will help podcasters and bloggers see how might fit into their show or blog.
Book reviews, too, are still attainable. Pitch journalists who want to reach the same readers you do, and offer them an opportunity to read your book. If you’re nervous about going to the post office, journalists may feel the same way. Are you ready to send journalists a digital copy of your book, upon their request?
Non-Traditional Book Promotion Opportunities Are Also Effective
And if pitching the media isn’t your strength, or if your efforts to promote your book through the traditional channels have been less than successful, there’s a myriad of ways to work around that. Most revolve around creating content. Every time you publish a blog, produce a podcast, upload a YouTube video, post a comment on the internet, or interact with your social media friends and followers, you’re increasing your book’s visibility.
The idea is to network with your tribe, and to convince Google and other search engines to rank your content highly enough so that your targeted readers can find it. Use your website or your own blog as a hub, and bring your potential readers there so they can learn more about your book and you.
And, most of all, keep the faith that COVID-19 has changed a lot of things. But it hasn’t eliminated people’s love for books or your ability to let your target readers know about your book. The pandemic may have altered book promotion, but it hasn’t killed book publicity. It’s only morphed book promotion into something different from what it was. People need books now more than they ever have. That means your book matters more than it ever has (and, arguably, more than it ever will). Don’t give up on it!
If you want to talk about what your book promotion campaign might look like in 2020 or beyond, please contact me at sjmiller@bookpr.com. You can find me on Twitter at @bookpr or contact me here.