Press Kits

Since no one has said anything yet, I thought I would give you a few ideas.

I have done some of the components of a press or media kit at one time or another, but I have designed a whole kit to use for the website I have about the book I am querying. Unfortunately it is not online right now to show you with a website link, but I have included links to some others down below.

You can definitely do it yourself! It sounds scary, but it really is just information about you, a way to brag that is not boasting but helpful to anyone who wants to know more (and maybe spread the word in the news!).

You can just add a new page to your blog (at least with Wordpress), or a new page to your website, and title it Media or whatever you want, and you are off and running. If you do not have your own website, that is probably for another thread, but you can buy a domain name really cheap ($5 a year or less) and pay web hosting ($6 a month) and you have a website. If you use Wordpress for a blog, the rest is free. So, for the media kit, type in some information on your media page, and you have a media kit! Now, there are degrees of professionalism, so obviously it is important to notice what others are doing for your type of book or needs and see what you need. Are you going to be doing regular public speaking engagements? Include a schedule. Will you have a newsletter? Include a link to it so the media know about it. But, here are some general tips.

There are many examples on the web, but here is one from Oprah (she calls it a Press Room):

http://www2.oprah.com/about/press/about_press_pressroom.jhtml

and here is one for a non-fiction bestseller "You on a Diet"-

http://www.realage.com/corporate/press/pressreleases.aspx

Some sites call it a "kit" or just "media", but from my research they all have:
An author bio (sometimes this is buried and harder to find, other times front and center- you can use some of what you write in your proposal)

Press Releases: Include links to your press releases. You can create press releases on your own too, if it fits with author/agent/publisher protocol (I'm not sure how that works). I have done this for my sites and it works to get visitors and publicity. You can use PrWeb or other free sites, I think prnewswire is another one, and publish a free press release. Be sure it is well-written, because people will find your site through google searches for years to come from the release. Also, have something to say about it that is new. "I am an author" is not good enough for acceptance, but "This author has a groundbreaking new book on x" is considered news. Basically, find a spin to say something new or exciting and you got it. They have great instructions for press releases on their website:

http://www.prweb.com/pressreleasetips.php

Media attention information A list of notable news coverage on you or your material, or for Oprah, "global" information

Media contact: Name, email, etc. for who to contact for an interview !

Optional: Your schedule (are you going on a book tour and if so when and where?)

Your availability for functions and who to call

Any other facts about you (awards for you or your books, testimonials or feedback from readers or audience, etc.).

Your Face and Book Cover: Most author websites I see have author headshots available for download, and also an image of the book cover available for instant download. This is a little tricky to do, but possible to do by yourself if you do not want to pay someone to do it. Here is an example from a google search, though I have not had time to read her website, but it looks like a great example for authors:

http://www.debbieweil.com/speaking/media-kit/

For authors who will have a huge amount of media coverage, it may get too cumbersome to keep the page up to date (what a great problem to have!) so another person may be needed. Also, if you do not know how or cannot figure out in the time you are willing to devote how to download images, etc. then you might want to hire someone, but unless someone knows of a cheap service out there, I would just hire someone hourly to do exactly what you need (just a jpeg of your book cover, or your author headshot, available for download, for example, rather than the expensive set up of the whole page). If you have the money, you could hire someone to do the whole kit, but remember you need to be able to keep it up to date (news coverage, schedule, etc.) so conisder that cost- will you be able to maintain it once it is up, or will you have to pay for that too?

Hope this helps as a starting point.

If you're at the point where you think you need a press kit, why not talk to your agent or publisher's publicity department? The latter, especially, should be willing to help you coordinate with their efforts.

That is a good comment, and brings up some questions maybe you or others can answer.

I think even an informal media kit of sorts, a "news" section at the very least is helpful on any author's website, to let us know about where you are, link to reviews, etc. My questions came when I was looking at Michael Larsen's How to Write a Book Proposal, which many agents I am querying suggested I follow for my proposal. He recommends you develop a media kit (or at least mention you will) and refer to it in your proposal.

He does mention to say what you are willing to do, but to later always check with the publisher and that they "may be willing to produce the kit". I am published only in an academic publication so far, so I am curious from anyone who already has an agent and publisher how often they will do the media kit for you?

I have been discussing the creation of a website kit, of course, and he also mentions in this book printing one and snail mailing it off to the press, and that publishers will supply only a limited number of promotional copies, so consider how many you will fund yourself. I am curious about anyone's experience with this, too. A costly endeavor, worth it, or not worth considering? I only mentioned a website kit in my proposal, because I do not think I could know how much I should spend on a paper kit until I get to that point. What has been your experience?

The extent of the publisher's willingness to do media promotion varies widely. There just isn't any one standard to point to. As would be expected, larger publishers have bigger budgets for promotion. And you can get a fair idea of their commitment to promotion by the size of your advance. The larger the amount they need to recoup, the more money/effort they're likely to expend on promotion. But not always. Publishing is a screwy business.

Regarding the number of review/promotional copies a publisher will send out. Ideally, your agent will negotiate generous numbers in the contract. Beyond that, the best avenue, in my experience, is simply being a smart marketing partner with the promotional team. If your requests for copies demonstrate targeted market savvy, they're likely to be cooperative in sending out what you request, irrespective of that fact that you've exceeded your contractually allotted author copies. If copies you've requested translate to sales, no one's going to complain. They just need to see return on investment.

As way of example, I had pretty good luck with lining up radio phoners, and the jump in sales in the broadcast area was easily tracked and measured. So the publisher was always very happy to send off copies to the station
in advance of the show. The host would use them as giveaways, both in days leading up to the segment, and during the segment.

Thanks, that is helpful KCH.

I think I will continue with my own efforts so that when (gotta say when, not if ) I get a publishing contract, I am prepared in case they are not planning to do the website media kit - Unless they have plans to do it, I will still plan on doing the website kit myself, and let them put any money into offline resources, which would cost me considerably more money than a website if I had to do printing, etc.

Thanks!