In October 2004 when my book “Your Retirement Masterplan” (How To Books ISBN 1857039874) was published I participated in eleven 15-minute live interviews on local radio over a period of just five days.
The results were highly encouraging; the book leapt from nowhere on Amazon.co.uk to position 194 out of 3123 competing titles and eventually grabbed the No.1 spot for its core keyword (retirement) where it remained for nine months.
I am shortly to repeat the broadcast exercise for my newly published tome “How to Earn Money in Retirement” (How To Books ISBN 1845281128) but before doing so I am already off to a head start…
Although this title does not hit the bookstores until Monday 8 May 2006 it already ranks at No.47 out of 3453 competing titles on Amazon.co.uk – which means of course that the book is already selling in big numbers online – thanks largely to the success of its predecessor and the initial boost it got from radio promotion.
These promotional interviews are arranged by my publisher’s media consultancy and I do not require to visit a single studio to take part; they are all conducted over the telephone, sitting at my desk at home.
So what if you self-publish your output and you don’t have a publicist to arrange radio interviews?
Does that mean you are excluded?
No way; I have self-published several books in the past and managed my own promotion.
Wherever you live in the world you’ll find that the majority of local radio stations are banded together into a single network for cost-effectiveness.
Here is what you do…
1. Identify the controlling network;
2. Visit the corporate website containing links to all subsidiaries;
3. Pick out those stations within a 500/1000 mile orbit;
4. Visit each local station website individually;
5. Scan the daily programming schedules;
6. Highlight those programs that might identify with the topic of your book;
7. Note the presenter’s name;
8. Email him/her with a well-couched request for a live interview;
9. Follow that up with an identical snail mail request;
10. Follow that up with a telephone call (you’ll get to speak to someone in authority).
You know your topic inside out; speak up with confidence and you’ll get your interview; maybe not straightaway but, if you sell yourself and your project professionally, you’ll be logged into and up-and-coming slot in the station scheduling.
Go for it…it’s free!
I will be reporting in a subsequent article on the outcome of my latest batch of broadcasts.
In truth though there is more to creating bestselling books than spieling about them on radio and if you’d like to learn how I manage to produce bestsellers consistently, visit the website featured in the resource box below.
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