Blogging From A to Z: Journals

Blogging from A to Z is a month long challenge to post every day of the month (excluding Sunday) using a different letter of alphabet. This month I'm sharing unusual book marketing tips as part of my Marketing From The Edge Series.

Journals...newspapers & magazines

When it comes to media, it's crucial to keep in mind that they are not in business to provide you with free press. They exist to write stories that people are interested in so the advertising money keeps coming. That means if you want to get your name in the media in association with your book, you need a story.

The good news is stories are everyone. News happens everyday. Keep an eye on hot buzz topics in the news. You can find these easily as most news sites clearly label HOT or Happening Right Now news stories. Facebook also lists topics that are trending and you can always see what's trending on Twitter. If the news is hot, there's a story to be writing.

Your job is to find a way to link your book to these hot button topics. Don't go crazy and try to force a relation, but don't assume that just because you write fiction you don't have anything that relates. News stories can tie into a theme of your novel, the occupation or your main character, a controversial conversation or event in your book, or any other number of tie ins.

When you write the article, keep the focus on the newsworthy event and tie your book in in small ways. 

Let's take an example: Let's pretend that tomorrow, eating disorders is a big topic in the news. Let's assume that a character in your book suffers from an eating disorder.

You can write an article about fiction imitating reality and whether or not creating these situations in books is helping or hurting readers. You can use some of the research you did for the book to bolster your credibility. You can write about how a real life situation motivated you to write your book. 

Do you get the idea? Even if your book is about something other than eating disorders. Even if the person with the eating disorder isn't the main character. This still works.

Why?

Because hot stories sell papers. Mystery Novelist, YOUR NAME, Discusses the Important of Eating Disorders in Literature

That's a headline that would sell papers, especially if the subject is trending. 

I would suggest keeping a list of possible topics that you can write about. Maybe even pre-writing a few of the articles. Then take a few minutes each morning to see what everyone is talking about. If your subject pops up send your article out to the biggest media agency you can find and see what happens. Just be sure your bio mentions your book.