Promoting Your Book - A No BS Guide For Authors and Small Publishers

Blog Post Summary - The second part of my series of results from surveying people who spent the money to advertise in RTIR. Longer and more complete opinions than part 1

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My experience with RITR was good - I ran an ad for three months and ended up having approx 12 radio interviews. I am considering running more but my issue is time more than anything. I am a VP of Marketing and Communications at a major east coast firm and it simply takes the bulk of my time. I recommend them highly but realize that a certain % of your interviews will be with small stations or “internet talk radio”, which have small audiences. The experience gained was worth it for me as I now feel much more comfortable with the entire process.

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Over all I thought it was a good investment - there are a lot of people out there wanting your money to promote your book and RTIR was one that I actually got a lot of publicity through. Not sure if it broke even on profits through book sales but certainly got me a lot of radio interviews and even a local TV

That said, I got a much better response to some adverts than others. So my one bit of advice to you is not to let them push you in to an angle that you just don’t like or don’t resonate with and if you get say, a 4 month package, ask to have a new advert put in each month rather than having them run the same one over and over.

Also you will probably end up being told that Steve Harrisons Publicity summit is a great idea too. I went on it (spent a bundle) and got absolutely nothing for it so my advice on that one is to steer clear. It’s just not worth the price they charge.

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The answer is not Yes or No…the answer is: “it depends”. As a marketing and PR consultant to publishers and authors I can say that it has definitely been worth it in the past when we have represented big names like Ripley’s Believe it or Not! We had a great response with those ads. With our current ad, I would say the results are very modest in comparison.

If you do go ahead, make sure to utilize the assistance of their writers (they incude that service for free when you book an ad to help with the wording) - they know what tends to get attention and even though at times I felt their approach was a bit too “cheesy” - they know what works and what doesn’t.

More responses soon - sorry I have been off this blog for awhile. Been busy getting my speaking program going. All for now.

Mark

Blog Post Summary: The first of several posts on feedback I received from authors who have paid the money to advertise in RTIR. These are the straightforward one liners I received. More detailed responses will follow. Bottom line: decidedly more positives than negatives.

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This was my original email I sent out to approximately 45 individuals and/or their agents asking for feedback on their experience with RTIR as an effective medium for publicity and getting Radio and TV interviews for promoting your book:

Hi,

I saw your ad in a copy of Radio-TV Interview Report that I received as a part of their promo package to potential advertizers.

I just started the promotion campaign for my book (noted below) and am considering putting in an ad myself. I wanted to know if you were satified with the investment, results and the services you received with RTIR. Any kind of feedback would be useful in helping me with my decision. Yes/Good, No/Bad or any comments you would care to contribute would be appreciated.

Thanks and good luck with your own promotions,

–
Mark T. Rafter, Author
“The Wealth Manifesto:
Transforming Your Life from Survive to Thrive”

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These are the dozen or so brief responses that I got (some were very detailed and had great advice which I will start in with next time).

• YES!!!! RTIR Is great. Just make sure that you approve of your ad. I recommend it highly.
• I don’t know that I sold a lot of books as a result, but I did around 20-25 radio interviews as a result. I got on several national shows.
• It was absolutely worth it.
• It’s ok, not that great.
• Yes as far as radio goes it was quite effective
• I was generally satisfied, though it results in WAY more radio than TV bookings
• I personally did not think it was worth it.
• I ran ads for about 5 months. I had quite a few interviews that went well from one point of view but not ONE SALE of my book and just one inquiry re a speaking gig. Could have been me. For what it’s worth.
• I got a lot of radio interviews… And my film was not yet ready.. So hard to judge by sales… But by exposure, yes! Got a lot, and plan to advertise again when the companion book is ready…
• The first couple of months wasn’t that good. I had a total of 4-5 small station interviews. The last month we ended up doing about 15 radio interviews, although I sold very few books.
• The Investment at RTIR was great.I did 52 interviews from the 3 ads.
• It all depends on what you want to achieve with your ad. For me it was worth because of a few radio interviews I got. I didn’t get anything else than that.
• I think it is worth a shot or two so you can feel the waters
• You will get interviews. This effort alone will not give you success.
• RTIR was good for my project.

There you go … real results from real people. Alll for now.

Mark

PS - Hey, Steve Harrison … I’m giving YOU free publicity here for your magazine. How about you comp me a spot in RTIR for The Wealth Manifesto?

Premise: Radio interviews are a good way to drum up book sales, promote yourself and your other products and services.

The Radio & Television Interview Report is a ~70 page brochure of ads from authors and others that is subscribed to by radio and television show producers. It is recommended by many people (Kremer and Poynter for example) and was used by Robert Kiyosaki to help launch Rich Dad Poor Dad and Canfield and Hansen when they were getting the word out about Chicken Soup for the Soul.

Problem is, it’s expensive. Maybe not in the BIG world of advertising but in the small world of my budget, $1000 or more is a lot. So, what I did was email to everyone who was listed in the issue of RTIR that was sent to me as a part of the promo package. I asked everyone if they thought it was worth doing. The issue was from last November so they have had plenty of time to have an opinion if the investment was worth it.

Almost half of the people responded within 24 hours (an amazing % actually). And guess what? I got so many good ideas from the responses I received …. it overshadowed my original objectives. I was even offered a slot on a couple of internet radio shows hosted by the folks I sent inquires to. (This goes into the category of things that I come up with on my own that I will call a Great New Idea.)

As far as the verdict on using RTIR, it was shaded to the positive although some people thought it was a complete waste of money. I would take that with a grain of salt as some of the books and ideas that are promoted in RTIR are crap (it seems that the magazine will not turn down money from people who have a lousy product, although they will work with you to put your ad together).

More on this later if I actually go ahead and do this to promote The Wealth Manifesto.