Susan Friedmann [00:00:00]:
Welcome to Book Marketing Mentors, the weekly podcast where you learn proven strategies, tools, ideas and tips from the masters. Every week I introduce you to a marketing master who will share their expertise to help you market and sell more books. Today, my special guest is Leah Paulos, founder of Publicity School and press Shop PR. With more than 25 years at the intersection of publishing and media, she's helped hundreds of authors land coverage in top outlets, plan book tours, and navigate the often overwhelming world of publicity. Leah's background is impressive. She started as the magazine editor as Conde Nass and she's spoken at the Columbia School of Journalism and the Authors Guild. Through her book Publicity School, Leah shares her real world expertise with with more authors by offering practical, affordable workshops and coaching. Backed by Press Shop pr, one of the industry's leading independent publicity firms, the school equips authors with the tools, strategies and insider insights they need to confidently promote their books and attract the attention they deserve.
Susan Friedmann [00:01:25]:
Leah, it is an absolute pleasure to welcome you to the show and thank you for being this week's guest, expert and mentor.
Leah Paulos [00:01:33]:
Thank you so much for having me. I'm really excited for our conversation.
Susan Friedmann [00:01:37]:
I love publicity. As you and I were talking earlier and I know obviously it's near and dear to your heart because you've made a living doing it. Our authors, though, don't always understand or what is publicity and why they should actually use it. So let's start off there and sort of break it down and make it sort of easy to understand.
Leah Paulos [00:02:04]:
Publicity is really about getting through to your desired audience by trying to line up earned media attention. So when I say earned media attention, it's not advertising. There's no money involved. It is about various journalists, podcasters, substackers, book reviewers covering your book because they're interested in it and they think that their listenership, their audience, will be interested in a story about it. Really, publicity from the media relationship point of view is about reaching your audiences in that way. It's about lining up interviews, reviews, features, and that is how you reach your target readers. There is, of course, a lot of other things. There are many other things that are involved in publicity as well as media relations, but that's usually the piece that authors find most opaque and intimidating.
Leah Paulos [00:03:13]:
Navigating the media world is challenging even for a publicity professional, especially now, where everybody's attention is so fragmented, they're all over the place. People miss things left and right. Their inboxes are full. There's streaming shows on Netflix that compete with all of the other things. It is a Hard environment to navigate. That is really where we work with authors to make sure that they are getting the media attention that they should and teaching them how they can do some of that themselves.
Susan Friedmann [00:03:53]:
Perfect. And we'll talk more about that. How early should an author even start thinking about publicity? And then what should they even focus on first?
Leah Paulos [00:04:06]:
I always think the earlier the better, to at least start thinking about it, to start doing some research and brainstorming to make sure that you have that spreadsheet where you just are putting ideas, say you are querying agents. You know, you don't have a publisher yet, you don't have a pub date, but you should still have somewhere, one place where you can jot down notes and ideas. And maybe you see a book review written and something about it just makes you think, you know, this reviewer might be interested in my book. Or you stumble upon a couple radio shows and you think, you know what? My book kind of really fits with what they're talking about right now. Make sure you have a place to put all of that. That step. The earlier the better, because you want to have the time to add and come up with ideas and encounter new opportunities. You know, you don't want to start executing on trying to make those things happen until you're closer to pub.
Leah Paulos [00:05:13]:
But the brainstorming piece, starting early and then also just really learning about the process, about publishing, about media a little bit, can really go a long way if there's a certain outlet. Say you love Lithub and you'd love to be featured in Lithub. Make sure you're reading. Well, if you love Lithub, you are reading Lithub, but you want to make sure that you are a reader or a listener of the venues that you want to target. Because when you it comes time to target them, you're going to want to know how to position them, what kind of stuff they're interested in, what kind of topics they've just covered like two weeks ago and therefore might not be responsive to now. All of that kind of stuff is really good to get started on as soon as you can.
Susan Friedmann [00:06:00]:
Yeah, I love that. The idea of doing that research, and I'd not heard that before, and I think it seems so simple to think about that in advance because I know that so many authors think they want to go from 0 to 100 and want to be on national media before the book comes out. Oh, I should be on Good Morning America, or I should be featured in New York Times or on the Bestseller list, and they think it's sort of somehow magically going to happen. And it doesn't. As, you know.
Leah Paulos [00:06:38]:
No, it doesn't.
Susan Friedmann [00:06:40]:
You don't have the magic button that we can.
Leah Paulos [00:06:43]:
I wish I had the magic button. I really do.
Susan Friedmann [00:06:46]:
Let's talk about some mistakes that you see that authors make when it comes to publicity.
Leah Paulos [00:06:53]:
I would say the one mistake, the probably the biggest and most common mistake I see is not really fully understanding how important it is for them to be a really proactive presence in the promotion of their book. Even if you're traditionally published, even if it's From a Big 5 publisher, there's still a lot for an author to do. We're not living in the same environment, either the publishing environment or the media environment that we were 10 years ago or 20 years ago, obviously. But even five years ago, it's so fast changing. And as a result, you know, nobody can really keep up with it and do everything there is to do. There's just a lot of different opportunities, which is great. That is a good thing. But it's not a good thing if you're not putting any sort of muscle and time and energy into it.
Leah Paulos [00:07:53]:
It's not like it was in the past where a publicist working in house that's working on a number of other books can manage a campaign. That was much more feasible when there were a list of maybe 125 book editors to go out to. And you did that and you're like, okay, I got it. To the people that need to know, of course there are other opportunities, but these are the big ones. And now it's just not like that. There are fewer opportunities for the big book reviews. So many of those pages have folded. And then on the positive side, there are tons of other opportunities, but they're much more niche or targeted.
Leah Paulos [00:08:40]:
So you have to really get in there, like dive in there and do that work specifically for your book. And that just makes it really hard for somebody who's juggling six books a season to do that work for each book. That's an impossible job. In fact.
Susan Friedmann [00:08:57]:
Well, one of the things that you touched on earlier was the fact that authors sometimes think that, oh, let me find somebody else to do this for me, because they're going to get a lot more, more exposure for me than I can get for myself. They also think that that's going to help sell the book. I always say the best person to sell your book is you. And it's tough to find someone who has the same passion for your book as you do. What are your thoughts on that?
Leah Paulos [00:09:32]:
Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I think there are a lot of things that an author absolutely does best. One of them is first of all getting the people in their life, their friends and family and neighbors and the person they went to MFA program with and that writing workshop, activating them to support the book. That's one thing that an author really needs to do. But beyond that, they do need to be the one that is overseeing the entire journey of the book. So if you have somebody, you know, if you're with a press and you have a publicist, yes, there's going to be some support at a certain point, but still the author is the one that's there for the long haul. They're there pre publication, they're there when the descriptive copy is being written. They're there to do social media, they are there to do events.
Leah Paulos [00:10:27]:
They're there well after the book has published and the publisher has moved on to the new queen crop of books, the next season. That's another element. And then the other element, and this is one of the things we do a lot of work with at book publicity school is nobody is going to know your book in all the different angles in this space like you do. You are going to know like maybe there's media space that's not exactly in the main topic of your book, but it's sort of a little secondary. And, and you're going to know that you're going to know how to present your book with that focus. And it's not that nobody else can figure that out. It's just everything in publicity takes a lot of time. Anywhere that an author can help out, great.
Leah Paulos [00:11:18]:
The better it is for the entire endeavor of promoting that book. So if you are working with a publicist and you have really compelling language about this angle or really compelling language or an amazing sample Q and A you did that you can then hand over to the publicist. That's just going to help the entire process.
Susan Friedmann [00:11:39]:
Yeah, you have to be along with it. It's not handing it over to somebody else and say, hey, you take care of my baby now. Authors without a big budget, because sometimes, as we know, the publicity can mount up financially. What are maybe a few free or even low cost things that they can consider doing?
Leah Paulos [00:12:03]:
Yeah, I mean, that was really the reason we started book publicity school is we work at press shop pr and I know it doesn't work for everybody budget wise. It's doing publicity. Hiring an independent publicist can be extremely expensive. And not only does it not work for everybody's Budget, but it doesn't always make sense for every book, even if everybody did have the budget. That was really why we wanted to start the work school, so that we could give authors a way to really learn to advocate for their books at a low price point. And then also, I mean, there are obviously a ton of resources online and many of them are good. And there's also a lot of them that are not so good. And we hear from authors all the time that it's really hard to just wade through the content, how much there is out there, and tell what makes the most sense for your book.
Leah Paulos [00:13:00]:
I think in terms of other free options though, in addition to our, we have A monthly free 101 at Book Publicity school. But there's a number of good resources. I mean, Jane Friedman is fantastic. Your podcast is obviously a great resource. What else? Mwriting podcasts is often very, very helpful for authors. You know, there's a good community on substack with good writerly advice, but we do find that one people do have a hard time figuring out which is the piece that makes the most sense for them.
Susan Friedmann [00:13:43]:
Yeah, it's overwhelming with what is out there. And often I address that fact that. And thank you, by the way, perhaps including me with Jane Friedman, even though we're not related, you know, I know she does excellent work. We've had her on the show a few times as well. There is so much stuff out there that it is overwhelming. And that sort of finding the right person or the right operation setup school that can actually help direct and put people on the right track and make things realistic for them. Because often, you know, as we talked about earlier, the idea of people wanting to be on national media, they think, oh, that's, you know, the be all and end all. But often local media is far hungrier than any of the national press.
Susan Friedmann [00:14:41]:
And you could still get some nice publicity just at a local level. What are your thoughts on that?
Leah Paulos [00:14:48]:
Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I think these days everybody can create their own media ecosystem, for better or worse. There are obviously a lot of downsides to that, but I will say that one good positive outcome of that is there are more opportunities for authors to really micro target their audiences. And where they're getting their news, where they're hearing about books, and those things can be more or as or at least extremely impactful. And sometimes in a way that a bigger national hit isn't. You know, if you have a nonfiction book and it's on a particular topic and then there's a podcast, even if it's not a big one. Even if it's one that say, maybe gets a couple hundred downloads an episode. Now that's not huge, but it's still you speaking about your topic to a couple hundred perfect target readers.
Leah Paulos [00:15:49]:
And that oftentimes can be more impactful than a bigger hit that might have a broader audience and a national audience, but it doesn't actually end up getting people to buy the book. So in this environment, you really want to niche down. You want to get in front of as many of these kinds of audiences, as many different audiences that make sense for your book as possible. There is this element of sort of accretion. You know, you get a little podcast here and then you get the local piece and then you activate your community and you know, you want to do all of these things and they sort of come together in a successful campaign. But I totally agree with you that local, particularly if you live in a place that has good local media, but not, you know, it can be a little harder if the media market is too big. It can be a little harder in New York City, for example, but in a lot of different locations, that local media piece can be a fantastic addition to a campaign. And then whatever attention you get.
Leah Paulos [00:16:58]:
So say you get a feature in the local paper, you can use that, you know, to give you credibility as you then try to go out to other, maybe the bigger ones or a national hit.
Susan Friedmann [00:17:08]:
You said something earlier too, about niche markets, which is music to my ears because I'm a real believer in going narrow and deep. And as you say, those smaller publications, the smaller podcasts, but they are so targeted to the right audience that it makes it just a perfect fit for you. Let's talk about how an author can position themselves as an expert, one that the media wants to interview. How can they do that? What are some of the ways?
Leah Paulos [00:17:47]:
Yeah, so the way you present your book and the materials you put together to promote your book, that is huge. Like, those need to be really compelling, really short. People do not have a lot of time. You need to get people's attention really quickly. And it needs to be very sort of story forward. I mean, the way I sort of explain it in our workshops is if you want a journalist to cover your book, you have to think about what a journalist needs. Think about what they're looking for. They are not looking to cover your book.
Leah Paulos [00:18:25]:
They don't need to cover your book. They what they need is a really good story or a really good interview. They need a piece of content for better. I don't always love that word, but they need it to appeal to their readership or their listenership or whatever type of audience they have cultivated or their media outlet has cultivated. So you have to think about what is a story that's going to be compelling to them? How do they typically cover stories? What's their voice? What's the kind of thing that's going to make them feel new and fresh and like you're pushing the narrative forward. It's not, this is a book and blah, blah, blah, you've heard this before. But something that makes people think like, that's new. I hadn't thought of it that way.
Leah Paulos [00:19:20]:
Or that's really interesting. And you always want to lead with that. The one exercise we do in our workshops is this is something that any of your listeners can do when you're trying to figure out, like, what is that hook? How am I leading? One really good guide is just paying attention to feedback you get from people that are similar to your target reader, talking about your book in a lot of different situations to a lot of different people that don't know about your work that could be a good reader. And what you want to do is just make a note to yourself, pay attention to what they're responding to. Maybe you always open talking about a story that happened and how this sparked the inspiration for your book. And maybe that really gets people. Okay, note to self. What is it about that that is capturing people's attention? On the contrary, maybe sometimes you talk about it in a certain way and it's really compelling.
Leah Paulos [00:20:19]:
People ask questions, their eyes light up and then they another way, maybe a different origin story, and they kind of start getting fidgety or itching to look at their phone notifications. Okay, maybe that's a note that's not the most compelling way to position the book. And part of the reason why that can be so effective is that for authors, they know their book so well, they've been living with it for years, maybe decades, they know all the ins and outs of it. And it can be really hard to step back from that space and think about, well, what's going to interest other people. And when you're face to face with someone, you're used to that. You're used to thinking, you know, in conversation. You're not spewing everything that's going on in your head. You're thinking about how to have a good conversation, sort of tapping into that skill and that ability that we all have to see how other people are reacting and have a.
Leah Paulos [00:21:18]:
A good give and take just. There's a lot of clues there. There's a lot of feedback that you can put to use in those conversations.
Susan Friedmann [00:21:27]:
What came to mind? You talked about talking about the book. I know that you have a speaker one sheet that you use for getting speaking engagements and for getting podcasts. What are your thoughts of having a one sheet just about your book?
Leah Paulos [00:21:45]:
Yeah. At Press Shop when we are pitching books. Yeah, A1. She can be great. But what we always find is really, really effective is a short two small paragraphs, maybe three, an itty bitty third paragraph. And that's just really the story, the hook as well as the facts like who's publishing it, when did it come out, what's in the book. Very short but compelling. And then we put a lot more information in, but we sort of put it down beneath our signature.
Leah Paulos [00:22:18]:
You really want to avoid people opening your email and just being hit with a massive block of 1500 words. That's not a good way to get attention these days. You want to include that. And then down below you can include things like maybe it's talking points, maybe it's your bio, some advanced praise, a sample Q and A with you. All of those things are really effective when you are reaching out to people, reaching out to journalists. And then by all means, once you have that, you want to convert it into a one page format that you include with the book when people request it. Fantastic. A big part of doing publicity is just making it really easy for people to cover you, giving them what they need.
Leah Paulos [00:23:06]:
So it's not like they get something in their inbox or in the mail and they think, oh, this is interesting or really like this first couple pages. But oh God, when is it being published? Is this self published? Is it not? Who is the author? What are their credentials? Like, give them everything they need to know, make it really easy. And whatever the ask is, say you are reaching out for an interview, make it really clear that you're a good interview. And here's what you can talk about in an interview. So that's another big part of what you need to be thinking about when you are reaching out to any media.
Susan Friedmann [00:23:41]:
Entity of any kind and not to just send people books unless they say that they want one. Because I think they just send them out there. Somebody's going to want it and they're going to write about it just because they receive it in the mail? I don't think so.
Leah Paulos [00:23:59]:
No, no, no. That is a tremendous waste of resources for sure.
Susan Friedmann [00:24:04]:
Very much.
Leah Paulos [00:24:05]:
Never been a fan of it. I Mean, ever since I saw a couple photos and was in a newsroom where they, they literally had. I don't think they used it as a dumpster per se, but it was like a dumpster for all of the galleys because there were so many that they needed a container that size to keep them. You don't want to have to be fished out from a dumpster container to get your book covered.
Susan Friedmann [00:24:34]:
Soul destroying. Totally soul destroying. This is a great segue. Lea, to talk about your book publicity school, which I love the name of. I can't wait to hear more about that. So talk to us more about that.
Leah Paulos [00:24:51]:
I mean, we started it about two years ago really because we saw that there was a real lack of opportunities for authors to learn how to promote a book, how to navigate the world of publicity in the lead up to publication themselves. And there were so many authors that came to us at Press Shop where we do our full campaigns, where we lead the campaigns, where we couldn't work with them. And I just knew that we could support them. There were so many authors that I really liked them. Their book sounded amazing. Right away, all sorts of ideas were coming to mind, but it didn't work. Either our schedule was too full or the budget was off, or there's any number of reasons. So I really wanted to create a place where we could take all of the insights we've learned about how to navigate this intersection of publishing and media and support authors.
Leah Paulos [00:25:51]:
And to support authors at a time that's really intense for them. Publication and the lead up to publication and the publicity space can be really stressful and kind of scary. It's the first time that an author's book is meeting the world that's pretty intense. And then on top of that, authors are sort of thrown in and told, you have to promote your book these days the publisher is not going to have enough resources to do it for you. Oh, and by the way, every media outlet that you have heard of, like 80% of them don't exist anymore. However, there's all these other new ones that you've never heard of, but they actually have followings. Okay, you author at this moment, go forth and really effectively promote your book. That's just not a great spot.
Leah Paulos [00:26:42]:
So I really wanted to support authors in that space. That was the genesis of book publicity school. And we have a couple different programs. We have a six week program, it's called our intensive. We do that quarterly once a season. And that really is like a primer of everything that an author needs to know to really kind of get up to speed and to just feel more confident and understand. Get a sort of to do list that is manageable, that is sort of created for them. We always keep the classes small so that as I'm going along I can be like, oh, okay, like Susan, this thing is not for you, but like listen to this next thing because that's going to be a great thing for you to do.
Leah Paulos [00:27:25]:
And that I always hear from authors is really helpful. Just sort of cutting through all of the abundance of advice and pinpointing what is going to be effective given their time, resources, energy resources and skill set. That's our six week workshop and then we have a couple crash courses which are videos plus then 1/2 an hour session implementation session with me. And then we also work with people for a six month program called the strategy and support program. And in that one it includes all of our other courses are six week. But it also has a lot of one on one time with me, some one on one time with my team, a resource, library, office hours. And that one is really great where somebody wants to learn a lot but then also wants some more guidance and support in the lead up to publication. They want to be checking in, they want to bounce ideas, they want to get some feedback.
Leah Paulos [00:28:22]:
Those are our three main programs.
Susan Friedmann [00:28:24]:
Perfect. So how does an author find out about publicity school?
Leah Paulos [00:28:29]:
Everything is on our website, which is bookpublicityschool.com and we have a bunch of social. Everything on bookpublicityschool.com will lead you to, you know, our other resources. But we're on LinkedIn, we've got Instagram, we've got a blog on the website, a whole bunch of tips and then we have a newsletter as well.
Susan Friedmann [00:28:51]:
Perfect. And as you know, we always have our guests leave our listeners with a golden nugget. You shared so much with us, but I know there's one golden nugget you could leave us with. What's that?
Leah Paulos [00:29:06]:
I feel like I may have given away a couple golden nuggets. I was actually thinking earlier about the golden nugget just really being a spreadsheet which sounds so boring to be so passionate about spreadsheets. But I'm a huge spreadsheet nerd and I think you really have to be as a publicist certainly. But even as an author, I think the overwhelm that authors feel, a lot of it can be sort of tamped down within well organized sheet where you can keep different opportunities separate. You can keep all your local news and local outreach over here. And then all the podcasts that do interviews that you've heard with authors that are similar other people in your space. Over here, I think I may just repeat my golden nugget from what I said earlier, and that is make sure you have a beautiful spreadsheet that can be Excel or Google sheets or Airtable, whatever it is, but that each sheet and each type of outreach is in its own space. And that you're just keep it with you, keep it handy.
Leah Paulos [00:30:16]:
Because when you hear people talking or you go to an author's reading and they say, oh, you know, I just had an excerpt in electric lid, and then you look and you see or you know where they say the editor they worked out with, you need one clearing spot work clearinghouse where you can just keep all of that information at your fingertips for when it's go time.
Susan Friedmann [00:30:41]:
I've got to start falling in love with spreadsheets. Not necessarily something that comes naturally to me, but yes, I hear you because I can't keep it in my head and making lists. So that spreadsheet is just that perfect tool. Leah, this has been amazing. Thank you. Thank you for sharing this incredible wisdom.
And listeners. If your book isn't selling the way you want it, or expect it to, let's you and I jump on a quick call together to brainstorm ways to ramp up those sales. Because you've invested a whole lot of time, money and energy, and it's time you got the return you were hoping for.
So go to bookmarketingbrainstorm.com to schedule your free call. And in the meantime, I hope this powerful interview sparks some ideas you can use to sell more books.Â
Until next week, here's wishing you much book and author marketing success.
Here's how to connect with Leah:
Website
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