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 Marjie Haddad. Marjie is a globally recognized PR expert, former television journalist, and award-winning producer with thirty-plus years of experience helping leaders and entrepreneurs achieve their goals. Specializing in medical and venture capital public relations, she's secured top-tier media coverage for her clients worldwide.
Through her coaching and speaking, Marjie provides practical strategies to inspire teams, navigate challenges, and achieve success with effective communication. She is the author of The Power of PR Parenting, How to Raise Confident, Resilient and Successful Children Using Public Relation Practices. All the way from Jerusalem, Israel, Marjie, it's an absolute pleasure to welcome you to the show, and thank you for being this week's guest expert and mentor.
Marjie Hadad [00:01:19]:
Susan, how are you?
Susan Friedmann [00:01:21]:
I am so good, and I am so excited that we actually made this happen because I know we were trying for months to get you on the show. And today, we did it. So yay.
Marjie Hadad [00:01:36]:
Yay. I'm so happy to be here and to be in your company and to be in the company of your listeners. Let's see how we can help today.
Susan Friedmann [00:01:45]:
Absolutely. And I am going to dig into your PR experience because I think PR is something that many authors don't understand. Let's start off with something really basic, and that is, why is PR important for a nonfiction author, and how can they use it to gain visibility?
Marjie Hadad [00:02:09]:
Well, you just said in a very important word, which is visibility. No matter what you're doing, author or otherwise, if no one knows about your genius, it's lost. Right? The whole point of public relations is to let people know that you have something to share that can help them, something that will make their life easier, something that will solve a problem, whatever your expertise is. And generally speaking with nonfiction, we're offering opportunities and ideas and skills and tools that will help the reader get from point a to point b and have success. We want public relations to let people know that these things exist for them. They're ready for the taking, and we're here to help.
Susan Friedmann [00:03:03]:
Which just begs the question, how does an author position themselves as an expert to attract those media opportunities?
Marjie Hadad [00:03:13]:
Well, whatever you're an expert in, you share your credentials, you share your history and you give examples to prove it. Pretty simple. As an example, I've been in public relations for thirty years and I was in media before that. My career spans and I hate to date myself, but forty years. My track record speaks for itself. And at this point in the game, my mission is to pay my experience, my learning, my expertise forward to my colleagues and to the next generation so that they will have an easier time of whatever their goals are using public relation strategies, practices, tactics in order to problem solve or to achieve short, medium, or long term goals, whether they are professional or whether they're personal.
Susan Friedmann [00:04:07]:
Let's look at some practical strategies. Let's start with some practical strategies for pitching a book to, let's say, journalists, which I think would be different than TV producers, but help me with that.
Marjie Hadad [00:04:23]:
First of all, you need to create what I would call a top 10 target media list so that you can focus your efforts because there are a ton of reporters, there's a ton of podcasts, ton of TV, ton of print, and whatever your specialty is, you want to follow the work of those on your top 10 list, and then you want to create a pitch that's very short. Less is more. What's the headline? How are you going to make them look good for their readers and for their boss and for themselves? Help them get ahead by telling your story. How does your story help them and help their readership? That's what your pitch is about. And frankly speaking, say three to five lines.
Susan Friedmann [00:05:13]:
Looking at your expertise, doing the research, looking at publications, blog posts, podcasts that attract your target audience, That just seems very simple, but yet it can be complicated because it takes some research. How would an author even go about doing that research?
Marjie Hadad [00:05:39]:
Susan, I believe that you leave the job to the professionals.
Susan Friedmann [00:05:47]:
Good answer.
Marjie Hadad [00:05:48]:
So look, you can certainly do your own public relations, and sometimes that makes a whole lot of sense. And let's define in this particular case public relations subcategory the media because there's all sorts of other types of PR that you can exercise to help you to achieve your goal as well in terms of awareness. But what I'm talking about is maybe hiring a public relation person who specializes in your field, in your beat. Maybe it's a public relations person who specializes in books. Maybe subcategory specializes in fiction or nonfiction, or whatever your category expertise that you've written on. For example, with my first book, The Power of PR Parenting, I hired, yes, I'm a PR person and I knew better than to do my own public relations, I hired someone who had a specialty in parenting, the parenting press, and she did a fabulous job. That way I could be the client rather than the service provider. And she had the existing connections.
Marjie Hadad [00:06:59]:
She loved the story, and she did a fantastic job of pitching the concept to a set of journalists who understood it and who appreciated it and wrote about it. And that's what each of the authors who are listening today may want to consider if you have budget. And if not, then again, top 10 list, check out what they're doing, and then get their email and approach them. With a very short email, say three to five lines of who you are, what you're doing, what fits into what they cover, and how you can be of service.
Susan Friedmann [00:07:40]:
To an email rather than, let's say, a press release. I mean, do people write press releases anymore?
Marjie Hadad [00:07:46]:
Yes. But press releases are more about documentation. It's about history. So down the road, if someone wants more detail or wants to check out what you've done, they can see what you've done from your press release. Sometimes press releases are used for extra detail when somebody's writing up a story. Sometimes when something new comes out, you put out a press release so that you have it on hand so that if you have the relationship with the reporter and they say, do you have any information? Well, I've got a press release. Yes. Send it over.
Marjie Hadad [00:08:20]:
And then that way, they can look at all the details that you wanna share in your press release. Who, what, why, when, how?
Susan Friedmann [00:08:26]:
Those famous opening questions. Yes. What is it? The five w's and the how?
Marjie Hadad [00:08:33]:
Yep. Five w's and throw in the how. But that's what every press release and frankly, any written story, those are the questions that are answered in all of these documentations.
Susan Friedmann [00:08:44]:
It's funny because you mentioned about budgets, and I thought, well, what if you don't necessarily have a big budget for PR? What are some low cost, sort of DIY tactics that you could use? And I know that you mentioned the one in terms of some simple research, looking for the top 10, looking at what others are doing. What else?
Marjie Hadad [00:09:09]:
I think the most important thing to do is to make friends before you have your launch. The best kind of phone call with any kind of journalist, quite frankly, is just to make friends. Let them know that you're available as a source. Don't ask them for anything. Once you have the relationship and you're ready to share your information about your launch, you've already got a common denominator. You've already made friends. And that way, when you call up, they know who you are already. It's not something out of the blue.
Marjie Hadad [00:09:49]:
And this way you're being of service rather than asking for a favor. If I were anyone in this audience, and I am quite frankly, because I have another book coming out in 02/2025, the most important thing to do is have a very, very long runway before your book comes out and to take the time to make friends at press corps.
Susan Friedmann [00:10:12]:
What's the long runway? Is it three months, six months, a year? How long in advance? Because I know that one thing that troubles authors is if they do not have a book in hand, they're not quite sure how to maneuver.
Marjie Hadad [00:10:29]:
You can have your book in hand. It doesn't mean that you have to launch it yet. It can be ready to go, but it doesn't mean you have to hit the green go button to put it out there. You can extend your runway, shorten your runway to whatever makes best sense for you.
Susan Friedmann [00:10:47]:
Does it matter if you don't actually have it? Let's say it's still being edited or maybe even just being finished like yours, but yet you can still talk about it.
Marjie Hadad [00:11:00]:
I can talk about it because I already have a book that's been published. I'm getting ready for my next book. The original target market, the people that I wrote the first book for, ultimately, it was my love letter to working moms. This next book is intended for leaders and individuals, ultimately, to help them to use public relations practices, tactics, strategies to achieve a short, medium, or long term goal, whether it's professional or personal. It's in the same genre, if you will. I think that if you're a first time author, get your ducks in order, have that first manuscript approved ready to go, and then you obviously need to consult with your publisher in terms of strategy. And if you have a PDF or an early edition or an early copy that you can arrange to have that shared, then sure, start pitching. But that's ultimately part of your strategy, how you want to organize that, and that's between you and your publisher.
Susan Friedmann [00:12:06]:
Now what about mistakes? Our authors love hearing about mistakes, and of course, how to avoid them.
Marjie Hadad [00:12:16]:
Alright. Look. The biggest mistake is to rush things. Take your time. There's no race unless there is a race for some particular current event that you're racing for. But if you can, give yourself the luxury of taking your time and doing things methodically without pressure, and when you're ready to go, then go.
Susan Friedmann [00:12:43]:
Now you say that with regard to no rush. However, many authors think that and it's because they've been told that a book can only be launched within the first three months. And then if nothing's happened within that time, then it's dead, which I don't believe that, but I'm just sharing what I get told when authors come to me to publish their book. They'd say, oh, I've got to do everything within the first three months or then nothing. I don't believe that, but talk to us about that.
Marjie Hadad [00:13:18]:
Well, it depends who your buyers are. If you're talking about random buyers on Amazon or Barnes and Noble, that can happen at any time. Usually at the launch is to me anyway, it's been the biggest purchase time. However, if you're speaking, then oftentimes the event hosts will buy a large quantity of your book to give to all the participants or the book is made available, purchase at the event. There's all different ways to slice that onion. Yes. Book sales can continue and they can even continue on a very great level. It just depends on how you establish and exercise your opportunities.
Susan Friedmann [00:14:06]:
I love that. And I love the fact that you shared one of my favorite tactics or strategies is literally getting a meeting planner to have a book for everyone in the audience, not selling books at the back of the room. Everybody in the audience should have a copy of your book. I love that. So thank you for entourcing that.
Marjie Hadad [00:14:30]:
Great minds think alike. Absolutely.
Susan Friedmann [00:14:33]:
Absolutely. And I'm just finishing off a course on how to make money with your book, and that's definitely one of the strategies. Talk to us more about some other mistakes. What are some other big mistakes that you see authors make, especially with trying to get media coverage?
Marjie Hadad [00:14:53]:
Authors sometimes assume that they are the only ones pitching the people that they are approaching. And what we have to understand is that reporters are very busy. Editors are very busy, and their inboxes are unbelievably full. And we need to be very respectful when we approach them and understand their time management. And when we follow-up, we need to be kind and respectful as well.
Susan Friedmann [00:15:29]:
Yeah. As you say, you think, oh my goodness, my book's coming out, but so are thousands of other people's around the same time, and everybody's vying for only a limited number of contacts.
Marjie Hadad [00:15:42]:
That is why if you can hire a PR person, leave it to the professionals. I give you a lot of credit, Susan, for being a publisher. That is an enormous responsibility, and I leave the publishing to the publishers. It's not a specialty that I intend to have, but public relations, medical venture capital, that is my bag of potatoes. That's my rodeo. Not my first rodeo by any sense because it's like I said before, it's been thirty years in PR and ten years in media. But I have my specialty as do other public relations people. Whatever your genre is, and now I'm repeating myself, go to the PR person who has that as a specialty, and you're gonna save yourself a whole lot of headache.
Susan Friedmann [00:16:29]:
Now I was in a session that you did recently. Somebody asked you a question. You were doing a presentation, and somebody asked you a question. What if you get asked a question you don't want to answer? And I love this. Tell us what you told her.
Marjie Hadad [00:16:49]:
I told her to redirect her answer to a key message that she wanted to share. You answer the question that you want, not necessarily that you're asked, but you can gloss over with a light answer to what is being asked. I told this story about Henry Kissinger that I read in one of his memoirs. And the story goes, Henry Kissinger, who was the Secretary of State of The United States back in the '70s during the Nixon administration, He was walking down one of the corridors of the White House on the way to a press conference, and one of the aides looked at him and said, Mr. Secretary, are you ready for the press conference? And Kissinger looked at the aide and said, Well, I hope that their questions are as good as my answers. He already knew what he was gonna say no matter what they were gonna ask him. My response to the lady at the presentation was to do just that. Very graciously and nicely redirect and then share what you intend to share in that particular interview.
Susan Friedmann [00:18:02]:
The moral of that story too is that you have to know what messages that you want to share.
Marie Hadad [00:18:11]:
Oh, yes. Key messages, always. We always know our key messages before we go into any interview, including today. We always have three to five major key messages and then anything else that come up along the way based on the discussion. So that your audience hears how you can be of service to them with your expertise.
Susan Friedmann [00:18:38]:
Now I know one of your specialties is storytelling. How can nonfiction authors use storytelling to make their pitches, let's say, more compelling?
Marjie Hadad [00:18:50]:
If you can do a who, what, why, when, and how in a very exciting way in about two lines, then you can introduce a story into your pitch. But be very careful because no one's looking for an encyclopedia, and you can get carried away because you really, really wanna share details. And one rule of public relations is never get married to your puppy. Be very happy if somebody wants to cross a whole bunch of stuff out. It just makes it lighter, and it's a better product. And don't get upset. Just say thank you.
Susan Friedmann [00:19:25]:
That's a mistake often is that you fall in love with your own stuff, and then yet, oh, really upset that, oh, you don't want to put this in or that in. Yes.
Marjie Hadad [00:19:36]:
I like the question that you asked me about stories because that's the crux of every presentation that I give. I try to share the learnings that I would like to teach with my audiences through stories, and we travel through time to different years and different magical moments, And we do it via a time portal, which is kind of fun. And we get to understand the value of public relations strategies, practices, and tactics through the stories that we share. And if we can share real life stories, which is what I do, then you're passionate, you're animated, you're having fun. The audience is with you. You understand to your core the message of the presentation, which you can take in your hand and actively, easily, and instantly use to help you to solve a problem or achieve a goal. That's what I really love about the presentations.
Susan Friedmann [00:20:50]:
You gave a great example earlier of making a point and using the Henry Kissinger story, which was a vignette. I mean, it wasn't a long story. You kept it short, sweet, and to the point, and yet in response to the question, we got the point. I think that takes practice.
Marjie Hadad [00:21:10]:
It does. So you practice. You practice while you're walking the dog, you practice while you're walking down the corridor of your office building, you practice when you're in the shower, you open up your Zoom and you practice talking into a lens with nobody there. You practice when you are in front of a real live crowd. You always have opportunities to practice.
Susan Friedmann [00:21:40]:
That's beautiful. What's one thing that you think that authors could do today to start building that media presence?
Marjie Hadad [00:21:49]:
I would start with social media. Pick your channel, whether it's LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, TikTok, whatever it is that speaks mostly to your audience, to your target demographic. Start building up a follow-up. More importantly, start posting content. Ultimately, when you are ready for your launch and people go to that channel that you send them to, they can see the history of your posts and understand what you are all about. That is a modern form of public relations. Not everything's a press release. Not everything is an article.
Marjie Hadad [00:22:31]:
Not everything is an interview. Sometimes your best public relations is just what you're posting on social media.
Susan Friedmann [00:22:37]:
And that's a great segue into you telling us how we can get hold of you and how our listeners can find out more about what you offer and, of course, about your books.
Marjie Hadad [00:22:52]:
Thank you for the invitation, Susan. I have a brand new website, wwwmarjihaddad.com. And please follow me on LinkedIn. That's where I'm posting mostly these days. I post regularly about how public relations can be used in our daily life to help us to achieve our goals and to claim our vision and be the people that we mostly want to be and to live a happy life. I'm happy to know everyone who is listening to this, and I'm approachable and reachable.
Marjie Hadad [00:23:43]:
Just send me a message through LinkedIn or through my website, and I'm very happy to engage with you.
Susan Friedmann [00:23:51]:
Beautiful. And I'll put those links in the show notes so people can take advantage of that. And yes, that's how I communicated with Marjie in the beginning is through LinkedIn, even though social media for me is a little bit of a challenge, but I still managed. So
Marjie Hadad [00:24:10]:
Absolutely amazing. And on the website, Susan, is a place where you can sign up for tips and resources. So if you sign up for that, then you'll get some extra something something as they say.
Susan Friedmann [00:24:24]:
That's beautiful.
Marjie Hadad [00:24:25]:
I'm there for you and your audience. However, I can be a service. It is my genuine and sincere pleasure, and if I can help you in any way, plus if I happen to be in your area on a speaking engagement, please come up and say hello.
Susan Friedmann [00:24:42]:
That's beautiful. And, Marjie, as you know, our guests always leave our listeners with a golden nugget. What's yours?
Marjie Hadad [00:24:51]:
Eye on the donut, not on the hole. Meaning, keep your focus, look at the positives rather than negatives, and just keep going, and you will eventually claim your vision.
Susan Friedmann [00:25:06]:
Which is so important because if you don't succeed the first time around, try, try again. I think so many people get put off by, oh, it didn't work. I tried contacting that person. They didn't respond.
Marjie Hadad [00:25:22]:
You Susan, there are a whole lot of people in the world. If it doesn't work with one, it's gonna work with someone else.
Susan Friedmann [00:25:27]:
Exactly.
Marjie Hadad [00:25:28]:
I tell a story of how I got my first job and how I got so many rejection letters I could wallpaper my student apartment with them. And instead of getting upset, I just made a game into it and started comparing them. And each week, I would award one of the gazillion rejection letters I got the best rejection letter of the week. But eventually, I found a television studio that hired me. I became a weekday reporter, weekend anchor, and I achieved the outrageous goal everyone said would never happen. I just literally kept my eye on the doughnut, didn't let the whole get in my way, if you will. And by the way, that's an old Irish proverb just for citation purposes. And I live by that day by day, literally for the last forty years.
Susan Friedmann [00:26:26]:
That's beautiful. And that's a great little story to go with it. Giving the example. That's beautiful. Listeners, listen to this again and again because so much wisdom and golden nuggets throughout this whole interview. Marjie, thank you so much for sharing your wisdom.
By the way, listeners, if your book isn't selling the way you wanted or expected 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, and return you were hoping for.
Susan Friedmann [00:27:09]:
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. Until next week, here's wishing you much book and author marketing success.
Here's how to connect with Marjie:
Website
LinkedIn
YouTube
