By Jennifer S. Wilkov, Host of the “Your Book Is Your Hook!” Show on WomensRadio, Book Business Consultant & The Literary Agent Matchmaker™
To listen to the show: http://wp.me/p1KmwD-6hz
Today let’s talk about how to be an author who uses the news and leverages the media for your platform.
Using the news can help boost the visibility of your book, your platform and you!
Themes run through your platform and book, whether it is fiction or nonfiction. Certain topics are prime candidates for coverage in the news such as:
- grief
- summer cookouts
- government authorities
- women’s issues
- awareness of diseases and health conditions such as autism, depression, breast cancer and others
- LGBT issues and gay pride themes
- back to school
- graduation
- holidays such as Valentine’s Day, Christmas, Fourth of July, New Year’s Day
- and more
When you tie these into your books and platform, make a point of following the news and pay attention to current events.
When something pops up in the news that is related to your book and platform, talk about it. Tie it into your next blog article, the posts you put out on Facebook and Pinterest, and the tweets you tweet out on Twitter.
Identify the right hashtags and keywords for your topic and use these to contribute to the larger conversation. This will insert you and your platform into the thick of the discussion and perhaps lead people back to your book, website, blog and world.
Likewise, the news can provide you with great ideas and storylines for your next novel or nonfiction book.
The key to writing is to write what you love, not for the trends. This goes for using the news too. There are certain trends in the news, but your book and platform should be broader than just one narrow focus designed to springboard you into being a news expert or commentator.
Instead, when you have finished writing your novel or nonfiction book, cull through it for applications to certain holidays, significant time periods of the year, and keywords. This will help you to determine how to use your book as your hook in so many ways with the media. It will also help you get better visibility in search engine results for several different topics your book and platform play into. Use these terms as tags for your book, articles and blogs when you post them.
The more you pay attention to the news stories your readers are hearing about every day, the more you can tie in your book and use it as your hook to raise your visibility and platform.
For more information on this Education Corner topic and others, please refer to www.YourBookIsYourHook.com/blog for more articles and resources to help you with your books.