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I had never given the matter much thought in the past but
after an experience I enjoyed lately, I am now rather of the
opinion that you can. It happened this way… Coinciding with
the launch of my latest book ‘Your Retirement Master plan’
(How to Books ISBN 1857039874) I participated in eleven
10/15-minute live interviews on local radio over a period of
just five days. These promotional interviews were arranged
by my publisher’s media consultancy and I didn’t require
visiting a single studio to take part; they were all
conducted over the telephone, sitting at my desk at home.
Towards the end of the first interview I was conscious of
the fact that I had yet to plug the distribution channels
for my book. The presenter beat me to it: ‘In five seconds,
where can listeners buy your book?’ Before I could reply he
added, ‘Can they order it online?’ ‘Yes,’ I said, ‘at
Amazon.co.uk’ In the ten subsequent interviews I made a
point of ending my spiel with the publisher’s name together
with availability at bookstores but I always finished with,
‘…and online at Amazon.co.uk.’ Now here’s the interesting
part: after the first five sessions I checked out the
Amazon.co.uk website to discover that this newly published
title had jumped 35 places in the bestseller list for its
genre; I checked again after the final interview and it had
jumped again but this time by 329 places. In effect, in just
a few days it had leapt from position 558 to 194 out of 3123
competing titles. More than mere coincidence
methinks…because books don’t climb the bestseller lists on
Amazon unless they are selling in quantity. So what if you
self-publish your output and you don’t have a publicist to
arrange radio interviews? Does that mean you are excluded?
No way; I have self-published several books in the past and
managed my own promotion. Here is what you do… 1. Wherever
you live in the world you’ll find that the majority of local
radio stations are banded together into a single group for
cost-effectiveness; 2. Identify the controlling group; 3.
Visit the corporate website containing links to all
subsidiaries; 4. Pick out those stations within a 500/1000
mile orbit; 5. Visit each local station website
individually; 6. Scan the daily programming schedules; 7.
Highlight those shows that might identify with the topic of
your book; 8. Note the presenter’s name; 9. Email him/her
with a well-couched request for a live interview; 10. Follow
that up with an identical snail mail request; 11. Follow
that up with a telephone call (you’ll get to speak to
someone in authority); 12. You know your topic inside out;
speak up with confidence and you’ll get your interview;
maybe not straightaway but, if you sell yourself and your
project professionally, you’ll be logged into and
up-and-coming slot in the station scheduling. Go for it…it’s
free! Postscript: Those eleven live interviews did more than
sell books on radio – they resulted in several direct
invitations to repeat my pitch on local television. MILKING
INCREMENTAL INCOME STREAMS AS AN AUTHOR As your book(s)
become available online and offline your reputation as an
expert in your particular subject will flourish. This brings
with it additional opportunities for attracting incremental
income; opportunities such as… 1. Public speaking
engagements; 2. Book reviewing; 3. Magazine article
contributions; 4. Foreign translations of your work; 5. Book
club sales; 6. Public Lending Right (PLR); you get paid
every time some borrows your book from a public lending
library; 7. Fees under licence (when another publisher
reproduces your work); 8. Broadcasting rights; 9. Audio tape
and disc rights. The fees you earn are incremental to your
book royalties and they soon mount up over a period of time.
My new creative writing course ‘Secrets to Churning out
Bestsellers’ contains several chapters on how to milk these
additional income streams. Jim Green is a best selling
author with an ever-growing string of niche non-fiction
titles to his credit. ‘Secrets to Churning out Bestsellers’
are his latest dynamic creative writing course and are
available for immediate download.
Did you find this article useful? For more useful tips and
hints, points to ponder and keep in mind, techniques, and
insights pertaining to radio, do please browse for more
information at our websites.
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