I hate starting off on a negative foot. But I do want to give you the brutal reality of trying to promote your book through the media. And here it is. You don't want to hear this, but it's the Absolute Truth. Nobody cares about your book. I don't say this to be rude or to deflate you or dissuade you from working hard or promoting it.
But I want you to really grasp that carefully. Now, what does that mean? What it means is every single time you approach the media you pitch, a talk show you're going after a Booker or producer. you delete shouldn't be I have this book book me to talk about my book. Here's my book to talk about my book, review my book. Nobody wants to hear it.
What they want is your interesting ideas, your insights about the news of the day or something subject that is of interest to their viewers, their readers, their listeners. So look at the people who are the best selling authors in the world. They're not just going on to talk about their book, they are talking about their expertise. Now I'm going to give two examples from the political world. One of them will surely offend you. I'm not here to talk about politics, but I just give it as examples.
Professor Alan Dershowitz, you don't see him around as much these days. But the 80s 90s even in the early 2000s, you saw him everywhere nightline, talk radio everywhere, whether it was a legal issue, not just oj but a legal issue. He was there in the media. Consequently, every book he wrote, became a New York Times bestseller. The great books he wrote became New York Times bestsellers. And the books that weren't that great.
They were just kind of stapled together columns, and LSA they became New York Times bestsellers as well. It's not that easy. He was constantly calling, talk to a producer saying, Hey, I got a new book. And now it's that he was constantly in the media. He was the go to person for legal expertise. And anytime he was on it was Oh, and by the way on Dershowitz his most recent book is bone.
Today, the example is I'm going to go to the other end of the political spectrum and culture. And culture sells millions and millions and millions of books. Every book she has is on the New York Times bestseller list. And it's not because she specifically goes on lots of talk shows every day to just promote her book. It's because she's a constant source in the media. She's on sean hannity.
She's on bill o'reilly all the time. She's on the number one and number two top rated shows on all of cable news, talking about not her book, but the issues of the day, the politics of the day, the breaking news stories of the day, with her conservative perspective. So I do want you to really think about that the best way to sell your book through the media is not to sell your book through the media, it's to be such a reliable presence, a regular presence in the news media, that you just become famous to that audience. Now, you might not talk about politics or controversy in the news. your expertise may be holiday cooking, that's fine. But just make sure that you're on every relevant show, on the Food Network and on talk radio and the cooking blogs that really focus on that make sure you're constantly giving them new recipes, constantly giving them new insights and tips on holiday cooking.
If that is your expertise. And you do that often enough, then every time they mentioned your book, the beginning of the end. Over time, you'll build a following And you will sell books. But I have to stress, the danger. There was a time in the 1970s or so well, you could sort of write a book, have a big publisher, promoting it, maybe you hire a publicist, do a two month book, tour book campaign, do a whole bunch of interviews about your book, sell a whole lot. And then go about your business and academia business and you're not doing anything for the next three years.
No interviews until you get an idea for another book. That model really doesn't work anymore. It just doesn't work and people who try it, fail miserably. publicity is not something you can turn on and off anymore. You have to build a fan base. You have to build real expertise and relationship with the audience.
A good example my colleague, Dan pointer, and you'll interviews with him. Later on in this course, he is the guru of self publishing. He's been self publishing since the 1960s. He's written a lot of great books on the subject. And he's in the media of that he'll, he's the first person anyone in the media will go to now, self publishing isn't something that's going to be on nine o'clock at night on CNN, MSNBC and Fox News every night. But when there are stories about self publishing, Dan pointers there and when there are blogs that want to write about, he's there.
And he's speaking at National Speakers Association, conferences all over the country and chapters all over the place. And he's doing media interviews everywhere. This is an area of expertise. He writes books about it, he speaks on it, he does lectures on it. As webinars, he is everywhere on that subject matter. And that's why you go to any bookstore in the country and you're gonna find books by the hand pointer on self publishing.
That's the sort of campaign you need. Long term consistency. Focus on your expertise and people will seek out your book. That's what happened to me yesterday, a publicist said to me, I've got a client who's got to self publish a book quickly, maybe on Amazon. How do I do it? Well, I can tell I could sit there and write a three page memo for this person.
Why did I do I was lazy. So I went to Amazon I found Dan pointers book and I just send them links that get this guy he's the expert. That's what you want to be in your field by the way, not getting any commissions from Dan pointer. That's how you want to be you want to be the go to guy or gal for your subject matter. And you want to be the go to person for reporters, talk show host Booker's project losers and the public. That's how you sell books through the media.
It's not just a nice review in your local newspaper anymore, because if you checked your local newspaper, they fired their book reviewer a year or two ago, or perhaps longer ago than that. That's not how people sell books in the media anymore. You sell books by being a regular constant presence in the media, sharing your expertise. So you have to lead with your expertise. Don't lead with your book. The book may be a hook to give you a little more credibility to get the booking the book, maybe something that they put on the Cairon as they label you.
But the book is not really what you're talking about. You're talking about the expertise and then occasionally, a soft sell mention of the book and what you're after. Is the host, the reporter, the interviewer, whoever is Doing that mentioning your book, ideally the beginning and the end. So, please keep in mind, nobody cares about your book, except you and your immediate family. They do care about your expertise. Give them enough value.
Give them enough of a taste of your expertise and they will want to buy your book