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 Paula Rizzo. Paula is an award winning television producer, best selling author of Listful Thinking and Listful Living. She's a media training coach, speaker, LinkedIn learning instructor, host of live stream show Inside Scoop, and creator of the popular online training, Media Ready Author. She also writes a regular column for Reader's Digest and is an on air contributor to WPIX in New York City. Paula, what an absolute pleasure it is to welcome you to the show, and thank you for being this week's guest expert and mentor.
Paula Rizzo [00:01:03]:
I'm thrilled. How exciting to be here.
Susan Friedmann [00:01:06]:
Paula, you are a true pro in the media world. And as you know, authors don't really understand that. It's sort of got a bit of a mystique about it. They don't quite know. They want the media to pay attention to them, but they don't really know how to go about getting the attention the right way. Let's dig in and see what we can do to help them do it the right way.
Paula Rizzo [00:01:38]:
Sure. Yes. Absolutely. It's an interesting conundrum for authors because we're used to writing and having the work speak for itself, but that's just not enough. You need to use and leverage the media to get it out there and a lot of times be on camera or audio, or things that don't feel comfortable as an author. So it definitely is a challenge.
Susan Friedmann [00:01:58]:
It is. And somehow, authors think, well, I wrote the book, so you have to want to need to interview me. Whereas the media are like, Why?
Paula Rizzo [00:02:11]:
Yes. Right. We're not here to market your book. Thank you very much. Yeah. And I think a lot of times people will think, oh, you know, the interviewer will definitely read the book. Most of the time, they won't have time to read the entire book. And that's something that people, I think, don't realize.
Paula Rizzo [00:02:25]:
The quickness, especially for television news, quickness of these segments, they're very fast paced and done and over with before you even realize it's happening. Podcasts, you have the luxury of a little bit more time to get through your comments and your thoughts and have a real conversation. But TV is not like that.
Susan Friedmann [00:02:42]:
That's a a great segue into sort of talking about some of the misconceptions out there with regard to the media. And even for how do you get them to pay attention to you? Let's dig in and talk about that.
Paula Rizzo [00:02:57]:
Well, you do have to tell them that you're there. And I think that's one of the biggest misconceptions that a lot of times authors think, oh, they'll find me. Oh, they just pluck people out of wherever and put them on their shows, and that's how it works. And, yeah, sometimes it does. You know, as a television producer for close to twenty years, I did a lot of research. I found a lot of great experts through searches and seeing what other media they had been on, which is an important tip. You know, media begets media. So as soon as you do one thing, hopefully, that will snowball into other opportunities.
Paula Rizzo [00:03:27]:
But you do need to, as an author, as an expert, pitch the media. Continually be producing your own content, whether that be a blog or a podcast or webinars or whatever it is, to showcase your expertise, especially for nonfiction authors, to show, hey, I'm doing this every day. I I know how to do it. And being able to then use that content to feed the media cycle. So I am always writing my own content first. I have an idea, blog, oh, you know, I should write something on that. I write it. I put it out there.
Paula Rizzo [00:03:59]:
And so often, those pieces of content have then become pitches that I take and I send to the media. Right? So for instance, I had done a piece oh my gosh. I think it was in 02/2016, a long time ago. I put it on my website, and it was like, what is your list making personality or something like that. Right? Because my books are all about lists and productivity, and it was a fun little piece. And so I recently was looking for something to pitch to WPIX. As you mentioned, I I do a lot of segments for them. And I was like, you know what? This was a fun one.
Paula Rizzo [00:04:32]:
It's like, what animal what's your spirit animal when it comes to list making and productivity? So we dug that up, and we redid it. And it was such a fun segment, but it's something I had done years ago. So you just need to keep mining all of that content that you have and repurpose and reuse it.
Susan Friedmann [00:04:47]:
Yes. You said getting it out there, letting them know about it. But what's the right way to let people know?
Paula Rizzo [00:04:55]:
Pitching is really important to be in the inbox at the right time. The way that I teach it is to have a pitch that has three elements. The hook, the twist, and the takeaway. So the hook is why now? When I pitched that story, it was the beginning of the year, new year, new you. You know, everybody's starting to think of how they can be more productive in the beginning of the year. Then what's the twist? How is this different than everything else that we've heard about it? Right? Pairing up, you know, spirit animals with your productivity style was a little inventive, so they like that. And then the takeaway. So, okay, I found out what my animal is.
Paula Rizzo [00:05:33]:
What do I do about it? So what? What does that mean? So what is the takeaway? Literally, what do you do tomorrow? How do you make your life different? That is what producers are looking for, those three elements, because they only really care about their audience. They don't care about your book. They don't care about your brand. They don't care about any of that stuff. They don't wanna be your marketer. They wanna know what will my audience take away from this segment with you or from this interview. And that's the most important part. So to be thinking about their audience even more than you're thinking of yourself or your own book.
Susan Friedmann [00:06:05]:
And I think that's the hardest thing for authors to do Because they see the book and then, you know, it's got a title. And they think, oh, well, you've got to know what this is about, or you've got to be interested in it. And they want you to do the work rather than the other way around. I love this, making it very easy, the hook, the twist, the takeaway. Wow. That couldn't be much easier.
Paula Rizzo [00:06:32]:
Yeah. And I think it's also about putting yourself out there. A lot of times people are afraid to do it. And look, you're going to get rejected. It happens. You may not hear anything back, and that's okay. Having a conversation, starting that dialogue with someone in the media is just as important as actually getting booked. Being able to then be their go to expert, that comes with time.
Paula Rizzo [00:06:53]:
That's something that you build that relationship over time. But being available is really important too. I think that's sometimes that will happen where they'll say, okay. Great. We wanna do this. Can you do it tomorrow? Do it today? And people then get scared and say no. And then guess what? They'll just do the segment without you with somebody else. That's just what happens.
Susan Friedmann [00:07:10]:
How do you start that relationship?
Paula Rizzo [00:07:12]:
It really is about giving them what they need. Being available, being able to show them that you're not there to pitch your book. Yes. You'll be identified as the author of such and such book, but it almost doesn't matter if you even talk about things that are in the book. Like, that animal thing I was just telling you about was not in my book. My book was written ten years ago. I didn't talk about that in in the book. It doesn't matter.
Paula Rizzo [00:07:36]:
I'm the expert on productivity and list making. And so, you know, they identify me as the author of that book, and it's fine. That's another big misconception. People think, oh, I can only talk about the things that are in the book, or I don't wanna give away too much. Oh, my gosh. Give it all away. Right? You want people to want more, and they will. You don't wanna think that, oh, I I gave away too much.
Paula Rizzo [00:07:56]:
A lot of times people think, oh, I wanted to to make sure that they're intrigued to do more or to read more or to buy the book. They will be. They have to fall in love with you. You have to be the one out there giving them the information that they want and they need. And it almost doesn't even matter what the book is about. They're like, oh, we love that person. Consistently doing media, producing your own content is very important to show that you are a producer of this content and you're the expert in this field. But I think also I'm trying to think back to when I was a producer, the best experts that I had were the ones who had their eye out for me in their own realm.
Paula Rizzo [00:08:31]:
So let's say it was a psychologist who was like, hey. This is popping up again and again. This theme keeps coming up. You know, maybe there's a story here. Somebody who sort of was my eyes and ears in other places that I wouldn't have known that. I'm not seeing patients. You know what I mean? I wouldn't know that that's a trend now that's happening in in the health world or whatever it is. So to be a resource, that's really the most important part.
Susan Friedmann [00:08:53]:
So when people think about or authors think about the media, they think about the big shows, you know. Yeah. Good Morning America and things that they feel that everyone watches and they have to be on that. But I believe that that's an error. Correct?
Paula Rizzo [00:09:12]:
Mhmm. Yes. I mean, it's good for your ego.
Susan Friedmann [00:09:14]:
It's very good for your ego. It doesn't mean it's going to sell books.
Paula Rizzo [00:09:18]:
No. It will not sell books. It won't. I've had many clients and friends and people who are on the Today Show and GMA and all the big ones and did not sell any books truly from it or very few. That's more for, you know, the cache and to be able to put it on your website and to say that you were associated with that show, which is awesome. And, And, again, media begets media. So if you go somewhere else and say, hey. Well, I was on GMA talking about it.
Paula Rizzo [00:09:41]:
Wow. That's a big credential. But it's not necessarily gonna equal book sales, and that's a big misconception for people. But, also, look, you're not gonna start with GMA. You're not gonna start with Today Show. When I media train experts, it's like, let's get you ready for author panels, for podcasts, for magazine interviews, and then for television, for local news, and then to work your way up. They probably won't book you if you're brand new, so you do need to sort of work your way up. And there needs to be something that really works for those audiences.
Paula Rizzo [00:10:13]:
Again, a lot of times people say, oh, I wanna be on that show or I wanna be on the show. Okay. Have you watched the show? Do you know who the audience is? Do you know if they do those kinds of segments? That's the thing that people don't realize, that it really doesn't matter if you have the best book in the world or the most interesting book or whatever. If it doesn't align with their audience, it's an instant no.
Susan Friedmann [00:10:32]:
One of the things that I often mention to authors is don't forget your local media.
Paula Rizzo [00:10:38]:
Yeah.
Susan Friedmann [00:10:38]:
They're far hungrier than the national shows because everybody's falling all over themselves to be in the national media. But locally, you could be an expert in your own town.
Paula Rizzo [00:10:54]:
And now you can do it virtually. You know, you don't even have to go to the studio. The segments I do with Pixel 11, I'm in New York, and I don't go to the studio. I do it from home because my studio is set up. I'm ready. They know I can be there when they need me to, and all that works great. The landscape has been really broadened through the years now that everybody knows how to use video equipment and lighting and all that. You know, the pandemic did us a sort of favor in that way to get people ready for their close-up, so to speak.
Paula Rizzo [00:11:22]:
But local media is great, and the thing that's wonderful is that you get to practice. You get to work out, you know, being hopefully, it's live or whatever it is. That's a whole other thing. What if something goes wrong? What if you have to answer a question that you don't know the answer to? I mean, these are all things that I train and teach people to do because it happens. You know, it's like improv. You have to sort of just roll with the punches and keep going. The other piece of this too is that you never know where those producers will go, which is why it's always important to say yes. Even if you think, oh, it's just a small blog or, oh, it's just a, you know, podcast or whatever.
Paula Rizzo [00:11:57]:
You never know who will hear it and you never know where those producers will end up. Maybe they'll get a job at GMA. Maybe they'll get, you know, a job at the Today Show at some point. And then they'll say, you know who is a great expert who I really wanna interview? And they'll bring you along with them.
Susan Friedmann [00:12:10]:
It's funny that you should say that because locally, our NPR station, Brian Mann, was one of the interviewers. He does documentaries, and all of a sudden now, he's nationwide. He won awards, and he got hired nationally. And I'm like, wow. This is somebody who we knew locally and who we went to for doing segments on some activity that we were doing locally. And it's like, Wow. Yes. That does happen.
Susan Friedmann [00:12:43]:
You're absolutely right. You just don't know where people are going to land up. And everyone knows somebody. Yes.
Paula Rizzo [00:12:50]:
And that's the thing too is that once you start to help the media, because that's how I look at it, to be of service. Media, I think, is a public service to be able to to help people in whatever category your expertise is. You go at it from the place of service to be helpful, not to sell books. Yes. Do we wanna sell books? Yes. Of course. I get it. Right? Of course.
Paula Rizzo [00:13:12]:
But you go in there to be helpful, to say, here's what I know. Here's how I can help you live your life differently. When you do that, those producers and editors will love you because they'll say, oh, this isn't just somebody who's, like, looking to sell something. And then they all talk. You know, I used to share my contacts with other producers as well. They say, oh, do you have somebody who could talk about this? Do you have somebody who could oh, yeah. I have somebody who's great. Call this person.
Paula Rizzo [00:13:35]:
So producers and editors talk to each other and, you know what I mean, the good one that they talk about.
Susan Friedmann [00:13:41]:
Yeah. I like the way you said that because, yes, they do ask and it's always the same people you see as being the experts in the area. And you're like, there are other experts. People who said to me, oh, I can do what they do. Totally. How do you get on that list?
Paula Rizzo [00:13:59]:
But do you know why? It's because those people who are always there show up time and time again. They're feeding the beast. They're like, hey. I got another idea. Hey. I saw this. What do you think of that? It makes it easy for the producer or the editor to say yes. They show up.
Paula Rizzo [00:14:13]:
They're on time. They know what they're talking about. They're good on camera. That's an instant yes. You wanna be that person that's the easy guest. You don't have to worry about them. You know that they'll be great on camera. You know they'll come up with something good to say.
Paula Rizzo [00:14:26]:
It'll be fun. I had experts like that for years that it would be like, you know what? What do you wanna talk about? What what do you got? And they would be like, oh, what about this? Okay. Great. Fine. Because I knew they would be good. And that made my life so much easier.
Susan Friedmann [00:14:38]:
I love that perspective of saying that it's a public service. I'd never sort of thought of it like that. But, yes, you're providing information. You're helping. You're making their life easier. The easier you make their life, as you said, they're gonna love you and want you back again.
Paula Rizzo [00:14:57]:
Yeah.
Susan Friedmann [00:14:57]:
You're pitching ideas to them. Let's go right back to the beginning. I'm a brand new author, and I want to get some media. I want to get involved with the media. Where do I start?
Paula Rizzo [00:15:11]:
Start before your book comes out. People say, oh, I'll do media when my book comes out. And I say, it's too late. It's not too late. I'm being facetious. But you should be doing it well before. Even when you're writing the book or the proposal or starting to come up with the ideas and sort of put yourself out there, that's what I did. And it was so helpful to me because I was able to then learn what people like to hear.
Paula Rizzo [00:15:36]:
You know? It was sort of like being a stand up comedian where you go to the the local small clubs, and you're like, let me try out some of these jokes and see if anybody laughs, see what happens. I was doing that. I was pitching myself as an expert in part, but not really that. Let's see what we can do here. So for me, it was really crowdsourcing almost in a way, and then building those relationships. So then when I did have a book, they said, oh, yeah. Of course. Great.
Paula Rizzo [00:16:06]:
Let's have you on. Because they already knew that I could do what they needed me to do. And it was almost like less pressure, I think, too, because there wasn't book to sell. You know? There wasn't like, oh my gosh. It's the launch. And the launch gets so much excitement. And, look, I work with lots of authors getting them ready for their book launches, and it's exciting and it's wonderful. But it's not the end all and be all.
Paula Rizzo [00:16:28]:
You will have that book for the rest of your life. And so you need to think about, okay, beyond the launch, how will I continue to talk about this? How will I keep getting it out there? And I think it's something that I've tried to do. You know, my first book came out ten years ago. I still talk about that book. And I still am out there. You have to be your book's biggest advocate from beginning to end and even before it exists.
Susan Friedmann [00:16:50]:
Which I also love to hear because so many authors come to me and say, Will you sell my book for me? Will you market my book for me? And I'm like, Nobody can do it the way you can do it. Oh, Nobody loved your book the way you love your book. Or your subject matter. Yes. Who's the best person to market your book? Definitely you.
Paula Rizzo [00:17:15]:
I know. It's not what people want us here. They want the easy button. They wanna say, oh, good. Here. Just drop this in here, and then everybody will buy the book. Wonderful. But that's just not the way.
Paula Rizzo [00:17:24]:
You really have to be the one to do it.
Susan Friedmann [00:17:25]:
Then it's, who do I start getting in touch with? I mean, do I start locally? Where do I start?
Paula Rizzo [00:17:33]:
Yeah. It's to start looking and watching and actually seeing what kind of segments do they have on. I know in New York, watching and actually seeing what kind of segments do they have on. I know in New York, there's local shows that have book clubs. They actually have like, on the morning show, they'll have, like, a book of the month or whatever it is. How do you pitch your book to that? But just see, okay. That's a platform. That's a place where you could go.
Paula Rizzo [00:17:53]:
You don't wanna pitch where they don't want you. Right? You wanna make sure that it's aligned. So you have to watch. You have to read the magazines. You have to listen. A good trick is to look at the advertisers for those shows. So watch the commercials and see, what are these commercials about? What is the demographic that they're trying to reach? Because those are the people who are watching the show. That is the audience that those producers and editors care about.
Paula Rizzo [00:18:20]:
That is it. So if it's things for women, that audience is women. If you have something that will appeal to women, absolutely pitch it there. Looking at media in a different way and then also thinking through as news happens, as things show up in the media and will this happen with the celebrity or it's the Super Bowl or it's Valentine's Day? How could you spin whatever it is that your expertise is on that on that news hook? Because that's what they're looking for, especially in in television and radio. What's timely? That's that hook. How can you talk about something right now that matters? Not, oh, it's evergreen, and we can do it whenever, which is good too, but there needs to be some urgency.
Susan Friedmann [00:19:02]:
Yes. And tying it in with a holiday or some other kind of celebration, as you say, an event. Yeah. Honing it in on on a particular subject. Where does your material fit into this? Looking at things a little differently. Yeah.
Paula Rizzo [00:19:21]:
And doing it for yourself too, though. You know, it doesn't have to always be a media pitch. You could say, okay, this is gonna be my writing prompt. I'm gonna try to come up with some things that are related. And as you start to get better at it, then you'll say, okay. Maybe I can pitch this. Maybe I can start working towards it. But it is a different kind of mindset.
Susan Friedmann [00:19:36]:
And then who at the media would you pitch?
Paula Rizzo [00:19:39]:
Well, you do have to find the contacts, which is why publicist is great. So publicist has those contacts, and there are no guarantees, of course. Even though they have the contacts, doesn't mean that the producers or editors are gonna say yes to them. That's good when you have a book launch. But when you're doing things outside of that, you can absolutely find who to pitch, Twitter or x. There's a lot of journalists there who are sometimes looking for experts. So you wanna follow them, see what kinds of things they do, who wrote the article. That's a lot easier if it's a magazine article or it's a blog or something on the web.
Paula Rizzo [00:20:12]:
Because you can see the person's name, you can look for them, you can find them maybe on LinkedIn, connect with them there. That's easier. TV is not as easy, obviously, because they don't publish the names anywhere for the most part. You do sort of have to do some investigative journalism. I loved LinkedIn as a producer to find experts and to connect with people, but not everyone does. You may hit or miss there, but if you wanna pitch your local television station, literally just call them and ask, who's the person to send pitches to for x y z show? Because it used to be that they were very precious about people's email addresses and giving them out. Now they want them. That's the thing that I think is a big misconception.
Paula Rizzo [00:20:52]:
People think, oh, I'm bothering them, and they don't wanna hear from me. They do wanna hear from you. Every producer and editor wants to find the next big thing. They want great experts. They want great stories. They want to look good at what they do. They wanna be the one who's, oh, I found so and so. They're the one.
Paula Rizzo [00:21:08]:
They're looking for you. And if you reframe it that way, it's also less intimidating.
Susan Friedmann [00:21:14]:
Would this pitch be in the form of an a press release? Would this be in the form of an email? How would this pitch even get started?
Paula Rizzo [00:21:22]:
Yeah. An email. I would keep it as short as possible. Fifteen seconds to sort of skim and get it. Bullet points, a little bit about you. And you wanna make sure that they understand exactly what it is that you're pitching, and there's no questions. Because if there's a question, if they don't really get it, it's a no. They're not even gonna reply back to you.
Paula Rizzo [00:21:42]:
They're just gonna go to the next thing. You wanna catch their eye. Think about magazine articles and the headlines or newspaper articles. That headline is your subject line. How can you grab the attention right away? Because you don't have much time. But the follow-up is sometimes even more important than the actual first pitch. And I know that for myself as a producer, I was very organized. I had a lot of lists.
Paula Rizzo [00:22:03]:
I knew what I wanted to do. I knew who I wanted to interview. And sometimes I would miss things. I was always very happy when an expert would follow back up or a publicist would follow back up and just say, oh, you know, hey. I just was wondering if this resonated with you or whatever it is. And I'd say, oh my gosh. That's right. I did wanna do something with this.
Paula Rizzo [00:22:21]:
You do need to follow-up. That sometimes is even more important than the first time
Susan Friedmann [00:22:25]:
out. And what about after the event? The thank you, the getting back to the person, keeping in touch with them. How often would you even go about doing this?
Paula Rizzo [00:22:36]:
Look, I worked in television news for twenty years, and I can count on one hand how many thank you notes I got after a segment. People just move on and do not care. They're like, oh, good. I got on TV. Next. And they it's very transactional. The people who kept in touch with me, who treated me like a person, who were nice, those were the ones I went back to. This is a relationship that you're starting with someone, so you definitely it doesn't have to be a handwritten note or whatever it is, but be gracious.
Paula Rizzo [00:23:05]:
This person helped you out. You know, yes, you helped them. You definitely helped them to fill something in their show, but you definitely wanna follow-up with them. And then as you have new ideas, you can pitch them or ask to pitch. That's what I do a lot of times too. Like, if it's a brand new contact for me or someone who's just interviewed me, I'll say, hey. How do you like to get pitches? Or how should I get in touch with you next time I have an idea? Or that kind of thing. It's nice sometimes for them to hear that as opposed to just being bombarded with your next thought.
Paula Rizzo [00:23:31]:
Do you want it to be about them and really have that relationship be both ways? You know, to be able to say, hey. If you get anything that you need to comment on about x y z thing, please think of me. But you need to then continue to be in their inbox because they will forget about you because the next shiny object will show up. And TV news works so fast that they don't have time sometimes to even remember half the people that they know. So it's like if something in the news happens and you're available and you can speak to it, let them know. Don't assume that they're gonna say, oh, yeah. That person was so great. Let's go back to them.
Paula Rizzo [00:24:04]:
Let them know you're available.
Susan Friedmann [00:24:06]:
Really, the ball is in your court. Because so often, I think authors think, oh, well, it's the media's responsibility, and I'm bothering them. I don't want to bother them because they're so busy.
Paula Rizzo [00:24:19]:
No. You should. It's about making their lives easier, giving them everything that they need, being available. But also, look, it might not work for right now. It might not be a thing that they need. But I often would go back to my inbox If I needed an expert, I'd be like, okay. Is there a cardiologist who just, you know, recently pitched me or something? And I would put in cardiologist and look at them and be like, okay. Here's a few.
Paula Rizzo [00:24:41]:
Let's see if they're available. That's how I would do it sometimes. Just being in the inbox could be enough sometimes. They might not get back to you right away, but eventually, maybe.
Susan Friedmann [00:24:50]:
Yeah. It's so disconcerting though, because you expect a response. And if you don't get one, you're like, oh, well, they're not interested. That's your first thinking, you know. The negative, it's like, oh, I'm bothering them, you know.
Paula Rizzo [00:25:02]:
Yes. And you won't get a response. You know? It's very rare unless they're interested. They just don't have enough time. You're getting thousands of pitches literally a day, and everybody wants to be on their show. Everybody you know? It's a lot. So you wanna be the one that's easy for them, an easy yes.
Susan Friedmann [00:25:17]:
Are press releases still alive? I mean, do people still use them? Does the media still pay attention to them?
Paula Rizzo [00:25:25]:
I was over press releases ten years ago. They still exist. They're still out there. They still get sent. They still serve a purpose. But as a producer, I found them to be not the most effective way to initiate a pitch. I thought they were always good as follow-up information if I wanted more information, if I wanted something else. For me, I wanted, like, a short, pithy, quick pitch.
Paula Rizzo [00:25:51]:
And then it's like, oh, okay. Cool. This is interesting, or I wanna know more about that person, or let me know more about the product, and then send the press release. That's how I found it to be useful. But that's for television, and that was me. You know, everybody's a little bit different. If I was a magazine editor or I was writing for a newspaper, that becomes a little bit more interesting to me because there's quotes in there that I could possibly lift right out of the press release and use for my piece if I needed to. You know, if I was doing something really fast and I needed to do that.
Paula Rizzo [00:26:18]:
So I think it depends on who you're sending it to and how they'll use it. Because for television, there's not really much I can do with that. I was like, okay, well, you told me what this person said, but I need to get them on camera saying it.
Susan Friedmann [00:26:31]:
I've got two, three minutes on camera. Sound bites. Yeah. Being ready with a sound bite. Talk to us about that.
Paula Rizzo [00:26:39]:
It is so important, and everyone thinks this is what happens. They say, oh, I'll be great. I'll be fine. Let me just you know, I talk about this topic all the time. And then they go on and on and on, and they don't get to the point. The way that I teach it is what I call the accordion method, to have a short, a medium, and a long answer to any question that you'll be asked. And then that way, you really come out of the gate with a really powerful response. Thinking in headlines.
Paula Rizzo [00:27:06]:
Like, what is one sentence headline to whatever question that you'll be asked? And to really think through, okay, here's some questions that they might ask me or even sending questions saying, here's some questions that you can ask me or that I'll be prepared for. And they may not ask those questions even if you send them over. Doesn't mean anything. But having a short, a medium, and a long answer is really helpful and also really front loading the information. So having that headline point be the statement, be the conclusion. A lot of times, authors, writers, you know, we're used to writing something and then having the conclusion at the end, the wrap up. This is what it is. But for especially for television, for audio, you wanna give that information right up front.
Paula Rizzo [00:27:46]:
Don't tease it. Tell me right off the bat what it is. Just come out and really be powerful with your responses.
Susan Friedmann [00:27:52]:
And at what point would you even talk about your book if you would even mention your book? I don't know.
Paula Rizzo [00:27:59]:
Well, that's the thing. You have to assume, hopefully, that they will identify you as the author of this book when they introduce you. I would say that that you wrote this book and maybe, you know, at the bottom, there's a graphic and it says your name and the book. Great. You don't have to go overboard talking about it. But you can say things like, as I mentioned in my book or there's an entire chapter about x y z thing. You know what your talking points are. So that's part of the sound bite too.
Paula Rizzo [00:28:24]:
Sound bite is saying something in a quick and effective way, but the talking points are what you're going to say. What are those points that you wanna get across? Being able to have that at the ready where you could say, okay. Well, when I talk about self care, I'm gonna mention that there's an exercise in the book for self care. So I know when I start talking about that topic that I have that kinda to anchor back to and say, in the book, actually, I do have a whole exercise that you can do. It's very whatever. You know, whatever you you happen to do. But you can tie those to your soundbites as well in a way that's not overly market y or sales y because that is not what the media wants. They do not want somebody that comes in there and is talking about, oh, well, it's in the book.
Paula Rizzo [00:29:06]:
You gotta buy the book. I'd love to tell you, but you should just buy the book. That's the worst. Never do that.
Susan Friedmann [00:29:12]:
There is that fear that you're giving something away, and I think you mentioned that earlier, is that how much do I give away? And I I love the fact that you say just let it go. Just Yeah.
Paula Rizzo [00:29:23]:
Give it.
Susan Friedmann [00:29:23]:
Give them as much as you can.
Paula Rizzo [00:29:25]:
Yeah. They think, oh my gosh. Look, if this is what she's giving away for free, I wonder what the paid version is like. I really wanna see the rest of the book.
Susan Friedmann [00:29:32]:
Exactly. And I think there's a fear factor there that, oh, I'm giving it two away, and I don't want people to know because if they did, they won't buy the book or Right.
Paula Rizzo [00:29:42]:
I think it's different for fiction. Right? You're not gonna give away the ending. Okay. Definitely not. But looking at this, changing the mindset, coming from a place of abundance rather than scarcity, being of service, thinking how can I help them, all of these mindset switches really just help to make it less intimidating?
Susan Friedmann [00:30:00]:
Yes. As you say, it's taking that fear out of the intimidation of it. Because things that we don't know and understand, we think are, like, so foreign, and we don't know how to maneuver in a strange land. Yes. So this is super helpful, Paula. And this is a great segue for you to share how our listeners can find out more about you and your services and your book and whatever you want to share with them. Take it away.
Paula Rizzo [00:30:34]:
Oh, wonderful. Well, thank you. Well, I do have a freebie that I think will be helpful as you're thinking through your own media, and it's called the 10 Questions Every Author Needs to Answer in the Media. So if you go to paularizzo.com/10q, you can get that. And then you can find me on LinkedIn. I'm I'm a LinkedIn learning instructor, so I do have some courses on there as well. And, yeah, if you are interested in perhaps talking about media training and coaching and, you know, your book launch that's coming out, if you go to SpeakwithPaula.com, there is a questionnaire there if you're interested in working together one on one. Yeah.
Paula Rizzo [00:31:11]:
I love supporting authors because it's just for me as an author, it's so nice to be able to share my own experience, but then also see what happens for other people too. Every experience is a little bit different. Every launch is a little bit different. It should be fun. I don't want you to dread having to do media or be on camera or any of that. I wanna help people as much as I can to get out there because people need to hear what you have to say, and they won't hear it unless you're the one to say it.
Susan Friedmann [00:31:40]:
Yes. I think that's so important is if you don't tell them, they don't know.
Paula Rizzo [00:31:45]:
Definitely.
Susan Friedmann [00:31:46]:
Yes. Paula, we always have our guests leave our listeners with a golden nugget. What's yours?
Paula Rizzo [00:31:55]:
Start before you think you're ready. I think that is truly if you push yourself, you'll say, oh, that wasn't so bad. That wasn't so bad. Just throw something out there and see. See what happens. Maybe nothing happens, and that's okay. But it's just the act of doing, of starting this process, of starting to say, you know what? This is something that's important for me and for my career as an author. I'm I'm gonna start.
Susan Friedmann [00:32:18]:
Beautiful. There's so much here, listeners. This is another treasure trove, and I think it would be really important to go back and go over so much of this great information that Paula has shared with us. Really appreciate this. And it's one of those subjects that we could be talking for hours, I know, about. Yes. You'll have to come back and just share more. I love it.
Susan Friedmann [00:32:44]:
Because I know yes. Going into the media training, I think that would be very helpful. I don't think people realize the importance of that, and as you say, the book launch. So I know you and I could be talking a lot more about these things. But for now, I thank you for sharing your wisdom.
And listeners, if your book isn't selling the way you wanted or expected 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. Go to Book Marketing Brainstorm 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 Paula:
10 Questions Every Author Needs to Answer in the Media
LinkedIn.
SpeakwithPaula.com