Before an author gets that all-important magazine, newspaper or radio interview, an interviewer will probably spend time perusing their author media kit. For this reason, book press kits are really important to your book marketing efforts! There are lot of companies that offer services to build your media kit for you, and they can cost as much as $1,200. While those services are probably worth it, we tried to save you some time and money by building a world-class editable media kit (if you are ready to go ahead and download it, you can skip straight to it).
Who to write for
As authors, we are used to focusing on what our readers want, need and think, but when it comes to your media kit you have to adjust your thinking. Your Author media kit is not for your readers but for journalists, bloggers, book store owners and anyone else who might want to feature your book within their sphere of influence. So to appeal to media and thought leaders alike, you are going to need to tell them why your book matters to them and their audience. What benefits would they see if they featured your book or interviewed you? Think of your media kit more as a presentation for investors than a tool to grab a new reader.
The truth is that there are over 4,000 new books each day competing for shelf space, and you have to address why your book is unique. Here are a few of the things that could possibly help you stand out among the crowd of authors. If any of these apply to you, it is worth mentioning in your press kit:
• Does your book have local appeal to a specific area?
• Is your topic of interest to multiple large demographics?
• Is your book groundbreaking or extraordinary in any way?
• Are you a leader or expert in the field you are writing about?
Accessibility
As an author you should always have your book media kit ready for anyone who asks. You can easily put a link to your online press kit on a business card so you can point offline contacts to your complete media kit. For this reason, you will definitely want your entire media kit on your website, but you also want to provide a PDF version so those who are interested can easily print it out. If you do have people who request a printed media kit, make sure that you print it out professionally on quality presentation paper.
Keep it current
For most authors the path to author success is a winding journey, so it is important to update your media kit as you hit notable milestones. Things like winning an award, receiving an endorsement from a leading expert, or recently being on a television talk show are all things that you would want to add. These types of social proof should be added whenever you receive them, because they prove to media that you will be a good investment of their time.
Items to include in your kit
There are many items you can add to your media kit, and should evaluate each item that you include and make sure it will be useful to the media your are trying to reach. It is bad to have a media kit that is only 2 pages, but it is equally unadvisable to have have a 30-page document for journalists to wade through! Most of the things below should either take up a half or a whole page. Some things that you could include are:
• Contact information
• Professional bio written in third person
• Basic book info including formats available, price and ISBN number
• Book bio
• High resolution head shots in both color and black and white
• High resolution cover image
• Locations where your book can be found both online and offline
• List of previous books
• Endorsements or testimonials
• Target audience demographics
• Story ideas for journalists
• Possible interview questions
• Book excerpt
• Behind the book (where the idea for the book came from)
• Page on why your book is important or relevant
Our gift to you
You can download our editable media kit below. It is easy to change and delete sections all using Microsoft Word!