Know Thy Audience

Who's reading your book?

This is one of those tricky questions -- the answer seems SO obvious, but the answer may be more elusive than you think.

Books enter the market in a unique and largely untested way. There are generally no focus groups or beta testers. And while no one would dream of launching a computer game, a new line of low-fat snacks or a snazzy new sneaker without extensive market research, every year 6,000 business books hit the shelves exactly that way -- based on one author's vision, one editor's belief and one publishing company's faith that they will find a market.

Sometimes it seems a wonder that books EVER work.

But, they do ...sometimes magically by word of mouth alone, more often with a long, hard, concerted effort by author, publisher, lecture agent, publicist and every other advocate of the written word working together.

Authors have an impressive sense of mission and perseverance. They are so compelled to share an idea, a message, a theory or an opinion, that they are willing to commit untold hours to putting that message on paper in the form of a book. But somewhere during the deep drive required to churn out 60,000 words on a subject, many authors lose sight of their core audience.

Without truly knowing the core audience for the book, it is impossible to reach them. That spells missed opportunity across the board.

Within the business genre where our firm works lies a raft of categories-- leadership, management, branding, personal finance, economics, and so on. It's unlikely that someone trying to shore up their bank statement will go shopping for "Finance 101" and end up buying "101 Ways to Lead Your Company" instead. And herein lies the danger.

If everyone who dabbles in the stock market is a target market, you should be reaching out to CNBC, Bloomberg, Fox News Channel, "Marketplace," Investor's Business Daily, Kiplinger's Personal Finance and dozens of other media outlets designed to appeal to just that group. A management theory book is more likely to score ink in Chief Executive, strategy+business and Carol Hymowitz's column in the Wall Street Journal than on "The Today Show."

This may all seem elementary, but I consider it the biggest blind spot in publishing. And while I am a paid champion of the written word, I dismiss many a project when an author has a distinct disconnect between a book's intended audience and his media goals.

When you write your media wish list, ask yourself these questions

What daily newspapers do I read every day and what sections in those newspapers pertain to my industry?

Where do I see books reviewed or covered that influence me to buy them?

What are the top 5 websites bookmarked on my computer that have any coverage of books whatsoever?

What does my book add to the discussion of this subject?

These questions will give you a realistic hit list for your book, if you can keep it honest. Oh, and discard any of the guilty pleasures on your reading list too. People.com is loads of fun during conference calls but unless Katie or Tom or Paris is cited clutching a copy of your book, the chances are weak that your business book will rate coverage here.

It's all About the Book

When I decided to start my own publicity firm, my 7 year old son was POSITIVE that this would be a snap. "It's easy," he piped up from the dinner table, "just pick the ones that will be bestsellers!" Sure thing, kiddo. And when I figure out how to do that, I'll probably ditch it all to become a stockbroker since picking those winners is likely to be a lot more lucrative.

Selecting the books our firm will work on for a given season or year is my biggest challenge. It is also the part of my job that I love most deeply and treasure the most. Mine is a life-long love affair with books beginning the day I got my first library card when I was 4 years old. My father signed for it after I could climb in his lap and read to him from The Chicago Tribune. I feel the same way today - lulled by the feel and touch of a book and of the power of words to teach me something or take me into a world which I might otherwise never know.

When the manuscripts begin to come in and the discussions with authors get underway, the subjectivity of the publishing business always hits me full in the face. I love it, but will anyone else? Does this author really have something new and different to say about China or marketing or change management? In many ways, these are the same decisions that an editor faces, although I am lucky enough to see books that have already found a publishing home. That is some indication that someone liked the idea.

But there are thousands of books published in a single year, and I am in the business of working on publicity for perhaps a dozen or so. The books I select will become my sole focus for at least six months and I will live with the decisions and books for each of those days as I work to bring the book to the media's attention. I have learned that every author can deliver a truly stunning and fascinating 15 minutes on their book. This makes perfect sense given that they have generally spent a year or so of their lives writing on this one subject. And then it is time to start reading. If I hit page 25 without checking the page count, that's a good sign. If I am re-reading page four for the 6th time because I am positive I missed something, not so good. And then there are the magic moments, the times I wake up in the wee hours thinking about something I read or even having fallen asleep amid the manuscript pages because it was so good I couldn't put it down.

I believe that nothing - not a charismatic author, a huge marketing budget, or a killer publicity campaign - can actually substitute for the quality of the book's content itself. If I want to read it, I'm interested. If I'm not, I am pretty certain that there is no way I can convince the media that THEY want to read it. Once it passes the read test for me, there is a trio of questions that must be considered:

*What is this book saying?
*Why do I care or how is it relevant to me?
*Who is telling me?

Message, relevance, author credential. Once you've got a readable book that answers those questions, I think you've got a solid shot at finding others in the media willing to write about your book and share it with the world at large.

My son still thinks it is easy. And I still fret about how subjective this is every time I pick up a manuscript. Did I mention that I passed on Bill George who went on to become a bestseller? The only way I can keep from cringing about that is when the best literary publicist in the business told me she turned down "Tuesdays With Morrie." She didn't get it. For the record, neither did I.

Publicity Goes Online

The Financial Times announced this week that it will now allow 30 free views per month before charging for the digital version. The last couple of weeks have brought news that The New York Times will be discontinuing its TimesSelect service. And rumor has it that under Rupert Murdoch's ownership, The Wall Street Journal won't be far behind.

It was actually a striking staff change -- John Byrne's recent move from the print world to the online edition of BusinessWeek -- that finally moved me from complacency about personally participating in the digital world and got me to the keyboard to write a blog that I've long considered. While many may feel the world would be complete WITHOUT a blog about how to promote a book, I hope you will allow me this forum --- a forum that is fast growing and wielding more and more influence every day.

To me, Byrne's new role was one of the most striking examples and proof that we as a collective public have gone online for our information. As recently as three or four years ago, the road to the top of a masthead would likely have been the reverse, with someone doing a fabulous job for the online edition of a magazine, and then being anointed to the seemingly more prestigious print version. Permanence and all that. But, Byrne's new position suggests that time has come and gone. A journalist of his position (in addition to his editorial role at BusinessWeek, Bryne was most recently editor in chief of Fast Company and authored Jack: Straight from the Gut with Jack Welch in 2001) leading the face of a magazine online is striking, dramatic and a signal to all that "just" being in the online edition of something isn't so second rate after all.

With the importance of this vast new media landscape widely acknowledged, what's the impact and power of online coverage for a book? It's something I've been thinking about as I spend my days communicating with the media about books and authors and I've come to the following conclusions:

*No coverage is "local" anymore.

You used to be able to hide a bad review in Baltimore, a mediocre radio interview in Minneapolis and a truly unspectacular television appearance in Topeka. Now, anyone with an internet connection and passing familiarity with Google, can probably find these things about your book and a whole lot more. The upside of that is that someone OUTSIDE of Baltimore will see the coverage and that has more impact. The downside, of course, is the transparency. There is no room to exaggerate the coverage or the tone and tenor of that coverage.

*Email is the New Voicemail

A recent study showed that 70% of all calls go to voicemail. That means I've got a much better chance of getting a reporter's attention with a brief (I repeat brief, meaning no more than one screen, ever!) email that makes your book relate to what that reporter is covering right now than I do of reaching them on the phone. As a communicator who thrives on spoken word (please don't ask my colleagues about this), I may not like this, but I've absolutely had to master it. The number of reporters who respond to my email first is easily 75%. I've found the number of reporters conducting interviews with authors via email rather than phone or in person has doubled in the last six months. Sure, it takes out the human connection, but it is the reality of how the media operates today.

*Real Conversations Just Got Better

When I actually do get someone on the telephone to discuss a book, the conversation is much better. Since conversations are more rare, they seem to be more valuable to both reporter and publicist. It's my belief that eventually online coverage will more closely mimic conversation -- a verbal version of YouTube that is something past what we now have in the podcast. Oh, and if I get someone live, I always ask if the interview, review, or coverage will show up in their online edition as well (the answer is almost always yes).

*If You Build It, They Will Come

Back when websites were novel, every author wanted to have one. But getting traffic to the site was much more difficult and unpredictable than it is today. Publishers worked hard to get author's URLs listed in their catalogs, on their own websites, and in press materials. But in truth, unless there was a real reason to go online for something (as was most definitely the case with the Gallup bestseller, Now, Discover Your Strengths, which offered an online assessment) the chances were slim that anyone would find it. Today, that's completely changed with the ease of search engines. So before you even think about publishing your next book, reserve several URLs for your name and possible titles. The value of even one reporter finding it on a Google search will pay for a whole lot of domain names!

*The Next Generation is Digital

An author of mine recently shared that her college-aged daughter declined the offer a daily subscription to the New York Times delivered to her dorm, explaining "I read that online." The average high school student today probably got familiar with a keyboard and mouse during pre-school. By the time they are ten, they want half of their allowance in iTunes credits. They've never seen an actual set of bound books called an "encyclopedia" but instead can spell "Wikipedia" as easily as their own last names. You may say these kids aren't your audience. But guess what, in the blink of an eye they will have grown up and become your audience. I don't think you want to skip them.

For a book and author working hard to break from the pack of the some 6,000 business books published a year, the information superhighway may be the Autobahn you've been looking for. The digital age isn't coming, it's here and it is time to embrace the advantages it brings.

Some notable examples:

Wired magazine's Chris Andersen rapidly countered a very nasty review of his book, The Long Tail, that Lee Gomes wrote for The Wall Street Journal, in his blog, a move that got as much attention as the bad review itself.

Seth Godin, who was among the first wave of authors to harness the power of the internet, began his latest book, The Dip, after watching the idea get firm traction in his popular blog.