Garnering Fresh Media Coverage for a Book That Has Already Been Released
What happens when a bestselling author’s initial publicity campaign for a new book fails to reach the desired audience?
They partner with a communications firm that specializes in creating customized pitches and targeting audiences using a variety of different outlets.
The Challenge
Can an author continue to garner media coverage after a book has already been released? It’s not an impossible task, but best practice is to set a publicity campaign in motion around a book’s launch date.
So when a New York Times bestselling author approached Guardian about creating and implementing a second publicity campaign for a book that had already launched more than a month prior, our team considered the following: were there media contacts left to approach that had not been already tapped in the original publicity campaign that was handled by a different agency? Did the book have good media candidacy from a topical perspective? Did the author have good name recognition, enough to be considered an authority on the subject matter?
The PROCESS
With all of these boxes checked, our team developed a publicity campaign designed to introduce a wider Christian audience to the book. Keeping in mind that prior publicity work was for the most part geared toward podcast programs, Guardian created a custom pitch and media list that included Christian and select mainstream religion broadcast and print outlets.
In addition, our team approached a select audience of media focused specifically on pastoral issues.
The results
Media were very responsive to the campaign and, as a result, interviews were scheduled with four radio programs (two national and two regional), one theological podcast program and one national print outlet. In addition, book excerpts were included on two prominent faith-related websites. The combined potential reach of these interviews included more than 7 million listeners, downloads and unique visitors.