What's In Your Media Pack?

My book launch is in 3 months and the last 3 months are alway the busiest. There are magazines to contact, newspapers, radio stations the works. This is why you should have a media pack ready to hand.

Publicity Media Packs

What’s in yours?
Do you have one?
If not, get one set up!

I have 11 things in my media pack. I may not need them all but they are all there in a file ready at a moments notice.

1) A press reales: This should have the following information:
A. The Headline. About 25 words long, this is mine: (Normal girl next door defies dyslexia writing chick-lit novel, teachers said she would not amount to much so she based her characters on the girl she became.)
B. The approach or angle. (My angle is an author with dyslexia )
C. All about you as an author of fiction and what makes you a credible source for the story.
D. All about your fiction story. (Synopsis)
E. Your contact information.

2) A tag line: My tag line for my first book "Gut Feeling" Was "Who do you trust if you can’t trust yourself"

3) A 40 to 50 Word synopses:

4) The official blurb: Your back cover synopsis

5) The elevator pitch: Have one prepared practiced to a tee so when people ask you "So what’s your book about?" dazzle them so they will run out the metaphoric lift and buy your book. Or if you are talking to a publisher or some kind your aim will be a request for more information about your book, or even a lunch meet.

6) No stone left unturned synopsis: This is for media only. If a publisher or newspaper wants to know the whole story they may ask for a full synopsis so they do not need to read the book, you need to include everything including the ending.

7) 5 to 10 Funny facts about you: Good to have to hand incase bloggers or newspapers ask you.

Book trailers: You can make a good book trailer your self. I use sites like animoto and flixpress

"My Book trailer for Third Time Lucky – The Honey Trap"

9) Author videos: Let the world know who you the author are. You can do this with a video of pictures or a video where you talk to the camera. I am currently working on the latter.

10) Short bio: This is a bio about you as an author here is mine. Victoria was born and raised in south London and now lives in California. Victoria left school and qualified as a dental nurse, she worked in Harley Street London before moving into the world of real estate. During this time she qualified as a mortgage broker and eventually opened her own real estate agency which she sold in 2012 and published her first novel 'Gut Feeling.'

With a great deal of determination due to dyslexia Victoria progressed to where she is today, living in Santa Monica, with her Husband and cat Poppy. Victoria enjoys reading Sophie kinsella, Cecelia Ahern, Danielle Steel, Sebastian Faulks, J K Rowling / Robert Galbraith, to name a few.

11) Long bio: this should include more about your childhood, qualifications etc. Here is mine.

"If I can do it, you can do it"

You can do anything you want with enough passion and the right support. I finished writing my first book Gut Feeling in 2009 after a long struggle with dyslexia.

Dyslexia is a cruel disability for a creative writer to have. I started writing when I was ten, however the vocabulary in my head did not match my spelling ability. I would find myself substituting words on paper in order to make my writing legible, unaware that is only detracted from my writing impact on the reader.

Frustrated and angry, I got into trouble at school and left with poor grades. I put my writing to one side and focused on a career to pay the bills instead. I kept reading and writing in private with great difficulty until I sought help at the ripe old age of Twenty-five.

One day I was happily reading Can You Keep a Secrete By Sophie Kinsella. As I read, I started to think that my book had a similar feel good factor and that my writing was nearly as good as Sophie's / Madeline's (minus the spelling errors and bad gamma). So I researched and found an editor. I asked him to appraise my manuscript then worked with him to polish it up ready for release in 2012. And the rest is history.


Life is what you make it.


Good luck x