The real reason PR sells books

Books and PR go hand in hand.

Publishing a book helps you land placements.

Placements help you sell books.

But the real reason it works goes way deeper-
A book turns you from someone with opinions into someone with real authority.

PR makes sure the right people know it.

That’s what journalist Catherine Ball and I unpack in the latest episode of Dauntless PR Unfiltered.

The real reason PR sells books.

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Transcript

Speaker 1 0:02

Welcome to Dauntless PR Unfiltered. Today we're going to be talking about why PR sells books.

Speaker 0:12

So I absolutely love, love, love, love it when one of our clients has a book coming out or already has a book because I think books are brilliant at getting the media interest in talking to you. But it works both ways. So that's the thing, isn't it? Also, works really, really well with selling books. And there are a few reasons for for this. But one of them is because, and I think this is something people probably don't think through or they don't think about, is that if you read about somebody in a magazine or you hear them on the radio or you see them on TV, you and you really like their vibe, you really like what they're saying, you want to hear more, you are intrigued by them, all of those, all of the wonderful things that you that you might feel about somebody you see or read about or hear. You then have a bit of a of a choice, really. Do you just go about your life and never think about this person again? Do you follow them on social media? Do you sign up to work with them immediately? Or, you know, all these kind of choices. And what generally people who want PR want it to be is that people sign up to work with them immediately. And unfortunately, in the real world, that isn't what happens usually. But if you have a book, it's a really great, easy, low-cost way of them finding out loads about you. I mean, think about how many messages, if you've written a book, how much you get to say in your book that is really important to you, how you can get a lot of your crucial points across, you can share your story. It's a really good step up from I heard them on the radio and they were amazing. I saw them in a magazine, they were great. I'm gonna read their book because most books are fairly low cost, they are a low commitment, but they are a way of them really, really learning all about you, your messages, what you've got to say. So I will absolutely buy the book of somebody that I see in the media and think's great. But would I instantly sign up for a 12-month programme? Probably not. I would want to know more. Maybe I would, though, after I've read the book, and then I realize how amazing they are. So the book is an amazing bridge between somebody learning about you for the first time and potentially working with you long term. A book is a great way of bridging that gap, whereas people are possibly not going to be ready to jump into a really high commitment to working with you when they've only just come across you. They, if there isn't a book, what they will often do is they might follow you on social media and lurk a little bit. But a book will bring them that bit further on because it will really get them. It will a book will be like them being on your social media for probably five years, won't it? Like the level of your messages that we'll get from reading your book.

Speaker 1 3:38

Totally. And I have absolutely read a book and then dropped five figures instantly to work with somebody just off the back of that of a book without ever ever having spoken to them because I've become so invested in who they are and what they believe and their methods, you know, the and the things that make them unique. It's like they complement each other so well, don't they? Media and books. And it's exactly why, like what we've had clients who have had books, and the book has got them onto TV, onto radio, onto all these, you know, amazing media outlets, then that has led to a surge in book sales. Yeah. Which has then led to a surge in like selling their programs off the back of the book. Like everything links together.

Speaker 4:33

Yeah. And your book is in many ways, it's your shop window, isn't it? It's your way of really showing what it is, who you are, what you do, and going into much more detail than you would on, say, like social media platforms, you know, you really get to expand on your thoughts. Sometimes a possible doubt people might have would be kind of, but do I want to do PR for the book? Because wouldn't I be like spoilering my book if I talk about it too much? Would people still want the book? And what I would say there is absolutely they will want the book. It will make them so much more interested in what you've got to say if they get a bit of that juice already, if they see what you're doing. And the one thing is if you actually think logically, you know, if if we think of a really, really big author and a really big book release, they will often have a tie-in with a media outlook where they will publish the excerpts. So, say, for example, you might get like the Sunday Times might publish the excerpts of a forthcoming book. No one in the history of time has ever gone. Oh, well, I read a really interesting excerpt and it was amazing and it was brilliant, but I've got no interest in reading the book. The excerpt is enough. Like that is never something that people have. In fact, you often see it with fiction books, where people, a really popular fiction writer, will now put the first couple of chapters of their next book at the end of a book, won't they? Because what they want is people to read a bit and go, oh, oh, I like this premise. Oh, I want to know what happens to these characters. Well, it's the same with non-fiction books as well. If you find some really good tips out, so say you have a personal development book of some sort that you've written and you share some really great strategies and techniques and tips in the media, people aren't going to go, Well, I found out there are five tips for this, so I've got no interest in anything else. If they try those tips or those tips feel like they've lit a little light bulb in their head and they go, wow, like this person's talking my language, they're going to want to know what other wisdom have you got, what other things have you got to share? That's going to make them want to read your book. So it absolutely is worth sharing some of those little secrets in your book with the public through the media, because then they're going to want to know more. Because let's face it, your book isn't going to be something you could sum up in just one article. There's going to be more to it and a lot more that they can get from getting the book itself. So giving them those sneak peeks and those little think of it like, like I say, think of it as like those kind of preview chapters that you get at the end of a of a great fiction book. You know, hook them in and they're going to really want to know more about what you've got to say.

Speaker 1 7:40

Well, what's the alternative as well? Like the alternative is they don't know about your book.

unknown 7:46

Yeah.

Speaker 7:47

Like my pet hate, my absolute pet hate as a journalist was if I interviewed people. So I'd often be interviewing people with books out, as you do. And if they ever said to me, Oh, well, you that's in the book, it was an absolute pet hate of mine. Because I'd be like, Why aren't you just telling me the thing? If the thing matters enough that you wrote a book about it, tell me the thing. Like, don't guard it as some well, only if you pay $8.99, you know, to find this out. Because to me it was worthless because you either no one is gonna buy a book based on someone just printing, buy my book.

Speaker 1 8:32

Yeah, buy this book, it's good.

Speaker 8:35

Yeah. If you want to know the answer to this, buy the book. But I won't give you any information about whether that's gonna be the right thing for you. It reminds me of those, that approach to selling books reminds me of those like awful clickbait articles that are usually sort of on scammy sites, so not on proper sort of media things, where it's like they put a headline that is really like false advertising to get you to click, and then you're like that kind of like this one way that you will halve your waste in 10 seconds, or some really unlikely thing. And then you click and it's some awful scammy like thing. But this idea of like you must buy my book because it is good, but I will give you no information about whether this book is right for you, or why I'm the person you need to hear this from, or you know, any of that stuff, you know, going from the PR, like knowing about the author can also make you really want to buy a book as well. Like, so it doesn't always have to be about what your book's about that will sell your book. Like sharing your story, even if your book's not about that. You know, if I read about someone who has had a really inspiring life, then I find out that they've released a book about something. I'm gonna feel so much more excited and interested to read their book than I would if they were just some name, some completely anonymous name that I've got no relation to. I can't visualize them, I've got no idea what they're doing. So stepping out and letting people see you, sharing your stories, can absolutely make them interested in your book, even if your book isn't about your life, it isn't a personal story, it's something else. It can still really help open people's eyes to you and you know, just get them interested in you as a person, in what you've got to say and in your stories.

Speaker 1 10:41

Yeah, totally. So, like everybody who has a book should be in the media, everybody who is in the media should have a book. It's that simple, isn't it?

Speaker 10:54

And and don't wait. And this is gonna sound really obvious, but I'm gonna say it anyway because let's let's face it. I hope you'll all know this already, but don't wait until your book's out to start thinking about PR. Like I feel like people do say they're gonna wait till launch sometimes. Yeah, it's often, and I don't know if it's a strategy that maybe has been pushed out by some people who don't know what they're talking about, perhaps. I don't know. But some people think, oh, I won't go into the media until my book's out because I need to make sure it's almost, I guess it's probably people who feel like they just want to be super prepared, and I get that, but you want to raise your visibility a bit before your book comes out because that's gonna help when the book launches, it's gonna help get you those initial sales, which will help with whether or not you get onto any best-seller lists or not. So you want to create a buzz around you, around your topic, around what you've got to say before, but then also using PR to keep the buzz going. So a lot of people who don't do PR, they manage to get a buzz around launch and they get all the people that they know or on their social media, but it's very hard to keep the momentum up unless you are then carrying on talking about that in in different places because you know, with the best will in the world, your mum and your auntie and your neighbours can only buy your book so many times. Like you need to be getting it out to the wider world, can't you? Once once all the people who are just your cheerleaders in life have bought your book, you want more people to be buying your book. And PR is the way to get it.

Speaker 1 12:39

The work and dedication that goes into writing a full-length book is immense. Like when you go to all that effort, you want it to get in front of as many people as possible.

Speaker 12:55

Like and and straight away being the author of gives you more credibility in the media. So, like as I mentioned at the beginning, it's a two-way relationship, it helps you get into the media and it helps you make book sales. So they work hand in hand. So it's this wonderful, like symbiotic relationship, really, where they're like feeding each other, and like journalists will be like, Oh, great, oh, you've got a book about that. Oh, yeah, I'll talk to you about that. And then equally, people who read it will go, Oh, I really loved what you had to say about that. How can I find out more? And then, oh great, they've got a book. I can I can order that book. So it's just this wonderful way of keeping momentum around you, around what you're saying, around your messages, and giving people an insight that they could never get otherwise. I mean, think how many hours you spent writing your book. You could never get on a sales call with somebody for that length of time and tell them all that stuff. So your book is giving them a much deeper insight into you and your work than any call or live or social media post could ever do. So, you know, really, I think it's they they just like they beautifully complement each other.

Speaker 1 14:20

Yeah, massively. Well, I'm thinking about one of our clients now who started working with us, and like this is just an example of this at work. So started working with us in December, four placements in the month, one of them being national television, talking about his book, shot to Sunday Times bestseller, and then off the back of that, sold 5,000 spots on his program. Yeah. So, like, that's immense, isn't it? And like when you don't do something, here's the thing: like, when when you don't do something, you don't know what you're missing by not doing the thing, it's not like there's something flashing up going, oh, like if you had this in place, this could have happened today. You just don't know about it. It's an invisible cost, isn't it?

Speaker 15:18

Yeah. And I think sometimes people have this idea that if the message is good enough, it will just organically leak out into the world and people will hear it. And that unfortunately isn't the case. You can't rely on word of mouth for to do everything for you. You can't rely on, you may well get people who read your book and recommend it to other people, and you will get some traction there, but not at the rate that you're going to want. Whereas PR is doing that on a supersonic scale. It's if you can get a journalist to review your book, that's like as somebody leaving you a great review online, but like on acid, isn't it? That's like usually going to draw people's attention to it and get people to take it more seriously. If you get if an outlet mentions that your book's coming out before it's coming out and you know, flags it up as coming, that's going to help with your pre-sale. So all these things are just really helpful and just adds an extra layer onto your your book marketing. And there really is no time to stop either. So sometimes people will be like, oh well, I should have done that with my book, but I didn't. And they'll see it as that they missed the opportunity. If your book's out and your book is still available to buy, you can still you could be doing it now. You don't have to, if you didn't do it for launch, then yes, you missed the potential of what you could have got at launch, but you can still be getting that momentum, getting that interest. Because if your book is still relevant in the world, and then talk about it, talk about the things you cover, talk about the fact that your book's out, direct people to that. Just because it didn't come out yesterday doesn't mean that you you stop talking. Like keep keep talking about it and keep that interest going in in your book.

Speaker 1 17:20

Such a great point. Like it breaks my heart. Sometimes I speak to people and they they seem not our clients, by the way, but sometimes I speak to people about their books and they seem defeated, you know, because their book's been out for a year or two or whatever, and they haven't had the the number of sales that they were expecting that they wanted, and they've almost given up on it. Like they have, it's like they they just think, oh, people don't want it. And I'm like, you haven't got it in front of enough enough people with the authority that comes with being in the media. Like it like look at the effort and the dedication and everything that went into creating that book. You do not give up on it, like you do not, you do everything you can. Once that book is written, you do everything that you can to get it out there on a wide scale, like you do, and that means making sure as many people as possible see it and that they not just see it, that they pay attention to it as well. And that's what media does. Well, I think we will end there for today. Any questions, comments about books or PR? Hello @dauntlesspr.com.