Book Publicity & PR Tips: How to Improve Your Media Opportunities

When it comes to book publicity, KNOW YOUR NICHE, MAKE YOUR PITCH!

Focus on your nicheIn the book publicity world in which we book publicists “play”, trying to generate media exposure for clients is often a difficult challenge.  There is no shortage of experts and authors who are competing for the same space, be it in print, television, radio or online.  We have no doubt, if given the opportunity, that most our authors can do a tremendous job of impressing the media with their insight and knowledge, but in order to get them there, we need to be on point with our pitches.  In acting as their mouthpiece, and trying to open the media gates, it is essential for our authors to help us help them.

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Book Promotion Tips: Promote Your Book with Facebook Business Pages

Book Promotion and Book Publicity Tips for Authors

Book Publicity 101

Promoting Your Book on Facebook

If you use Facebook (and who doesn’t), you’re probably by now familiar with  Facebook Business and Brand Pages. As an author, or anyone with a product or brand, you should familiarize yourself with these pages and learn how to take full advantage of their benefits to increase your visibility, marketing, and publicity efforts.

We’ve put together a few tips to help you get started with the new pages and to kick-start your book promotion and publicity. And if you’re not an author, we think you’ll find this information just as helpful.

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The Envelope Please…Newman Communications Salutes the Oscars

The 84th annual Academy Awards, televised Sunday, February 26th to honor the years greatest achievements in the film industry. Over the years, the team at Newman Communications has had the honor of providing book publicity and creating radio, TV and print campaigns for many books that have  made the leap from their bound pages and on to the big screen. Several of these books turned feature film, have also been nominated and awarded for some of the most honored awards in the industry, including Oscar, Emmy and Golden Globes. Continue Reading »

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Remembering Jeff Zaslow: Bestselling Author and Newman Client

Remembering Jeff Zaslow

One of the greatest things about book publicity and doing what we do every day at Newman, is the opportunity to meet, work with, and get to know some great authors. They innovate and inspire us, make us think differently, entertain us, take us on new adventures, and more all through their writing and story telling.

On February 10, 2012, at the age of 53, bestselling author Jeff Zaslow’s writing career was brought to a tragic end.  According to police, Jeff lost control of his car on an icy road and was struck by an oncoming semitrailer truck. Continue Reading »

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Book Business – An Insider’s View with Linda Shirley, Border’s Books Store Manager

Book Store

Business of Selling Books

Wondering how the book business is these days from a bookstore manager’s perspective? Recently I had a chance to speak with Linda Shirley, manager of the W. Lebanon NH Border’s store, where we discussed coming out of a tough year, authors to watch and…is it really ok to just hang out at the store and read?

S. Becker - What’s hot at the W. Lebanon NH Borders these days? There are a few local authors who have great new books out right now.

L.  Shirley –  Chris Bohjalian’s Secrets of Eden is doing very well, as is Jodi Picoult’s House Rules. The areas of the store that have grown dramatically in sales and interest over the past year include young adult and independent readers — it’s truly wonderful to see more kids reading and some of the books (like Rick Riordan’s Percy Jackson series which starts with The Lightning Thief), are fun and very well written. Speaking of young adult books, the twilight series remains a strong seller and we are having a midnight release party this Friday (March 19th) for the New Moon DVD.

Spring is coming which means the gardening section should be a strong selling area for the next 6 months — and there are more new books on vegetable gardening in particular this year, following the interest in books such as Barbara Kingsolver’s Animal, Vegetable, Mineral and Michael Pollan’s In Defense of Food. Our cafe sales have been growing steadily — especially the coffee and cocoa drinks. People may be saving money by not going out to eat as much, but they are still treating themselves to something fun once in a while and good whipped cream never seems to go out of style.

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