When I delivered the luncheon keynote about platform-building for authors at the UW-Madison Writers\u2019 Institute several years ago, I recommended that attendees secure book publicity with tip sheets.<\/p>\n
I explained that a tip sheet is a type of press release that offers tips or advice in a bulleted or numbered format.<\/p>\n
Like a press release, it\u2019s written like a news story so that a media outlet or blogger can run it as is. No\u00a0 additional research or writing is necessary.<\/p>\n
“We love tip sheets”<\/h2>\n
After lunch, an attendee thanked me for recommending tip sheets to the audience. He was a features editor for the largest daily newspaper in the Midwest, he explained, adding, “We love tip sheets. We’d like to receive more of them.”<\/p>\n
He’s not alone.<\/p>\n
Media outlets, especially newspapers and magazines, like tip sheets because they can pull just one or two tips to fill space. They also run them\u00a0 as submitted or use them as a starting point for longer feature articles.<\/p>\n
Tip sheet success story<\/h2>\n
That’s what happened recently to Sandi Schwartz, author of Finding Ecohappiness: Fun Nature Activities to Help Your Kids Feel Happier and Calmer,<\/i><\/a> when she took advantage of current events — a heat wave across the U.S. — to create and distribute a tip sheet titled, “How to Enjoy the Benefits of Nature Inside During a Heat Wave.”<\/p>\n Her advice was included in an article in the\u00a0Palm Beach Post<\/em><\/a> that was then re-published by USA Today,<\/em><\/a>\u00a0Yahoo<\/a>, and The News Sow<\/a>.<\/p>\n It’s a great example of how publicity begets publicity.<\/p>\n She has been sending out monthly tip sheets since April to a handcrafted<\/span> media list consisting of her local media, national outlets covering parenting and environmental issues her publisher provided, and a few parenting bloggers as well.<\/p>\n “I have been happy with the results given the minimal effort it takes to tweak existing content into the tip sheet format that Sandy provides. It is simple and can lead to great results as I experienced with the USA Today<\/em>\u00a0article. Other tip sheets have resulted in articles in Women.com, Mothermag.com,\u00a0Kiddos Magazine<\/i>, and Embracing Change blog,” Schwartz adds.<\/p>\n Radio stations like to share the advice in snippets or, like podcasts and TV talk shows, build author interviews around the tip sheet topic. In fact, my tip sheet on how to get a good holiday gift from a man was the basis of my appearance on the national TV talk show, \u201cHome & Family<\/a>,\u201d which ran then on the The Family Channel.<\/p>\n Bloggers run them as posts because tip sheets save them the time it takes to write something helpful themselves.<\/p>\n When done right, tip sheets showcase a nonfiction book\u2019s content or a novel\u2019s theme or message while getting the book title in front of the book\u2019s target audience. That’s what book publicity is all about.<\/p>\n For many, the hardest part of writing a tip sheet is coming up with a topic.<\/p>\n For nonfiction<\/strong>, start by making a list of the most commonly asked questions you get from readers or others. Each can be turned into a tip sheet.<\/p>\n Your chapter topics are a goldmine of ideas, too.<\/p>\n For fiction<\/strong>, begin with your book\u2019s themes, messages, and lessons. A novel that deals with grief and loss, for example, could yield a tip sheet on how to recover from loss.<\/p>\n When Irish children\u2019s author Avril O\u2019Reilly sent a tip sheet to media outlets throughout Ireland, she had immediate success that included newspaper<\/a> and television exposure for her fiction book, Kathleen and the Communion Copter<\/a> In her tip sheet, O\u2019Reilly offered parents advice for selecting just the right Communion gift for girls. While her book is fiction, she was able to find a nonfiction nugget<\/a> she could use to create a tip sheet that offered the media useful information they could use immediately.<\/p>\n You can do that, too.<\/p>\n Successful book publicity tip sheets include specific elements:<\/p>\n Let’s look at each element.<\/p>\n The best tip sheet headlines mimic those you see on the cover of women\u2019s magazines \u2013 \u201c5 surprising ways to get a beach body fast\u201d or \u201c6 tips for keeping your email inbox at zero.\u201d<\/p>\n Include the number of tips and the tip sheet topic.<\/p>\n When writing the opening paragraph to describe the problem you\u2019re solving, use statistics whenever possible to give your content weight and credibility. Using statistics isn’t required, but it’s effective enough that it’s worth doing a little research for studies, surveys, and reports.<\/p>\n For example, the author of a book about family caregiving writing a tip sheet about how to avoid caregiver burnout might use this first paragraph: \u201cThe National Association of Family Caregivers reports that self care is one of the biggest problems among caregivers today. The association\u00a0says that nearly three quarters (72 percent) of family caregivers report not going to the doctor as often as they should and 55 percent say they cancel their own doctor appointments.\u201d<\/p>\n The author quote amplifying the problem should always add something new, rather than repeat what was stated in the opening paragraph. Use this opportunity to share an opinion.<\/p>\n Provide quote attribution with the author\u2019s full name and book title.<\/p>\n Here’s how Schwartz did it with her heatwave tip sheet:<\/p>\n But nature is so critical to our health and well-being. \u201cNature calms us, reducing feelings of stress, anxiety, and anger. It has also been shown to improve focus and attention, as well as reduce blood pressure, heart rate, muscle tension, and the production of stress hormones. It even makes us friendlier and more apt to reach out to others in our community,\u201d explains\u00a0Sandi Schwartz, author of\u00a0Finding Ecohappiness: Fun Nature Activities to Help Your Kids Feel Happier and Calmer<\/i>.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n This part: [explains\u00a0Sandi Schwartz, author of\u00a0Finding Ecohappiness: Fun Nature Activities to Help Your Kids Feel Happier and Calmer<\/i>.] is the attribution.<\/p>\n The set-up sentence for the tips is simple. Use this formula: \u201cHere are (author\u2019s last name) (number) tips for helping (audience\/group) (topic).\u201d<\/p>\n For the caregiving tip sheet, this sentence could be: \u201cHere are Smith\u2019s six tips for helping family caregivers take better care of themselves, too.\u201d<\/p>\n Use bullets or numbers for your tips. Start each tip with a verb to encourage action and keep each to no more than three sentences.<\/p>\n Remember that your goal here is to offer advice, not talk somebody into buying your book. Focus on providing helpful advice.<\/p>\n The\u00a0final paragraph ties everything up with two or three factual sentences about the author, the book, and where readers can purchase it.<\/p>\n Again, don’t be overtly promotional. This is a news piece, not a sales tool.<\/p>\n Prefer to use a fill-in-the-blanks format to create your book publicity tip sheet? You’ll find a tip sheet template and sample tip sheet in Build Book Buzz Publicity Forms & Templates<\/em><\/a>.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n I wrote “Nine tips for writing an op-ed that gets published” to publicize my book, Publicity for Nonprofits: Generating Media Exposure That Leads to Awareness, Growth, and Contributions<\/a> Here’s the finished version:<\/p>\n sample tip sheet from Build Book Buzz<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n (Click on the underlined text above to view or download the PDF file.)<\/p>\n When teaching authors how to create and use these media relations tools,\u00a0I see these mistakes repeatedly:<\/p>\n Distribute tip sheets to media outlets<\/strong> that would be interested in the content. For mass distribution, I recommend eReleases<\/a>.\u00a0Do not rely on free press release distribution sites as they won’t send your tip sheet to the press. It will just sit on their site, hoping to be discovered.<\/p>\n Email your tip sheet<\/a><\/strong> to a handful of media outlets you’ve researched by copying and pasting your tip sheet into your email message form. Or, use the email list management service<\/a> you use for your author newsletter.<\/p>\n Add them to your book\u2019s online press room<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n Turn them into fiction<\/a> and nonfiction <\/a>lead magnets <\/strong>designed to entice people to sign up for your mailing list.<\/p>\n Use them as the starting point for future blog posts<\/strong>.<\/p>\n Include them with article pitch<\/strong> letters<\/strong><\/a> sent to journalists.<\/p>\nMonthly book publicity tip sheets<\/strong><\/h3>\n
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<\/a>“I am grateful that Sandy suggested this tactic for book publicity because it keeps my book marketing active. I had no idea that my tip sheet would be used in a local paper that would ultimately get syndicated to USA Today<\/em>. That was a huge hit for me and something I can use in all future marketing,” Schwartz says.<\/p>\nRadio, TV, podcasts, bloggers use tip sheet advice<\/h2>\n
Book publicity tip sheet topics<\/h2>\n
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Tip sheet elements<\/h2>\n
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Breaking it down<\/h2>\n
Headline<\/strong><\/h3>\n
Opening paragraph<\/strong><\/h3>\n
Author quote<\/strong><\/h3>\n
Sentence introducing your tips<\/strong><\/h3>\n
Short tips<\/strong><\/h3>\n
Concluding paragraph<\/strong><\/h3>\n
Here’s what a book publicity tip sheet looks like<\/h2>\n
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5 common author tip sheet mistakes<\/h2>\n
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How to use book publicity tip sheets<\/h2>\n
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