Bonus Freebie: I have a resource for you that will help you prepare to talk with media and audiences. It’s the 10 Questions Every Author Needs to Answer. You can grab the fiction and nonfiction lists here.

One of the questions I’m asked most often is, “How do you know so much about publishing and marketing books?”

Hello – research! Yeah – I love it! It’s the journalist in me. So even before I had thoughts of becoming an author myself, I always was in search of the best resources and I want to share them with you.

Maybe you don’t have a book yet and it’s still a dream. Or you have five and you want to sell more copies. Well lean in…

I’m introducing you to the experts you need to know about and the resources I used when I published my two books, Listful Thinking and Listful Living. They’ve been an invaluable resource for me and I hope you’ll find the same for you.

And there’s plenty of information for nonfiction and fiction authors – I’ve got you covered. I’m in the editing stage of my first fiction book so I understand the pain and glee of getting your work out into the public.

In this episode of Inside Scoop I’m sharing my top tips and resources for authors like you.

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BONUS FREEBIE: Want to make this the year people find you in the media? Click here to access my Be a Media Magnet course. It will give you the plan you need to make it happen.

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You might want to be featured on the media for your book or business, but how will they find you? They won’t – unless you pitch them. Or maybe you pitched them but you never heard back?

I was a television news producer for almost 20 years, and trust me, I know what pitches work for the media. Over the years I’ve developed a pitching formula and I use it to pitch media so I know it works.

I laid out the formula you need on my live-stream show Inside Scoop.

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BONUS FREEBIE: Your message deserves the media’s attention. So how do you get out there in a bigger way? I’ve got you covered. CLICK HERE to grab my free “Checklist to Become a Go-To Media Expert.”
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It seems like everyone has a podcast these days. So…what’s your excuse?

I know, I know, it can be scary to start something new. But it’s also fun and exciting.

So if you’ve got an idea for a podcast that you’ve been waiting to share, take this blog post all about Creating Your Own Podcast as your sign to start. I spoke with author, speaker, and host of the podcast, The Good Life Coach (which ranked in the top 1.5% of the most popular shows globally), Michele Lamoureux on my live-streaming show Inside Scoop all about how to get started.

Here are three highlights from our conversation.
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BONUS FREEBIE: To grab the “10 Questions Every Author Needs to Answer” in the media CLICK HERE.
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What does every author want? To be published.

I know this myself as an author of two books about productivity, Listful Thinking, and Listful Living. But if you aren’t familiar with publishing, it can be a bit of a mystery.

And since this is a bucket list item for so many, I invited special guest (and my friend), Lucinda Halpern, who is the president and founder of Lucinda Literary. She represents authors writing in all areas, health, business, lifestyle, narrative fiction, memoir and more!

Here are three points from our conversation that will help you think about getting published in a new way.

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BONUS FREEBIE: Your message deserves the media’s attention. So how do you get out there in a bigger way? I’ve got you covered. CLICK HERE to grab my free “Checklist to Become a Go-To Media Expert.”
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You wrote a book. That’s a lot of work. But your work doesn’t stop when your book is finished. Now, you need to sell your book.

So you have to promote them! (I know all about this from my experience as a TV producer and being the author of Listful Thinking and Listful Living).

And there’s a tool authors can use to promote their books that is especially effective: TikTok.

I spoke with publishing consultant, diverse kid lit reviewer, kids fiction podcaster and BookTok expert, Miral Sattar, on my live-streaming show Inside Scoop. She’s got a huge TikTok following and had a ton of great tips to share.

Here are Miral’s tips for understanding and using TikTok to promote your books.

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1) Understanding TikTok.

You can’t use something to its full potential without knowing how it works right? Of course not. Understanding how TikTok works and how it’s different from other social media apps like Instagram is super important.

“When you first start using TikTok, it doesn’t matter how many followers you have. The app always shows your content to a small sample of people. And if enough people finish watching it, they show it to more people,” Miral said.

Because of this, every video on TikTok has a chance to go viral.

(Don’t worry. You don’t have to dance to go viral.)

“To hone in on your specific audience, there are things you can do to fine tune the algorithms based on what you post and what you watch,” Miral added.

And for authors, honing in on your audience means understanding #BookTok.

2) Using the power of #BookTok.

BookTok is kind of a subculture within TikTok where people make videos about books.

“When I first did a Tok in July, the hashtag had about 60 billion views. And I checked it right before we spoke today and the BookTok hashtag has 80 billion views right now,” Miral explained.

I’ve talked about how TV doesn’t sell books. I’ve seen it as a producer and experienced it as an author. It’s exciting to be on big TV shows like The Today Show, but it’s not great for sales. But BookTok is great for book sales.

For example, Colleen Hoover actually outsold the Bible.

 

“Colleen Hoover has been around for a few years. She traditionally published multiple books. Maybe they did well, but they never did this well. Until she joined TikTok and made videos about her books.,” Miral added.

And it’s not just online sales. It’s impacting in-person bookstores as well.

“I take my kids to Barnes and Nobles all the time. And there’s a BookTok table. And 99% of the time, if it’s on the BookTok table, it’s good and I’ll pick it up,” she said.

Like podcasts, BookTok is an incredibly powerful tool, if you know how to use the hashtag.

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3) Getting started on BookTok.

Now that you know how powerful BookTok can be for your book. Let’s talk about using it to promote your own content.

“In the beginning when I was doing my Toks, I would get ten views, 20 views. Because I was posting all the wrong things. I didn’t realize the algorithm needs to be trained. You train the algorithm to show you what you look at,” Miral said.

For example, if you start looking at non-fiction book related topics, that’s what TikTok will show you.

“Just start following readers there, engaging with authors, and then TikTok will start showing you that,” she added.

And then you can see techniques that do and do not work and adapt similar methods for your own content. Another great way to use TikTok to your advantage is using their analytics.

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4) TikTok Video Tips.

Obviously, like any social media platform that uses video, you need to be comfortable on camera. But in addition to that, here are some tips to help your video creation.

“TikTok’s analytics tells you the best posting times, how many people watched your video. For me, I found the magic number was seven to nine seconds,” Miral said.

That’s not a lot of time to get your point across.

“A lot of people on TikTok will be like, ‘Hi, I’m me.’ Or ‘Hey guys, what’s going on?’ And then you’ve already lost them. You need to hook them in right away with an engaging picture or a question or something really interesting,” she explained.

And make sure to include a way for your audience to engage.

“You need to have a call-to-action. I put all the books I recommend in the comments. I pin it and say how to find it. For every podcast episode I’m promoting, I pin in the comments and include how to find it,” Miral said.

Here’s a successful example of one of Miral’s most popular videos that used all these tips.

“I joined TikTok to push out my fairy tales podcast for children, Bearily Bear, and also to promote inclusive children’s books. We imagine traditional fairy tales, rewritten for modern times,” she said.

Miral’s podcast is free and can be found here. To check out more TikTok Tips for Authors, watch our entire conversation here.

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BONUS FREEBIE: Your message deserves the media’s attention. So how do you get out there in a bigger way? I’ve got you covered. CLICK HERE to grab my free “Checklist to Become a Go-To Media Expert.”
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BONUS FREEBIE: Your message deserves the media’s attention. So how do you get out there in a bigger way? I’ve got you covered. CLICK HERE to grab my free “Checklist to Become a Go-To Media Expert.”
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Be honest. Is the reason you’re not “going live” because you think something will go wrong? Well, I’ll share a secret with you…

Something will go wrong.

Not all the time. But chances are, if you shoot enough video or appear on enough television shows as a guest, at some point, something will go wrong.

It even happens to me! Yep – it happened on my show Inside Scoop and while I was producing for network television.

Here are four types of things that can go wrong and how to handle them.

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BONUS FREEBIE: Your message deserves the media’s attention. So how do you get out there in a bigger way? I’ve got you covered. CLICK HERE to grab my free “Checklist to Become a Go-To Media Expert.”
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When I was a senior health producer at Fox News, I booked guest experts all the time.

But I couldn’t book them all and often they suffered from not being able to articulate what they know in a succinct and compelling way. So it’s part of why I do what I do today as a media trainer and video coach – to help as many people as possible do this well.

To become a go-to media expert, you need to be able to speak in soundbites. To do this I created what I call “The Accordion Method” – I use it myself and teach it to all my media-training clients.

Here are three points of “The Accordion Method“.

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BONUS FREEBIE: Your message deserves the media’s attention. So how do you get out there in a bigger way? I’ve got you covered. CLICK HERE to grab my free “Checklist to Become a Go-To Media Expert.”
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Books can boost your platform, brand, message, or business. And help you gain more media exposure. As a TV producer for many years, I can tell you when producers are deciding between two similar experts, they choose the one who is published. I know I did.

However, the process of writing a book proposal and reaching out to agents can be intimidating. I get it. I’ve written two books (Listful Thinking and Listful Living) and have a third in the works. (It’s fiction, can’t wait to share!)

But you can’t let fear stop you. If you want to reach more people, it’s time to get started on your book.

I spoke with publishing expert, coach, and host of the Bound + Determined podcast, Richelle Fredson, on my live-streaming show Inside Scoop, to help you start amplifying your work with books.

Here are four things to know when working on your first book proposal to amplify your work.

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BONUS FREEBIE: Your message deserves the media’s attention. So how do you get out there in a bigger way? I’ve got you covered. CLICK HERE to grab my free “Checklist to Become a Go-To Media Expert.”

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Many of you are looking for new jobs. But are you trying everything you can to attract your dream opportunities and employers? Are you doing more than just applying to job ads online?

I talk a lot about creating content and have spoken to several experts about how to do that consistently on my live-streaming show Inside Scoop. But my conversation with executive coach and career strategist, Susan Peppercorn, was a more in depth look at using content to strategically attract the professional opportunities you want.

Here are four ways to create content to impress potential employers.

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BONUS FREEBIE: Want even more ways to stay organized, productive and less stressed? CLICK HERE to get access to my List-Making Starter Kit. It will boost your efficiency and get you back to doing more of the things you love.

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2021 has flown by and it’s almost 2022! I thought it would be fun to look back at my productivity predictions from last year!

Here’s a look back at my thoughts for 2021 and my predictions for 2022!

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