Tips On How To Develop A Media Kit

• Quantify your potential audience • Present a strong biographical sketch. • The materials should reflect your best writing. • Stress your book's uniqueness. • Target that audience for sales.

Cover page: A professional looking graphic, the title/subtitle in attractive type, the author's name. Title page: Book title and sub-title; author's name. Like covers, titles can make a big difference. Good titles strike a nerve in the potential reader. Examples of good titles: HIGH INSIDE: THE MEMORIES OF AN EX-BASEBALL WIFE THE OZ PRINCIPLE: TAPPING THE POWER OF ACCOUNTABILITY IN ORGANIZATIONS WHISPER IN HIS EAR: IMPROVING YOUR SEX LIFE WITH X-RATED FANATSIES TIGHT SHIPS DON'T SINK: PROFIT SECRETS OF A MAVERICK CEO THE GENIUS OF SITTING BULL: THIRTEEN HEROIC STRATEGIES FOR TODAY'S LEADERS LIFE'S PARACHUTES: HOW TO LAND ON YOUR FEET DURING TRYING TIMES. Brief Synopsis or Executive Summary: This is a one-page pitch for your book, written like book cover or jacket flap copy. It should stimulate, scintillate and drive home the need for your book and the tangible benefits it delivers or the pressing problem it solves. Imagine that you have only 30 seconds to convince Mary Smith or Roger Jones to buy your book. Proposal Contents Page: This allows the reader to turn to the sections of the proposal with ease. The Book: A three- to five-page synopsis that develops your "quick pitch" more fully. A compelling synopsis does not recapitulate the book's content in detail (your Chapter Summaries will do that) but positions your book in the market by asking these questions: Who will buy it? What other books has the audience bought in the past? Why will the audience add your book to their library or buy your book instead of the competitors'? Open the Book section with a concrete example of an anecdote that brings your subject to life and draws the editor into your argument. Compare and contrast your book to successfully published titles. Stress the need for the book and its benefits as well as the problems and solutions your book addresses and successfully solves. The Author: This one- to two-page biographical sketch must establish two sets of credentials: the author's subject expertise and his or her writing ability. Do not include academic vitae but write more of a press release that makes you sound promotable, presentable and knowledgeable. Include all previously published work. Make sure you stress that you will work tirelessly to promote your book. The happiest authors never just sit back and wait for anyone else to make things happen; they take the initiative to draw attention to their work. Book Contents: A one-page "bird's-eye-view" of the book will list chapter titles only: Pay as much attention to the quality of these as you did to the quality of the book title itself. They would be catchy, lively, clear and enticing. The title/subtitle format often works well here, too. At the bottom of the page or on the next page, include the book's specifications: projected manuscript length or number of words; format (hardcover, quality paperback, mass market paperback, etc.). Chapter Summaries: These provide a "worm's-eye-view" of the book's organization. Do not present a conventional outline but summarize each chapter in one page. If your book contains 12 chapters, then these 12 pages afford you an opportunity to display your writing skill. Open each summary with an enticing example or anecdote (one paragraph), and highlight features, perhaps in a bulleted list. Sample Chapter: Unless your book contains radically different types of chapters (for instance, theory in some, applications in others), include only one complete sample chapter. Pick a chapter that puts your book's best foot forward. This would be a central or unique chapter (usually not Chapter 1) that displays both your writing talent and your book's special benefits to readers. An author can write a brilliant proposal, but fail to prove that the manuscript will live up to its promise. Likewise, strong samples seldom overcome a weak proposal. Few writers submit anything that has undergone less than four or five thorough revisions. Media Package Use attractive display type or pick a beautiful four-color image (usually clipped from a popular magazine) that grabs the reader's eye and sparks the imagination. Your cover should reflect the spirit of your book and invite careful consideration. Any good copy shop can produce a color photocopy of your cover. Insert it under a sheet of clear acetate and bind the finished product with a spiral comb. You may wish to include your photo, if it's press-release quality, at the end of The Author section. There, too, you can insert copies of relevant media coverage or previously published magazine or newspaper articles on the same subject as your book. Pay close attention to the quality of every little detail in your media kit. Quality comes before quantity and schedule. Take your time, polish every component, and don't rely on friends and family to judge its worth. "When you read a book, you hold another's mind in your hands." -- James Burke