Kathy Sanborn's Writing Tips Archive
New Resource: Backspace, the Writer's Place
If you're a writer, you can always use more resources to navigate the publishing business,
get effective publicity, or improve your writing
skills. Now you have another web site to go to for help: Backspace. Check out its useful
articles from agents, authors, and other industry professionals.
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Journalism Watch 2
More trouble in the world of journalism, this time with Indymedia unexpectedly taken offline, their servers
confiscated by government officials. The International Federation of Journalists calls for an investigation.
More . . .
Journalism Watch
No matter which side of the political debate he takes, a journalist
needs to be as objective as humanly possible when reporting the news. According to Joshua Micah Marshall, Fox News posted fake Kerry quotes on their web site, only to remove them shortly thereafter.
Fox spokesman Paul Schur told Marshall: "Carl [Cameron] made a stupid mistake which he regrets. And he has been reprimanded for his lapse in judgment. It was a poor attempt at humor."
Read the story . . .
What CBS Didn't Want You to See
CBS made the final decision to pull the plug
on the story that the Bush administration hoped would quietly go away: the fake documents about Niger
yellowcake uranium that started the war in Iraq. Read about the 60 Minutes
story CBS didn't want you to see.
Dan Rather's Dilemma
The uproar over a "mistake" in his TV report about President Bush and
his Texas Air National Guard service again places feisty journalist Dan Rather in the hot seat. Take a look at
Rather's outspoken 2002 BBC interview about the nature of
journalism in the United States today.
Bill Moyers and Journalism Today
If you are considering becoming a journalist, you won't want to miss this eye-opening article by
respected journalist and author Bill Moyers. Not only is the work of a journalist challenging, it requires a balancing act between
maintaining integrity, dealing with government secrecy, and satisfying corporate aims. Read the article.
Make a Splash in the Media
As a writer, what can you do to get newspaper, magazine, television, and radio personnel to notice your work? Here are some surefire tips to get some attention from media professionals:
Make sure you are an expert in your field. The novelist or nonfiction writer can develop an expertise in a certain area. For instance, you might be an ex-cop with detective skills you could parlay into TV and radio interviews, thus spreading the word about your new mystery or narrative nonfiction book.
Get the media to notice you. If you have some specific expertise, you can be someone the media contact for expert commentary on TV, radio, or in print. Find out which media professionals cover the kinds of topics you write about, and drop them a note or give them a phone call. A good rule of thumb: It might take several contacts before a reporter uses your comments in a story. The media don't owe you any coverage, so it's up to you to provide them with interesting story ideas.
Respect the media's deadlines and busy schedules. Reporters are swamped with phone calls and deadlines. Don't contact a journalist unless you have something unique to offer her, such as an exclusive or a hot story topic. Remember that you are competing with PR folks and many others for the reporter's time, so be clear and to the point in your communication.
Help the journalist with the story. As much as you can, give the reporter background information, statistics, and talking points in order to make his job easier. He'll be more apt to use your comments if you've helped him develop the story.
Always make the media your first priority. If they call you out of the blue, make every effort to be available at that moment. If you can't take a media call immediately, at least ask if you can call back in a few minutes for the interview. If you put off reporters, you run the risk of losing an important interview, and you've made their job more difficult as well.
© 2004 Kathy Sanborn
Activate Your Writing Passion!
If you're a writer, half the battle is coming up with a topic that's worth your time and effort to write about. You can make numerous trips to the well but still come up empty, devoid of inspiration and fresh ideas. Sometimes you just have to take some time off from writing, to let your mind rest and renew. When you decide to tackle a new writing project after a break, you'll be rewarded with a fresh perspective and increased enthusiasm. Let's take a look at some of the ways you can activate your writing passion.
Make a list of the subjects that make you excited or just plain angry. If you take the time to figure out what you really enjoy writing about, your next project will be truer to your heart. Subjects you're passionate about will translate into articles or books your readers will be passionate about as well.
Think about subjects you'd like to know more about. Pinpoint a topic you would love to become an expert in, and then do some research on it. You may find that your topic of interest can lead to a whole new area of professional growth for you. You might even be able to parlay your new knowledge into an impressive platform for your next book.
Write with colorful and dramatic words. Instead of writing in your usual style, take a few minutes to polish up your flair by utilizing vivid terms and sentences. By exploring new ways to express old ideas, you can stay out of a writing rut.
Don't push yourself too hard. Continue to sit down at the drawing board, but cut yourself some slack if you don't come up with a spectacular idea at the snap of your fingers. Forcing brilliance usually doesn't work, because great ideas are born at their own time - not yours.
Take a trip to see what you can see. Traveling can act as a catalyst to get the creative juices moving again. Whether you choose to visit a museum, art gallery, the beach, or the mountains, you'll open up to inspiration by experiencing a different environment.
© 2004 Kathy Sanborn
Attention Budding Film and TV Writers
For those of you who are aspiring (and perhaps perspiring!) new film or television writers, here's one web site you won't want to miss:
The Writers Guild of America.
Not only does the Writers Guild offer a free newsletter, it provides a really valuable tool for the new writer: The Writers Guild Online Mentor Service. The Guild's mentoring service is free, and connects professional Hollywood film and television writers with those who aspire to be. Check it out here.
Don't miss your chance to gain valuable knowledge from working professionals - for free!
The New Author and Publicity: What You Need to Know Now
If you're a first-time author, you shouldn't have to reinvent the wheel when it comes to publicity and promotion. I'm speaking from experience now, folks. When my first print book was released in 2003, I was naïve about the basics of publicity and self-promotion in the publishing world. Although an experienced businesswoman, trainer, and coach, I needed to learn how to stand out from the thousands of other authors with new books to promote.
I can't tell you how many mistakes I made along the way, both in publicity and self-promotion. Many of these could have been avoided had I known some basic facts first. I also wasted precious time researching information that I wish someone had handed me the way you're going to receive it right now. Consider it your gift: It's the effective way to get the word out about your book.
The good news is I am now an expert on publicity and promotion. I founded Sanborn Publicity, a division of my popular coaching practice. If you need a publicist who will work with you to garner media coverage in print, radio, and TV, consider hiring us to be your advocates for publicity success.
Top Tips for Publicity
Hire a publicist - or not. Whether you're a novelist or a nonfiction author, you need media exposure! Getting publicity is a full-time job, and if you aren't willing to put in the long hours it takes, hire a publicist to do it for you. Publicists are usually not cheap, though. A good one may cost you $1,500 a month or more. There are some publicists who charge you only if they get results. Do your research and find out what you will get for your money. Hint: Ask if they will work with you to develop media pitches. Some publicists make you do all the work, while they sit back and pocket your hard-earned money! Ask if you will get a publicity plan, and whether you will get periodic reports. Don't sign on the dotted line unless you're sure what you're getting.
Get an attractive web site. If you're an author, there is no excuse to have a web site that screams "amateur!" A polished web site that is optimized for top placement in the search engines like Google will get you noticed by web surfers and media professionals. If they can't find you, they won't interview you - so make sure your web site gets attention by using good SEO techniques. (Contact Sanborn Publicity for this service if you aren't sure how to do SEO.)
Submit your articles to web sites that suit your platform. You will gain a lot of attention by writing articles in your area of expertise - and submitting them to appropriate sites that will give you a plug for your book and web site. A romance novelist can become an expert on, say, doing up a perfect Valentine's Day dinner, and thus get coverage on food sites and romance sites as well.
Be ready for TV. This means get a great TV wardrobe together, a makeover, and some media coaching if necessary. Hint: Hire a production crew to tape you in action - speaking in front of a group, performing in your area of expertise - whatever. Just make sure you have that professional video ready when a local or national show contacts you. Hint: This is important! Spend the money and do it right. (The only reason you could skip this step is if you already have some great footage from past TV appearances. In my case, my TV footage was terrible, and I had to get a new video produced.)
Contact the media on a regular basis. Be sure to contact, by email or phone, at least two media people per day. Start with your daily newspaper, and select individuals who write about your area of expertise. If you have a story idea or a comment on something they've written, contact them to introduce yourself. You can become an expert the media frequently call upon by making sure they know who you are and what you do. Hint: TV takes its lead from the press. If you get great coverage in a national newspaper or magazine, TV folks won't be far behind, I assure you!
Get out on the lecture circuit. Public speaking is a great way to spread the word about you and your work. If you're not comfortable speaking in front of an audience, practice by giving presentations to small groups until you feel more confident. Later on, you can schedule speaking engagements for pay, which will benefit your fans and your pocketbook.
Contact radio stations for more exposure. Radio coverage can be easier to get than TV, and gives you solid practice in learning how to speak clearly and in concise sound bites. My advice would be to get a few local and major market radio shows under your belt, and then shoot for the national shows.
Watch out for time and money wasters. You already know all about the famous book tour, right? Well, I hate to burst your bubble, but book tours are, unfortunately, a huge waste of your valuable time and money. Unless you are a famous author with a tour budget, you'll have to go it alone - and often a book tour doesn't help you as much as you think it will. Hint: An intelligently planned book tour includes just a few major cities, with print, radio, and TV appearances to coincide with each stop. So plan your tour wisely - or you'll be out hundreds of dollars with little to show for it.
© 2004 Kathy Sanborn
Kathy Sanborn's Guest Interview: Get on the Oprah Show!
Getting publicity is a full-time job. The good news: We can do the hard work for you! Our agency, Sanborn Publicity, offers custom publicity services so you can stay focused on growing your own writing career. Your professional development can skyrocket with the publicity you get from television, radio, newspapers, and magazines. In fact, nothing can place you in the spotlight faster than the exposure you gain from an effective publicity campaign.
If you decide to pursue your own publicity instead of hiring an agency, you'll need to be organized, patient, assertive, creative, and persistent. One of the ways you can help yourself reach your publicity goals is to find out all you can about radio, TV, and print sources in order to target your pitches accordingly.
Are you dreaming about being a guest on the Oprah Winfrey Show? If her show is one of your "wish list" appearances, then you're in luck! We are pleased to welcome our special guest, Susan Harrow, author and marketing consultant who has the inside track on being a guest on Oprah . . .
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Kathy Sanborn's Author Success Interview: Paul Clayton
Posted February 7, 2004
Recently I sat down with Paul Clayton, Frankfurt eBook Award finalist for his semi-autobiographical book, Carl Melcher Goes to Vietnam. Clayton's book about the overly optimistic young man who learns some of life's hard truths while serving in the Vietnam war will be published by St. Martin's Press in the summer of 2004. The author lets us in on the long and winding road to print publication for Carl Melcher, and emphasizes the importance of faith for all writers everywhere.
Kathy Sanborn: What's your background in writing?
Paul Clayton: I've been writing since childhood. I remember they had a citywide essay contest in 3rd grade. The topic was traffic and pedestrian safety. Well, I just let my imagination take me and I wrote this long piece that recounted how too many little cave kids were being lost in olden times, and so they came up with rules like, look both ways for runaway wheels and saber toothed tigers. Then I segued into chariots and how when you were racing around the Coliseum you had to be careful you didn't run over any of the Christians queuing up to get thrown to the lions, things like that. Anyway, I won 2nd prize; I think it was a Fifty-dollar saving bond. My sister won 1st and I haven't talked to her since. Years later I found out that my uncle John, a police Captain, had been one of the judges. But I had already been bitten by the writer bug.
After two years in the army, and then college (Temple University -'76) I began Carl Melcher Goes to Vietnam. I finished it around '85, '86. When that didn't sell, I wrote a lot of short stories that also didn't sell. Finally, I tried historical fiction and managed to interest an agent in a novel based on The Conquest, Calling Crow. Richard Curtis sold the book to Putnam/Berkley. They asked for two more and I wrote Flight of the Crow, and Calling Crow Nation to complete the trilogy. These books are available on Amazon and at Richard Curtis's e-Reads.com.
Kathy: Tell us how St. Martin's Press picked up your book, Carl Melcher Goes to Vietnam, for publication in July 2004. Do you have an agent for the book?
Paul Clayton: Well, one day, around mid 2003, while surfing on the net, I came across the web site of Colonel David Hackworth, the most highly decorated, living American soldier. He is the author of a number of books on Vietnam (Steel My Soldiers' Hearts, The Vietnam Primer). And, lo and behold - his email address was there! I emailed him and asked him if he would read my book. I had recently published it as a POD book (print on demand) with Booklocker.com, and I was hoping he might give me a quote to put on the back. I received a three-word response from "Hack," "Don't have time." Well, I thought, that's fair. He probably gets hundreds of such requests every day. At least I had tried.
Then, an hour or so later, I got another email from Colonel Hackworth's agent. He told me that Hack had forwarded my email to him, and that if I wanted to send my book he would read it. I sent him one of the POD copies I had and a few days later he called to say that he liked the book and wanted to try and sell it. I sent him another seven or eight copies and about a month later he had sold the book to Thomas Dunne, St. Martin's.
Kathy: How did your own military background prepare you for writing Carl Melcher?
Paul Clayton: My military background was pretty anemic, consisting mainly of playing cowboys and Indians as a kid (I got ya! You're dead! No, you didn't; you just winged me. No, you're dead. No, I'm not), and watching episodes of McHale's Navy on TV. This proved more valuable than the training I received in AIT (Advanced Infantry Training) after being drafted. If one wanted to compare military men to cooks, as people are often wont to do, then Colonel David Hackworth and General Douglas McArthur would compare to, say, Emeril and Bobby Flay, on that show, The Iron Chef. While I, and millions of other draftees would be comparable to McDonald's hamburger flippers -- "Do you want tear gas with that bombardment?" So I believe it was probably my total incompetence as a military person that prepared me to write Carl Melcher. I was so "out of my element" there, I think, that I was able to see and remember it all so well.
By the way, questions about the military draft are becoming an issue in the Presidential campaign. People want to know: who was drafted, who wasn't? Why? Why not? Why was someone studying basket weaving at a college in the mountains of New Hampshire deferred, while someone working in a munitions factory was not? All these questions and more are covered in Carl Melcher Goes to Vietnam.
Kathy: Is the book based on your own experiences in Vietnam?
Paul Clayton: Absolutely. Much of it is autobiographical, which might explain why, when the book was nominated at the Frankfurt eBook awards, it was in the "non-fiction" category. And the book is also based on the experiences of the guys I served with. It is a tribute to them. And although you can never truly know what's in another person's head, I think I came as close as a writer could to rendering what they were thinking and feeling. At least I hope I did.
Kathy: How did it feel when you first heard the news that St. Martin's wanted your book? Did you jump for joy?
Paul Clayton: Yeah, sort of. I got the call at work and my agent was telling me about the deal, and at the same time I was repeating what he said to one of my co-workers who already knew I had sent the book to him, while she was carefully peeling me off the ceiling and placing both my feet back on the ground.
Kathy: Give our readers your own favorite tip for getting a print publishing deal.
Paul Clayton: Never give up -- even when it's over. Let me explain. After years of trying to find a traditional publisher, I had the book published as an ebook. The ebook people entered the book in the Frankfurt eBook awards and it became one of twelve finalists, along with the work of Joyce Carol Oates (Faithless) and David McCullough (John Adams). A month later they flew me off to Frankfurt and put me up at the Continental Hotel. I didn't win, but I was a contender, wasn't I? After all, Carl Melcher was rubbing elbows with John Adams, who was selling in the millions - in hard cover! But, despite that, I returned home and ended up spending another two years sending out hundreds of query letters and getting nowhere. I finally decided that it just wasn't in the cards to get this particular book into print the "regular" way. I decided to go with a POD (print-on-demand) house. The better ones do a great job on covers and packaging, producing books that are virtually indistinguishable from the ones published by big New York houses, and they make the books "available" to everyone on the planet who has access to a computer, or who can get to a Barnes and Noble to order the book (it won't be stocked.) So that's what I did. Booklocker.com did a great job and I was happy. Now my book was available on Amazon and could be ordered from bookstores. I was beginning to get some attention from educators and libraries and the book began to sell very modestly. But deep down inside I just knew that this book was every bit as good, if not better, than much of what was coming out of New York. And so I just could not accept that I had reached the end of the road. That was when I stumbled on Hack's web site and tried one more time...
Kathy: Anything else you'd like to share with our readers?
Paul Clayton: Yes. Faith. It's absolutely imperative to have faith in your writing and yourself. If you find that your faith is flagging, you could try some of the affirmations I came up with to keep myself going. They should be read aloud, but not in mixed company.
1. I'm a #%^*!@ good writer, damn it!
2. If they don't like my stuff they must be morons or greedy corporate scum.
3. Old writers are dying every day and they need new ones to replace them.
Kathy: Thank you, Paul, for inspiring our readers with your own success story! I join all of my readers in wishing you the best for your new book. For our readers who wish to buy it now, here's the link to Carl Melcher Goes to Vietnam.
© 2004 Kathy Sanborn
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A Special Note from Kathy Sanborn on Publicity
Publicity is the key to making you and your work known to the world. Without publicity, you might as well be dogpaddling up Niagara Falls. So how can an author get the word out about his or her new book? And how can a promising writer open the door to getting that long-awaited book deal?
Hiring a publicist is your best bet to capture media attention, and now we are pleased to be able to offer you our own Sanborn Publicity services. Unlike other publicists who simply send out press releases and contact media after you do all the work creating a pitch idea, we work with you to help you get TV, radio, and print interviews. To achieve greater success with your writing, you need publicity - and that's where Sanborn Publicity comes in!
Whether you're an author promoting your new book or a writer building a platform for a future book deal, publicity can bring you valuable media attention, catapulting you to greater success. Visit our new web site for more information on our publicity and public relations agency.
Take advantage of our current publicity specials. Contact us for details on how you can reach a potential audience of millions!
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