Buy my book, please!

Publicists work tirelessly to get media slots for their authors, hoping for telly or radio gold that shoots books up Amazon and onto bestseller lists. Last month India Knight’s Sunday Times Magazine interview with Niki Segnit propelled the new and original Flavour Thesaurus up the Amazon chart, Stuart Maconie’s The Full English skipped onto the bestseller list after his BBC “Breakfast” interview, and Hannah Bourne-Taylor’s Guardian interview about Fledgling—the baby bird that nested in her hair for 84 days went viral worldwide. With no good publicity a book can sink like stone. Bad publicity is no fun either. The backlash on social media after a misguided interview can quickly become a torrent of abuse. Think the author who boasted about shoplifting to the Evening Standard and promptly lost his job, Gerald Ratner and his total crap jewellery, or (trigger alert) Prince Andrew on “Newsnight”. Cancellation risk has raised the media stakes. Authors are understandably nervous.

No author should do an interview without being fully briefed. Even if that’s just to Google the interviewer and to read, listen or watch the outlet. But how do you help a début novelist who is painfully shy, can’t string a sentence together and will be caught in the headlights of persistent questioning from a journalist hungry for a story about the book’s dark subject matter? I’ve worked with a hugely successful historian who said: “I like having fights with journalists,” and was bemused why coverage was negative; a household-name chef who said: “I’m sure they won’t ask me about my complicated love life.” They did. A battle-seasoned politician who said: “It is only a book interview, what can go wrong?” You get trapped talking about the latest political scandal, is what. And a bestselling novelist who said: “I don’t believe in preparation; I can wing it” and couldn’t.

I have media-trained hundreds of authors. I find it immensely rewarding to watch them transform from fear to enjoyment, take control and make their messages muscular and memorable. Authors have warehouses full of information about their books and themselves. All they need for interviews is a killer short pitch and a small shopping basket of great stories. Authors are not under oath and mustn’t think of journalists as policemen. They can decide what they say, whatever the question. The first minute of an interview is the most important. If authors go in determined to deliver a lively, well-prepared, engaging one-minute about the book, in answer to any first question, they will get off on the front foot. Oh, and they shouldn’t drink too much coffee.

Top tips for publicists for author media-training:

• Work on the opening one-minute pitch together—ask authors to rehearse the pitch 30 times, recording some on their phone and sending to you for comment.
• Suggest they imagine they are talking to an intelligent 15-year-old. What would you say to persuade them to pick up the book? It should be simple and memorable. Furthermore, imagine that they are mildly sceptical. Persuade them to care.
• Catastrophise. List the possible negatives: all the questions that represent rabbit holes. Practise those questions and encourage authors to bridge back to what they do want to talk about. ABC: Acknowledge the question, then Bridge to your Content.
• For great delivery, focus on body language and remind them to relax and be open. Smile, show your hands and make strong eye contact (even when the interviewer does not reciprocate, which is common). Keep your voice interesting by varying the pitch, speed and tone. Pauses are very important. They are the best way to slow down, make an impact or take back control.
• Remind authors to say the title of their book at least twice during a broadcast interview.

David Bond is the founder and chief executive officer of Green Lions and is speaking at The Bookseller’s Marketing & Publicity Conference on Monday 26th June.