Hi Angela,
I’ve loved your newsletter and website for years — you’re a great authority on the writing life. I have a book coming out in the spring, and my publicist has asked my co-author and I to create a reel to market to TV programs. Have you any suggestions for resources for writers wanting to create such a thing? I have no sense of the necessary production values, how long it should be, format, etc. I have searched and searched and can’t find any information on the web. Any wisdom would be much appreciated — an E-book, an article, a regular book – I’m just seeking some pointers on this. Thanks so much!
All the best,
Stefanie
This all depends on who you are and what your book is about and what kind of press you have done already and how much TV you have to put on a reel. Unless you have appeared on TV or radio, there’s nothing to put on a reel. If you have done a lot of TV and radio, then the reel – or CD or videotape – you want to put together should be about 3-5 minutes long and include about 3 or 4 clips of your appearances, unless there is something very specific that you do on TV – like you have your own TV show.
In general, what you do want to prepare for your publishers is a marketing plan and a list of press you have done and what kind of platforms you have. You can do this either in an email document, or put it on your website in a special section the press can access or your publisher can access.
In order to do a marketing plan and figure out all this stuff there are a series of books you can read. One is Jacqueline Deval’s How To Publicize Your Book. And Doug Clegg and I have written a book called Buzz your Book. The most detailed and in depth way to learn about this, of course, is my online, one-on-one, six-week marketing class, – Buzz your Book – The Class. You can read about it at https://www.writersweekly.com/wwu/courses/marketing.html
Best of luck, hope this helps,
M.J. Rose
https://www.mjrose.com – author of The Halo Effect and The Delilah Complex.
EDITOR’S NOTE: M.J.’s next class starts on January 9th.