The Media Interview

My family gave me a massage at a local spa for my birthday, with strict instructions to relax. I did, but I also thumbed through a recent issue of Strategy magazine while lounging in my robe and sipping a refreshing beverage. Found an interesting piece by former creative director James P. Othmer about book marketing:

I thought my brand-shaping days were behind me after I sold my first novel [The Futurist]. But, soon after I decided to leave advertising, my publisher sent me an author questionnaire that presented me with an ironic challenge: how to position the brand of me.

…In marketing, image cultivation and self-promotion come with the territory.

But in the book world, especially literary fiction, any type of promotion, let alone self-promotion, is a radical and potentially dangerous proposition.

Authors, most notably fiction writers, need to keep all of this mind when preparing for media interviews; it’s important to be positioning yourself in the minds of the audience through not only what you say but how you say it.

BTW, Othmer goes on to detail some of the ways in which he has been using social media, like blogging, MySpace etc. to help promote the book.