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Welcome to Season 6 of The Book Marketing Action Podcast with Becky Robinson, where we give you information you can immediately implement to increase your influence and market your books more successfully.
In today’s episode, Becky interviews Kourtney Jason—president and co-founder of Pacific & Court—who delves into the intricacies of book PR campaigns. Kourtney highlights successful client stories, emphasizing strategies like targeted outreach, beginning PR efforts early, and managing expectations realistically within the book marketing landscape. She underscores the importance of identifying a specific audience and building a strong author brand to achieve effective book publicity.
Key Points From This Episode:
[01:10] Kourtney introduces herself and shares about her background as the leader of Pacific & Court and as an author.
[03:09] Kourtney talks about her experience authoring five books and how that has influenced her passion for the work she does and how she supports other authors.
[05:00] Discover Kourtney’s approach for facing rejection and how she has handled it on her own journey as well.
[05:53] Kourtney reveals how she helps authors define and reach the audience that will be most receptive to their unique books.
[07:34] Kourtney shares some examples of why quantity can be more important than quality when it comes to acquiring media for first-time authors.
[08:14] How soon should an author start thinking about how they want to establish their brand and thought leadership? Kourtney shares her advice.
[10:14] (AD) Schedule a call with Becky Robinson to discover how Weaving Influence’s custom strategies can support your book launch.
[11:08] Kourtney discusses the long-term impact she has seen for clients who start building their brand early on.
[12:17] Kourtney shares some of the common mistakes and assumptions authors make when setting goals for publicity, as well as guidance on how to reframe those goals.
[15:00] Hear more of the success stories Kourtney has from her journey in book marketing.
[15:49] Kourtney reveals what she considers to be the biggest trends in book publicity right now and how authors can adapt.
[18:05] Kourtney wraps up by sharing her favorite social media platform.
Action Steps:
- Once you start getting requests for media features as a first-time author, say yes as often as you can. The more opportunities you have to speak about your topic, the more opportunities you have to connect with potential readers of your book or clients for your business.
- Make sure you’re specific about the audience you want to reach with your work. Your audience can’t be everyone. Take a few moments to jot down some notes about who you’re trying to reach and the outlets that are going to help you reach them.
Resources:
- Explore Pacific & Court’s website to learn more about the firm and the work they do, and to connect with Kourtney.
- Follow Pacific & Court on LinkedIn and Instagram.
Key Quotes:
Writing a book is hard. It’s a very big process. —Kourtney Jason
Sometimes no response from a media outlet is better than a response, because it could still mean they’re thinking about it and holding on to it until the time is right. —Kourtney Jason
It is a little bit of a red flag if you’re asking an author, “Who is your target audience?” and they say, “Everyone.” —Kourtney Jason
You have to start at that D-list media to work your way up to the C-list, B-list, and then you have the cache and the expertise to really get the attention of that A-list media. —Kourtney Jason
You can’t interview a book. It matters about who the person is behind it. —Kourtney Jason
A successful campaign is a happy client. —Kourtney Jason
You can do interviews, but how are you still reaching people directly? How are you building those relationships? —Kourtney Jason
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I am the founder/CEO of the Weaving Influence team, the author of Reach: Creating the Biggest Possible Audience for Your Message, Book, or Cause, and the host of the Book Marketing Action Podcast. I’m a wife and mom of three kids, and I enjoy running, reading, writing, coffee, and dark chocolate.