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Welcome to Season 3 of The Book Marketing Action Podcast with Becky Robinson, where we give you information that you can immediately implement to increase your influence and market your books more successfully.
This episode focuses on how authors can seek sponsorships from corporations. Becky is joined by Stephanie Chandler–Founder and CEO of the Nonfiction Authors Association and Writers Conference–who provides an in-depth explanation of what sponsorships are, how authors can find sponsors, the kind of services that sponsors will pay for, and how to decide if a sponsor is the right fit.
Key Points From This Episode
[01:36] Stephanie shares about herself, her work, and her books.
[03:26] Why would organizations want to sponsor authors? Stephanie reveals the answer.
[04:35] Stephanie explains how big an author’s platform or audience needs to be in order to attract a sponsor.
[05:33] There are several things that sponsors would pay for authors to do. Stephanie shares a few examples.
[07:14] Stephanie gives her advice on how authors should sift through companies that approach them for sponsorships.
[08:23] Can an author successfully attract sponsorships by reaching out to organizations? Discover the answer.
[10:03] Stephanie shares some real-world examples of sponsor agreements that she is familiar with.
[12:23] Discover the range of fees that a sponsor will pay for an author agreement.
[13:37] Stephanie gives advice for deciding whether or not a sponsor is the right fit.
[14:16] Stephanie reveals how PR firms can be helpful in attracting sponsors.
[15:16] Learn what should be included in a sponsor pitch and how long it should be.
[17:08] Stephanie provides her suggestions for the subject line of emails that contain an author’s sponsor pitch.
[18:18] What kind of increased revenue could someone expect if they start to seek out sponsorships? Stephanie explains.
[19:29] Stephanie shares her final thoughts about authors and sponsorships.
Action Steps:
- If you’re a nonfiction author, sign up to become a member of Stephanie’s Nonfiction Authors Association. Take a look and explore what Stephanie and her team are doing.
- Sit down and figure out who the companies are that you want to target for sponsorships. Start making your list of potential companies and organizations that would benefit from working with you, and then start doing the research to find their contact information.
Resources:
- Explore the websites for the Nonfiction Authors Association and the Nonfiction Writers Conference.
- Get your copy of Stephanie’s book, The Nonfiction Book Publishing Plan.
Tweetables and quotes:
If you choose to share on Twitter, don’t forget to tag @beckyrbnsn so she knows you enjoyed this episode!
For smaller audiences, maybe you can get away with 5,000 to 10,000 followers. But for a large type of audience, whether it’s health or wellness or small business, I would say 10,000 plus followers are needed to really get attention. —Stephanie Chandler
There are lots and lots of ways that sponsors are willing to pay for access to your audience. —Stephanie Chandler
Asking more questions can help you figure out if the sponsorship opportunity is worth pursuing. —Becky Robinson
You have to believe in any product or service that you’re going to promote. And if you don’t, then you decline that and you move on to someone who’s a better fit. —Stephanie Chandler
Any pitch that you ever send to anybody should be short and sweet and to the point. —Stephanie Chandler
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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.