Pitch Perfect: Getting Your Book Buzzed About On Podcasts

When you go to TV shows or news programs, you will only get a few minutes to promote your book and rely solely on forgettable sound bites. In this fast-paced digital age, the best place to pitch your work and garner people’s interest is in long-form media. Juliet Clark chats with Jackie Lapin, who explains podcasts or radio shows are way better platforms for authors than the many propaganda-run media outlets out there. She explains the importance of preparing a well-crafted media kit and coming up with 20 questions you want to be asked by the host when joining these long-form media channels to get people talking not just about your book but its author as well.

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Pitch Perfect: Getting Your Book Buzzed About On Podcasts

Welcome to the show. Our guest is going to talk about media and tours. I’m pretty excited about this because I know most of you out there are aiming for these big network productions, trying to get onto ABC, NBC, and places like that. Quite frankly, we don’t even book those anymore. They have turned out to be such propaganda outlets that we will not allow our authors on them. I’m really excited to have a guest who’s going to talk about the value of long-form media and how it is the wave of the future compared to these short-form interviews that are done in the mainstream media. She has a whole package that she’s out there booking. You’ll enjoy her as well.

Before we get started, Thanksgiving is close, and the day after Thanksgiving, we have our author bundle. If you go over to AuthorBuzzBuilders.com, we have all of our courses for $997. Most of the time, if you take these courses individually, it’s about $5,000 or it comes in a little under $5,000, but we are doing them for $997 if you buy the bundle between Thanksgiving and New Year’s. Get your credit card out. Let’s go. Let’s build that author platform for 2025.

Our guest is Jackie Lapin. Jackie Lapin’s Conscious Media Relations podcast and radio tours have helped nearly 400 luminaries, leaders, filmmakers, and authors grow their businesses, sell more books, create viewership, and change more lives by introducing them up to 9,000 radio shows and podcasts, including such clients as Don Miguel Ruiz, Dr. Joe Vitale, Marie Diamond, James Twyman, Arielle Ford, Hay House, and more. She has booked more than 10,000 interviews for her clients. Stay tuned. Both Jackie and I talk about the state of the industry.

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Jackie, welcome to the show.

I’m delighted to be here. I so appreciate you and the work that you do in the world. I love to help people understand what the opportunities are.

Mainstream Vs Long-Form

Thank you. I love that. We’re going to dive into some things that I don’t think that my authors understand, which is that there is a big media shift going on and why they should let go of the old and embrace this new. Can you talk a little bit about, and I know you book a lot, why you chose podcast and radio?

For a long time, I did the full gamut of media. Since we specialized in self-help, personal growth, spirituality, memoirs with a message, etc., one of the things we discovered is that broadcast television, magazines, and newspapers don’t really care about this anymore. What they’re interested in is the hard news. They have very limited staff. They don’t have columnists anymore. Podcasts, internet radio, and still broadcast radio, welcome authors and leaders, anything in that space.

There are more than four million podcasts. If any author says to me, “I can’t find a way to get onto podcasts,” or, “I don’t know where to find my podcasts,” they’re not trying hard enough. The landscape is so wide that we decided to focus on those kinds of media because we know they welcome people. They know that they have space and that they’ve got to spill, whether it’s daily, weekly, or monthly. The opportunities are fairly unlimited. That’s why we focused on doing our podcast radio tours in that niche.

I love that too. It’s so much harder with the mainstream media when you’re on those big shows because you’re focusing on soundbites. You have two minutes. You can’t get on and say, “My book is about.” They’re going to be shooting questions at you, and you have to be able to do this succinctly. What I love about the shift that’s happening is that long-form is a get-to-know-you type of thing. You’re going to laugh at this. I heard this interview. Vivek Ramaswamy was on with Bill O’Reilly. Bill O’Reilly was teaching him, “Before you start the sentence, you say the name of your book.” It was hilarious to watch, like, “This isn’t the short-form. This is how we do it in long-form,” the teaching that went on.

There are a lot of factors that benefit you in the fact that you have anywhere from 30 minutes to 1 hour in most interviews. The facts are that you have more time to seed your message. You don’t have to spit it out in that first second. You are building your relationship with both the audience and the host. With the audience, they need to get to know, like, and trust you, and over the course of the interview, you’re going to do that. We’re going to talk about twenty questions in a minute and why that’s important. For the first part of it, you are seducing the audience and making them feel like they really are engaged with you. You want to get them to the point where they want more from you.

From the standpoint of the host, one of the nice things about it is that most of these podcast hosts have a business that’s co-created for the purposes of the podcast. That business, they’ll often turn around and say, “I’m doing a summit. Come bebe on my summit,” or, “Let’s do a joint venture where we exchange promotion to each other,” or, “I’d like you to be on this panel that I’m doing,” or, “I’ve got an event coming up,” or, “I want you to talk to my mastermind group.” All of those are good reasons to build a relationship and, not to mention, 2nd and 3rd interviews with the same host. There are real benefits to this.

I can’t tell you how many books I’ve bought listening to podcasts. I listen to the podcast host and I feel like, “He’s speaking to me,” or, “She’s speaking to me. I’ve got to buy this book.” I buy it a lot of times in Audible. There’s that trust factor with the audience. After that initial engagement with the host, they’ll do a show on something that’s related and they’ll invite you back.

The other thing about it is when a host brings you on their show, it is an implied endorsement. In other words, you are already getting the credibility boost of that host. The audience thinks, “If the host trusts this person, then I should. If the host thinks this is a good book, then I should.”

The host is looking for relevance. It takes it right out of the picture. It’s relevant to what’s going on in the world. They’re happy to bring you on to talk about that, which is the biggest barrier to getting into mainstream audiences because they only focus in one direction. What are your thoughts on that?

First, you really need to have a very clear idea of who your target audience is, and then you need to be going to those shows that cater to that audience but you need to have a great angle. If you don’t have something that distinguishes you from every other book out there, you’re not going to get booked. You have to find a unique aspect, whether that’s your hero’s journey story, the subject matter itself, a breakthrough that you created that nobody else has, or something that’s going on in the Zeitgeist that you have an answer to that doesn’t sound like everybody else’s answer.

You need to come up with a reason to make yourself relevant to that host and that audience and then target the right ones. You can break through if you are going to the right place. It’s always easier to break through on the mid-level shows than it is on the top ones. If you’re starting out trying to hit the top shows and you don’t have a lot of experience under your belt, you’re 1) Not going to get booked, and 2) If you do get booked and you stumble, you’re in deep doo-doo. You need to step into the places that are more likely to bring you on board and that are more willing to take a shot on a first-time or an author who doesn’t have a ton of media experience.

Don’t expect to get on Joe Rogan. It’s not happening. Here’s the other thing about it. I show this to my authors all the time. If you guys get a chance, go over to Scott Carson’s We Close Notes site. It’s WeCloseNotes.com. He has an entire webpage where he has the images of the show and the show logos on there and you can click and listen. They’re expecting you to promote as well. Find a way to do a really good job because other hosts that are looking for someone might go over there, click, and go, “This guy’s good.” There’s a lot there. That takes some burden off you as the booker as well, doesn’t it?

Yes. We always tell people, “If a host asks you to do a promotion, play along. Don’t dismiss it because it makes you a better partner.” They’re more willing to play with people. I’ll tell you the truth. Word gets around. This is true for virtual summits as well. If you commit yourself to a summit and don’t fulfill your promotional commitment, you’re not only going to not get invited back, but hosts talk among themselves. They know who the deadbeats are.

We are a chatty group, aren’t we? That is funny. I had to vet someone because I had such a poor interview. Someone recommended, “This guy’s the best YouTuber ever.” He was younger than my son. For those of you who have sons, you know that when you ask a boy how his day is and he’s like, “Great,” that’s all you’re getting. You’re not going to hear about it. I got one of those. It was like, “Don’t make me pull teeth during the interview.”

20 Questions I

Speaking of pulling teeth, the other thing I was alluding to is the twenty questions. When we do a radio podcast tour, we do a full media kit. Here are the things that go into that media kit. There is a main release, which we’ll repurpose the pitch letter as the main release. There is a full bio on you because we want the host to get to know you and get a feeling for you. There is your introduction that they should read. When you come on the air, do not leave it for them because they may get it wrong.

There are twenty questions that you want to be asked, and I’m going to come back to that. We also have what we call the Learn More page in bullet point, which is how the public can engage with you. It’s where and how they can get your book, whether you have a free gift offer, what your social media is, what your upsells are, and when I say upsells, your coaching programs, e-courses, or whatever it is that you’re marketing, and then your website.

The twenty questions are a roadmap. That roadmap accomplishes two things. First of all, 80% to 90% of the hosts will use those questions. Hosts are lazy. It’s easier for them. By and large, they’re going to follow your direction. That list of questions is going to allow you to drop the golden nuggets in such a way that you are getting the audience to follow you. You’re putting in calls to action such as, “In addition to my book, on this topic, I have an eBook. Here’s where you can get it,” or, “I also do private coaching on this,” or, “I have a group of people that get together to discuss their memoirs,” or whatever it is that you’re going to be doing.

In those twenty questions, don’t make it all about promotion. It’s not about promotion. It’s all about value to the audience. It’s all about what you’re teaching them and giving them in terms of learning and value. You use it as a springboard to present what it is you want them to do. It takes the pressure off of you. You know exactly what’s coming.

There’s a benefit to this. If you are a speaker starting out, by the time you’ve done 20, 30, or 40 interviews with the series of questions that you asked and by then, you’ve gotten a lot of it down into soundbites, when you go to get on a stage, it should make it so much easier for you because you’ll already know a lot of the content that you want to deliver. You’ve done it so many times that you’ve committed it to your memory. I’m not saying you should memorize it. I’m saying it will give you the flow of what you’re going to be doing on stage. It’s going to build your confidence so that when you get on stage, you’re going to feel, “I know this. I got this.”

What I love about the 20 questions too is it gives you the opportunity to create succinct answers. I saw one where this woman went on and on. I was like, “Why isn’t the host jumping in there?” I know the host was probably trying not to be rude, but it was too much. It really helps you get those answers into succinct organized thoughts as well.

You can write out those answers first but don’t give them to the host. It will give you an idea of what you’re going to say when. Keep it to what is a relatively succinct answer.

Media Kit

I usually do bullet points underneath each one so I hit the points that I want to do. When you download this, what would be the best way to use this? What do you put inside of that media kit? You mentioned the bio and current headshots. What else do they need? Any reels or anything?

Not necessarily for podcasts. If you’re trying to get on television, then you need some evidence that you’re television-ready. If you have your own podcast, that’s a nice thing to include. I would encourage you to put your best podcast on your website so if anybody wants to go and look around, they can. The most important thing is having a compelling website. Make sure that your social media looks good too because that’s the first place they’re going to go. They’re going to investigate your social media. They’re going to look at your website. They want to know that you’re real, so make sure that these are all up to speed.

I’m going to tell you guys another little secret about platform-building. That host is going to look, so you need to get your platform-building done. How many followers do you have? They’re also looking at, “What are you going to bring to my show? Could I get some potential listeners out of this as well?” That is always something to look at. Tell me. I’m a guest frequently and I also have guests on frequently. How do you feel about asking the host, “Could I run this through OpusClip?” or, “Could I do sound bites for promotion?” Sometimes, hosts don’t want you to do it because it’s their intellectual property, but I’ve never gotten a no.

That’s great. Most people are going to say, “Anything you can do to promote this interview is wonderful.” Ask away. That’s a great question to ask if you’re willing to do that. A lot of authors are not tech-savvy and don’t have this capability, but with AI, it’s so much easier. It’s a growing trend.

20 Questions II

There’s the importance of building that platform. Hopefully, by the time they get to you, they have the tech down because it is important to have that audience. Somebody’s going to go over and see I have 17,000 followers on LinkedIn and be like, “She might be a good guest. She might bring some people to the show.” Tell us more about the twenty questions. Should they be directly pertinent to your book? How should you craft those? If it’s a business book, what do you think?

The first question is always about your story. How the heck did you get here? What brought you to this place? The next one might be why did you write the book? From there, you start getting into the overarching messages of the book. What is it you’re trying to convey? What is the biggest, most important teaching principle of this? How did you come to this? You can then start breaking it down. You can break it down by chronology, logical steps, or where the next part of the story is or where the next subject matter is. Once you’ve established this, then what’s the next thing that you need to know?

The middle core of this is all about the critical subject matter that you are trying to bring and use to attract people to you. You can then get into a little bit more about free gifts, services that you provide, clients that you’ve served and the results that they’ve gotten, or the kinds of work that you do specifically that help people. It’s layering it. Don’t get into the sales part of it too early.

If you have to at all, that might be a relationship-building conversation.

Keep in mind what the information is that’s going to help this person. You might have more than one different kind of audience that you’re speaking to, too. You might want to address a woman’s audience. You might want a mind-body-spirit audience. You might have different questions in there because the host may encompass a lot of this. You might have questions that are geared toward a specific part of that audience.

You want to give host questions that are going to bring out the part that’s going to make you appear as if you’re in authority and that you have experience in this area. Maybe your personal journey has points to why you should be the teacher for these people. If God forbid you’ve been through sexual abuse and you’re talking to an audience of people who have been sexually abused, that’s pertinent. Don’t be afraid to be real. Don’t be afraid to be authentic because that’s going to draw people to you. Don’t hold back.

Let me point out that if the author starts in areas that you’re uncomfortable with, you don’t have to answer the question. You can respond with a different answer, redirecting to another subject matter or another direction. If they ask you something you don’t know, you can simply say, “I need to get back to you on that.”

It could also be, “That’s not my area of expertise,” or something like that. That is very interesting putting those together. Should you tie back the relevance to what’s going on in the world in the interview or is that something you would do in the pitch to allow them to see? I’m thinking about Dr. Casey Means and that Good Energy book. If that book could come out this time in 2023, it might not be as pertinent as it is with RFK Jr. coming out and talking about vaccinations, food, and all of that. Do you feel like the host should know that or should you tie it back in some way?

If you’re going to pitch a subject matter, it needs to be in your questions. If you are doing something topical, it needs to be among the earliest questions.

20 Factors

That’s good to know. How do we get these twenty questions download from you and find out more about how you work with authors? I know you have three different areas where you can work with them depending on how much work they want to do in the process as well.

It’s not the twenty questions I’m going to give them. I’m going to give them something called twenty factors that are going to tip their scale to get them on a podcast. These are going to tell you how to make yourself relevant so that a podcast host wants to have you on their show or that they’re salivating to have you on their show. You can get it by going to ConsciousMediaRelations.com/Podcast.

What we do in our podcast radio tours is I read your book, write a really compelling pitch letter in the media kit, and then send it to 9,000 shows and podcasts at the same time with a minimum guarantee of 30 interview invitations. We’ve been doing this for fifteen years. We have 400 people we’ve done this for, including people like Don Miguel Ruiz, Arielle Ford, James Twyman, Joe Vitale, Chris and Janet Attwood, Maureen St. Germain, Noah St. John, and Marie Diamond to name a few but a lot of first-time authors as well. If your book improves one’s life, one’s business, and the planet, we serve you. If you want to have something that’s hardcore business like how to sell more real estate, we’re not the people for you.

That’s probably not your niche.

We’re not politics either. It’s all nonfiction. If you want to help people find a new path, that’s us. What we do is we have three different versions of this. One is the done-for-you where we will do everything. All you do is tell us when you’re available and show up for the interview. We have another one that is done with you. With that one, what happens is we build a very big chart in Google Docs.

We log in all the invitations for you and then introduce you to the host by email. You then book your interview yourself and put it in chronological order in this document. You are responsible for sending the reminder to the host a few days before and making sure that you guys are connected again before the interview. Those are the two that have the guarantee of 30.

There’s another way that if you’re really looking for a budget program, we’ll create a special email for you that’ll go to your personalized email. We will send the pitch from you, not from us. The emails go directly to you, not to us. You are going to be playing catch, sorting them out, logging them in your own way, and booking them on your own. All of those are different means to do this. We find that most people pick the first two because it takes the burden off of them to a degree. We do have the largest list in the industry in specialties.

Besides our big core list, which includes personal growth, spirituality, health and wellness, women’s empowerment, and anything that is in the self-improvement, we have specialty lists. If you want business, women’s business, pets, energy healing, food, relationships, or any of those kinds of things, we have specialty lists that we pull in and drop into the mix when we do the distribution.

We’ve been doing it for a very long time. There are 90 testimonials on our website. I encourage people to go look at ConsciousMediaRelations.com and you will see them. The best way to get connected is to set up a meeting with me. You can do that on that page or you can reach me at Jackie@ConsciousMediaRelations.com. Let’s look and see if your book’s a good fit for us and which program works for you, and then we can get started.

Episode Wrap-up

That sounds fantastic. Thank you so much for sharing this. This is the wave of the future. I would not even solicit the mainstream media. This is where people are going to get to know you. If you want to be hired, there might be ten people who do what you do. If you get on there and build an online relationship through an interview, people are going to say, “She’s talking to me,” and come in, check out your book, and hire you. All of that is amazing. I love the new media and where it’s going.

The simple answer is if you don’t do it either yourself or outsource it, your book is going to languish and it won’t get the message out there. You have to be proactive. You don’t have to do it all yourself. We’ve clearly got ways to help you. All I can say is don’t hide your light under a bushel because you’ll live to regret it.

Thank you so much.

It’s a pleasure to be here.

Important Links

• Jackie Lapin
• 20 Podcast Factors – Conscious Media Relations
• Jackie Lapin’s email address
• Good Energy
• Author Holiday Bundle

About Jackie Lapin

For the past 15 years, Jackie Lapin’s Conscious Media Relations’ Radio/Podcast Tours have helped nearly 400 luminaries, leaders, filmmakers and authors grow their businesses, sell more books, create viewership and change more lives by introducing them to up to 9000 radio shows and podcasts, including such clients as Don Miguel Ruiz, Dr. Joe Vitale, Marie Diamond, James Twyman, Arielle Ford, Hay House and more. She’s booked for than 10,000 interviews and for her clients.