A New Tool in Radio Promotion: "Talk Radio for Authors"

From Corey Deitz

Your Guide to Radio

March 31, 2007

Book Review

Francine Silverman runs an online publicity service for authors (bookpromotionnewsletter.com) and has taken her experience and information to create "Talk Radio for Authors", a book designed to help authors get interviews on radio shows in the U.S. and Canada.

Reviewing a book as this is not the same as reviewing, say, a novel. This is a reference tool and as such, my review can only provide you with my opinion on how it may help you - not necessarily how much I enjoyed reading it or how it personally served me.

The first portion of the book - and the bulk of it - is devoted to information on radio shows by topic of interest. For instance: Addiction and Recovery, Animals, Art, Cars, Disabilities, Food, Hispanic, Law, Men, etc.

Silverman provides a breakdown of 38 more popular ones.

Under each topic, the reader will find the name of radio shows, hosts, website addresses, email addresses and what she designates as the "Theme" of each program plus a "Guest Profile".

The Theme aspect gives the author an idea of what the radio program is about while the Guest Profile information provides the author with an a sense of what type of guests the show seeks out.

In addition, many entries under topics also list "Also aired" which tells the reader where the show is also heard, whether on another station, network, Internet stream, or podcast.

I like the fact that Silverman understands that the latter are important in pursuing a promotion structure for selling books. The new media are just as important as the traditional media - maybe more so in some instances.

Occasionally, an entry for a radio show will also include a comment from the program’s host on a recent guest or one that made an impression for one reason or another.

Back of the Book

Appendix A is one page featuring radio show directories.

Appendix B is a list of "Bios" of guest authors. I didn’t quite understand why this particular information would be useful to another author who is trying to get interviews to promote his or her own book. So, to be fair I asked Silverman and she responded:

I think that authors who have never been on the radio reading other author's bios who are on the radio will see what kind of authors they are. It may show them that they have just as much background as the guests profiled in the book and give them courage. It also helps to show what kind of authors the hosts are looking for. If I just put the author's name under their quote, it wouldn't tell readers anything. In any way, their bios are just as important as the host's.

Appendix C contains "Host Bios" which might be useful to an author who wants to understand better the person they are about to be interviewed by.

Appendix D lists four articles of interest by other authors on the subject of promotions and interviews.

The Bottom Line

Overall, "Talk Radio for Authors" seems like it would be fairly useful for many authors. Silverman has done the legwork in compiling a decent list of contacts for many radio shows.

Having promoted a book myself, I can tell you that compiling your own list of radio host & show contacts by searching the Internet is slow and grueling. It may also be cheaper, but for the price of Silverman’s book - $17.95 - any author should certainly get their money’s worth.

"Talk Radio for Authors"
by Francine Silverman
InfinityPublishing.com
2007

You can find ordering information for "Talk Radio for Authors" at bookpromotionnewsletter.com.

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Writing, radio go hand in hand

Authors make interesting guests on talk programs

By Lynn Arave
Deseret Morning News

"Talk Radio for Authors" ($17.95, Infinity) is a new kind of radio book, and one that most of the public might never get a chance to inspect. However, the publication is an important one to the industry, geared to broadcast insiders or authors.
The thrust of the book, by Francine Silverman of Riverdale, N.Y., is "getting interviews across the U.S. and Canada." She writes, "Talk radio shows and authors go together like coffee and cake. Simply being an author gives you a foot in the door."

Authors do frequent a lot of radio programs — talk shows and even some morning FM-radio shows. The book gives insights into how authors end up on some shows — many likely booking themselves.
Silverman quotes Dan Poynter of the "Self-Publishing Manual," who states, "Authors are interesting people. Most people feel that authors are experts or celebrities. Radio and television talk shows constantly need interesting guests to attract listeners and viewers. The fact that you wrote a book will get you on; then you must have something interesting to say that is unique, controversial or fascinating." (So, if you want to be on the radio but don't want to be a host or DJ, writing a book is one way to do it.)
The book covers various subjects and tells authors what shows are available for that subject, as well as contact information. It would save authors a great deal of research time. This new book also includes some Internet radio sites, a new realm for greater publicity. (The Deseret Morning News is mentioned as hosting "FlyLady" Maria Cilley and "Dinner Diva" Leanne Ely, whose weekly columns appear in the newspaper.)