What Are Your PR Lessons from the Royal Baby? Creating Buzz About Your Book.
Queen Elizabeth of England has achieved great-grandmotherhood with the birth of baby George. You’ve heard about this — everyone has heard about this.
A world-wide media frenzy, as one Internet headline put it. And that’s the point of this blog.
There are lessons to be learned from this little baby’s birth. And a question to guide us to those answers.
- When did the world begin to be interested in this infant?
A. Long before he was born.
Curiosity and speculation — buzz — about this child is a matter of the succession of British royalty. Many people in the world are interested in this; though some think it’s frivolous. But getting back to the point, even as far back as Prince William’s birth, speculation began: would William survive infancy and childhood, and marry and beget an heir?
So, when is the best time to create buzz about your book?
The answer is: Long before it’s born.
Social media helps authors share their writing journey with their fans, and of course we encourage this.
So, your answer as an author is to promote your book by informing your public, long before the day you first hold a bound copy in your hands.
You could post the following on your social media:
1. “I’m thinking of writing a book.”
2. “I’m thinking of writing a book about [topic]. What do you think about this?”
[Encourage your fans to respond with their ideas. People like being involved with their authors and what they write.]
3. “Thanks for all the great responses and ideas. Each of you who’ve emailed me about this new book that I’m writing will get a special advance purchase discount!”
4. “Today I worked on the outline of the new book while sitting on a big rock by the side of the river. Here are some pictures of the river.”
You get the idea. Make your readers part of the process, and generate buzz about your book, long before it’s born. You don’t even have to be a member of British Royalty to do it.