How to Create Press Kits for Authors

Creating a press kit will increase the sale of your books and give you more exposure as a professional writer.

As an author, you want to maximize your book's exposure. One marketing tool you can use to help sell your books is a press kit. You can submit the press kit to magazines, newspapers, radio and TV stations. Prepare yourself to be contacted for questions and possibly interviews.

Things You'll Need

• Promotional author photo
• Promotional book cover photo
• Sell sheet
• Book reviews
• Business cards
• Pocket or presentation folder

Instructions

1. Hire a promotional photographer to take pictures of you and your book. You can sprinkle in a little creativity for fun if it's suitable, such as surrounding yourself with roses and candlelight for a romance novel.

2. Perfect your author bio. Keep it approximately one to three paragraphs and write in third person.

3. Create a sell sheet. A sell sheet is all about your book and is not much different from a press release. Include contact and publisher information, the ISBN, the cost of your book and where it can be purchased.

4. Share additional details. If you have already received reviews, awards or other acknowledgements for your book, add them to another one-page sheet.

5. Craft a virtual press kit. Simply transform your documents into .pdf format and link to them from your website. If you are e-mailing press releases, include the link in the body for easy access to additional information.

6. Add your business card to the kit. This gives the appearance of a writing professional who should be taken seriously.

7. Intersperse some personality. Keep the content simple but add a bit of flare into the mix. For example, add a blood-red ribbon to a press kit for a horror novel or a packet of seeds with a gardening book.

8. Select a folder that works for you. Many authors simply use a pocket folder with a business card holder inside. Other options include presentation folders or the more expensive personalized printed folders.

Tips & Warnings

• Add other elements to enhance your press kit, such as tear sheets of articles you've written on your topic that reveal your expertise in the field or articles about you sharing your book at an elementary school or writers conference.

• Place the most important information about your book in the first part of your sell sheet. Journalists are busy people, and you want to grab them immediately. Also, they sometimes pull the first bit of information that appears on a press release for publication.

References

• Writing-World.com: Creating an Author Press Kit
• Rawsistaz Literary Group: The Author Press Kit
• Absolute Write: The Press Kit

Resources

• Entrepreneur: The Ingredients of a Press Kit
• Making It!: Simply Stupendous Press Kits