A Tale of Two Book Pitches

October 3, 2008 · Comments

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This morning, I found two different emails from book authors in my box (no, neither was from Darren Rowse or Chris Garrett). I get pitched to check out books all the time (which is awesome, because I read LOTS of books. In fact, if it’s an interesting business book or leadership / self improvement, send MORE pitches, but read this first. I need to tell you what works well and what doesn’t.

My first email came from a guy who was personable, sent a plain text email, addressed it to me, and had a few funny lines in the first paragraph. One was where you’re supposed to talk about all the amazing press you’ve received for your books, and he mentioned all the same old places, but he said it like this, “…was reviewed by the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, blah blah blah blah blah.”

I laughed out loud (or more of a blurting snort) at that.

It was polite, brief, simple, personable, and funny.

The other email came from an author who blasted me with a fairly standard Constant Contact email marketing template with no personalization, all kinds of graphics, and a reasonably blathery bunch of marketing speak that she copied from all the other book releases. I can’t honestly remember a single word that was written. Honestly, I can’t even remember the book title and I *just* read the email.

Advice/Lessons Learned

Brevity and originality trump well-crafted copy any day. Personalization, even if very minimal, at least gets my attention. And here’s the complexity.

This doesn’t scale really easily. It’s not easy to mass-market books this way.

BUT THAT’S THE POINT, DAMMIT

Be personal, be one-on-one, and learn how to do it in a way that reaches the people who will take your book and run with it.

Watch out for my next post, where I review a book that was pitched to me nicely.

Thoughts?

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  • If a PR effort really rubs me the wrong way, I'll blog about the effort under the heading Marketing to Mommybloggers, (good SEO, right?) in the hope that others will read it and learn.
  • >>>Brevity and originality trump well-crafted copy any day...

    Brevity and originality *is* well-crafted copy. :-)
  • In the name of social media, if nothing else, why not blurt out the names of the agencies that pitched you? For all you know, they may have Google Blog Alert notifications set up.
  • With getting so many emails a day, any advice on a personal Subject Line to create to ensure a higher open rate?
  • I never read the templated stuff... I get to about the first sentence and hit delete!

    The personal stuff is easier to relate to ya know? And when you have a lot of email to sort through, people to respond to, the things that are pitched to you with a slightly personal touch are easier to address. I think it's because we come to appreciate the fact that they took the time to make it personal at all.
  • I agree humor always leaves an impression. I like how you like the personalization, at the same time it seems that's the route to go, and more often than not those are the failures. I think there should be a mix of both, but at the same time, I'm sure you've received a lot of personalized emails that you would never mention as well.

    Craig
    www.budgetpulse.com
  • morning Chris, re "Personalization, even if very minimal, at least gets my attention. And here’s the complexity. This doesn’t scale really easily"...

    What a lot of people miss is the "social" part of "social networking". Comment whores, generic emailers, etc... don't get anyone's attention for very long. "Nice post" or "here's who I am and here's what I want to sell you" doesn't cut it on the net.

    You're right, personalization by definition doesn't scale up well but investing a bit of time to connect with people who we really want to reach will (in the long run) get much more and much better quality attention than any email blast ever will.
  • Glad to hear your thoughts on this seem to echo mine. I dunno. Just seems like we're not going to win by going fast food in our approach to humans.
  • Many marketers don't seem to understand that a consumers time is valuable to them. If they are going to give you that time, they need a damn good reason. Consumers will ask themselves, "What makes time spent with you more valuable than one of your competitors?"

    What the two pitches demonstrated is a different approach to your time. The 'blah, blah, blah' comment was crucial in showing that the guy wasn't concious of your time and didn't want to waste it. Whereas the standard pitch demonstrated a completely selfish approach - all that mattered was getting THEIR point across. It was also very arrogant.

    The personable guy treated you with respect and by doing so gained him your respect. Something a lot of marketers seem to have lost sight of.
  • dkdanielson
    As a book reviewer of entrepreneurial books, I am amazed by some of the pitches I get (some are not even about books!). The "blah blah blah" comment or any humorous pitch would have elicited a response from me whether or not I wanted to read the book. Generally when someone writes me a personalized pitch(i.e., not a form letter) even if it's not on point, I will write back and explain what I'm looking for.

    Perhaps people should think of the personalized email pitch as the equivalent of a handwritten note. While it may not make sense to do it everytime, if some blogger is your exact target market, it's worth the effort.
  • The next time I send a query letter or pitch a story, I'm going to make sure I include blah, blah, blah.
  • It really isnt all that complicated is it? Social media may be "new" yet it still the same concepts my first sales manager preeched when he worried about the evils of fax machines, my mother said it first, and I suspect it was sage advice as far back as the cave man days--Form a relationship, be NICE, and tone is everything.
  • I think your comment about scale was right on. To send personalized PR notes, it takes a LOT of work and a good CRM program.

    I'm a momblogger and it's amazing how often I get sent irrelevenat pitches just because of my niche. It irks me when I get pitches for things like baby products because it only takes a quick glance at my blog to know that I have older kids.

    If a PR effort really rubs me the wrong way, I'll blog about the effort under the heading Marketing to Mommybloggers, (good SEO, right?) in the hope that others will read it and learn.

    I think there are many bloggers who do what you and I are doing. There's a lot of advice out there from the blogging community to the PR community. I'm just not sure how many PR folks take the time to read.
  • Vicki ONeill-Ropoos
    Great insight, Chris. Humor is the best way to be memorable. And to get the message to stick, keeping it simple and to the point will win every time.
  • This is so true. What do you read first: The prospectus from your mutual funds, or the postcard from a vacationing friend?
  • You have a great point here. Everyone of us like to feel unique and important. And it catches attention and gets reminded.

    We all receive these boring corporative newsletters and emails and if every online service out there is working on deliver personalized content, human interaction is no different.
  • Great post, really important stuff, you're the best blogger ever, blah, blah, blah, blah ;>}
  • Well-crafted, personal copy is what gets people listening.
    There's so much noise nowadays from the media that it's impossible to get your message across effectively if you try and go with the stun gun approach.

    Your In Box is a personal space. You want people to talk to you, in a way that you listen.

    If marketers get this right this can lead to real conversations and recommendations.
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