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Thoughts on books, publicity, and the media from our Cave Henricks staff.

So, you want to be on Good Morning America?

Business book authors, I’d like to introduce you to what is undoubtedly your publicist’s favorite question: “So, what about the morning shows?”

It’s right up there with, “Has Oprah gotten back to you about my book yet?”

Over the course of the three years that I have worked for Cave Henricks and in working with some truly fantastic authors, I have had requests for “Oprah” and morning TV more times than I care to recall (to give you an idea, I did a celebration dance when “Oprah” went off air).

Let me explain.

Most business authors are highly respected thought-leaders. Visionaries in the fields of innovation, leadership and management. They run (or have run) successful businesses and have coached others to the top of their industry.  Their thoughts and ideas are valued tremendously.

But not by the stay-at-home moms watching “Good Morning America” at 8 a.m.

It’s a simple matter of misaligned target audiences. Morning TV is incredibly valuable if you’ve written a book about parenting, cooking or wellness – or if you’re Nicholas Sparks. But for business book authors, whose books are, in large part, written for C-level executives or other business leaders, a segment on a top morning TV show isn’t going to move many – if any – books, because the audience for your book isn’t tuned in. At 8 a.m. during the week, you’re more likely to find them reading The Wall Street Journal or listening to Marketplace during their commute.

Here, I think it’s important to note that the issue is not that morning TV is as difficult to secure as it is coveted. We fully believe in setting our goals high and getting those big hits for our clients (2011 brought media placements for our authors in The New York Times, USA Today, Fortune, The Economist, Bloomberg BusinessWeek, Financial Times, Inc., CNBC Small Business, ABC News Now and CNN-TV, to name a few). But in setting those high goals, it’s crucial that we – both publicists and authors – consider the content of the book, who the book was written for, and where those people are consuming media.

I would argue that in more instances than not, the audience for your book isn’t watching morning TV.

That said, there are exceptions. There are business book authors that make it on a morning TV segment, get mention of their book and even have the host hold it up for the camera! In these rare instances, one of the following is almost always true:

  1. A top corporation made a huge gaffe or was involved in a major scandal on the very topic of the book (if you had a book on ethics when the Enron scandal broke, your chances of being on morning TV skyrocketed).
  2. The book is heavy in pop-culture with strong appeal to those outside of the business world… and it’s relevant to something in the news cycle right now (think Freakonomics).

As noted, these instances are few and far between. But, if you are still dreaming of morning TV, here are a few pointers:

  1. Ask yourself why you want to be on morning TV. Is it to sell books? To build your platform as a thought leader? To meet Ann Curry?
  2. Closely evaluate your book, its content and its intended audience. Ask yourself if being on morning TV would likely achieve your goal (answered in #1).
  3. If being on morning TV will, in fact, achieve your goal, monitor the news cycle to see how you can tie your expertise and the message of your book to something people are talking about in the news right now.
  4. Look for angles in your book with mass appeal. Tony Schwartz, for example, an author of ours, did a segment for Today on how technology affects family life – an angle pulled from the part of his book that discusses how being constantly plugged in is destroying our productivity at work.

While there is no set formula for securing a morning TV segment (or any media hit for that matter), these pointers will definitely move you in the right direction and should give both you and your publicist some clarity in terms of why you want to be on morning TV and how you can, together, try to make it happen.

At the recent 800-CEO-Read Author Pow Wow in Austin, an expert panelist made the comment, “You must be delusional to be a good author. If you’re not, don’t publish a book.” I second this comment. Authors must set their expectations high, reach for coverage in top outlets and do all they can to make their book a bestseller. What we’re referring to is delusional in a good way. It’s drive, passion, and a true belief in yourself as an author.

I urge authors to keep it up (keep being delusional – in the good way!). And if morning TV is part of your goal, then don’t stop reaching for it. But DO consider the points argued in this post and use the pointers outlined above: help your publicist find the angle that will appeal to mass-audiences, monitor the news cycle for book tie-ins, and think of ways to position yourself as the go-to expert. Not only will it better your chances of meeting Ann Curry, but it will likely keep your publicist from banging her head on the wall at yet another request for morning TV.