Whenever I participate in an unsolicited event, it usually results in unwanted spam and renewed vows never to do it again. Despite my initial reservations, Steve Harrison’s “The Three Big Secrets of Getting Free Publicity on Top National TV Shows” did provide some thought-provoking ideas, though not necessarily from the main content of the program. For example, benefitting from free publiciity is a no-brainer; celebrities do it all the time. Nor is the idea that celebrityhood can be a good thing any sort of revelation; to be a nonentity in our status-factory society is worse than death (perhaps that explains our horrified fascination with zombies: the living dead really are non-celebrities, but that’s fodder for another blog)

However, the nuts and bolts to obtain bookings on local and national TV shows provided tips a writer could use in any dialog or pitch-session with potential publishers, agents, or book-store managers. Among the points raised and discussed:

1. Everything begins with your hook; it must raise the question of personal benefit to the viewer.
2. Always ask for a referral; an idea that doesn’t work for one producer may for another. They keep in touch with each other, so should you with them.
3. Timeliness is everything; two types exist: a hook’s tie-in with the news, or its tie-in with the time of year.

Most important of all: your hook and its presentation should be funny and exciting, not serious. With over 200,000 books published every year, the competition for exposure among authors resembles luncheon with piranhas. As with your readers, remember why people are tuning in to watch and to keep watching–for an enjoyable experience.  Your future producers will, and so should you.