Thinking about an author media kit? Promoting your book and brand, especially for a new author, can feel like a full-time job. Getting your book in front of the right audience takes more than simply finding a retail outlet to carry the title, even though that task is a big, important one to accomplish quickly. But helping to create name recognition for you, your book and your brand are all key elements to developing a strong marketing plan so you can sell your book and create excitement over your brand and any future work you publish.
One of the best ways to do this efficiently is to develop an author media kit to distribute to channels that can help writers market their writing. An author media kit is commonly utilized when marketing a traditionally published book, but they are an excellent tool for self-publishing authors to use as well.
Book promotion takes many forms, including everything from creating an author website to attending book fairs and speaking engagements. But when potential booksellers and media outlets don’t know where to find authors and book content, all the well-intentioned efforts can be missed. Creating a document that brings all of these marketing elements together in one place results in an author media kit.
This document should be created in a PDF format so it can be easily downloaded or printed to ensure all the key information, formatting and eye-catching graphics look great every time it is opened.
The media kit should be long enough to include all pertinent information without any extra filler or irrelevant content.
Vivid graphics like a thumbnail of the book cover or a color photograph of the author add interest and help the media recognize your work as well as connect with you, the author, on a more personal level.
This PDF is well organized and presented in a clear, easy-to-read font that is free from any spelling or editing errors that will undermine your professionalism as an author.
What to Include in Your Author Media Kit
Putting together an author media kit to distribute to media outlets is easy to do with our checklist of the meaningful content that will help outlets learn about, market and promote your book and brand.
1. Author Content
The first type of critical information to include in your author media kit will help the media learn about you.
Your Photo: Include one or more professional photos in multiple formats that present you in an approachable, friendly way. Use a minimum of 300 dpi for these photos as high-quality photos will look great when they are reproduced in articles, news stories, or other promotional materials. Do not include any informal or candid shots, however, so you can maintain a strictly professional image.
Your Bio: A short, 100-word or less author bio that showcases who you are as a writer, what you write about and what makes you unique is important to include because it can be the perfect media snippet to introduce you in some situations. Also include a longer (up to 300 words) bio that covers your accomplishments, accolades and inspirations for writing. This lengthier bio option can be utilized in other circumstances when a more in-depth description is needed that can demonstrate your expertise as an author.
2. Writing Content in Author Media Kit
The second type of content to include in an author media kit revolves around what you have currently written as well as any other writing material you have published.
Book Details: Highlight the current book you are promoting by including a well-defined blurb about the book’s contents, characters, themes or topics that will attract the attention of the right readers. Your author media kit should have a full-color, beautiful copy of the book cover readers will see in the retail marketplace, and it should be easily reproducible so it can be included in promotional materials.
Reviews: If you have any significant early reader reviews or reviews by known authors, reviewers or other literary figures, include a portion of one or two in the kit. These reviews build credibility in your writing and will help to draw in potential readers through the reviewer’s authentic response to your book.
Additional Writing: Authors who have published more than one book or who have had their writing published in another format (an article, journal, newspaper or other media) can include links to those in their kit. This additional body of work shows the writer’s experience, expertise and depth of writing ability and helps to broaden the appeal of their book by association.
Media Links: Any media links to previously published articles or stories about the author or the book, as well as links to book or author events, should also be included in an author media kit. These links provide a full picture of interest in your book and your abilities as a writer, so including them helps anyone using your media kit to see the scope of your work.
3. Speaking Engagement Information
Part of a book promotion strategy always includes in-person or live speaking events.
Historical Events: Publicize where you have already been a featured speaker or contributor, like on a podcast or as a panel participant. Also, list any prominent upcoming engagements on the books to demonstrate your appeal to other booking agents.
Topics You Can Speak On: Clarify your areas of expertise to aid in consideration for different types of speaking engagements. Research for your writing projects, personal experiences and your writing craft all can be potential topics you can speak confidently about. Advertising this expertise in your author media kit is a great way to snag new speaking gigs as well as demonstrate your deep knowledge.
Availability Calendar: Make it easy for media kit users to book your appearance at their book event, author panel, podcast or speaking engagements by offering an up-to-date calendar of your free dates. If your calendar is wide open, consider only including a few selected available dates to create urgency in contacting you for booking opportunities.
4. Contact Information
The final component to an author media kit is providing contact information. More than just a name and phone number, your contact information should include three different methods of contact.
Website Link: Include a link or even a thumbnail of your author’s website. Before including this key contact connection, double-check that your website includes current information as well as everything needed to promote your upcoming book and speaking engagements so that when it is accessed, it will reflect all the information given in your media kit. You may also want to consider including an easily visible link to the media kit so this bundle of critical information can be quickly accessed and downloaded from your site.
Social Media: Include all social media handles that you regularly use and update. If you haven’t already claimed a professional handle with your full name, consider creating one and then linking it to your author site and other social media handles you have to take advantage of these fun but necessary modern platforms.
Email and Phone Contact: The final critical contact information to include in your media kit is a professional email and phone where you can be reached. Your email should include your full name or your full pen name so it is not easily confused with another similar email address.
Why You Should Use an Author Media Kit
It might be easy to see how using a comprehensive media kit can help an author promote themselves, their book or their brand as an author since so much content is included in such a tidy format. But there are three main reasons why we love author media kits.
1 It saves you time. Authors who are constantly answering the same questions, directing media to the same news stories and articles or answering inquiries for speaking engagements are taking valuable time away from writing. By putting all of these connections and directions in one well-designed kit, a simple click of the button can send the content someone has requested – along with a lot of great information they may not know they wanted but do – at the same time.
2 It attracts media attention to your book and brand. A polished media kit looks professional and having one can help demonstrate your expertise as a writer while showing off your growing brand as an author. Since a media kit is a commonly used tool with traditionally published books, a self-published author who creates one for his books will naturally appear similarly professional.
3 It allows authors to highlight their achievements. Without a department of publicists to promote you as an author, self-publishing authors can take advantage of the expectations that come with a media kit. One place you can toot your own horn is in a media kit, so be sure to highlight all of the accolades and accomplishments you have as a writer so readers, potential retailers and other media kit users will know about all of the great things you have done in addition to publishing your book.
Creating Your Author Media Kit
Whether you have already sent the manuscript of your next book off to the printer or you are looking for renewed excitement over books you have published in the past, creating an author media kit is a fantastic way to bring name recognition to you, your books and your brand.
A media kit is a great way to save time, bring well-deserved attention to your work and build excitement about your book and expertise as a writer by showcasing your accomplishments as a writer. And don’t forget, you can update the same media kit for each new book or project you do, saving each as a unique PDF file so you can quickly access each one whenever you need it.
