The New Media Strategy Every Author Needs Now

Want a media strategy that actually fits how authors work today? We’re flipping old-school media training on its head and showing how every post, interview, and Zoom window shapes your story. Instead of waiting for a big break, we walk through how to create your own opportunities, refine your message, and show up with the kind of presence that builds trust with readers, influencers, and journalists.

We start with the most powerful tool you can own: a reader sound bite. We break down what to include, how to make it sound natural, and why it’s your best defense against rambling or getting lost in the weeds. From there, we move into authenticity that isn’t sloppy: smart video setups, tight Zoom etiquette, and bringing real energy to camera.

We also unpack the mindset shifts that keep you steady under pressure. Negative comments? Bad reviews? Tough questions? Bridge back to your message with composure and clarity. 

If you’re ready to treat everything as media and make every touchpoint count, this conversation will give you the tools and confidence to show up prepared, polished, and unmistakably you. Enjoyed this episode? Subscribe, share it with an author friend, and leave a quick review to help others find the show.

Help shape our 2026 content by taking our 30-second listener poll!

📱Text Penny & Amy: send us your show feedback, burning marketing questions and new topic ideas!

Text the word PODCAST to (888) 402-8940 to sign up to send us messages and receive new episode announcements. And don't forget to save our number!

Check out our Book Marketing Jumpstart options if you're ready to take your brand, platform and SEO up a few notches.

Please leave a review on Apple Podcasts!

1. Be sure you're following the show: by clicking the + Follow button on the top right of our show page. If you're already following you'll see a ↓ downward arrow.
2. Locate Ratings & Reviews: Scroll down on our podcast page until you find the "Ratings & Reviews" section.
3. Rate the podcast: Click on the stars to give the podcast a rating.
4. Write your review: Under the star rating there will be the most recent review and just below that click "Write a Review" and compose your review in the text box that appears.
5. Save: Once you've written your review, click "Save" to submit it.

Can't use Apple Podcasts? Email us your review and we'll put it on our website: inf...

Chapters

• 0:00 Turning Media Training On Its Head
• 1:05 Everything Is A Stage For Authors
• 3:55 Authenticity Beats Chasing Viral Moments
• 7:50 Own Your Narrative Across Channels
• 10:55 Reader Sound Bites And Elevator Pitches
• 15:10 Zoom Etiquette, Presence, And Energy
• 19:45 Prepare, Personalize, And Avoid Auto-Replies
• 23:05 Build A Simple, Reliable Video Setup

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:00

Hello and welcome back to the book marketing tips, authors podcast. And it's Anthony, Baby Cornell. And so today we're we're kind of turning. So I get a lot of requests from authors on media training. I know maybe um a lot of those questions, but we're working with authors, media training, media training. In this episode, we're really turning media training on its head because everything is media. And we're gonna give you some examples and some takeaways and all the things. But I want to start off first just reminding y'all we've got some really great text from listeners. Thank you so much for writing us. We love it. It's such a personal way to connect with both of us over the podcast. So send us your show ideas, feedback on the show, what you'd like to see more of, et cetera. Text the word podcast to 888-402-8940. And we'd love to hear from you. We've been having a lot of fun with the with the texting. So I'm uh so I'm really excited about that. Okay, so let's dig into this. Everything is media, and I think that a lot of times authors really forget about that. Uh, you know, when I was first in business 25 years ago, we had TV, radio, print. And by today's standards, that seems super boring, right, Amy? Because now we have all the things.

SPEAKER_01: 1:29

Right. It's like TV, radio, and print now just seems so uh slow moving compared to it's like wow, it's really expanded the number of potential opportunities, which is very exciting.

SPEAKER_00: 1:43

But yes, and not necessarily, but but I mean, in terms of expanding it, this is where I think that authors tend to forget that everything is a stage. We talk about this too, everything is your resume. But this goes, I think, a little bit further, right? We not to put too much pressure on y'all listening, but we are constantly on stage. Every post on Facebook, every video clip, every reply, it shapes your public narrative. It shapes your image, right? Um, and I think that when, you know, we get this a lot of times with authors say, I want to be on TikTok because I saw XYZ go viral. And part of the re I mean, sometimes there's no rhyme or reason to what goes viral and what doesn't. But a lot of it has to do with authenticity, right? So as opposed to, I'm gonna create this video because I want to go viral, then you have the author. There was a there was a video. I don't know if you remember that, Amy. This is now probably a couple of years ago, but it was an author sitting in a grocery store doing a book signing. And he somebody took a some guy, not even him, it wasn't even him that did it. Somebody else did a TikTok of him sitting in this in this grocery store, and it may have been may have even been a Walmart, doing his book signing and the whole thing just went viral. And nobody was there was nobody at the table, he was just there by himself. And it was a super sweet, heartwarming moment. And I think he got asked back and then he had like a line out the door or something.

SPEAKER_01: 3:22

Very cool.

SPEAKER_00: 3:23

Yeah, you know. Um, all right. So part of the reason why we talk, we've talked a lot about branding, we talk a lot about messaging, but I think to reframe this, the whole topic of media. Um part of the reason why this is important is I think we oftentimes forget that everything that we put out there is all part of defining who we are as an author. I mean, I mean, you see this a lot of times too when you're evaluating authors or giving them assessments and things like that, right?

SPEAKER_01: 4:00

Right. Yes. And why this is also extra timely is because media, unlike in the past, media doesn't happen to you anymore. You really have to be engaged in creating the right atmosphere and the right opportunities for yourself. Yep. And it really does make a difference about what you put out there. Because again, you know, we've said it before, it sounds super harsh, but publishing a book isn't news. But you can make yourself newsworthy and interesting and unique and all those things, but those are all actions that you need to be taking. You know, that is not going to happen by sitting at your desk and you know, refreshing your Amazon sales stats or anything like that. Like you really have to be actively involved in making yourself coverage worthy. And to your point, Penny, everything you put out there, that's all a part of it. Everything that, you know, everything that you put out for readers and influencers and even bigger media to potentially consume and connect with you on and judge you by, if we're if we're being totally honest, it all matters. Yeah, it all matters.

SPEAKER_00: 5:16

And I I'm sorry, I'm sorry, cut you off.

SPEAKER_01: 5:18

Go ahead. No, no, I was just gonna say the more you put out there and the more you control it yourself, ensuring it's you know on point and quality and position for the people that you're trying to appeal to, the better.

SPEAKER_00: 5:30

Yeah. And you know, we used to talk a lot about sound bites. So I used to do, I I I've never done official media training, but I've done enough media with authors that I can kind of walk them through. Like, okay, you want to make sure you have your soundbite, you want to make sure that you have, you know what I mean, that you know what you're gonna say. In this new media world, developing your reader sound bite, which is essentially your elevator pitch. We just did a show on elevator pitches. So if you didn't catch it, be sure to tune into that. Um, but it is a it is a succinct, natural way to describe your book that feels conversational, so not rehearsed, so not like uh so practice this, right? Because you want to make like if you get asked if and elevator pitches, we don't necessarily we don't always all exclusively use them in social media or in podcasts or whatever. You could be going to a conference or meeting somebody in a grocery store. You're like, oh, you wrote a book, what's your book about? Boom, there's your elevator pitch, and you know, you know, you may not feel comfortable telling a neighbor your elevator pitch in the produce aisle of the grocery store, but I'm just saying you want to make sure and have it ready. Um and you can use this across everything. And in in the in the elevator pitch episode, we talked about the we talked about the author pages and and uh so it's not just so podcast intros, social media bios. And you know, if you listen to so there's a really great podcast that I love, and it's called Something You Should Know. He used to Mike, Mike Carruthers used to have like we and we've had authors on both his podcast and then his little he used to do this soundbite on radio, and he may still do it, um, but and basically he would just talk about something that was interesting that week or whatever. But on his show, he interviews authors pretty much exclusively. Like everybody that he has on there is an author. And it's interesting when you listen to the show, who really has their reader soundbite nailed versus who doesn't? And you can, if you listen to enough of those shows, you can really get a sense of you know what I'm talking about. All right. So, y'all, this is something Amy and I were talking about this in the green room. Body language, voice, energy, all of that matters, especially on Zoom. Let me just say this about that. I've done a lot of virtual Zoom events, taught a lot on Zoom. Everybody listening to me within the sound of my voice. If you've ever attended a Zoom session, do not eat, let your cat walk across the keyboard, or in one really unfortunate situation, get up and adjust your pants. Like that literally happened. And you know what the problem with that is first off, like don't do anything in a Zoom session or in a video, like if because some podcasts I know they like to record video because they also have corresponding YouTube channels, but show up like you're at a job interview. I mean, I'm not saying you have to wear a suit and tie or you know, whatever, or or a suit, what don't do anything that you wouldn't do. Like, you're probably not gonna bring, you know, fluffy the cat to an interview and let the cat walk across the stage. Like just stop, right? It was and it's very distracting, right? And people eating on camera. I'm like, really? Like, is that what we're doing now? So um, you know, the world is watching, right? And attention spans are really, really short. So your body language, voice, and energy still matter. I mean, listen, we've actually had a couple of shows that Amy and I have recorded that never ended up in the podcast stream because we felt like our energy wasn't like maybe there was just a lot going on that day, or we recorded late in the day and we're both kind of tired, whatever. It didn't match the vibe of the show. I mean, because we're really particular about that, right?

SPEAKER_01: 9:36

Yes, exactly. It makes such a big difference to do do your research, make sure that you are oh I mean, we get those emails all the time too, Penny. Yeah, teaching us for the show for certain things, and it's like I it's hard for me not to reply sometimes. I'll be candid. I can be petty like that. But it really is, it makes such a big difference that you are and this is for everything, showing it prepared. I know it's easy to check things off the list, but have you noticed this too on social media, Penny, when you can tell, you can really tell if somebody was engaged in their response or if they have their account set up for auto replies or something like that. I mean, I guess it's a high quality problem to have. If your engagement is so through the roof, you have to set up auto replies, then you know, congrats to you, I'm on all your secrets. But it really is, it makes such a big difference to take a step back. And this is, and we've done shows on managing your time and you know, not getting overwhelmed with stuff. But it really does at this point make us make sense to dedicate certain times in your schedule, I think, to working on these kinds of things where you can really be there a hundred percent. Yeah. Focus on what you need to create, focus on what you need to prep for, focus on, you know, follow the accounts, listen to shows, read their content. And before you engage, make sure you come up with something that's really thoughtful and unique because I can tell you, you know, professionals, influencers, they can spot it miles away. Yeah. If you're being inauthentic, if you're or if you're checking something off the list just to kiss their ass, you know?

SPEAKER_00: 11:18

But well, but the other thing though, too, is I think that um, you know, a lot of people, and Amy and I have had these conversations many times. A lot of people want to do Zoom. Like when we do, like when I do initial author calls, and we're like, they really want to do Zoom. And Zoom used to always really stress me out. And Zoom stressed me out because like I had a green screen, I had to get the green screen up, like all the things like I said at my desk. Now I have like this cool little corner in my office that's set up, and um, and it it first off, it looks better. It anything looks better. I mean, the green screens work very well, but this looks so much better, so much more authentic. If you're going to be doing a like if you're doing um book club meetups with, you know, book clubs and you're doing them across the country and you're doing them virtually, or you're doing school events that you're doing virtually, whatever, you gotta make sure you've got your video game going. Uh not just because like this video might wind up, you know, the guy adjusting his pants or whatever might wind up in social media and oh my gosh, what's he doing? But it sends a vibe. You're you're the you know, the way you show up in video, it sends a vibe, it sends, you know, it's your energy, it's how professional you are. And I've learned the hard way because I really like I for years, like as Amy knows, I really struggled with you know, with doing video. But when you have something, and if you're gonna doing a lot of podcasts, you are gonna end up doing video because a lot of these folks have YouTube companion channels. Um, just make sure that you got your video game going. Oh, yeah. You know, for for sure. Um, the other thing that I think is is so can we just have a conversation about negative comments? I mean, so if you're being interviewed, um, and again, whether you're being interviewed or whether there were negative comments on a social media post that you did, or you're getting a lot of negative comments in something. So let me just give you a firsthand example. I did a video. I I have, as those of you who've listened to us know, I I have kind of a love-hate relationship with TikTok, but so I did a video about one of our pod, well, one of our shows, and it was about creative ways that AI can help authors manage all the things. So, you know, coming up with social media ideas, it was not about let AI write your book anyway. So I did a little promo video for it and I put it on Instagram, great, they loved it. I put it on TikTok, and everybody lost their bloody mind. Right. And at first I was like, you know, first, my your first inclination when people are responding negatively is like, well, I have to respond back and I have to respond back. You literally can never win that battle. Right. So at some point I was just like, hey, thank you so much for your feedback. Thank you so much. Glad that you hate AI with your entire heart and soul. Good luck to you, whatever. So those negative, no matter how much you try to control the narrative, negative comments are gonna happen. Um, if you're doing an interview on a podcast, you know, depending on how um how seasoned the host is, you may get an off-topic question that you're like weren't really prepared for. And you know, you can just kind of you don't have to just say, well, I wasn't expecting that question, Dan. You can kind of you can lead them back to the to the topic. And I've seen it again, not to plug, I have no, I have no horse in this race, but not to plug the something you should know show. But listening to that show is really kind of like you can hear, you can really tell when somebody is bringing their A game and they're prepared because Mike's a really good interviewer and he will, you know, throw them, doesn't intentionally throw them a curve curveball, but he asks them tough questions because he knows his listeners want to dive deeper, right? You got to be prepared for all of that. Bad reviews. This is something, Amy, do you want to take this one? Because I know that authors like they want to respond to all the bad reviews.

SPEAKER_01: 15:26

Yeah, they you know, the answer is don't. Right, right. Short answer is don't, the longer answer is that's part of the that's part of what we're doing here. You know, it it sounds scary to to put it this way, but when you write a book and you publish it and you put it out to the world, like yes, what fuels you are is people loving it, but at the same time, you have to accept the fact that you are still putting something out there to be consumed and to be judged and to be experienced. And you can't control what happens once it lands in somebody's hands or on their Kindle, you know? Right. And I think that what to focus on also is, you know, we did a show recently on reframing your mindset that you really have to think of like read. I know your initial reaction will be to be pissed off, and that's fair. But really, if the review is thoughtful, even if it didn't go the way you would like it to go, if the review is thoughtful and they actually gave genuine feedback, like they really read the book, then honestly, that that's actually the best you can hope for. I know, unfortunately, sometimes you get those BS like one-liner reviews that just infuriate me too, you know, Penny. Yeah. We've talked about this before, how I wish Amazon for all the things that they do to kind of mess with authors in terms of reviews and pulling reviews and all this stuff, I really wish they would focus their energy on preventing those just nonsense, useless reviews. Yeah. Yeah. I I I completely agree with that. Yeah, those just drive me nuts. But honestly, if somebody was thoughtful and they wrote the review and you can tell they probably really did read the book, that's the best you can hope for if you're getting a negative review. And the ones that are the one-liners, that's just, you know, that's just life, unfortunately. Don't respond to those. Um, you can mark it unhelpful on Amazon. That's it's always cathartic. And we do recommend that you do thumbs up the help, you know, mark reviews helpful that are positive on your page. You know, you can ask your network to do the same thing. There's nothing wrong with that. Um, I definitely make a point to mark certain reviews helpful that genuinely are. And I I mark certain reviews that you could tell are just nasty and weren't well thought out, or somebody didn't even read the book. I mark those as unhelpful because it makes me feel better.

SPEAKER_00: 17:52

You know? Well, and I've seen actually reviews, I mean, not necessarily related to books, but I've actually seen reviews on Amazon where people are like, this arrived late. Like, how is that the person's Amazon's, you know what I mean? Like, Amazon's the shipping. How do you not know? Yeah, that drives me nuts. I just no, I I know that just makes me that just makes me crazy. So everything is media. It's and media training is very, I mean, yes, there is still television, radio, the things, media training, but think about just everything is media, right? Um, and just to be prepared and and you know, watch what you're putting out there. Um make sure that you have your elevator pitch, you know, nailed down. And if you've written a controversial topic, here's the thing. If you've written a controversial topic, if you've written about, I don't know, whatever it is, right? Like you've written about, you know, you really know what happened uh in XYZ crime story, or you've written something political or something, you should expect people to ask you the tough questions or um, you know, say something equally controversial or whatever. So if you've written something controversial, just go into this. There's none, then there's nothing wrong with that, but just expect it, you know. Um saying something like, you know, it's important for me to spark this conversation to, you know, whatever that what you know, whatever that conversation is for you, right? Um so uh yeah, I mean, Amy, there's one final point that I know you and I talked about in the green room on this. And do you want to just share this? Because you are you and I are I I don't know which one of us is more horrified at this, but sorry, I'm just a big, huge lead-in now for you. Oh God. Um wait, which one was it? Now I'm like it's the Amy's hot take. We talked about that.

SPEAKER_01: 19:58

Sorry, you guys. I am not used to get like anybody that knows me knows I am very much like the behind the scenes, behind the curtain person.

SPEAKER_00: 20:05

Please do not like oh, but she is so not behind this. Don't let her fool you. She's so not behind the scenes person, but go on.

SPEAKER_01: 20:13

So yeah, my hot take. I love this. This is hilarious. I need a t-shirt. Never, ever, ever turn down an opportunity or an interview. Ever. Ever. Some like no, I love it. Unless you are a household name already and you are not too good for any sort of coverage. We've talked about this a lot. Again, I I will say it to my blue in the face. Quality over quantity. Getting in if an influencer has 2,000 followers, but you can tell that all of that is genuine and they get great engagement, that is a much better audience than the influencer with 20 million followers that promotes everything under the sun because they're getting paid.

SPEAKER_00: 20:54

Yeah. Yeah. It absolutely, you know, we there's no such thing as, I mean, look, if it's not a good fit for you, then you know, then I don't know why you pitched it in the first place. Sorry. Just you know, then that I mean to make better choices. But uh never ever ever turn down an opportunity to to do an interview, whether it's, you know, a podcast or just somebody interviewing on social or whatever. Every single interview that you do is a great way to refine your message, to prepare yourself, you know, for the big time. And there's rarely an author that I've ever talked to who doesn't want the big ticket items. They don't, you know, the national, a big flashy billboard on Times Square, big national media, huge book tour, all the things. None of those things ever start out by authors turning down interviews, like ever. Right. Yeah. In fact, you know, there's a great story, Chicken Soup for the Soul, um, which pretty much the whole story about Chicken Soup for the Soul pretty much followed me through the first, I would say, 10 years of my, you know, running this business because they were everywhere. These guys were everywhere. And I think they've kind of sort of retired. I mean, the brand is obviously still there, but you know, they they probably retired to their homes in Maui or some exotic place or whatever. But when you think about chicken soup for the soul, you think about there's like nine billion different variations of like chicken soup for the fireman soul and the equestrian soul and whatever. Their secret, obviously, other than knowing the market, and we've I've used, I've cited them as an example before in prior shows, but their secret was never turning down a single interview. They would get up at, you know, this is pre-podcasting when you could schedule it at a reasonable hour, but they would get up at two, sometimes three o'clock in the morning, to do interviews on radio stations in podunk little area towns. Everything's important, everything matters, never turned anything down. And look at where it got them. Yeah. Right. So I guess you know, the the the takeaways are be prepared. Don't show up to Zoom with a sandwich or your cat. Um trying to make do a costume change on the on camera, because that really annoys Penny and probably everybody else on the call.

SPEAKER_01: 23:22

Um and be thoughtful in your responses when you show up, show up when you have time to really put the energy and thought into what you're putting out there too. Don't just off the list.

SPEAKER_00: 23:33

Yeah, because you know what? Even even if you never show up on video, even if you're like, you know what, I hate video, I will never be on video. People can sniff out authenticity in a social media post or a podcast interview very quickly. So, you know, bring your bring your authentic A game and your elevator pitch. And I think we've covered everything. We got Amy's hot take. I love that. I'm glad that you added that to the show because that was obviously that's obviously very key. And that's something that annoys me.

SPEAKER_01: 24:06

I need to embrace it more. You need to embrace what more? What? My my hot take. Because clearly I was like, oh gosh, no.

SPEAKER_00: 24:12

Like Yes, you need to embrace embrace your hot take. I think I I don't know, y'all. Don't you think that every Amy should have a hot take for every episode? I think that would be I think that would be amazing. And you can let us know what you think about that by texting the word podcast to 888-402-8940. And thank you also for all the new reviews that we've gotten. You got us over 100. Now, next year, our goal is to, because we're always we always striving for a goal, uh, 99 more reviews next year to get us to 200 by the end of 2026. So that would be amazing. Thank you so much for tuning in. Um, and we will see you next week. And I guess um next week is is Thanksgiving. So um we may do we may do a special rerun episode or something. But have a really good holiday, everybody, and thank you so much for listening. And we'll be back in your in your um stream on Friday. Bye bye.