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Beware of Costly Radio Deals and Guest Author Spots |
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Tuesday, 06 January 2004 |
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I recently talked with several authors who have done local radio shows and they were then approached by employees of the station with an offer for the “guest author” to have an hour long radio interview for a mere $350. The authors were encouraged by the radio station representatives to find commercial sponsors or to pay for the hour themselves. If you do the math, you’ll discover just how many published books you’d have to sell as a direct result from the radio program.
Another downer is that usually these “special sponsorship deals” aren’t aired in prime time. Prime time is considered to be during the rush hour, morning and evening drive times, when the greatest number of commuting listeners are tuned in on their car radios. Now just because they’re listening, that doesn’t mean they’ll be ordering your published book. Other costly “deals” to avoid are the ones offered by Bookman Publishing & Marketing. In my opinion their book marketing services are overpriced and their ability to deliver publicity and beneficial contacts with interested traditional book publishers as promised is questionable. They are currently running an Introductory Price of $799 on their Expanded Nationwide Radio Advertising that they claim will air an author’s two-minute interview/commercial on over 270 radio stations throughout the United States. In January 2004, their price goes up to $950. Once again you need to do the math to arrive at the break-even point of how many books need to sell to earn enough in royalties to cover the cost of their services. They’ve also been sending out a lot of spam. |
