Hi all!
This week I'm going to talk about something important that some authors may never have heard of. I'd never even heard of it until a few months ago when there was a Twitter thread about it, and I decided to create one myself.
I'm talking about an author media kit.
First off, what is a media kit?
A media kit is a collection of documents that you can send off when inquiring about interviews, TV appearances and other things. This can also be downloaded from your website directly if anyone happens to stumble across you.
What an author media kit contains:
- Bio.
- Author headshot.
- Website link.
- Social media links.
- Book info.
- Book blurb.
- Book cover.
- Book links.
- Extract from a review (by a reader).
- Mock interview questions and answers.
- Any awards you've won.
- Contact details.
I'm still putting mine together (and figuring out how to upload it to my website) but I've managed to do quite a bit already as you can see from the screenshot below:
Now onto the big question, why do authors need one?
It keeps everything in one place and organised.
Having it available in one document or a folder makes it easy for you to find and send to anyone you want. It also saves searching and time for anyone who would like to get hold of you.
It makes it easier for people to contact you.
If they want to invite you for some sort of interview or appearance then they can download everything they need in one place. They can then contact you easily instead of trawling to find what they need on your website or social media.
You can easily update it.
Once you have the template for one done, you can copy it over for another book. You can also just go in there and alter anything that is out of date.
It filters out spam.
Anyone can contact you through your website contact form, but only those that are really interested in getting to know you and invite you into things will download your media kit first. Then you can see who actually did their research and who didn't.
You can easily send it off.
Instead of having to write long emails to fight for a spot on radio or in a newspaper, you can attach your media kit and write an introductory email. It saves a lot of time.
In conclusion, a media kit is a necessity for any author, regardless of how you publish. I made one and it wasn't too difficult, just a bit time consuming. But now I have my template set up so I can just copy it for my other books.
That's it for this week, I hope you enjoyed reading. See you next week!
