Nonfiction authors who want their book to get noticed and who are looking for more publicity are using HARO. What is HARO? It stands for Help A Reporter Out. It’s a free service to connect journalists with relevant expert sources. You may just be the source they are looking for!
I had a recent email exchange with a client and her editor discussing HARO. The editor, Candace Johnson, and I have shared several clients over the years and encourage our clients to use HARO as a way to get publicity and grow their author platform. Candace gave me permission to share some of the information from that email exchange.
Many of Candace’s clients have enjoyed great success with responding to HARO requests. Here are her best practices for HARO in a nutshell:
- Don’t wait till the last minute to respond. Reporters get many responses, and the earlier the better.
- Submit what they ask for in the format they request.
- Tailor your statement to your expertise—you don’t have to have an answer for every question they ask.
- Don’t send unrelated content; they don’t have time to spend reading a novel.
- Use grammatically correct soundbites when you can. That makes it easy for them to spot the gems they’re looking for.
- Include a link to your book and social media in your brief bio.
Candace also provided links to additional information to help craft a great response.
https://buildbookbuzz.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/How-to-respond-to-HARO-queries.pdf
http://janetabachnick.com/7-must-haves-for-a-successful-haro-media-pitch/
HARO requests can also be used as prompts for blogs and you can link back to the article the reporter writes. Links like that are very helpful to SEO.
Candace wrote a blog post about HARO I encourage you to read. Candace and her two daughters have been quoted in articles after responding to HARO requests. I too have responded to HARO requests and been quoted in articles. So we know it works to respond to requests – if the pitch is good.
Start your path to get noticed with more publicity using HARO. Sign up as a source!