Press Kit
You've probably heard the term, but you're not sure exactly what it is. A press kit should contain all the information about you, and your book in a concise form. If you intend to send a copy of your book off somewhere to be reviewed, then you should most definitely send a press kit along with it. It's probably better to just send the press kit to see if there is any interest in reviewing your book. That way you wont be wasting your money sending a copy of your book somewhere that isn't really interested in doing a review on it. Whilst a press kit should contain some information, there doesn't seem to be any rules about how much should go in. Whilst you will want it to appear professional, don't forget that you are trying to sell yourself, so don't be afraid of adding a bit of your personality into the kit, just don't go over the top. Another thing to bear in mind, is to try not to make this a book in itself. Every editor will love a well presented, and organised press kit, but if it comes in at 100 pages, then it probably wont make it beyond their bin.
What's in a Press Kit
The below is the typical contents of a press kit:
- A Contents Page
- Unique Aspects
- Synopsis
- Author Biography
- Book Information
- A Review List
- Promotions
- Questions and Answers
Let's take the above one at a time, and look at each one in a bit more detail. The contents should be fairly self explanatory, so I'm going to start with Unique Aspects. These should be a simple bullet pointed list of anything that is unique about your book. Is it based in a real life town or city? Is there a subject matter that makes it stand out from others? For instance, my book is set in Suffolk, and it's a story about a wolfdog type puppy. Both of these things go into my unique aspects section.
The next section to complete is the Synopsis, and this is an important one. Writing a good synopsis is an art in itself. This has to sell your story, especially if you haven't already got an agreement for a review, and you're sending your press kit out to try and get one. Within the press kit, you have an option of splitting this into two parts. You could either just put a full synopsis in, or you could add an intermediate section called A Brief. This would be almost a cutdown version of the synopsis, and you should aim to make it about half a page long. This gives an editor the option to simply read that, and then go onto the main synopsis if their interest is still held.
Right, next is Author Biography. This section should contain a reasonably short biography of yourself. Make sure that you only put in either relevant or interesting points. Editors will use this information to write your bio for the beginning, or end of their review of your book. If they can simply lift it straight from your press kit, then they will thank you for it. Also make sure that you write this in the third person, I always think this makes it easier to brag without getting embarrassed. If you have a photo, then include it here.
Moving along, we come to Book Information. Now this is nothing to do with what your book is about, this is simply a checks of information on your book. A typical one would be something like below:
- Title: (including subtitle)
- Author(s):
- Publisher: (name and contact information)
- ISBN:
- Number of Pages:
- Photographs: (number: black & white or colour)
- Size: (best to be safe and list both metric & imperial)
- Type of binding:
- Price:
OK, have you already had any reviews? If so, then they need to be listed in the penultimate section. You can also use this section to list what promotions, if any, you've done. Include any book readings, or signing days. If you have a lot of these, then it may be better to split them into two sections.
Finally, the Q&A section should simply contain answers to questions that are likely to be asked of you at a press conference. I'm sure you know the usual ones: Are you writing another book etc. | 