Publicity Begets Publicity

Cutie pie Alec Greven was on "The Today Show" this morning talking about his popular new book, How to Talk to Girls. How does a 9-year-old get a book deal? The same way I got my first book contract -- through publicity.

Publicity begets publicity and when it begets the right kind of high-profile, major-media exposure, it captures the attention of literary agents and book editors.

This charmer wrote his book as a classroom assignment. His teacher showed it to the principal, who offered it for sale at the school book fair, where it quickly became a best seller. This captured local media attention...which caught the eye of producers at the Ellen DeGeneres show...she had him on the show and introduced him to his publisher...and, well, the boy and his book are a hit.

There's a lesson in here for all of us and it's not "suck up to your teacher so she'll help turn your report into a best-selling book." The lesson is that if you want national exposure -- regardless of what you're publicizing -- don't look down your nose at local media outlets. You can leverage your local exposure to get media hits on a national level. And, doing your interviews locally first helps you get practice and finetune your pitch and messages before you go after media outlets with larger audiences.

Especially if you're a 4th grader.