We were lucky to catch up with Marika Flatt recently and have shared our conversation below.

Marika, appreciate you joining us today. What’s the best or worst investment you’ve made?

We hired Action Coach one year ago and it has been a real game changer for our business. I believe in what they’re offering and am happy we have worked so hard improving our business.

Our path to signing up was not a direct one.

The way it worked for us was that we went to a free one hour workshop and we kind of sat on it for about six months or so and then we both went to another one hour workshop and I got a lot out of it. We kept thinking about the investment and we followed up with a free one hour meeting with the founder and at that point we were both sold on taking the leap.

We signed up for the Elite membership and started it last December and have been going strong since then. In that amount of time, we have been able to set big goals for our business, a five year plan and are really excited about the direction for PR by the Book– we’ve implemented heaps of positive changes for PR by the Book that we’d never have come up with on our own. We meet with our Coach via zoom once a week for an hour with another business and then we attend the all day workshop the last Wednesday of every month. It’s been a game-changer for us and our revenue (they do offer a guarantee).

Marika, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

For 20 years, we’ve been providing media relations, social media and digital outreach for authors and publishers.

Marika Flatt, 2021 Outstanding Austin Communicator, was hired as a “baby book publicist” in 1997 upon graduating cum laude from Texas A&M University with a degree in Communications. After taking over the management of that boutique literary firm in just a few short years, she & her husband, Doug, launched PR by the Book in 2002, capitalizing on her love of media & books.

Marika is a “connector” by nature, is a past-president of Women Communicators of Austin, serves as an Expert for Independent Book Publishers Association (IBPA), is listed on Twitter’s Women in Publishing (#womeninpublishing) and has served on the selection committee for the Texas Book Festival. Marika also serves on the advisory board for the San Diego Writers Festival and on the committee for the Women’s Storybook Project, based in Austin.

Marika has been a regular speaker in the book industry since the late ’90s for organizations such as: Digital Book World, IBPA’s Publishing University, Book Expo America, and Writers League of Texas, among others.

In her spare time, Marika has been a travel writer for nearly two decades and serves as the Travel Editor for Texas Lifestyle Magazine. Marika can be heard on the statewide NPR show “Texas Standard”, giving her Weekend Trip Tips, and is a regular travel contributor on several TV stations around Texas. Marika is the proud parent of three teens (none of which love reading as much as she does).

Have you ever had to pivot?

We have been evolving our Virtual Book Tours for the past decade. This is how we run them now: Virtual Book Tour is primarily focused on social media shares and posts, which will be concentrated throughout the month of the tour – or during a specific week. preferably around the release of the book or a timely date (such as National Write Your Story Day on March 14)

HOW IT WORKS:

We curate each virtual book tour to mirror the tone and intended audience of your book. We reach out to select bloggers/podcasters/reviewers/bookstagrammers/and other digital media who are the best fit for your genre and book.

Bloggers/podcasters/reviewers/bookstagrammers/influencers sign up and post either a review of the book, a pre-written Q&A with the author, an excerpt, a social media post, a book review or host a giveaway (sometimes a combination of these depending on their time/preference).

During the tour, your book will be promoted through selected media and social media (the media’s, yours and ours!) to drive awareness of your book. The best thing you can do is engage with the outlets through social media on the days of their posts to take advantage of their audience. We will make sure that you know the social media handles of the featured media for each day of your tour.

Here’s how the work breaks down:
Create a media advisory VBT pitch and a dropbox for media assets
Write an Experts Page including book summary, author bio and suggested talking points which we link to in our VBT pitch
Write and edit Suggested Interview Questions (SIQs) to be used as collateral during virtual book tour; gather up other assets for media from the client (images, digital copy of the book, etc.)
Build relevant digital media lists from PR databases and relevant campaigns from past clients
Pitch and manage responses; get any necessary materials for the virtual book tour (electronic review copy, image of book cover, Q&A, etc.)
Develop schedule including outlet url, social media profiles and day they agreed to post during tour
Develop and send media the virtual book tour hashtag so all posts can be shared via social media
Monitor and collect posts the week of the virtual book tour; distribute them via social media and add to the client portal

Let’s Get Creative:
Let’s talk about a few ideas to amp of the uniqueness of the tour. The goal of the tour is to create a swell, then a storm of interest!
Book Stores: Do you have any local bookstores/BN’s that you or publisher are familiar with that we can contact about a virtual or in store reading? We can send emails and make calls, but personal relationships are more likely to secure signing events.
Think outside the traditional too!: Do you have a local toy store (for children’s book), connection with a library or a friend’s local shop, pub or restaurant that has a public social media presence already? We can email and call a list you provide. Traditional Media: Your Campaign Manager will continue to court traditional media during the tour, and will aim to align specific hits with the tour dates.
Giveaways and Book Box Reveals: If you are interested in adding specific treats to your media copies given during the tour, please let me know. We can discuss additional treats to turn the heads of certain Instagrammers and bloggers. It can be something simple, like a bookmark, or for instance, the candy conversation hearts that were sent out with a children’s book about love, or for select bloggers, a bottle of wine. This can range anywhere from your top 3 to send to, to 5 or 10 depending on the gift. Examples below.
Personal Friends: If you have personal friends you can encourage to write a review on Amazon, Goodreads and to share on Instagram, please do. If you send their information to us, we will send them a link to a dropbox created for your VBT. They do not have to have a big social media following. Every share is a good one during the tour!
Dropbox: Every tour has a google dropbox that will have digital copies, VBT info (hashtags, where to buy the book, publisher’s info), images, as well as a Q&A with you and blog posts that bloggers can use.

Do you have multiple revenue streams – if so, can you talk to us about those streams and how your developed them?

In 2020, we launched www.AuthorToInfluencer.com, a DIY offering for authors. There’s a learning platform, a private Facebook group and free consulting all built in.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.prbythebook.com