As I mentioned last week, in an attempt to create a more professional “Jennifer Geoghan Novels,” one of my current projects has been to create a media kit to have as a page on my blog.

What’s a Media Kit you ask???

Well, from what research I’ve done, a media kit is designed specifically for members of the media (reporters, bloggers, etc.) It should contain more detailed information than the basic “about me” content on a website as well as have more thorough contact information. Your media kit should provide the media with what they’ll need to do a story on you. Kinda like an interview without the interview.  It should include things like:

• Author Bios
• High res photos of the Author
• Jpgs images of Book Covers
• Contact Info
• List of all books (with ISBNs, length, links to where to buy, etc.)
• Synopsis of books
• Frequently asked questions & suggested interview questions (Questions and answers listed)
• Excerpts from your book/sample chapters
• Excerpts from reviews of your books
• Awards you’ve won
• Past press mentions of you and your works

At first I started working on this as sort of an exercise. I knew I wanted to tune up my Author Bio (the one I had on my Amazon Author page and a few other places) But I have to say that working on this project has been very helpful to me. How helpful it will be to the media … well, that remains to be seen.

It was suggested that you have four different author bios.

• One that is 140 characters or less (tweet-able)
• A Short Bio (50 words)
• A Medium Bio (100 words)
• A Long Bio (400 to 600 words)

Personally, I started with the long one and then shortened it down to the shorter versions. While rewriting my bio, I finally understood what a few sources had said about media kits, that’s it’s really about creating a unified message, and directing that message in the way you want the media to present you to the world.   Working on my bios made me take long look at another thing I’ve read along that way, and that is that as an Indi Author, I AM MY BRAND.  My bio is the description of the Jennifer Geoghan Novels brand.   If you’d like to read the new long version bio, click on the About Me tab here on my blog. I’ve updated it. See, my media kit is already coming in handy!

I’ve also been picking out photos of me that represent me as a brand. I’m a romance writer, so I’m thinking they need to have a somewhat romantic feel about them.  Am I a single gal who lives alone?  Yes, but my brand needs to read a little differently than that.  What I write is romance with a twist, unconventional love stories.   Not only that, but I firmly believe that romance comes in all shapes, sizes and forms.  This is why I like to have two different versions of my novels.  So the same story can be enjoyed by folks who enjoy different forms of romance.  This is my brand!  Yay, know I know how to sell myself!

Right now I’m working on reworking my book blurbs. They’re what I have pasted in my kit so far for a book synopsis, but again, you’re supposed to have a short and long version description of each book. Why? I’m thinking it’s so that a journalist who only wants a two sentence description of the book won’t just take the first two sentences of the long description of your book (you know chopping off the good stuff.) Again, it’s about controlling your message.

Lord, I wish I’d done this so long ago. So that’s my word of advice for today. Start to think about your message, your brand, and how you can use your blog, your Facebook page, your novels, Goodreads, Pinterest, twitter, in short everything to help mold and shape the perception of your brand image as a writer. I guess I knew this on some basic level when I first started publishing, but it wasn’t until I started this media kit exercise that I really saw the big picture come together.

So do you have a media kit?  Have you found uses for it?  I’d love to hear from you!

-Jennifer

Jennifer Geoghan, Author of The Purity of Blood novels and If Love is a Lie: Finding and Losing Love Online.