Eight Ways to Jump on Breaking News and Get You (and Your Book) Into the Conversation

Is it just me or does it seem like there's more breaking news than ever? In recent weeks we've seen numerous stories with everything ranging from Michael Jackson and Farah Fawcett passing away to Sarah Palin's surprising resignation. So what happens if there's breaking news that you can comment on? Do you just sit by and hope someone will call you? No way! You take action. So how do you do that? Well, first off, it's important to get into the conversation. Especially if it's on your topic or within your area of expertise. If you can lend insight to a subject that's being covered on television or hotly debated on your favorite cable talk show, then it might be worth getting yourself out there. Here are a few tips to hook your story on the latest breaking news topic.

1) Blog on it: if you have a blog that has any kind of a readership, and even if you don't: be sure to blog on it. A blog is a great place to share your opinion on the subject and even (when appropriate) offer a solution.

2) Bookmark your blog post. You can do this through sites like DIGG, Delicious, Stumbledupon, and Indian Pad. Bookmarking is a way of adding links to your blog post and sharing it with the world. It's a simple process of getting to these sites, creating an account and listing your blog post. All in all it takes about 10 min per post to set this up. Well worth it as it will help to drive traffic and interest to your message.

3) Syndicate an article: after you've done the blog post, write an article (perhaps with a slightly different take or stance) and syndicate it through sites like goarticles.com or ezinearticles.com. If the topic has legs, it's likely the media will be talking about it for weeks so having some content out there could be helpful to your message and a way to get their attention.

4) Contact your local media: one of the best ways to get local media interested in you is to offer them a local angle on a national story. So let's say we're addressing the deaths of two major pop icons, and you have written a book on historic figures. Would either of these two people be considered "historic" per se? Well, that's debatable and perhaps a good subject for a segment. When does someone or something become historic and how do locals feel about this? There's your local angle.

5) Contact national media : If you have a subject that's drawing national attention and your message is significant or different enough to pitch to a national show then get out there and start pitching. Remember: with so many shows on the air all competing for audience attention they're all looking for a new and different angle. The only thing they can say is no and if you're right for the topic and you've pitched effectively, you're likely to get a yes.

6) Make sure you're getting HARO (helpareporterout.com): HARO is a newsletter that arrives as often as a few times a day and it's packed with media leads. If there's a hot story there will be a media person on HARO looking for someone to comment on it.

7) Get Google Alerts: make sure you *always* have your keywords in Google alerts so you can be aware of who's saying what about your topic. Also, during non-breaking news times this is a good way to get to know media that covers your story and start networking with them so that when a breaking story hits, they already know you.

8) Twitter on it: While it's hard sometimes to separate conversations on Twitter, there's a great system to separate out topics by using a hashtag (#) - it's as simple as finding the big story and creating a hashtag for it, so for Farah Fawcett it might have been #farah. Start a hashtag which helps to identify your story, or search the hashtags on Twitter to find out what hashtag your topic is being categorized under then start twittering on it. Direct folks to your blog, to other sites covering this, direct them to anything that will tie into this topic. The media is on Twitter and they just might find you!

Breaking news doesn't have to leave you, your story or your book in the dust. So often authors tell me they see "experts" on TV and they feel they can do better. Well, now's your chance. The next time a breaking news topic hits the airwaves, jump on it. You just never know what could happen.

Penny C. Sansevieri, CEO and founder of Author Marketing Experts, Inc., is a best-selling author and internationally recognized book marketing and media relations expert. Her company is one of the leaders in the publishing industry and has developed some of the most cutting-edge book marketing campaigns. She is the author of five books, including Red Hot Internet Publicity. Penny is also a teacher with NYU and a blogger at The Huffington Post. AME is the first marketing and publicity firm to use Internet promotion to its full impact through The Virtual Author Tour, which strategically works with social networking sites, blogs, Twitter, ezines, video sites, and relevant sites to push an authors message into the virtual community and connect with sites related to the book's topic, positioning the author in his or her market. In the past 15 months their creative marketing strategies have helped land 10 books on the New York Times Bestseller list. To learn more about Penny's books or her promotional services, you can visit her web site at http://www.amarketingexpert.com

Copyright (C) 2009 Penny C. Sansevieri

Current News on Current News Poll and Breaking News

Reax to Rush Limbaugh being hospitalized from around the web:
 

Kit Carson, Limbaugh’s chief of staff, said he had no further information on Limbaugh’s condition.

He said the 58-year-old left for his usual Christmas vacation on Dec. 23 and is due to return to his show on Jan. 4. Carson didn’t have any information on whether that schedule would change.

Limbaugh’s three-hour weekday show is heard on some 600 radio stations across the country, and more than 14 million people listen to him at least once a week.

Honolulu television station KITV reported Wednesday that paramedics took Limbaugh to The Queens Medical Center in serious condition from the Kahala Hotel and Resort.

Limbaugh was seen golfing at Waialae Country Club — a country club next to the hotel — earlier this week, KITV said.

Americans said in a poll last month that Limbaugh was America’s most influential conservative voice.

With his sarcastic putdowns of liberal policies, off-color parodies and bombastic self-promotion, he began capturing conservative listeners in the 1980s and grew to become the highest-rated radio broadcaster in the U.S. Recently, he’s found a renewed purpose and has boosted ratings by railing against Barack Obama’s presidency.

In 2001, Limbaugh reported he had lost most of his hearing due to an autoimmune inner-ear disease. He had surgery to have an electronic device placed in his skull to restore his hearing.

Two years later Limbaugh acknowledged he was addicted to pain medicine. He blamed the addiction on severe back pain, and took a five-week leave from his radio show to enter rehab.

Dear Jesus, I am praying for Rush! He is the most important voice in opposition to 0bama, and he is vitally important to the conservative cause in 2010.

Reply

Please God, Please don’t let anything happen to him.

Please God, let it be a pulled muscle or indigestion.

Man o man, he lost all that weight and now he gets

chest pains.

Rush, I’m praying for you.

The guy has been taking better care of himself lately, but come on, look at him, he’s a friggin’ coronary waiting to happen.

It’ll probably be far from fatal though. He might be down a little longer than we’d hope, but he’s got to radically change his life if he’s gonna hang around as long as we need him.

I’m praying for ya too, Rush! Radio says he’s in serious condition…

I hope to hell that they are exaggerating when they say “serious condition”. not sure what EXACTLY that entails, but we need this man to help get us through the next 3+ years!!!

Every day, I keep expecting strong conservative voices to get blackbagged. I keep praying for Rush’s health and free from harm. Oh please, Lord, please keep Rush Limbaugh healthy!

This CAN’T happen!!!!!

Get well soon o’le great one!

Even though I enjoy them myself occasionally, he’s gonna have to lay of the cigars. Good thing this happened before ObismalCare became law. Thoughts and prayers are with him.

Reply

I’m pretty sure Rush would find a way not to participate in Obamacare. The man could fly anywhere in the world for medical treatment. While the US is generally the best, someone in the world would be willing to treat someone willing to pay for care. Like most of us.

1.

God preserve him.

Our prayers are with you, Rush!

2.

Father God,

I pray for your healing on Rush’s health and that of his spiritual condition as well. I pray for forgiveness of those who would use this opportunity to gleefully use this incident in furthering their political hatred of conservatives and decent folks in general.In the name of Jesus, Amen!

3.

May God watch over Rush and his family and give them the strength to turn away from the hate that is running rampant this evening.

4.

Dear God,

Please be with Rush at his time of need now. We love you Rush.

5.

Hope Rush makes it ok, don’t need to loose him now.He is the catalist for stopping the foll in the WH.

6.

Joining others with prayers for Rush. Rush is right and he is needed today more than ever.

7.

I pray for Rush, and I know God is with him.

Get well in a hurry Rush, because 2010 is going to be a tough slog!

8.

Well now that he is doing better, it just goes to show you, nothing good comes out of a vacation. =))

I would miss him so if the Lord were to take him home early. I don’t know if you could find a really good replacement for him. I enjoy Hannity, but he is not Rush. Dennis Miller can be funny at times but, it seems to me, the further away from 9/11 we get the more he creeps to the left. The local radio station keeps running a promo where Dennis Miller says he knows people on the left who are great and knows conservatives who are morons. Not that what he is saying doesn’t hold true, but let’s face it, there are alot more morons on the left than on the right, and those wishing for Rush’s death only prove my point. – Lorica

9.

With all respect, I’m surprised you would be surprised by the volume or intensity of Leftist hatred. None of us should. Job number one for conservatives is fully understanding what we’re up against, and what Rush is up against.

10.

hope he’s ok, the guy is a national treasure…being in a hospital is tough for anyone, hope he’s not in too much discomfort.

11.

rr, I know exactly what we’re up against, and have seen a lot of leftist hate in my day. But the sheer level and volume of it last night surprised me. I knew there would be a lot of nastiness, but I mean every tweet I saw from lefty tweeters was just full of sheer hate, and there was a lot of it.

12.

thanks for the clarification, sister, and glad you’re aware. I’ll just say I grew up on the Left and nothing — no extreme reaches or endless effusions of hate — surprises me. Once one understands that hate is not a “reaction” from some individuals among the Left but rather a raison d’etre of the entire movement and mindset, it becomes easier. The latent hate I was able to see even among the most educated and elite makes it easier to understand its spread through the ranks.

13.

However trite that may be, you must remember that hatred is often bred by fear.

All good wishes to Rush from this side of the Pond and a happy new year to everyone on the forum. <:-p

14.

the sheer level and volume of it last night surprised me.

ST, it shouldn’t surprise you. There’s an old adage among us ex-USAF types: if you’re catching a lot of flak, you must be over the target.

Rush inspires this kind of hatred precisely because daily he describes liberalism for the totalitarian mindset it is, he does it effectively, and he does it to a large audience.

Sarah Palin gets the same level of hate for the same reason.

If Rush were ineffective, or politically correct, or had no audience, the left wouldn’t get this worked up.

To change the subject just a little – what do you think it would take for the left to gin up the same kind of passion against the islamofascists that flares up so quickly against Rush? :-?

15.

GWR, that just couldn’t happen. To begin with, the last part of the term, islamoFASCIST, describes the mindset and worldview of the left to a “t”, and they’re not just about to give a long-term bronx cheer to any group that in fact has the same ultimate goal as they themselves have.

That said, it’s amazing how quickly and fiercely the left goes after the wounded (or whom they perceive to be wounded, like Sarah). They’re almost like sharks (or lawyers, but what’s the difference?). They seem to take darwinism to new lows nearly every day.

16.

Interesting quote:

“The people calling for Rush Limbaugh to die are the same people who ask to control your healthcare.”

17.

I read today that Democrats were wishing Rush’s death. How sad for his family to hear this.

I’m really tired of both political parties..both represent big govt. & not the people so we need a Rush Limbaugh in our lives.

THere is a great book for 2010 if you want to see a small town in AMerica that stands up to federal tyranny & corrupt politicians & they are good people, just like you and me, who end up starting the 2nd American Revolution. It’s a great gift & read for anyone wanting to know about 2010.

18.

The Odd Warrior

We spend so much time "carping" about what fools our political leaders be (And I'm a chief carper) that we consistently underestimate their potency. What we have, my friends, is a war, and we're losing.

It is a fact that in the lifetime of the current crop of men, we have only ever had two great American war leaders...

The first great American war leader was Franklin D. Roosevelt. The second is Barack H.Obama.

It's a funny kind of war. Presidents are charged with protecting the peasants from enemies, both foreign and domestic, you see.

Most presidents tend to favor protecting us from the foreign type of enemy, however clumsily they do it.

Obama, on the other hand, leans toward protecting the nation from the domestic enemy, namely, Republicans and Conservatives. In other words, he has declared war on democracy itself, with the enemy being...us.

The mark of a good war leader, is utter ruthlessness. FDR had that trait. You must go all the way back to Lincoln or forward to Obama to find the other leaders with the reserve of inhumanity to pursue the good war.

Obama formally declared war on the country when, shortly before the election, he vowed to make fundamental changes. The man has been as good as his word.

Look at Roosevelt. Whatever the state of his personal feelings, he was nevertheless as quick to order his own troops to certain death as he was to order death to the foreign enemy. This sort of thing takes cold, calculating guts.

It's not the sort of thing we have seen in our other war leaders. Yes, LBJ did kill a lot of our troops while killing more of theirs...but he anguished over it.

FDR never anguished, even as he spilt our blood at Iwo Jima and theirs during the raids of Dresden and Tokyo. It was just war business. Nothing personal.

Obama hasn't had one moment of guilt in potentially sacrificing his congressional troops in his War On America. The simps that they are, they blindly throw themselves into as much withering fire as our side can muster, all the time bellowing out the revised hymn, "Onward Obama Marxist Socialist Soldiers"

Obama, in his first weeks in office ordered his own sort of blitzkrieg, or, "lightning war" on God fearing Conservatives. Overtly, and covertly.

Covertly, he proclaimed himself as the new religion for democrats. And they became true believers, taking his every holey word on faith, being ready to fight over arcane principles that they only dimly understood, if at all.

Their priests at, ABC, NBC, CBS, and MSNBC fanned their fervor.

Overtly, Obama threw so much at the beleaguered Conservative allies, in his headlong rush to Communism, that all they could do was to hold and fall back. Hold and fall back.

In the last battle of 2009, Conservative forces promised to hold the line until 8PM on New Year's Eve with every parliamentary device known to them. Then, they promised to hold the line until 8AM on New Year's Eve with every parliamentary device known to them. Hurrah for our side. Hold and retreat. Hold and retreat.

A good war leader has good, utterly ruthless generals. For Obama: Reid and Pelosi.

For our side: Limbaugh, Hannity, Beck, Levin, with Limbaugh the 4 Star Gen of the opposition.

Tell me for true. Knowing what you know, and added that our generals were not to be found on the eve of the final battle of 2009...Who has the better war leadership? Us. Or them?

Who will drink the blood toast of victory? Will it be our namby pambies, or will it be the unholy trinity of Obama, Reid, and Pelosi? Hmmmn?

Say you, "They may have won the battle, but we shall prevail and win the war."

Say I, "Wishing and wanting doesn't win wars."

Obama's final solution is to liquidate all who disagree with him. That's you and me.

Our solution must be to stop this Conservative business as usual. We will lose it all if this continues. My friends, putting all your hopes in 2010 is pie in the sky.

We must DEMAND more of our leadership. We need a plan. We need a strategy. We need our Christmas vacation leaders to step up, get fierce, and help us win our country back.

We need candidates that we can proudly vote for, instead of having to hold our noses to go and vote for the lesser of the evils.

We've had it with business as usual. We're at a great moment in the history of our nation and now it's our turn to get off our butts and save the country from the enemy within.

I say give us political leadership and I say give us generals with a will to win, and damn the vacations.

As soon as we accept the fact that so far, we have been whipped for fair, and decide to demand winning leadership, we'll start to make progress, and take back our country from the destroyers.

But we must admit that Obama and his minions have proven far more treacherous...and successful, than we ever imagined possible.

Until we do that, we're just hoping, wishing, and kidding ourselves.

Until we shake off our fear and demand better than what we have had, we're just spinning our wheels while the lib juggernaut continues to grind us down into the mud of history.

Replace impotent rage with a winning political strategy, every bit as politically ruthless as the opposition.

Winning is not a dirty word.

Dear Rush Limbaugh: Please Drop Dead. Love, Twitter

demonbaby Come on 2009! There's time for one more!! RT @BreakingNews: Rush Limbaugh rushed to hospital in Honolulu after suffering chest pains.

Canseco I wonder what Rush Limbaugh will think of healthcare reform come Monday. Hmmm...

WatchJ Rush Limbaugh is in the hospital with severe chest pains...God if u can read this tweet please give him a black doctor. Thanks

BigFatWhale I hope Rush Limbaugh isn't exaggerating his symptoms like Michael J Fox did.

bill come on God, I don't ask you for much, and I very rarely ask you to smite anyone. but please kill Rush Limbaugh tonight.

djstangl Breaking news - Rush Limbaugh has a heart!

plan9production Rush Limbaugh was rushed to the hospital. I told him Oxycontin and bacon cheeseburgers were a dangerous mix.

Ashley_ So...if Rush Limbaugh dies in Hawaii, will his listeners believe the death certificate?

ItzTrizz617 so rush limbaugh did go to the same hawaiian hospital obama was born in #ironysabitch

guitarbassfire I hope Rush Limbaugh is saved by a black homosexual doctor with a questionable immigration status.