Book Publicity – Joanne McCall Book Publicist

The Interview Habit That Softens Your Authority

Joanne McCall — Mon, 30 Mar 2026 16:00:37 +0000

There is a moment I see fairly often in media training. It is subtle, but it can make a smart, credible person sound less confident than they are. An author/expert is asked a good question. They know their material. They are thoughtful, articulate, and genuinely smart. And then, right as they begin to answer the question, they start talking us through their own mental sorting process.

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Be Personal Without Oversharing

Joanne McCall — Mon, 09 Mar 2026 16:00:25 +0000

A few months ago, I clicked on a podcast interview with an author I genuinely wanted to hear. The host asked a friendly, normal question, “What led you to write this book?” And the guest started with a story that felt honest and human. I leaned in. Then the story went personal. OK, that’s interesting… Then it went private. Um…where is this going? Then it went so intimate, so fast…

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Make It Easy to Say Yes to You

Joanne McCall — Mon, 02 Mar 2026 17:00:11 +0000

Remember Marie Kondo? She was everywhere, teaching the world to tidy up and keep only what “sparks joy,” beginning around 2014 in the U.S. At one point, I heard an interview where she said something that stopped me in my tracks. She said, a person should own no more than 30 books. Thirty. What?! I was incredulous. My next response was, “Oh. You mean… by the side of the bed?

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The New Media Map

Joanne McCall — Mon, 23 Feb 2026 17:00:02 +0000

Back in the day, Oprah was the holy grail of media “gets.” You could meet someone at a networking event, talk to a fiction or nonfiction author, and within 60 seconds they would say her name. Not because they loved daytime TV, but because Oprah represented something else. Something big. Legitimacy. And that belief is still alive today, even if the name has changed. Today it sounds like: “If…

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Can You Say It In 10 Seconds?

Joanne McCall — Mon, 09 Feb 2026 17:00:45 +0000

A few years ago, I was standing in a hotel lobby waiting for an elevator with a group that had just left a conference. Someone asked a woman, “So what do you do?” And you could see her brain open twelve tabs at once. She started explaining, clarifying, adding context, and by the time the doors opened, everyone was nodding politely, but no one knew what to say back. Then the guy next to her…

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The Solstice Reset for Experts Who Are Authors

Joanne McCall — Mon, 22 Dec 2025 17:00:16 +0000

Every year, during the week of the winter solstice, something subtle shifts in the early morning hours. I notice it the moment I wake up. The darkness feels different somehow. It’s still deep and quiet, but not heavy the way it is earlier in December. There is a sense of turning. As if the earth herself is pausing, listening, preparing. It is the longest night of the year, and yet I always feel…

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The Pitches That Still Get Opened

Joanne McCall — Mon, 15 Dec 2025 17:00:13 +0000

Several years ago, during a particularly intense December, an editor I knew pulled me aside after an event and said something I have never forgotten. She held up her phone, opened her inbox, and showed me the number of unread messages. It was staggering. Hundreds, maybe thousands all waiting and all demanding her attention. She laughed and said, “People think I’m ignoring them. I’m not.

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How Authors Can Stand Out This Week Without All The Noise

Joanne McCall — Mon, 24 Nov 2025 17:00:53 +0000

A client of mine once dreaded the holiday season because she always felt she needed a huge promotion to compete with everyone else. One year she decided to do something different. Rather than getting all caught up in the Black Friday rush, she sent a warm Thanksgiving note with no sales pitch at all to her email list and network. Black Friday arrived and she offered a simple downloadable guide…

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You Can’t Hack Trust

Joanne McCall — Mon, 17 Nov 2025 17:00:47 +0000

AI is amazing. There is no question about it. It can take huge amounts of data and sort, summarize, and analyze it faster than we ever could or ever imagined. It can even help you research podcasts that might be a good fit for your message. But here’s where things start to break down… AI is not the end-all, be-all. Everyone wants the shortcut. The “AI list builder.” The “100 podcasts in…

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Less is More

Joanne McCall — Mon, 10 Nov 2025 17:00:40 +0000

“I didn’t have time to write a short letter, so I wrote a long one instead.” –Mark Twain Ever notice how some people can capture an entire idea in one crisp, unforgettable sentence, while others need three paragraphs just to say hello? When it comes to media, short really is sweet. Whether you’re on a podcast, in a Zoom interview, writing a pitch letter, or in front of a reporter’s audio…

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