Last week, I wrote about how AI can waste enormous amounts of your time.
It can produce too many ideas, too many versions, too many directions, and too much material to sort through. Something that should have taken fifteen minutes can suddenly consume hours. Perhaps you have already discovered this. If you missed it, you can read it right here.
But there is another consequence of AI that has been occurring to me lately, and this one may be even more important if you’re looking for media attention for your expertise and your book.
And that is eroding trust.
Editors, producers, journalists, podcast hosts, and other media professionals are receiving more pitches than ever before, and from a lot of people who have never even pitched before. But, now that they have the free version of Chat GPT, they can have it write the pitch. This is a really bad idea, by the way. And now many of those endless pitches are being written, polished, or completely generated by AI.
That means the person receiving your pitch may already be wondering:
Did this author actually write this?
Did they really read my work?
Is this personal, or was my name simply dropped into a template?
Are these quotes and statistics accurate?
Does this person genuinely understand the topic?
Will they sound anything like this during an interview?
The media has always approached pitches with a certain amount of skepticism. They have had to. Their inboxes are filled with exaggerated claims, vague promises, irrelevant ideas, and people insisting they are the perfect expert for a story.
AI did not create that problem, but it has accelerated it.
AI can produce a pitch in seconds, but it often leaves recognizable fingerprints. The language may be overly polished, the enthusiasm exaggerated, the sentences too long and everything in groups of three. Plus, the familiarity is generic rather than genuine.
Yuck.
Editors, producers, and journalists are learning to spot those patterns. As a result, even a thoughtful pitch may now be met with more skepticism than it once was.
In other words, you are starting from behind.
You are not simply trying to convince someone that your idea is good. You may first have to convince them that you are real, credible, knowledgeable, and worth trusting.
Media Darling Moment: Before the media believes your idea, they have to believe you.
That changes how we need to think about publicity.
A polished pitch is no longer enough.
It must also feel true.
That does not mean you cannot use AI. It can help you organize your thoughts, tighten a sentence, brainstorm angles, or notice something you may have overlooked.
But it cannot replace the things that build genuine trust. That must come from you, a real, live, wonderful human being.
Trust grows when your pitch demonstrates that you understand the outlet and its audience.
It grows when your idea is specific rather than broad and generic.
It grows even more when your compliments are very specific. Something that can be verified, not just saying, “Oh your podcast is wonderful. You are doing such great work in the world.”
Double yuck.
You build trust when your credentials are relevant, and your point of view is unique and is clearly your own.
And this may be one of the great ironies of the AI era.
The easier it becomes to manufacture a convincing pitch, the more valuable genuine credibility becomes. Haha…it’s hilarious when you think about it.
So the question is no longer only:
How can I make this pitch more impressive?
A better question may be:
What would help this editor, producer, journalist, or host feel comfortable trusting me?
That is a very different place from which to begin.
And it may make all the difference.
Warmly,
Joanne
P.S. Next Tuesday, I’m teaching Stop Making the 5 Publicity Mistakes That Keep Great Books and Authors Hidden (And What to Do Instead). I’ll be sharing practical ways authors can become more visible, more credible, and easier for the media to say yes to. You can learn more and register here.
P.P.S. In a world where credibility is becoming harder to earn and easier to lose, Prince has the right song for us.
#AIPitching
#BuildTrust
#EarnedMedia
#BookMarketing
#BookPublicity
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