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Getting More Publicity with Trash-Proof News Releases – Free Ebook

Someone asked “does any one use news releases any more?”

I laughed. It may come as a surprise to people, but I still do write news releases and send them out to custom targeted media lists.

And guess what. They still work. I even wrote a book about them.

But there’s a catch. There are no guarantees. The psychology o dealing with media has not changed. There are however, a lot more media – people who publish in one form or another.

The technology has and continues to evolve and there are more types of media technology and platforms.

But to be featured or interviewed has not evolved significantly. The news release is still a viable and in fact essential tool that you need in your marcom (marketing communications) toolbox.

What is a news release?

My definition has not changed:

A written proposal:

– containing a request for media coverage (feature stories, interviews or product reviews).

– and/or an offer to provide media the content needed to achieve that end.

A news release is either:

– sent directly to media decision makers directly (e.g., by fax, email, street mail, in person, etc.); or

– placed where they can find it and use it (as when it is posted to web site either your own or using a news release distribution service).

A news release is not an advertisement.

You do not pay for coverage and do not control what the media says. It is a document that seeks to persuade media to give you media coverage.

Your degree of success is often based on how much of what you give them to do their job is actually used.

You must provide media with information that matches what they are accustomed to publishing (or producing). Usually this means the content must be news, education or entertainment, or opinion or commentary.

If you have a different objective, then perhaps you should not be thinking what you are writing or need to write is a news release at all.

It’s OK to have a different objective. There are other types of marcom (marketing communications) you can choose to achieve a goal. It also means your target audience is not likely to be media people. You will need a different targeted list of people to match your objective.

And even when you send out a news release, some media will view you as a target for money since after all, that is how they make a living and they do run publishing businesses. So do not be surprised when media send you sponsored post requests, or email that pushes you to participate in their business (and pay for the privilege).

Trash Proof News Releases

But if objective publicity in media is what you want, you write a news release. You mus earn the right to be featured. This is a gauntlet since you need to provide exquisite quality that meets the media needs – readership and editorial elements, and more.

The first version of the book Trash Proof News Releases captured the lessons learned for getting publicity at the peak of the fax era, and covered the techniques I had developed running Imediafax – The Internet to media Fax Service. It was published in the year 2000.

Faxes died as a technology at the turn of the 21st Century. Email took its place. So we stopped sending out faxes and switched to email html with graphics and links.

Trash-Proof News Releases was revised and published again to focus on and illustrate the techniques that work best using email to reach media and get coverage. It was published in 2015.

The one major change that has occured since then is the continuing changes and evolving changes to search engine algorithms starting with the Google Panda and the Hummingbird updates. It is no longer effective to use free news release distribution services and expect them to have your news release posted all over the Internet and in news search engines. The search engines now routinely penalize duplicate content and require sites to place a no follow command when a news release is posted so that they are not indexed and then found by the search engines.

So quality content was elevated over spam. And now, if you use a news release, your purpose and goal is to persuade the media to do their job using you and your creative work as the centerpiece of their coverage.

You need to learn and recognize that they will require you to help them create unique content so that what gets published or produced meet’s their needs and maybe if you are lucky, some of your own.

The other major change is that you can now find media and pitch journalists and producers on social media.

These were major motivators behind the decision to first create Search Word Pro which evolved into the new creation Presari www.Presari.com

Presari helps you create the keyword strategies and the best content you need to use to find and reach out to media of all types using search engines and social media platforms. You can now search for whatever you want and find all sorts of influencers anytime. Yes, the search engines can set you free.

Free Trash Proof ebook downloads

The link below goes to a PDF file copy of the 2015 Edition of Trash Proof News Releases.

Enjoy
Trash Proof News Releases

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Article to Jason Boog’s post at Galley Cat on Free Sites to promote Your EBook

Article to Jason Boog's post on Free Sites to promote Your EBook

This unverified list posted on the Galley Cat web site (part of media Bistro) by Jason Book titled
Free Sites to Promote Your EBook
http://www.mediabistro.com/galleycat/free-ebook-promotion_b52130

Book publicity and selling more books

Book publicity and selling more books

Question Posted on Independent Authors at Yahoo Groups.

>> Do book reviews sell book? Yes, and the review sites can prove it, because they get paid a percentage of the “buy-through” from Amazon. They don’t sell that many, and more nonfiction than fiction, but they do sell. And why not try to get our books reviewed? There are only so many options open to us. We can try to place an article in a magazine or newspaper, we can try to get book reviews, we can enter contests and hope for the best, we can do book club talks, and we can visit our local book stores and try to get signings. Why not try them all? I’d stand in front of Costco with a banjo and balloon hat if I thought it would help. I write books that I hope people will read. How they find my book is immaterial to me. I write books that I hope people will read. How they find my book is immaterial to me. < < I just don't believe that it's smart to rely on the "proof that reviews work" for others and make the assumption that the same process will work for you. I also believe that if you are writing to create a real business, then how people find your book is crucial to your survival and success. There are many choices an author/publisher can make when deciding how to profit off one's intellectual property. Hope is not a strategy. Systematic carefully targeted communication to specific groups of high probability markets of people with money, with dedicated monitoring and continuous improvement is a strategy. The Naked Cowboy stands in Times Square in his underwear playing his guitar. That's how he communicates with HIS PEOPLE. He's built a successful nationally recognized brand doing this. He entertains and stimulates sufficient numbers of people who buy his music. There's a teenage kid with hair down to his knees who plays a screaming guitar a la Jimi Hendrix each day in Santa Monica who also is doing pretty well. So maybe standing in front of Costco with a banjo and a balloon isn't such a bad idea. If it works for you, do it! YOU have to determine how you can reach and communicate with the people who matter to you. If what matters is sales, then that means you HAVE to know how you are communicating so that the action you produce is sales. Look at this model: Write a book. Self-Publish in ten ebook formats and POD. Have the book available at Amazon and Google and dozens or even thousands of other e-stores. Send the eBook to book reviewers by email. Get reviews. Sell books. Sounds pretty good, doesn't it? What if YOUR PEOPLE, don't read the reviews. What if THE REVIEWERS, won't even accept the ebook. System failure. Yet this is what lots of people are doing. They write the book and pitch to a limited number of book reviewers. Then fail and stop. I see this all the time. Sometimes the problem is the book. Some books simply aren't that good. This is one serious problem. Sometimes the book is fine, but the author and the publisher don't take the actions needed to reach THEIR PEOPLE. And they don't have the stamina to go the distance. They stop before they learn how to turn THEIR PEOPLE on. To me and my clients, this question is one that turns on return on investment. If the goal of writing and publishing is to produce sales, and there is only so much time and money to be invested in marketing, promoting and publicizing, then the determining factor is how many books can you sell? People do write to try and make some money. You have to care about how people find out about you and your writing if sales are important to you. If you don't care, then there is very little chance that enough people will ever learn about you and buy what you have to offer. My point is that YOU have to decide how to spend your time and what you receive from your efforts. Book reviews are one option. Feature stories are another. You can embark on a program of speaking and or doing entertainment. People are successful in producing income and attracting attention that triggers action (e.g., sales). Which tactic works the best for you? Do you know? The LA Times article BOOK PUBLISHERS SEE THEIR ROLE AS GATEKEEPERS SHRINK (http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-gatekeepers-20101226,0,7119214.story) is pointing out that it is possible to create writings and develop audiences using the new technologies that are available. The article only hints at what JA Konrath and the other authors are doing to gain attention for their writings so that they do indeed sell books. The article says “In addition to Konrath, bestselling author Seth Godin, science fiction writer Greg Bear and action novelist David Morrell recently have used Internet tools to put their works online themselves.”

Right.

Internet tools.

This article fills people with hopeful and vague ideas that the future is here and that this type of success is going to become more commonplace.

And it may indeed for some.

BTW. Look at this article! It points out exactly what I am saying. It’s not a book review. It’s a human interest feature story. It is even a shining example of one of my favorite rules — the DPAA + H rule. It’s dramatic, personal, and tells stories of achievement in the face of adversity + humor.

So it does attract reader attention. It is emotionally engaging and even galvanizes people with visions of hope that they too can be a wildly successful author without being raked over the coals by classical mainstream publishers. It highlights the apparent simplicity of the new publishing economic model.

It also identifies the authors by name. It brands each one so that anyone who looks them up can now be exposed and potentially buy everything they have available.

Great article. This is an example of the very best type of media coverage authors can get.

Is it entertaining? Yes. Is it really helpful? Let’s look for the practical value.

Seth Godin and Stephen King can write just about anything they want and it will sell. They not only have created a huge national following, but they’ve each created consistent, high performing diverse platforms of communication that allow them to reach and sell directly to THEIR PEOPLE. They have created astoundingly successful communications systems that persuade people to take action.

Most people do not have these “Internet tools” in place. In fact, many authors write and publish without even thinking about how to reach out and touch someone, anyone. They don’t think about how to do so consistently, so that can run a writing and publishing business profitably and consistently.

The article doesn’t help most of us very much at all. In fact, the end of the article highlights what is identified as the biggest challenge to successful publishing:

“Indeed, the challenge in a world where anyone can publish a book is getting people to pay attention…. In a blog post titled “Moving on,” about his decision to self-publish, Godin wrote that “my mission is to figure out who the audience is, and take them where they want and need to go, in whatever format works.”

Seth Godin is talking my language. This is the field I work in. Targeted PR.

So back to reality.

You get to choose what you want to do.

And if you want to make money with your publishing, here’s my suggestion.

Follow the money.

The country is huge – in the US alone you have 330 million people. The potential is phenomenal. If you can develop a process for reaching people you can do very well. I believe you can even learn how to do this starting one on one in your back yard, anywhere.

I even came up with a cute little acronym which describes how to do this.

CREATE.

ASK.

CREATE AGAIN.

ASK AGAIN.

= CACA

Think about what you do that turns people on. Test it. Get a sale.

Ask people who reacted the way you wanted them to. Ask them, “What did I do that turned you on?”

Capture it. Record it. Document it. Then prove it.

If it works, do it again. Test it again. Improve it by asking again.

CACA.

Then repeat this process till you can stand in a room or present to 25 people and get half the people in the audience to hand you money.

Then use the many technologies you have at your disposal to present, broadcast and target YOUR PEOPLE with this proven message.

Decide what marketing actions to take and then document the sales and profits you receive.

Compare it to other actions you can take. Be systematic. Identify a pathway to profits. Determine if you have developed a process of steps that can be duplicated.

If it works, then do it some more. If it doesn’t, then stop and do something else.

More CACA.

Bring it on.

Media eBook Survey Results – I’ll Give You My Paper Book When You Pry It From My Cold, Dead Hands!

Report and interviews analyzing media use of eBooks for publicity and promotion

I’ll Give You My Paper Book When You Pry It From My Cold, Dead Hands!

I did an email survey to 1767 book reviewers on August 9 and just tallied up the results. It does have some critical business intelligence that publishers can use to understand how far we can go with eBooks at the present time. I was really surprised with the depth of feeling and reluctance to the trend towards eBooks.

Here’s a link to the pdf file of the actual comments and report draft:

I’ll Give You My Paper Book When You Pry It From My Cold, Dead Hands!
Complete 53 page report – http://www.directcontactpr.com/files/files/mediaebooksurveyreport082410.pdf

At least based on the number of respondents, perhaps half the media say they will review an eBook if offered to them. Even then, it looks to me that less than ten percent of those who say they are willing to look at one will actually conduct a review of an eBook they receive upon request by email. That’s perhaps means that only 1 to 2 out of a hundred will act favorably on the offer. That’s is what we are seeing repeatedly right now when we offer eBooks with emailed news releases along with an invitation to receive a hard review copy of a book shipped by street mail.

My initial observations based on the comments and data received from this survey:

1. Authors and publishers will still best address their goals and objectives for getting publicity and satisfy media needs (to make the best impression and persuade media to give the best coverage) by creating and offering both the hard copy and the eBook, since right now so few media will really be willing to conduct their review of just the ebook version.

2. Book reviewers do for the most part recognize and predict that ebooks will play an ever increasing role in the publishing industry and the future of education.

3. However, about half of those who responded express a serious reluctance to the use of the technology. They identify and express a number of common concerns which have been fairly well recognized:

Cost, enjoyment, ease of use, personal preference or dislike of the technology, physical difficulties (eyesight), standardization, limits on how it can be used, note-taking, highlighting, cross utilization, re-utilization, loss of the equipment and stored books.

4. Authors and publishers may be able to save some money getting reviews by offering and asking media if they will look at the ebook before sending the hard copy. Media preference has to be determined individually.

5. Publishing and promoting books in eBook form only is risky if you seek to use and leverage media publicity to jumpstart sales. The media for the most part will simply not play.

I feel that the results of this indicate that we are still very early in the beginning of a 10 to perhaps even 20 year transition.

The comments of the individual reviewers are perhaps far more enlightening than the numbers.

Comments anyone?

Explosive Growth of Apple iPads and the Future of Publishing

Explosive Growth of Apple iPads and the Future of Publishing

I’m bringing this up because I think it’s important and it’s dead center on what we are all doing here. I believe that this is something we should pay close attention to.

Here’s a link to an article that shows the incredible sales of Apple iPads which was posted to the Yahoo Publish-L list by author and publisher Brian Vidya

http://www.businessinsider.com/chart-of-the-day-ipad-ipod-mac-2010-7

This morning I sent out a news release for Apple application developer Marc Schulman that many of you may find very interesting. Here’s the link so you can read the news release.

http://www.directcontactpr.com/files/files/historyonthego.pdf

Marc believes that believes that the enhanced visual and zooming technologies built into the Apple iPad are adding whole new interactive dimensions to the world of publishing and education. Here’s an excerpt of what we wrote in the news release:

Can we interest you in experiencing The Civil War from a whole new perspective? Apple developer Marc Schulman has created a new product that utilizes the newly endowed technological capabilities of the Apple iPad and points to significant new multimedia developments in electronic publishing and education.

Civil War and Constitution are the latest releases from Multi-Educator’s History on the Go Series. Each is an application containing a diverse, comprehensive multimedia collection of the most important documents in the history of America. More than just an eBook with links, each program gives users an enhanced visual, interactive audio and visual education experience, using the unique capabilities of the Apple iPad technology. They provide instant access to hundreds of original documents, photographs, maps, video, and presentations.

Marc explains that in an eBook, you typically read text sequentially. With simple links you can open up photos and maybe even a video. However, it is still a pretty linear process..

But with the developing Apple iPad technology, the opportunities for exploring new dimensions is multiplied and expanded in many new ways. These capabilities have all been incorporated into the Apple products.

“The ability to expand photos and move sideways has been included in the smaller handheld iPhone and iPod Touch,” Schulman explains. ”It has been clearly optimized on the iPad. You have to experience what it is like to zoom photos, turn directions, watch screaming high-definition color videos with special effects and with high fidelity headphones all on your lap top.”

Schulman believes that this has significant implications to teaching and to education. “It brings education alive in ways people have not imagined. This has phenomenal implications to creative publishers and educators. The total experience is now what really matters.”

My own mini-brag on this is that within hours of transmittal of the news release this morning we received requests from several dozen top national media for the key code, which in addition to the news release and screenshot jpegs, is all we offered the media to review. This includes the Associated Press, Fox News, NBC News, and several national magazines and news services. Last time I sent out a news release for Marc Schulman and his Apple apps, we also made Business Week and Entrepreneur Magazine. I will note that we got more media responses last time that said “I don’t have an iPad” than we did this time, and this time, we received quite a few email’s where media expressed feelings that indicated that they were giving serious thought to getting one soon. One managing editor for a writing magazine we all know about wrote back that this all was sounding quite promising and that he was simply waiting for the iPad 2.0 without the kinks and bugs that exist in the present version.

There is also related news in USA Today’s article by Edward C. Baig, talking about the “enhanced ebook” published for Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett. In this article note the way the “enhancements” are actually marketing pitches for the other products available in the branded publishing line.

http://www.usatoday.com/life/books/news/2010-07-20-follett20_ST_N.htm

There are lots of implications here worthy of discussion. This showing demonstrates a small, significant and growing trend for media to be responsive to targeted PR for ebooks, although being at the head of the class is a distinction here that others may have a hard time filling.

The implications to publishing are even more important. The days of “simple ebooks” with text and even photographs may be numbered. The future is going to be knowledge-laden multimedia publications – with highly integrated interactive software that offer users (“readers” although this term may also be dated) the ability to experience knowledge with more senses than just their eyes and imagination.

What do you think about the differences between the Apple app business model, traditional publishing, the new ebook model with print on demand, and the Google business model, based on direct sales and advertising.

Any thoughts anyone?

Book Publicity Manifesto

Book Publicity Manifesto - Updated version of Trash Proof news releases free pdf file download

I’ve just uploaded a new updated ebook version of my book Trash Proof News Releases to my web site.

It’s a free pdf file download that captures many years worth of lessons learned doing publicity for creative people. It’s also got numerous examples of successful news releases and interviews with over a hundred media people on what it takes to be successful.

Please feel free to share this link with anyone who can use the education.

http://www.directcontactpr.com/files/files/TrashProof2010.pdf

Why News Releases Fail- Free ebook and Powerpoint presentation

20 + fatal errors people make writing news releases and what to do about them

This is one of my most popular articles turned into a Powerpoint presentation and an ebook pdf file.

Why News Releases Fail

Free Powerpoint Presentation here:

Why News Releases Fail Powerpoint Presentation

Free ebook pdf file here:

Why News Releases Fail ebook pdf file

Marketing and Publicizing an e-book online – poetry and more

Conducting a targeted online marketing and promotion campaign

I agree that marketing poetry can be an expensive and endeavor with low return on investment. That said, I see a lot of my poet clients embarking on personal branding campaigns that eventually produce significant fruit.

In fact, as a publicist I see the same problem occurring with all sorts of self published as well as mainstream published books.

I believe that it can be done. It is not hopeless. It is challenging and it does take skill, excellence, and devotion.

So here’s some ideas and a strategy about how to create an online presence that generates interest, and ultimately sales. Many of my clients do this as they work with me on the publicity. In fact, when this online strategy is coupled with targeted publicity, and judicious integrated marketing offline, the best results are always forthcoming.

Here’s my recommendations on what to do online.

You have to be willing to post some of your best poetry (or content no matter what you write or create) so that people see what you write, and enjoy it so much that they get interested in buying everything you have for sale.

This is the formula for professional branding that I also advocate with problem solving tips articles, humor, music and other creative works.

Offer a little of your very, very best work. Shine. Sparkle. Dazzle people. Amaze people. Make them sweat, make them cry, make them laugh.

But whatever you do, do it very quickly. You only have between 10 to 20 seconds to hook them and no more than 3 minutes to convince them totally.

It’s like people get to see the tip of the iceberg and it’s so good and intriguing, they develop a desire for more.

It’s like finding a diamond in the rough, or seeing a glint in the dirt and grabbing it and finding out it’s a gemstone.

The key is to post something so good and timely to the right needy people that you really trigger their interest.

The copy you select is crucial. One warning – don’t sell. Help or entertain or educate the people you can help, entertain or educate the most.

You have to engage them meaningfully and that is the only way this technique will work.

This means you have to select a truly remarkable piece of your writing and then you have to carefully select where you get it placed.

If you haven’t read my article on how to create these magic words, then you might want to read The Magic of Business sometime. Here’s a link to it: http://www.directcontactpr.com/free-articles/article.src?ID=105

Once you have some proven magic words, then you have to be strategic about where you place these little nuggets.

You can do this online using search engine tools. But you can’t just post them anywhere. You have to find the right places and opportunities.

What you need to do is think about targeting. What do people read, watch and listen to when they are in the right mood and are receptive to a suggestion?

I do this with prime media when we target media for news releases. We go through this same process only we target newspapers, magazines and trade press, news services and syndicates, radio and TV stations and shows, freelance writers, and the Internet media counterparts to all the above.

You do the same thing online with the different types of online publishing and search technologies that are available. Of course, you have to find them first.

This requires you to study, strategize and decide what to write and who to target very carefully.

I’ll illustrate with one simple example. Let’s say you write a poem about overcoming the challenges associated with breast cancer.

If you write a poem for breast cancer patients, then in front of breast cancer patients is where you want to be.

So think about your most important key words and select one:

For this example (I’m sending this to my breast cancer author clients of course), I’ll use the key words: breast cancer support.

You have to make use of the specialized search engines. So look for specialized search engines that will bring you to the right web sites and other online technologies and groups. What you are looking to make use of is:

Regular search engines: Web sites where cancer patients and their support networks hang out.

Photo search engines; the best photo sites about breast cancer

Audio search engines: the best audio sites about breast cancer

Video search engines: the best video sites about breast cancer

Blog search engines: Bloggers who write on breast cancer

Forum search engines: Forums that focus on and talk about breast cancer

Newsletter and ezine search engines: Health / cancer news letters and ezines about breast cancer

Association search engines: cancer and health associations about breast cancer

Podcast search engines: podcasts about dealing with breast cancer

Social networking search engines: sites from breast cancer

Yes there are specialized search engines that focus on just these technologies and you can access them and use them if you learn how.

Not every site you discover will meet your needs in terms of quality and visibility, but you can identify the ones that are significant and valuable to you.

For each valuable site you discover, you take a one to one approach, study it carefully, find the contact in-road or access point to the owner or editors, and craft a pitch designed to offer your content for publication or use the way they are accustomed to publishing it.

If you embark on a plan that allows you to hit five per day, then at the end of thirty days you’ll have contacted 150 online media. If even half these take you up on your pitch, then you’ll be on 75 sites.

And if you maintain that for a year, then you’ll be on 900 hand selected relevant sites by the end of the year.

That’s just for one key word: breast cancer support.

Now do some key word rotation switch to breast cancer information, help, guidance, counseling, mentoring, and so on.

When you have a key word NOUN, couple it with keyword VERBS or ACTIONS. I call this the SOAP method, where S = subject words O = Object words A = action words and P = process words

Create powerful keyword combinations by using SOAP.

For each subject word think of the synonyms and related key words.

Now create a key word chart and launch your search for the right web sites.

Then you systematically rotate words one at a time.

You can even do this geographically using the same key words and Google maps.

Go to Google maps and enter the words breast cancer support plus a location like “breast cancer support Atlanta, GA”

The map that results yields businesses, names, addresses, phone numbers and even web sites.

Now rotate to a new location and search again.

Now you may ask where to you find all the specialized search engines.

I have a patent on a search engine tool which I’ve made available for many months now that’s free. It’s still there for you to use:

Search Word Pro
http://www.searchwordpro.com/quick.src?Action=&T=130&04908effad

Search Word Pro operates like a channel changer for search engines.. Enter a search word and then you can send it to over 60 different search engines in all the categories described above and more.

BTW, you can easily use this to design and deploy your own blog tour. There are PR firms out there that will do the same blog tour for you and charge $10,000 for getting you on to 100 top blog sites. No kidding.

So if you want to make use of this and do it yourself, I’ve just shared with you how to do it.

Getting More Book Publicity for fiction, non-fiction or ebooks – it really doesn’t matter that you wrote a book

Getting More Book Publicity for fiction, non-fiction or ebooks, it really doesn't matter

The type of book you have doesn’t matter to the media.

I’ll say it again.

The type of book you have doesn’t matter to the media.

I do a lot of work with fiction authors. I do a lot of work with non-fiction authors. I do a lot of work with ebook producers.

I used to distinguish how I wrote news releases for fiction compared to non-fiction, but over the years I’ve found that when it comes to getting publicity, it really doesn’t matter what the book is. Also, my experience to date is that I am not very enthused about book reviews, and I favor galvanizing feature stories and interviews. Book reviews tend to be most helpful to those who seek library and book store sales. For people who are working beyond the bookstore and library, and for those who sell direct, just rely on Amazon or online sales and web sites, or are pushing for quantity and special sales, problem solving tips articles, feature stories and in depth topical interviews produce far better return on investment. This is where I’ve seen the greatest gains for authors and publishers.

That’s because, from a publicity point of view, the media actually don’t care a lot about what the product is. They are only interested in publishing three things: news, education and entertainment. They honestly couldn’t care less about whether you wrote a book or have one available for sale. To most media that fact that you wrote a book is just a credential to you being a person who’s qualified to give a newsworthy comment.

Sure if they like the book, if it has real added value to a lot of people in their particular audience, then media may choose to write about the book. But for the most part, they aren’t real inclined to help you sell product. Their view is that if you want them to promote your product so you can sell books, then take out an ad.

What the media really wants to publish and what they respond to best is galvanizing quality content that is interesting to lots of people in their particular audience and that has real added value to them. This is what they need to satisfy their audience and keep the subscription and advertising revenues flowing. This is also what you need to provide them, if you want to get media coverage.

I can get people publicity whether they’ve written and published a book or not. I do this day in day out. All we have to do to be successful is focus on what the media needs. They respond to that.

Even a fiction book makes you an expert of a sort, who can offer helpful insights and information on topics germane and relevant to the book.

What that means is that we focus on using problem solving tips articles, human interest, delving into issues that people want to know about.

Some fiction examples that produced media success this year:

* For Ayna Meppelink’s book ‘I See a Red Door’, we present content talking about what it’s like to be just like her characters, a reluctant, psychic, doubting what her senses are telling her.

* For Mary Anna Evans book ‘Effigies’, we pitch talking points that explore the deep Southern culture, ethics, and biases that her characters encounter.

* For Molly Dwyers book ‘Requiem for the Author of Frankenstein’, we pitch interview and feature content that explores the feminist politic and what it’s like to be a revolutionary woman rising above desperate times.

* For Nick Ruth’s Dark Dreamweaver series, we emphasize the esteem building, character developing themes for young people, and the power of dreams and goal setting.

* For the children’s book, ‘Grandpa Grouper’, by Don Arends, we focused on the idea that the book delivers underwater adventure and contains distinctly innovative human interest. The lead sentence to the news release declares, “Grandpa Don Arends looks a lot like the main character in his new children’s book, ‘Grandpa Grouper, The Fish With Glasses.’

What you have to resist and avoid is telling the media anything at all about how your publishing struggles, marketing plans, publishing and promotional activities, and book sales. This will result in coverage that is all about you, but offers very little motivation to a reading or listening or watching audience to learn more about your products, and the knowledge, feelings, benefits and the personal experiences they can receive by getting what you offer. You need to focus what you offer on the media audience. That is your mission. That has to be your focus.

More important, you can’t just describe it, and say, it’s in the book. Your news release has to actually persuade media to call you and ask for the book to review, and to do that the release has to actually trigger some feelings, desire, want, and emotion. The news release has to do what your book does and achieve that emotional engagement in about 30 seconds. You have to deliver a thrill, a pleasure, an emotion and a personal experience. I wrote this up a while ago as a ‘rule for getting publicity success’ like this:

Tell me story (a short, bed time story), give me a local news angle (of interest to my particular audience), hit me in the pocket book (make me or save me money), teach me something I didn’t know before (educate me), amaze me or astound me (like in WOW!), make my stomach churn (in horror or fear), or turn me on (yes, sex sizzles).

No matter what type of book or service you have, getting publicity is a completely separate task and requires you to use different ideas and actions. And to get publicity that sells books you have to be very interesting, have incredible things to say, or offer truly helpful, educational, entertaining or humorous, or galvanizing ideas that interest people in who you are and what you have to offer.

This is a process of testing and refining what you say until you know that if you communicate certain things, a known action will result. You can interest media in writing about you if what you offer is exceptionally good. If create and offer something interesting, then you will improve your chances of getting favorable publicity significantly. Communicating that what you have to offer is good is crucial.

If you are at a loss for what to do here is a quick way to identify and develop your core material.

What I tell my clients is this:

Imagine being in front of 20 to 30 of the very best people you think would be most interested and who in your service.  Describe these people to me. These are your target customers so describe who they are.

Now identify the most important and interesting topic, challenges, or problem situation that will interest the maximum number of people you can think of in this pool of people, that relate to what you can speak about based on what you have created. 

Think about being entertaining and informative with your points and develop the ideas at your story telling best. Think about how you talk to people about your book, especially when the conversation results in a sale. Look at your reviewer testimonials. Why do people like what you do? Use what you learned to guide you. 

Then give me your ten best tips, problem solving actions or stories and ideas or lessons learned for your target audience.  Can you give these people your ten commandments?  Your best quips?  The most important things you learned by writing? 

Pretend you have three to five minutes to give these people ten absolutely phenomenal show stoppers.  That means for ten items, you have less than 30 seconds for each one, plus a one minute intro and a one minute ending.

The goal is to create a vision for the media that clearly illustrates and allows them to visualize in their minds what your presentation and their article or interview is going to look like — How you can help them put an article that gets favorable thank you’s by mail phone and email, or a good show that entertains and educates the people in their audience.

Focus less on passive ideas and more on actions or positions people can take that people can take today! that deliver immediate or tangible real time or near term benefits, impacts, or predictable consequences.   Use real stories about things that happened to you or other people to add human interest. 

These ‘show stoppers’ could be “Do This Today” types of actions if it is advice you are giving to solve a problem or “Get a Load of This” type of emotionally engaging stories that are dramatic and personal and illustrate some achievement in the face of adversity. 

This forms the core content to the news release/show proposal pitch.

In many cases ,these will also be publishable as an article with some caveats we can add to the beginning and ending of the core content to turn it into a proper news release offering.  It will also become the core script for a Q & A style interview, so they serve many purposes.

You can do five do’s and five don’ts or whatever.  You just have to be your wittiest and most galvanizing self.  You can be humorous and/or serious, just be good and make them memorable.  Keep them G Rated.

Hence the key to your success is being truly great at what you do. Help the people you can help the most. Please them and satisfy their needs beyond expectations. That’s what will get you attention. That’s how you create and deliver value.

That’s also how you market and achieve success and happiness.

I wrote an extensive article on this topic which you can see at my web site. It is titled:

Writing News Releases For Fiction Books

Here is another article that might be helpful to those who want more strategies in getting more book publicity titled: Cover letter or news release? Book review or feature story?

BTW – if you follow this advice, make sure you send what you create to me by email. I’ll be happy to take a look at them and give you some recommendations on what else to do next to get more publicity.

Writing ebooks for publicity and even profits – a comment

Provides ideas and insight into the marketing and promotion of ebooks

Dustin Wax creator of The Writer’s Technology Companion web site wrote an article titled Writing ebooks for publicity and even for profit…

As a publicist who sees hundreds of books of all types each year, I don’t believe that ebooks are a hot product in and of themselves. There are only certain types of people who will buy them and use them. The marketplace is actually pretty small and most people still buy and read regular books.

So in my view, and what I advise my clients is this: Once you own a body of intellectual property, sell it every way you can. An ebook is just one form of publishing. You can print it POD, publish it in with Kindle, package it in a pdf file, break it into pieces and let people subscribe to it, you can teach with it, use it as a freebie for people who pay for a workshop, you can use it as a calling card for higher cost services, and lots more.

I think you can benefit a lot if you look at what you are doing as if you are making candy.

Sweet, enjoyable, memorable candy.

It comes in all sorts of flavors and colors and sizes.

I see four types of candy on the Internet: products, services, software and information.

* Products need to be manufactured and delivered.

* Services need to be performed.

* Software can be delivered in a box or a download, and can be easily updated.

* Information can be provided in lots of ways.

There are lots of hybrid forms to these four basic types of candy on the Internet.

You can make mind candy — intellectual candy. This is candy that teaches people something and helps them grow.

People always remember where they get good candy. It produces a physical sensation that creates the sensation of physical pleasure and specific chemicals are released in the body — chemical memory is the result. This is the branding that takes place when we see or even better experience, something remarkable.

So no matter how you publish, focus first on creating something truly incredible. Then when people hear about it, they’ll want it, and they’ll be interested in anything else you sell.

So write to sell. Write content for information or code for programs. Write what you are best at.

Don’t stop the development process till you can reliably demonstrate that what you have created actually sells repeatedly to different people at a known rate. Do this once, twice, three, four, five times to different groups of people until you vereify that the communication you use produce the same action on the part of the people you present to. If you talk to, email, or communicate with ten people, and sell one product, that’s a ten percent response rate. Two products, then that’s a twenty percent response rate. Three products, and that’s thirty percent.

And that’s incredible for any product and marketing communications.

Then publish. Publish your ebook, publish your hard copies, publish your videos, and your dvd’s and mp3’s. Promote your speaking, your wrkshops and your consulting.

You can see more of my ideas on this how this translates into marketing and publicity at the free articles at my Direct Contact PR website

In particular look for the article titled “The Magic of Business”.

From a publicity point of view, the media actually don’t care what the product is. They are only interested in publishing three things: news, education and entertainment. They honestly couldn’t care less about whether you wrote a book. To most media that fact that you wrote a book is just a credential to you being a person who’s qualified to give a newsworthy comment. if they like the book, if it has real added value to a lot of people in their particular audience, then they may choose to write about the book. But for the most part, they aren’t real inclined to help you sell product. Their view is that if you want them to advertise your product, then take out an ad.

What they want to publish is the news. education and entertainment that satisfies their audience. This is what you need to provide them, if you want to be published.

So we can get people publicity whether they’ve written and published a book or not. All we focus on is what they media needs.

So no matter what type of book or service you have, getting publicity is a completely separate task and requires you to use different ideas and actions.

You can interest media in writing about you if what you offer is exceptionally good. If create and offer something interesting, then you will improve your chances of getting favorable publicity significantly.

Hence the key to your success is being truly great at what you do. Help the people you can help the most. Please them and satisfy their needs beyond expectations. That’s what will get you attention. That’s how you create and deliver value.

That’s also how you market and achieve success and happiness.