I cannot believe what is coming across the wire. So may people are still blasting out news releases that lack the essential information media need. What a waste. If you want your news release to be maximally effective, it has to answer the primary questions for the media: 1. How many people in my audience […]

Mini brag and congratulations to client Glen R. Sontag, author of Anything Other Than Naked, for being featured in a half page article on Wall Street Journal on Thursday July 14, 2011. Read the article here: http://snipurl.com/13e54f He made p. 2 in the Personal Journal section in the On Style column. The print version of […]

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 […]

How Important is a News Release? A news release is the key deliverable for those seeking publicity (much like a résumé is for job seekers, or a contract is for contract seekers). If a news release works you can get an article in a newspaper, an interview on radio or TV and information about you […]

Marketing and Promotion Using News Releases When you write a news release your goal is to get publicity – media coverage about you and your book – either an article or an interview. To do that you have to write a news release that is persuasive and interesting and then make sure it gets to […]

I’ll talk the point of view from someone who gets books reviewed day in day out as a book publicist. I do this for a living, so I’ll share with you how I do it and what it takes to do it well. I’m not a fan of book reviews, I believe that they have […]

New author posted a question on Askpedia and asked: “I have just completed a book listing solutions to the problems of habitual truancy and drop outs in our schools. I need to get the attention of people who care. I need some support or guidance.” My response: A problem solving tips article in the right […]

On November 19th, 2009 I had a wonderful time being interviewed for Authors Access with Victor R. Volkman and Irene Watson about whether Press Releases are still revelant to marketing and promoting books. We covered a wide-range of talking points, including: * So What Exactly Is A News Release? * Why Is This So Hard […]

Using other people’s opt-in email lists to try to sell a children’s book won’t make you any friends. Marketing and publicizing this way has not proven to be very effective. On the other hand, you can create a children’s book news release and send it to the right media. I can tell you from experience […]

Targeting the right media takes special skill. They say that there’s no such thing as bad publicity. It’s exposure in front of people in any case. Right? But it can also be true that even good publicity in the right media may not be worth very much in the way of immediate direct sales. When […]