Tuesday, August 27, 2024
Author Portal to PR Power and POP!
A Press Release is an ideal way to start the publicity train for you and your book.
When and where do you distribute your press release? An excellent question. I reached out to someone who I’ve had on my podcast several times. Jules Marie put together a list of resources shared below. Some are free—some have a cost to them.
In the podcast I did last week, I walked the listener through a template for a press release.
If you don’t share your news with the media, they won’t know that you just returned from a trip to the Moon, invented a floating tent or created a unique work of art! Editors rely on press releases for current news to share with their viewers. Send them something they can chew on and push out to their viewers, readers, and listeners.
Your goal is to write a release that intrigues editors to assign a reporter to interview you for the whole story. Let’s say you’re a non-profit business and you just received a large grant for an outdoor kid’s adventure program. Write about a press release about it and send it off. Your goal is to be contacted for an interview. Once your story is published, more people will hear about you which has the potential to grow your business. You can also send your PR to your email contact list alerting them to your news. Non-profit businesses can send their press release to radio stations which are read aloud by the announcer as a Public Service Announcement. Radio stations are required by law to provide a certain percentage of non-paid advertising to non-profit PR’s.
If you don’t have an email distribution service, consider using online press release distribution sites. Some of these sites allow you to post your press release for free; others offer various pricing levels. Choose the free sites initially and get a sense of how their programs work before you spend money on a service. Be sure to read the small print before committing.
No one site is better than another. There are no guarantees that if you post your release to one of these sites that anyone will publish it. It’s up to you to write something people will want to read and share!
Write a Compelling, Attention-Grabbing Press Release
If you have a story to tell, tell it to the media with compelling, memorable, persuasive words. Everyone loves a story unless of course, it’s a boring story with no plot, no plan, and no movement. So, jazz it up! Use your press release to talk about why your product or service is unique, one-of-a-kind, timeless, or classic–whatever it is, tell it in a way that the person reading it will want to know more.
Begin with an attention-grabbing one-line heading followed by a one-line sub-heading.
Open your first sentence with a HOOK that compels an editor to want more information. The first paragraph should be juicy! What’s the scoop? Spell it out and sell it!
Next, add two paragraphs of informational content, including one with a quote from an industry source or a satisfied customer.
Your last paragraph should be detail-oriented and include specific information about your product, service, event.
The final section is your About Me statement, also known as your ‘boilerplate’. The boilerplate paragraph is the who, what, when, where of your business and always includes contact information in the event the media wants to reach you. Don’t make your readers guess where you’re located or how to contact you.
The entire PR should fit on one page–though they can run two. If it doesn’t fit, edit it until it fits. Each press release should only highlight one “hook.” If it’s too long, that probably means you need to write two press releases; each with a different hook to be sent separately.
PR Sites to use … remember … some are free and some have a fee.
Do a bit of research and decide which company might work best for you. These sites are popular and reliable. For ease of reading, I eliminated ‘www’, and domain names are not case-sensitive. Each site is live—click and explore.
1888PressRelease.com
Business Wire
eReleases
ExpertClick — on the AuthorU.org website, under Resources, Expert Click offers a discount.
Express-Press-Release.com
Free-Press-Release-Center.info
i-Newswire.com
Newswire
NewswireToday.com
Online PR Media
PR9.net
PR.com
PR-Inside.com
PRlog.com
PRurgent.com
Release-News.com
PR
PRLeads
PRweb.com
PRNewswire.com
PR Underground
Release Wire
Send To Press Newswire
TheOpenPress.com
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Dr. Judith Briles started writing notes to her classmates in first grade … and got into “disruptive trouble” from her teachers. She’s now the author of 47 books and counting, still being a disrupter. Her books have won over 55 book awards and been Amazon bestsellers. You can follow her professional side at www.TheBookShepherd.com where she works with writers to become published authors. Listen in to her weekly podcast: AuthorU: Your Guide to Book Publishing at https://bit.ly/AuthorUPodcast
©2024 Judith Briles – The Book Shepherd™ All Rights Reserved