ON THE DAY
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PRESS RELEASE TIPS
FROM A JOURNALIST'S POINT OF VIEW
WHAT WILL CATCH A JOURNALIST'S EYE
LENGTH, LAYOUT AND ALL THAT KIND OF THING
The
Press Release should be about 500 words. A lot of the advice I read,
said that one A4 page is enough. I wrote two pages, and put contd... at
the bottom right corner of first page, and Page 2 at top
right corner of second page.
The
words PRESS RELEASE should be centered at the top, in bold
caps. Beneath, aligned left, in caps type FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE, and beneath
that, your contact details (or you could leave these until the end, as I
did). The HEADING should be centered, in bold and in font one size
larger than the rest of the text. It should be brief and to the point and
eye-catching.
The sub-heading should
also be centered, and in bold, and I italicized mine as well. Write
2 to 4 sentences - you're enticing readers with your Heading and Sub-heading.
I took ages getting these right, but I read somewhere that the first 10 words
of your PR are the most effective, as they are the most important. No
pressure there, then!
FIRST PARAGRAPH. Write your location
and the date and then follow straight on with the Lead paragraph. This,
as with the rest of your text, should be in a clear font and double-spaced,
and should explain what the Press Release is about.
SECOND PARAGRAPH. This should
cover the five Ws and 1H - Who, What, When, Where, Why and How.
Who
are you, Who are your readers, What is the book, What is it about, Why should
people care, Why should they read this book, Where can they find it, When
will it be available, How the book came about.
THE BODY. This should be concise. Keep
sentences and paragraphs short and simple. You can use this area to add
further details - more about you, or the book's conception, anything that
would interest a reader.
BOOK DETAILS. Add these at
the end of the Body, informing people where they can buy your book, its price etc
ABOUT THE AUTHOR (known as the Boilerplate) - that's the
section, not the person! Use your name, not "The Author". Write a
short bio.
CALL TO ACTION. This is basically
inviting whoever is reading your Press Release to take the next step to
learn more. Maybe start with something like "For more
information about BOOK TITLE, please visit WEBSITE or contact
.................. at PHONE NUMBER + EMAIL". (A phone
number is considered more professional, and can make it simpler to
set up an interview, or, as happened to me, conduct an interview over
the phone).
PHOTOS. If you have images of you
or/and your book cover, mention them after the Call to Action. (I
actually inserted a couple of small images, at the very end of my Press
Release).
SHOW YOU'VE FINISHED. Use
a centered, three-hashtag symbol at the end of your Press Release.
USEFUL WEBSITES
WHAT I FOUND HELPFUL
Reading
through the whole of my ms, and jotting down any emotionally-charged and
intriguing phrases and sentences. It took ages, but it really did
help me to form a concise heading and sub-heading. I found the
following three sentences, which I'd actually forgotten I'd written, as
my sub-heading - "Anna was jealous of the speed, the way it
lured Fitz, enticing him away from her, exhilarating him in a way that she
never could, making him want it more and more. It was always there, beckoning.
Anna longed to have such power, to be as desirable..."
WHAT I WOULD HAVE FOUND HELPFUL
Knowing
what questions the journalist from one of my local papers was going to ask
during my telephone interview. Here are some of them:
Who will buy this book?
Why will they buy this book?
What is the book about?
Why did you write the book?
How old are you?
Why is your book different than others in its
genre?
Of
course I know the answers, but I'm sure I waffled, and did a lot of
unnecessary er-ing and well...ing as I tried to be both rapid and brief and
clear. I would have preferred to have had some notes in front of me - not
anything that I would read parrot-fashion, but just to give me confidence so that if my brain failed, or went blank, or in any way misbehaved, I'd have all necessary info close by on an easily accessible piece of paper!
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