Use your website to announce new book launches, appearances,
awards and recognitions, and other important achievements. There are also online
press release services (some free) you can use to announce significant events and
new novels. The purpose of a press release is to ensure your information gets
out to the public, to the people you need to keep your books on the shelves and
selling.
Your headline should contain key words that will #1 intrigue
readers and make them want to read further and #2 get picked up by search
engines and spread through the web and media. A trick professionals often use
is to write the headline last so they can pick out key words used throughout
the release. The first letter of every word (except prepositions) should be
capitalized in a title. Do not capitalize every letter.
Professional news release services will look for a dateline
which includes: city, state, and release date followed by a hyphen (ie: Stony
Point, NY, November 22, 2012- ). You can use a dateline on your website if you
choose, but at the very minimum you need to have the date of release included
so that readers will know your announcement is current.
Follow the Title and Dateline with a brief summary of the announcement.
Using approximately 3 to 5 sentences, include who, what, where and why in this
paragraph. If this paragraph doesn’t entice your reader, they won’t go read further
and will miss information that they might otherwise need or want. When search
engines or other news agencies pick up your information, they will often
include only the opening paragraph so make sure you are getting out the key
info. (ie: TLC [Three Local Characters] will be appearing at the Rose Memorial
Library in Stony Point on Wednesday, February 27, 2013 at 6:15pm. Authors
Chelle Cordero, Charmaine Gordon and Janet Lane Walters will share their
secrets for successful publication and discuss topics such as blogging, writing
memoirs, and self editing. They will also critique the first 3 pages of your
work for a small donation to the library’s Friend’s Fund.)
If you use acronyms (like TLC) be sure to spell them out for
your readers the first time. Avoid highly technical jargon, clichéd phrases and
foreign words (if necessary to use, include the translation). Do not use
capitalized sentences and avoid exclamation points and cutesy puns. Write in
third person unless you are quoting someone. Your middle brief paragraph can
include more detail about the event (such as Chelle Cordero is the author of 9
novels and the weekly Amazon Kindle blog Living, Writing, Breathing). Include
quotes and acclaim.
Your ending paragraph needs to include contact information
such as where you can buy tickets, make reservations, or call for more
information. If you include email addresses, remember that spam-bots crawl the
web and can pick these up for inclusion in spam email lists. Embedding links
are okay but should be used sparingly (no more than 1 link per 100 words on the
average). Edit carefully for spelling and grammar before posting. Remember that
the release should read more like a news article than an advertisement.
Graphics are okay so long as they do not make the article difficult to read
through.
Writing
exercise: Write a “press release” about plans you have for tomorrow. Remember
to keep the highlights in the first paragraph, use the middle paragraphs to add
a little more description, and wind up with your last paragraph by including
contact information for you during the day. Remember to choose 3 to 6 keywords
that will make up your heading.
Writing
prompt: List up to 15 keywords that would describe your life. Remember to list
only keywords, not phrases or sentences.
