Writing a Press Release for a book can be a standard tick-box item on a list of marketing activities following a pre-determined formula, or a carefully planned and targeted exercise that earns real results. With these pointers, you’ll have a good chance of putting together a release that gets noticed. These tips are especially true for non-fiction titles, but can be applied to fiction as well.
Things to include:
- FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE right up the top in bold
- a catchy tag line in bold that makes people want to read more
- a brief synopsis of the book
- if it’s non-fiction, a sentence or two that establishes the author’s expertise
- if it’s non-fiction, a promise of how the book can help solve an issue
- quotes from reviews of the book
- quotes from reviews of past books
- brief biography of the author
Do:
- keep it between 500 and 750 words
- bullet points
- bold sub-headings
- formatting that makes it easy to read and get across the main points
Contact details
Vitally important is making contact details super easy to find. People are busy. They don’t want to click through to a website and then find the Contact Us page and fill in a form. Put the contact name, phone number, email and website of the publisher or author right at the top. Many Press Releases put this on the top right, although there is no hard and fast rule.
Details about the book to include:
- publication date
- ISBN
- full title (obviously)
- where it can be ordered or purchased
Do not:
- use sales speak
- advertise discounts
- be too positive; maintian a dash of objectivity
- make it too text-heavy and long. You don’t want potential readers leaving the page or hitting delete just because it looks like a chore to read through.
More than one Press Release. Make up Press Release tailored slightly for different audiences such as:
- readers
- booksellers
- reviewers
- interviewers (of the author)
Here are some articles and FAQs that have some great advice:
- All Freelance Writing (great template—just add the contact details at the top and I think it’s pretty spot-on)
- eHow
- Lunar Eclipse (I personally don’t like the formatting of this one, but the brevity of the copy is great)
- The Savvy Book Marketer
