Book Spotlight: PR for Poets by Jeannine Hall Gailey

Didn't quite finish this one, so posting a spotlight. Look for my review coming soon.

PR For Poets provides the information you need in order to get your book into the right hands and into the worlds of social media and old media, librarians and booksellers, and readers. PR For Poets will empower you to do what you can to connect your poetry book with its audience!

EXCERPT

CHAPTER 7: PR KITS AND PITCH LETTERS

Do It Yourself or Hire Someone?

In this chapter, I'll answer the questions: “What is a PR Kit? What is a pitch letter? Do I have to do these myself? What's my publisher's role? Can I hire someone to do it?"

If you haven’t worked as a journalist, reviewer, or in publishing before, you may not be familiar with a PR kit. A PR kit, also known as a media kit, is a collection of physical or digital marketing materials designed to get the attention of the media. PR kits are sent to traditional media outlets, such as newspapers, radio and TV stations, journalists, and prominent bloggers. A pitch letter usually accompanies the kit and is the hook that piques the recipient's interest. Pitch letters are critical when you don’t have a relationship with the person or organization receiving your kit. Your kit can be in a digital format (often a PDF file), which is usually sent by email or made available for download from a website. Some outlets still require that a hardcopy be mailed.

Your Basic PR Kit And “Sell Sheet”

The basic PR kit includes a "sell sheet," which is usually a single sheet, sometimes printed on both sides (often in color). Your sell sheet can be both digital and in hardcopy. It should include the following information:

Key data for your book—this includes the publisher, distributor, release date, number of pages, format, ISBN number, website, and the PR contact. This provides important information about the book and facilitates the ordering process for libraries, bookstores, and universities/schools.

A summary of the book—this is usually 200 words describing the breadth of the work. It's important to be broadly descriptive because many of the blurbs will hone in on specific aspects.

A graphic of the book’s cover—because color images have more impact, you may want to spend extra on color copies or borrow the color laser printer at work for your hardcopy version.

One or two blurbs—these blurbs are short and only consist of a sentence or two. They present different facets of the work not covered in the summary. Pick the most famous of your blurbers to feature. Sometimes this choice is up to your publisher, not you.
Your author photo—hopefully you already have this, so it's time to use it.

A short author bio—really, keep this short. Include only your key accomplishments or items that might hook the specific reader (for example, if you are from his/her home town).

PURCHASE FROM:

Amazon

Two Sylvias Press Bookstore​

Jeannine Hall Gailey served as the second Poet Laureate of Redmond, Washington, and she has been a featured contributor in Poet’s Market for many years. Gailey is the author of five books of poetry: Becoming the Villainess, She Returns to the Floating World, Unexplained Fevers, The Robot Scientist’s Daughter, and Field Guide to the End of the World, winner of the Moon City Press Book Prize and the SFPA’s Elgin Award. Her work has been featured on NPR’s The Writer’s Almanac, Verse Daily, and in The Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror. She spent four years teaching in the MFA program for National University, worked fifteen years as a corporate writing manager, and worked in publishing as an Acquisition Editor for Microsoft Press.


Jeannine’s twitter handle is @webbish6.
For more information, visit www.webbish6.com.

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? - June 25

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? is a place to meet up and share what you have been, are and about to be reading over the week. It's a great post to organize yourself. It's an opportunity to visit and comment, and er... add to that ever growing TBR pile! So welcome in everyone. This meme started with J Kaye's Blog and then was taken up by Sheila from Book Journey. Sheila then passed it on to Kathryn at the Book Date.

Welcome back to Monday. It's my favorite Monday of the year--the one right before we leave on vacation. It's going to be hectic, but there is a light at the end of the tunnel. Pet sitters and house sitters are all set, so packing and getting ready--in between working--is what's on tap this week.

I'm finishing up this book due for review tomorrow.

Also occasionally dabbling in this one...

I really wanted to like it more, but it's just been okay for me. 

Not sure what I'll read on the drive down to North Carolina. Maybe I'll start this one first...

What are you reading now? Is there something I should be adding to my wish list? 

Top Three Mistakes People Make When Dealing with the Media (And How to Avoid Them) by Jonathan Bernstein

Every media interview, whether on-camera, by phone or even by email, is a unique opportunity to communicate your key messages to your stakeholders. Such important occasions should not be taken lightly, and yet completely preventable mistakes are often made by spokespersons. Here are three of the biggest mistakes – and how to avoid them.

1. Failure to Prepare

Even the most naturally skilled interview subject has a dramatically higher chance of being unhappy with the results of media contact if he/she fails to prepare for that possibility. Preparation includes:

 Media training using realistic scenarios ranging from the mundane to crisis-level situations.

 Crafting and memorizing key messages for topics on which you’re likely to be quizzed in advance of any interview.

 Doing some research on any media interviewer before an interview is given so as to understand the type of reporting that journalist typically does (e.g., friendly or hostile, pro-business or anti-business, balanced reporting or clearly slanted).

 Practicing to refine skills in between actual media interviews. Long periods of time can pass between interviews for many spokespersons. One or two days media training does not turn someone into an expert spokesperson – practice and experience can do that, if the spokesperson has the necessary basic talent.

2. Underestimating Non-Traditional Media

Today, ‘media’ doesn’t just mean traditional media (newspapers, radio, TV), but also “social media” that takes many different forms, including blogs, MySpace, Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and FriendFeed. All of them featuring information – sometimes about you and/or your organization – on a 24/7 news cycle.

Additionally, the lines between print and broadcast media have completely blurred. First, all of them have websites, but on the LA Times website, for example, you’ll find video. On Fox News’ website, you’ll find print. All media sites archive their stories, sometimes for many years, so a single piece of bad news can haunt you for a long, long time. The ‘blogosphere’ can act as a repeater, and distorter, of traditional media coverage, and there’s been more than one traditional media outlet that used a blog as a source.

It’s a mistake to underestimate the impact of someone whose blog is popular, who has hundreds or thousands of friends in their Facebook or Twitter network, and/or who regularly expresses their opinions via YouTube or other social media sites. They can hurt – or help – you just as much as any newspaper or broadcast outlet.

It is critical that all organizations have someone on staff, or on contract, who understands how to both monitor non-traditional media and use it for communicating both routine and crisis-level messages.

3. Treating the Media Like the Enemy

If you want to make a major mistake, tell a reporter that you think he/she has done such a bad job of reporting on you that you'll never talk to him/her again. Or badmouth him/her in a public forum. Send nasty emails. Then sit back and have a good time while:

 The reporter gets angry and directs that energy into REALLY going after your organization.

 The reporter laughs at what he/she sees as validation that you're really up to no good in some way.

Most reporters are not out to get you and, even for those who are, its rarely personal; they are ego-driven and their goal is the same as any employee’s – professional advancement.



Jonathan Bernstein is author of Keeping the Wolves at Bay – Media Training and president of Bernstein Crisis Management, Inc., an international crisis management consultancy based in Southern California.

To learn more about the Keeping the Wolves at Bay – Media Training by Jonathan Bernstein Tour, please click here.