Online Press Releases Should be Tied to Current Events

What is an online press release? Like a printed release that gets mailed or faxed to someone in the media, an online press release reports newsworthy information about your business activities. They can be posted on prweb.com and similar sites.

Of all the elements, your subject line is the most important line in a press release. It should include "key words," the most frequently searched terms on the Internet. You can find these by using the resource function on overture.com or another search engine. Use as many character spaces as you are allotted when you write the headline and just keep on pouring more names and search terms into it--cleverly. If you don't you're wasting an opportunity. According to Armand Morin, search engines love press releases and pick up on them within 24-48 hours. But the need to have lots of search phrases or "key words" in them.

There is a bit of an art to writing a press release. Ideally, they should be written in such a way that you could imagine them being reprinted directly, in the same wording, somewhere else. From release to news page is a great goal. Mainly they are factual documents intended to spark interest, brag, and inspire a specific action, which in the online community is to drive a viewer to your website where you can collect their name for your database, or to drive them to make a purchase or attend an event. They are marketing tools and they are reputation-building tools.

As a writer you can play a game with yourself, which is to see every morning for one week, if you can find something in the news headlines that would coincide with your work AND issue a release about it (heat wave, Hezbollah-Israeli conflict, baseball scores, TV shows). When you have something truly substantive to offer, you may even consider a paid online press release instead of using the free prweb service, because that'll get you read by serious journalists faster and more certainly.

Incredible Book Marketing Strategies Gleaned from Conference with Mark Victor Hanson, Alex Mandossian, Armand Morin, Dan Poynter, Rick Frishman, Etc.

Just flew in this morning from Orlando, Florida, after a four-day conference full of new strategies and tips for emerging authors. These are appropriate for those on the path to being published by mainstream publishers or pursuing self-publishing. I am a tad jetlagged because I had to wake up at 3:30 to come home to New York. As I go through my copious notes during the week ahead, I'll blog some of the great information I learned from these superstars of publishing. An extended essay will also be featured in my next monthly newsletter, coming later this week, which you can sign up for on my home page.

These tactics include the power of online press releases, Amazon sales campaigns, attracting agents and editors through successful self-publishing, promotion of digital books, effective Web formats for generating massive databases of interested readers, the importance of branding, among numerous others. I was hugely impressed not only by the presenters, but also by the desire of the people in attendance to be contributors and leaders on our common journey to establish a more heart-centered world. The vision of peace I hold is one where creative self-expression is the norm.

I was thrilled to participate alongside and connect on different levels with Rev. Ernest Chu, Barbara DeAngelis, Jean Houston, Richard Paul Evans, John Kremer, Matt Bacak, and Kim Castle, as well many, many others. More to follow soon.

Mega Book Marketing University Awaits!

I am so excited to be heading to Orlando for this weekend's conference, which is hosted by Mark Victor Hansen of Chicken Soup for the Soul fame. I've been sending my editorial clients and coauthors down there for a couple of years and they always come back inspired and energized. This session, I'm accompanying my friend and client Rev. Ernie Chu, a Religious Science pastor whose project Soul Currency was the subject of one of my recent free teleseminars. (Listen to a track on the Resources page of my website) .

I'll be selling preview copies of my new audio program, Partner with Your Publisher, out of my suitcase. Wish me luck! An extended report will follow of cool things I learn.

Mothering Magazine Reviews Creating Your Birth Plan

On page 71 of the July-August 2006 issue of Mothering, a popular magazine found in most news stands and supermarkets, the media review section starts off with: "Creating Your Birth Plan: The Definitive Guide to a Safe and Empowering Birth is a succinct, authoritative gem on natural birth from Marsden Wagner, MD, MS, a former director of women's and children's health for the World Health Organization and a Mothering Living Treasure. Easy-to-digest chapters cover choosing a care provider and birth locations, risks and benefits of medical interventions, and natural alternatives to drugs, technology and surgery. (Perigee, 2006.) "

My "Partner with Your Publisher" Audio Tracks Are Done!

My clients, family, and friends have been hearing about my special project for a few months now. When I returned from vacation I gave myself the gift of a week to sit down and finally finish producing the audio tracks of Partner with Your Publisher: How Not to Feel @#%*!ed When Your Book Comes Out... and I did. My big challenge was that in order to do so, I had to learn how to sound edit on my computer. I used Sound Forge, for those who are interested in details. My next challenge is getting a package together and having it manufactured in bulk.

With the assistance of my good friend Sandy Grason, author of Journalution, we created a two-hour master track. I went through it over the weekend and took out static and pops, and excess verbiage and vagueness, and added a little music and a motivational introduction, as well as a truly useful list of action steps that follows our conversation. I am proud that in short order I'll be able to offer this product for sale. (Fyi, I recommend you check out Sandy's new product on getting author endorsements, which is located on her website--use the link above.)

A dedicated website (www.publishing-partner.com) is being built now for my double-CD program, and it will launch in a couple of days. Please wish me good luck! My goal, as ever, is to be an advocate for authors by providing you with the point of view of a publishing insider.