I have always preferred “news release” to “press release” because that helps me keep the purpose of the release top-of-mind and gives my release a better shot at being picked up.

Here’s why: What do you think of when hearing the phrase “press release?” I picture a headline such as “Giganta Corp. Announces Something Really Boring and Self-Aggrandizing.” Do you, too? A “news release,” however, sounds like something important just happened that other readers will want to know, à la “stop the presses!”

News outlets feel the same, by the way. They would much rather serve up something fun and focused to their readers than repeat the same old dry paragraphs. Concentrating on the “news” of your release gives an editor a real reason to share your information.

For many years, I helped with the marketing of a community theatre company. The “news” was always the same, really: “This season, Acme Theatre is performing The Big Play starring Sheila, Joseph, and Saira.” Instead of just sending those basic facts, however, we would mix it up. Here are some examples:

• For sending early: “Rehearsals are underway at Acme Theatre which is performing The Big Play starring Sheila, Joseph, and Saira.”
• For sending to neighboring communities: “Joseph, from your town, stars in The Big Play performed by Acme Theatre this season.” Followed by releases to Sheila and Saira’s towns, too.
• For sending later: “Tickets are going fast for the last weekend of Acme Theatre’s performance of The Big Play starring Sheila, Joseph, and Saira.”
• For sending on a topically-appropriate day: “National Big Day is a perfect time to see The Big Play starring Sheila, Joseph, and Saira at Acme Theatre.”

Did every one of these many releases get carried by a news outlet? Of course not. But sending a bunch of releases using different slants upped our chances considerably. The same theory naturally applies to book marketing.

I just published a book. It’s one of a zillion books that were published at the same time. I plan on sending multiple news releases in the coming months, but for the first one, I went with the “new book by local gal” theme. It’s not the most original angle, but I can only use it once, so I thought I might as well.

There are many ways to distribute a news release. If you have a marketing budget, there are paid distribution services. There are free distribution services, too, but they are pretty much needle-in-the-haystack sort of things. Since my focus was “local gal,” I did not use a paid service, although I might in the future.

Instead, I used my spreadsheet of local news outlets from my years with the theatre as a starter. If you don’t have such a spreadsheet, make one now because you’ll be using it a lot going forward. It’s so much easier to have a list with the right email or link when you’re ready to ship out a release. You can keep track of what you sent, when, and whether they published it, as well notes on who was friendly or who had specific submission requirements.

If there was the option of publishing an article myself, I did it. Otherwise, I looked for ways to send my news release. Most often, there is an email address, but some news outlets only have online forms. Take a screen shot of those for your records since you won’t be able to search your “Sent” file.

Newspapers have been shrinking for years now, as you know. There are fewer of them overall and each one has fewer reporters, so they tend to all repost the same Associated Press reports with only occasional local news. If possible, email your news release directly to one of those local reporters as well as to the editor. They do pitch back and forth.

The “new book by local gal” has been uploaded or sent to every news outlet that I can claim being “local” to, including both editors and specific reporters. One reporter told me that her editor had already assigned her the story! We had an interview and I expect to see the article shortly. I have a Google Alert set for my name, so I hope to also catch any releases published as-is.

Now that the “new book” news release is old news, I’m working out what the focus should be for the next one. I’m thinking National Book Lovers Day on August 9 might be a good possibility…