It tells me that publicity and author press releases are part of their book marketing plan. Publicity is a free way to get a huge credibility boost, so I encourage authors to pursue it.

But  That’s why it’s important to understand which situations are important enough to write and send a release.

You also need to know who to send it to, because it’s not a one-media-list-fits-all situation.

10 situations that warrant author press releases

A press release is also known as a news release – and for good reason. A press or news release needs to announce news.

I always recommend running it through a “who cares?” filter. That will help you decide if it’s “news,” and who to send it to, as well.

If you find yourself in any of these newsworthy situations, consider writing and distributing a press release.

1. Publishing a book

A book announcement press release is an essential author marketing tool. In addition to sending it with media review copies, you’ll add it to your website and use it to interest bloggers and podcasters in your virtual book tour.

Send it to:

• Your local daily and weekly newspapers
• Your city business journal if it’s business-related
• Your local city magazine
• Your alumni newsletter
• Newsletters for trade associations you belong to
• Industry trade magazines
• Bloggers serving your audience
• Podcasters serving your audience

2. Doing a book signing and author presentation

To generate attendance, announce your book event with a press release that covers the basics – who, what, when, where, why, and how.

If you will be demonstrating how to do something, be sure to include that information. Anything visual will up the event’s appeal to TV news assignment editors.

Send it to:

• Your local daily and weekly newspapers
• Your city business journal if it’s business-related
• Your local city magazine
• Your local TV stations

3. Offering advice on a problem your target audience struggles with 

A “tip sheet,” a specific type of press release that offers tips or advice in bulleted or numbered format, is one of the most effective ways to generate news media attention.

Send a general interest tip sheet to:

• All local media outlets, including radio talk show producers
• Daily newspapers with a circulation greater than 100,000
• General interest magazines
• Bloggers covering the tip sheet topic
• Podcasters covering the tip sheet topic

If your tip sheet advice is for a very specific, niche audience, send it to a more focused list of magazines, bloggers, and podcasters serving that audience.

4. Won an award

Congratulations on that book award! There’s a smaller media audience for this kind of news.

Send it to:

• Your local daily and weekly newspapers
• Your city business journal if it’s business-related
• Your alumni newsletter
• Newsletters for trade associations you belong to

5. Newsworthy survey results

Have you surveyed your readers about a topic that will interest others, too? Maybe you’ve asked them how they discover new books to read, where they buy their books, or what book format they prefer. If you write nonfiction, you might have issued a survey with questions related to your topic.

Share the results in a press release.

Send it to:

• Newsletters for relevant trade associations
• Industry trade magazines
• Bloggers serving your audience
• Podcasters serving your audience

6. Speaking at a conference or event 

This is impressive. Provide the who, what, when, where, and why in your press release.

Send it to:

• Your local daily and weekly newspapers
• Your city business journal if it’s business-related
• Your alumni newsletter

7. Speaking at a conference or event and seeking media interviews on site

Conference speakers often work to expand their reach by doing industry trade magazine and local media interviews on site at the event. What’s realistic or possible depends on factors that include your presentation topic, media outlets that will attend, and the size of the conference city (the larger the market, the less likely you are to interest local reporters in a conversation).

Write a short release with the who, what, when, where, and why – just the facts, ma’am. Send it with a request for an on-site interview that includes what you’d like to discuss and why they will be interested in that topic.

Send it to:

• Newsletters for relevant trade associations
• Industry trade magazines
• Local daily newspapers in the conference location
• TV stations in the conference location if the event has a consumer angle

8. Elected to a leadership position in an industry association

Congratulations! Write a short release with the facts and a brief bio.

Send it to:

• Your local daily and weekly newspapers
• Your city business journal
• Your alumni newsletter

9. Selected to serve on a board of directors 

Be sure to include information about the nonprofit you’ll be serving in the press release.

Send it to:

• Your local daily and weekly newspapers
• Your city business journal
• Your alumni newsletter
• Newsletters for trade associations you belong to

10. Local perspective on a timely news topic

Local journalists love when someone in the community can provide accurate, authoritative commentary on a breaking news story. (Earlier this week, that might have been why it’s wrong to assault a colleague at the Oscars.)

Summarize your perspective briefly in a press release; include your bio so it’s clear you’re qualified to speak on the topic.

Send it to:

• Your local daily and weekly newspapers
• Your city business journal if it’s business-related
• Your local TV stations
• Your local radio stations

4 situations when you shouldn’t send a press release

The press isn’t interested in these events:

1. You’ve revised your book.
2. Your book has a new cover.
3. You’ve hit a self-determined sales milestone.
4. Your book is an Amazon category best-seller.

These situations all have a place in your book marketing plan, but they won’t generate publicity. Don’t spend your time on press releases about any of them.

Resources for author press releases

It’s easy for me to say “here’s what you need to know about author press releases,” but it doesn’t help if  you don’t don’t know what a press release looks like, how to write one, or how to find those media outlets to send it to, right?

Here’s information on this site that will help:

• How to write a book announcement press release
• How to write other types of press releases
• How to write a tip sheet
• How to build a media list
• How to email a press release to journalists

Finally, at a minimum, write a book announcement press release. It’s the most useful and versatile of these 10 options.

Which of these press releases have you created and sent out? In what other situations should authors send a press release? Please tell us in a comment.

Not long before that, when author N.T.’s book was nominated for a citywide award, she asked if she should send out a press release.

In both cases, I discouraged them from sending announcements to the press. “Save it for when you win,” I advised.

My advice might have confused them. After all, I often recommend writing and sending a press release when you have news to announce. Many others with experience in this area provide the same advice.

What are the “rules?”

If an award nomination isn’t cause for a press release, then what is?

I’ll answer the question with two more.

First, ask yourself: “Is this really news?”

Then answer this question: “What media outlets use news like this?”

I applied these two questions to the nomination inquiries I received from authors B.D. and N.T.

For both, the answer to “Is this really news?” is “It’s news to share with your networks but not news for a general audience, particularly people who don’t know you.”

So in both instances, instead of encouraging them to send a press release, I recommended that they:

• Add something about their announcement in their next e-mail newsletter
• Write a blog post about it
• Share the news on the social networks they use most often

All three tactics are reasonable and appropriate alternatives to sending a press release in this situation.

7 situations that deserve a press release

Being nominated for an award isn’t newsworthy from a media standpoint. Winning an award is, however. With that in mind, here’s a list of situations when you might want to write and send a press release to relevant media outlets.

1. You’ve published a book. A book announcement press release is an essential author marketing tool.
2. Your book has won an award. Congratulations on that book award! Your local daily and weekly newspapers will be especially interested.
3. You’re speaking at a conference or event.  Send the press release to local newspapers and trade publications in the conference industry.
4. You’re making a presentation and signing books at a bookstore or another venue. Send a book event press release to local newspapers three weeks before the event. If you’ve got good visuals, include local TV assignment editors on your distribution list.
5.  You’ve been named or elected to a leadership position in an industry association. Local newspaper business pages and city business journals use this kind of news.
6. You’ve been selected to serve on a board of directors. Local daily and weekly newspapers, city business journals, industry publications (trade journals), and the newsletter of any association you belong to might run this news.
7. You can offer advice on a problem your target audience struggles with. (This type of press release is called a “tip sheet.”) Distribute your tip sheet nationally.

Write it like you’re a reporter

Remember to write your press release in a journalistic style — write it so it reads like something you’d see in your local newspaper. Don’t use exaggeration or hyperbole.

If you’ve never done this before and need help, use the templates and sample press releases in Build Book Buzz Publicity Forms & Templates.

Need help compiling your media list? Check out the instructions in “How to build a killer book publicity media list.”

Want to send it to a national media list? Consider paying a press release distribution service to do it for you. (That’s an affiliate link, meaning, I’ll receive a small commission if you make a purchase with it.)

Tell us your news in a comment and we’ll tell you if you should send a press release. 

Today’s step is sharing the news here — whoohoo! And because this new e-book teaches authors, publicists, and publishers a step-by-step process for writing that essential press release that announces a book, I’m announcing it here by sharing my book announcement press release! Makes sense, right?

Got questions about the book? Just send me a note. I’m really excited about it because I know how much it’s needed. Here’s my announcement press release — learn how to write one like this in Get Your Book in the News: How to Write a Press Release That Announces Your Book. (Note that I’ve added the images here to add some visual appeal, but they are not “embedded” in the press release that I’m distributing to the media. I’ve included links to them at the end instead.)

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Sandra Beckwith, sb@buildbookbuzz.com, 585-377-2768

Detailed new guide helps authors announce their books

FAIRPORT, NY — June 26, 2012 — A new e-book by a veteran publicist and book marketing coach teaches authors how to create the all-important press release that announces their books.

Get Your Book in the News: How to Write a Press Release That Announces Your Book (http://bit.ly/M2d7M1) by Sandra Beckwith is the only resource that takes authors through the press release writing process step-by-step. Authors, book publicists, publishers, and others learn to create a document that contains the information journalists need and expect in the format they prefer.

Get Your Book in the News distills Beckwith’s 25+ years of experience into a handy guide that offers readers:

• Nine ways to use an announcement press release to get publicity, attract book buyers to a website, or secure speaking engagements
• A detailed, 13-step process for writing a book announcement press release and a companion a fill-in-the-blanks template
• Specifics on who to send the press release to, when, how to send it, and how to follow up
• A list of the most common press release mistakes and advice on how to avoid them
• Formatting instructions
• A press release makeover
• Press release distribution service recommendations and other resources
• A bonus section with 11 actual press releases used to announce fiction and nonfiction books in several genres

“A book announcement press release is probably the most essential and versatile book promotion tool because it can generate book reviews, news items, author interviews, blog columns, and speaking engagements,” says Beckwith, who has won several national publicity awards. “Done right, it creates impressive and long-lasting exposure. Done wrong, it ends up in an electronic trash can.”

Beckwith, a book marketing coach and former publicist, helps authors learn how to be their own book publicists. She teaches the popular “Book Publicity 101: How to Build Book Buzz” course online and publishes Build Book Buzz, a free e-newsletter available at https://buildbookbuzz.com. She is also the author of three nonfiction books, including two on publicity topics, and an author publicity workbook.

Get Your Book in the News: How to Write a Press Release That Announces Your Book is available as a PDF for $9 on the author’s website at http://bit.ly/M2d7M1. For more information, contact Beckwith at sb@buildbookbuzz.com.

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Book cover JPG: http://bit.ly/KXT2HG

Author photo JPG: http://bit.ly/KJ2rS6

Media review copy: sb@buildbookbuzz.com

Contact: Sandra Beckwith, sb@buildbookbuzz.com, 585-377-2768

Have you seen a great book announcement press release online? Include the URL in the comments and tell us why it works for you.