Launching your own publicity campaign can be a daunting task. You’ve spent years writing your masterpiece, and now you’re faced with writing a killer press release the gets the media’s attention. Here are a few press release writing tips:

• The most important piece of a press release is the headline–make it count with a hook that has bite! Look for news headlines, events, holidays, seasons, comparable movie or book titles, and attention-catching happenings that you can tie your book to. Be creative, and try to send out a new release every 4 to 6 weeks.
• Make it newsworthy, objective, and accurate.
• In the body of the release, include the most important information (who, what, where, when, why, how) in the first two paragraphs and the least important information at the bottom, in the “inverter pyramid” style.
• Explain the relevance and benefit of your book to the intended audience.
• Make sure it is not self-centered and does not sound like a sales pitch–it should read like a newspaper or magazine story.
• Use relevant keywords that the search engine spiders will latch on to for increased visibility.
• List your book’s bibliographic data (ISBN, pub date, price, page count, cover, etc.).
• Be sure to include your contact information for the people who want more information.

Give your release some teeth!