Get in the News for Free? This Is Your Ticket.

“Crckrw…crckrw… crckrw… … … bap.”

Do you know what that hideous noise is? It’s the sound of a press release being crumpled into a ball and tossed into the trash where it belongs.

And it’s a noise that you’ll hear all the time in most press rooms.

Because journalists, media editors, and PR agents are constantly inundated with unsolicited press releases from attorneys, owners/partners of law firms, and other local business owners who want to get in the news for free.

Most of them are simply not compelling.

Why?

They don’t have a scoop.

“Attorney Bob just published a new book.”

This isn’t news. No journalist would bring it to their boss in a million years. It’s just some cheapskate trying to wrangle free advertising. You can do better.

We recently partnered with a press consulting company called RJR Media Magic. They’re helping us get some of our authors in the local news.

A while ago, they worked with an auto shop.

This particular auto shop was running a special promotion. I can’t remember the details. But they got something for free if they scheduled a service.

They ran paid ads, and the campaign mostly flopped.

So they decided on a change of tack.

After some digging around, it turns out that the owner of the auto shop has a baby daughter who very nearly died after birth. She was saved, in part, by a doctor who was paid for by a local non-profit. After some soul-searching, he decided that maybe it was time for him to pay forward to this foundation.

So, he reconfigured his promotion.

Now, as well as the freebie, this auto shop would donate a percentage of their fee for the service. The owner would present a giant check to the foundation.

They wrote up some press releases, sent them out.

Journalists seized the story with both hands, and the promotion took off like a rocket. All because it had a personal story and a “human-interest” angle.

This is what your press releases need.

If you’ve followed the advice in my previous articles for this series, you’re already thinking about how you can align yourself and your practice with a cause or ideal. And you should be mulling a few different book ideas.

When the book is ready to be launched, we want to get your name in the news. We want to use it as a platform for elevating your local profile.

The way to do that is to find a “human-interest” angle.

Some kind of story from your past, or something that’s coming up, that connects you to your cause and your new book, and makes it abundantly clear to journalists that you’re not just seeking free publicity.

I have something to help with that.

But, this time, it’s not a podcast or free report.

It’s a service. And we’re bundling it in as a complimentary component of the new Speak-a-Book package I mentioned yesterday. The “RISE” offer.

I’ll tell you more about it in a few days. Stay tuned.

Tracy Merda

Tracy Merda is the Senior Project Manager of Jacobs & Whitehall Publishing, a publishing house that helps respected professionals who are too busy to write a book the “traditional” way author their own book, ethically, in just 2-3 hours using a proprietary interview method. Since 2018, Tracy has helped 70+ attorneys, dentists, physicians, consultants, engineers, and other professionals become published authors.