17 Free Press Release Sites for Authors

17 Free Press Release Sites for Authors

fashion style    5:06 AM   

NY Times newsroom, 1942

Your book is about to be released, but how do you get the news out to the media? The first thing you need to do is to write an engaging press release.

A press release is a news story. It is written in third person, has a catchy title and intro, an engaging discussion of the book's topic, and contains at least one quote. The thing to remember is that a press release is a story. What the book is about, why it is significant, and how it came to be written are all important components of a press release.

There are many templates for press releases online. (Type "press release book release" into a search.) Read the releases that have been distributed by publishing houses as well as the templates. (For example, search "Hachette press release.")

After you have honed your press release, the next step is to send it to media outlets via press release distributors. (Be sure to remember your local paper. Local authors are celebrities!) Don't wait until the last minute. If your local paper, for example, would like to include a photo, or get some quotes, you will need to give them sufficient advance notice - at least a couple of weeks.

Most press release services charge a fee - sometimes a hefty one - for distribution to the thousands of media channels that exist in print, on air, and on the net. But there are a few that are free, and some only charge a nominal fee. Depending on where you want your press release to be distributed, you don't have to spend a fortune.

Below are 17 press release services that don't charge a fee and which include an "arts and entertainment" category. Most of these also include paid services for broader distribution. It is worth the time to compare what each service offers in terms of paid and free distribution. Not only will a comparison give you an idea of how broadly your release can be distributed, it will let you know exactly where.

Recommended reading. (This is a great article comparing the effectiveness of different press release services.)

60 Free Press Release Sites Tested – A Detailed Review

* An asterisk means registration is required.

Free Services

1 NPR
2 PR Log   * Free press release distribution service
3 PR.com   *
4 Free Press Release * Online distribution to search engines
5 Press Box (UK) *
6 Newswire * Free and paid services.
7 Open PR * German site
8 Free Press Release Center * European site
9 UK Prwire * UK news only
10 Free Press Index *
11 PR Urgent *
12 Press Exposure *
13 PR Mac * Listing on website, distribution to email list only. Offers paid services for broader distribution.
14 Online PR News * Appears on Google News. Offers paid services for broader distribution.
15 PR Fire * Based in UK
16 PR-Inside *
17 Big News.biz *

Paid services

PR Underground Offers syndication to 100+ News Sites. Very affordable at $39
Newswire * The paid service has a wide reach. Not cheap.
Pressat UK based, quite comprehensive. Plans start at £110

E-releases * Plans range from $249-$499. More pricey plans guarantee distribution to hundreds of news outlets.

10 Ways to Find Your Ideal Audience on Twitter (For Writers)

10 Ways to Find Your Ideal Audience on Twitter (For Writers)

fashion style    11:31 AM   

Have you been approached by services that offer you 10, 000, 20,000 30,000 !!! Twitter followers for a nominal fee?

Don't do it.

Tens of thousands of followers might look good on your home page, but if those followers aren't reading your tweets, looking at your blog posts, and buying your books, they are just meaningless numbers. What you want is real followers, people who are interested in what you have to say, and in what you have written.

How do you get genuine followers?

First you have to find your ideal audience. There are several ways to go about this using three essential tools: Followers, Twitter Lists, and Hashtags.

1) Make a list of successful authors who are similar to you. Look at their "followers" list, and follow accounts that are active. (It helps if they have a significant number of followers - more than 2 digits. Avoid accounts that look like spam, or that don't appear relevant.) This may take a little time, because you will have to actually look at their accounts and see when they last tweeted. (Ideally they should be tweeting at least five times a week.) There is no point following people who don't tweet, because they will not tweet about you. It seems selfish, but the best use of Twitter is not what you tweet, but how many people are willing to re-tweet. That's called marketing.

2) Reviewers are your audience, too. To find book reviewers, do a search on #review plus your genre. Ex. "fantasy review." This will produce a list of recent reviews. Click on the account and if the reviewer has tweeted consistently about reviews/books, follow and add them to your list of reviewers. (Note: If you search "reviewer" instead of "review" a list of promotion companies will pop up.) You can also look at the followers on popular review sites.

3) Don't follow blind. Before you follow people, read their recent tweets. If you are interested in their tweets, chances are they will be interested in yours.

4) Look at the Twitter lists of authors in your genre, as well as businesses that promote books, publicists, agents who represent your genre. Do they keep a list of publicists, promotion sites, reviewers? If an author who writes in your genre keeps a list of reviewers, odds are they will be interested in your book. (Make sure you mention how you found them in your query, or in your tweet to them.) If the list is public, and looks as if it will be useful, you can subscribe. Then do steps 1 and 2 above. (And be sure to keep your own lists.)

5) Expand your scope beyond writers. For example, if you write about politics -  political thrillers included - find people who have similar political views to yours. (Use hashtags to find them. Ex #progressive.) Odds are pretty good that those people will be interested in what you are writing simply because you share the same point of view. (Everyone likes their perspective to be validated.) By the same token, if you write children's books, tweet about parenting, education, and other topics that interest people who are raising kids. Be engaged with the world.

6) Express yourself. If you feel strongly about something, don't be afraid to have an opinion. You want followers who believe in what you are willing to stand up for. Writers are leaders.

7) Tweet at least 5 times a day on different topics. Vary your tweets to include some with images, some that are an image only, some that are a comment, some that include a link (make sure to shorten it with bitly), and some personal news (your upcoming release, a new project you are working on, etc.) Check to see which tweets get the most responses on Twitter analytics. The tweets that are the most popular are an indication of what your audience likes to hear.

8) Use hashtags in your tweets. People who are on the lookout for topics, genres, free books on Kindle, and news events will search for them using hashtags. (If you aren't using hashtags, your tweet will get lost.) You can use those hashtags to find people who tweet on specific topics. Check out their home page, and if you like what they tweet, follow.

9) Don't be afraid to use Twitter to communicate directly with people - even if they are not your followers. I find that people who tweet me get my attention. Whether they are commenting on one of my tweets or offering something, I almost always respond, either by tweeting back, or by checking out the link they've sent me. Literary agents are also more likely to respond to a tweet than to a query. To get the attention of readers and reviewers there is no better tool than direct communication via Twitter. (Don't DM - direct message. People resent DMs. Just mention them via their handle @personyouaretweetingto.)

10) Make sure your bio includes the information that is relevant to potential followers. For example, if you write sci-fi, include your genre so that sci-fi readers can find you.  Don't include the fact that you have three kids, unless you specifically want Moms to follow you. Include what you tweet about and a personal closer that will get attention (e.g. something witty, funny, cute, dark - anything with a punch). Ex: "Author of scifi novels & short stories. Tweets about astronomy & Indie publishing. Building a time machine in my basement on weekends." On your profile, always include where you live, your website URL, and a head shot. (No eggs!)

Finding your ideal audience will take time and patience, but if you devote 15 minutes a day you can build a significant following within a few weeks. Two thousand active and engaged followers are worth more than 10,000 followers who exist in name only.

Related posts:

225 Hashtags for Writers

Platform, Shmatform: Social Media - How Numbers Lie

Twitter: How to Build a Following - for Writers