I'm considering writing a press release to publicize an online novel that has gotten no major media attention despite being available for over a year now. The problem is...it's not exactly news. Recently the site has achieved #1 ranking on Google for a complimentary phrase. The phrase itself seems not to get much search volume (I suppose that's how I got #1)...but it seems like a good point to publicize. My question is, will this fly in a PR, or should I look for a different approach? It's kind of a cheap gimmick, but other books publicize #1's on Amazon or such places...so why not a Google result?
I would contact Jhmattern , She is one of the best pr people on this forum and she will tell you straight Hope this helps
I would love to be able to afford her for this project, but I'm afraid I have to write this myself and this is not at all the type of writing I'm comfortable with. Jenn, I would appreciate your opinion on this, as you are the acknowledged expert.
Jenn, Does give some free advice I believe, She owns a bunch of useful blogs and also a forum and some other good resources, I am sure she might give you some free advice if you ask
Just call it a "relaunch" or "second print". Even better, include an interview (or faux interview more likely) with the author and focus questions/answer on promoting the book?
Short answer is no, it's not newsworthy enough to justify a press release, and one is very unlikely to help you. Longer answer is with books in any form, Amazon matters; Google doesn't. Actual buyers / readers matter; placement for a search term that may bring some readers at some point does not. Something that's been around a year isn't news unless you have some major update or it's relevant to a major issue all over the news... and even then it's questionable. Also, from a writer's perspective I'd say online novels are far from newsworthy to begin with. They were a cute new thing a few years back, but now they'd rank even lower than other types of self-publishing like e-books and POD books on the credibility and interest scales. They could be equated to a fictional blog. You'd have to be offering something radically different in that area that's never been done before to get the interest of anyone in the writing community (the group probably most likely to care enough to give it coverage to begin with). That's not said to be harsh or mean... It's just the truth as I see it from someone involved in both writing and PR. Keep in mind... even most real books don't get a ton of press when they're launched. So getting coverage for something like this after it's already been "out there" will be infinitely harder. I'd suggest you think more about marketing tactics than PR until there's something newsworthy going on that your public is going to need to know about. Pick up a copy of Guerrilla Marketing for Writers and 1001 Ways to Market Your Books (or something like that) - both good books with a lot of great marketing tips for writers. While directed at books, many of the tactics can easily be adapted to other mediums.