Authors Lose the Ability to Write

SAN DIEGO - April 22, 2014 - PRLog -- When it comes to promoting themselves, many authors lack confidence in their own writing abilities and either rely on their publishers to do the marketing for them or do it haphazardly themselves.

Nancy was traditionally-published for years before she started publishing some of her own books. She says, "Even if you have a publisher, you are going to have to do some of your own marketing if you want your book to be a success. A publisher will only promote your latest book, and probably for a maximum of six weeks. You can keep up the momentum by taking over the PR reins yourself."

Issuing press releases can give a book a huge boost. Michelle says: “Distributing a release using a free service such as PRLog will give you backlinks to your website or Amazon sales page. That means social proof, which is vital. When reporters look for an expert for an opinion, you want to be sure that your name will rank high in the Google search results. Press releases really help with that. Plus, you can send out the URL of the press release on social media to get even more exposure.”

Authors often struggle with writing their own press releases, which is why Michelle and Nancy wrote their book to help them. Michelle says: “You don’t need to be a marketing expert to write a press release, it really isn’t difficult. In fact, as the author, you are the best person to write it as you know your book so well. You just need to find a ‘hook’ – a story about either your book or yourself. That’s because the launch of a book isn’t big news, but the story behind it may be.”

The authors point out that even a very simple press release will give valuable backlinks and provide fodder for social media posts. To make it newsworthy, they suggest including content that is: recent, important, a first, local, unusual, or emotional. Michelle says: "You can make an old book newsworthy by picking out one of these things to write on. Then send it in the body of an email to local reporters, who are more likely to pick up a local story."

Michelle and Nancy want to encourage authors to try their hand at writing press releases. "It really isn't difficult, doesn't take long, and it can make a huge difference," says Michelle. "Once you're a big success, you can think about trying some of the paid options for press release distribution, which can get your release in front of influential people in the media."

'PR for Authors' is available in Kindle format on Amazon now and will be released in paperback in May 2014.

'PR for Authors' on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00JDTSE8O/ref=cm_sw_su_dp