Press releases are a great way to promote your business, book, event, etc.  If you do it correctly, you can get amazing press and it won’t cost you a dime.

You can find many articles on how to write a press release on the net.  I wanted to add my two cents, sharing just a few tips with you that might help.

The biggest mistake you can make is to forget that the press is interested in news.  They will not rush to give you publicity.  If you are blatantly selling a product or business, forget it.

So, rule #1: Make sure your press release is newsworthy.

Next, the news editors are people, just like you and me.  They like to read interesting copy and will glaze over if it is boring.  Since they start at the top of the page and read down, you must create a fascinating title and grab their attention with the first paragraph. I like to include a little humor when appropriate.

Therefore, rule #2: Grab them with a snappy title.

If your press release is well written, a reporter may use some or all of it in their article.  They are busy and will appreciate being presented with a well written piece.  They may or may not contact you to find out more information.  Add quotes (your own works).

Rule #3: Write the release so it can be printed as is.

Below is a example of a press release that I wrote a couple of years ago for our chess instruction business.  It brought the local news cameras, which was our goal.  They used a lot of the information directly from this release in their story.  You can see the news video here:

IS IT COOL TO PLAY CHESS?

Clearwater, FL – May 15, 2008: World wide studies show chess makes kids smarter, but is it cool to be good at the game? Local chess educator Dan Sherman would answer a definitive yes. He plans to prove this to the children of Delphi Academy of Florida on Thursday May 15^th, 2008 at 3:10pm in their Library by playing six of their strongest players at the same time in a simultaneous exhibition.

Sherman has been playing chess for thirty years and is one of the highest ranked national tournament chess players in Pinellas County. “Simuls are fun,” said Sherman. “It is one of chess’s few social activities allowing interaction amongst the participants. Plus it gives kids a chance to gang up on me!”

The simultaneous is a kick-off to a series of innovative chess classes being offered at Delphi to teach children of all ages. Headmaster Colin Taufer commented, “It is clear to me that chess can improve a child’s ability to solve problems and focus attention. The skills they learn over the board can help them in life.”

Sherman is opening the classes to Delphi Academy students age 4 and up. “The biggest challenge with the young ones will be to keep their attention on the game,” Sherman said. “Children walk the squares of a giant 17 foot by 17 foot chess board to really experience the movement of the pieces. Once they have that down the rest is easy.”

Sherman’s wife, Laura, will be helping him teach the students of Delphi. Dan and Laura met through chess in Los Angeles fifteen years ago when she was one of the top 50 women players in the US. Their four year old son now knows the names of all the pieces and how they move. Their one year old daughter enjoys nibbling on pawns.

Image by The Library of Congress via Flickr

If you are interested in branching out into freelance writing, but have no experience, consider volunteering your time to help out a group or individual.  Most people and organizations need well written articles for various purposes.

Your children’s school might be a good place to start.  Do they need a press release?  Work with them to create a few.  Treat it as though you are being paid, being professional through the entire process.  If you’ve never written one, research how to do so.

Do they have a newsletter?  Ask if you can report on a specific area of the school that interests you.  Or perhaps you can write a general piece on education.

How about your favorite non-profit organization?  They are usually under-staffed and cannot afford a professional writer.  They would probably welcome your help.

Check with your friends and see if they might need help as well.  Small business owners often need help with copywriting.  The word of mouth that you get from the results might bring new business your way.

These volunteer jobs will help you with future paid clients.  You can honestly say, “Why, yes, I’ve written press releases for organizations.”  Plus you can add these writing jobs to your resume.

Gain experience any way you can!  Enjoy the process.

Image by kevindooley via Flickr

The skies of Florida are beautiful.  The clouds are often dramatic, the patterns unique and striking. 

If you saw them in a painting you’d probably lean over and whisper in your friend’s ear, “I like this painting, but the sky isn’t very realistic looking, is it?”

Here are two Haiku I wrote recently, inspired by the clouds above:

white waves in the sky 
sweeps across the blue canvas 
teases of summer

gray lines streak the sky
   coarse strokes uneven unreal
new buds wait with thirst

Today is a good day to write!  Sure, tomorrow will also be a good day, but then again, when tomorrow rolls around, it will be “today”, won’t it?

The point is that you should write each day.  Any day that goes by is a missed opportunity.  That really applies to any area in life where you want to make progress.  In order to achieve your goals, you need to steadily work toward the completed product.

So, today, sit down and write something.  Even if you only have 20 minutes to write – start.  Outline your thoughts.  Write a few notes down.  Or just start writing the story, article or press release.

I’d like to hear from you!  What did you do?

(And no, writing your grocery list doesn’t count)

Image by Marquette University via Flickr

When you write good dialogue, you know it because it is very easy to read.  It flows as a real conversation would.  The reader feels like they are eavesdropping on your character’s chit chat.

For instance if two young girls are talking in the mall, the conversation would not sound like this:

“Mary, I am so happy that you decided to join me today at the mall.”

“Becky, I too am so very happy that you are here.”

“Mary, did you see the boy at our school yesterday?”

“Becky, yes I did.  He was very handsome.”

OK, I won’t belabor the point here.  This is very boring dialogue and not at all how it would really sound in real life.  Here’s how it should sound:

“Mary, finally! You’re mom finally let you come?”

“Yeah, I had to promise to watch Billy later. Drag.”

“You’re telling me. Glad I’m an only child.”

“I’m so jealous.  Hey, did you catch the new hottie at school?”

“Who didn’t?  He’s Hottie McHott Hott for sure.”

Of course the slang changes from minute to minute, but some phrases would set the era for you nicely.  Also some expressions stick around for decades.

If this doesn’t come naturally for you, go to the mall and listen to people talking.  Just get a gist of how they really speak.  You’ll catch on what words they drop, how they use contractions, and what slang is popular.  It may surprise you!

I asked Marsha Friedman to share one of her articles with me, as I find her approach fascinating.  Her concept is ideally suited for writers.  After all, writing about what we know and are passionate about is a joy.

If you have any questions for Marsha, please comment on this article and Marsha will reply.

How to Become an Expert Celebrity
by Marsha Friedman

It used to be that the only way to be a celebrity was to be on TV, in the movies, or sell a million records.

However, over the last decade, a new kind of celebrity has emerged – the expert celebrity. This is a person who reached the pinnacle of his profession, and found a way to use the media to offer his expertise to the masses.

From Cesar Millan (The Dog Whisperer), Martha Stewart, and Bob Vila to Suze Orman and Rachel Ray, expert celebrities are taking over television, radio, print publications and the Internet. Moreover, the next celebrity expert could well be you.

In today’s world of specialty programming on TV and radio and with the explosion of web marketing, online media and social media marketing – becoming a celebrity is no longer just for the A list of movie stars and recording artists we normally think of. Today, we have celebrity attorneys, celebrity chefs, celebrity financial experts and fitness gurus – we even celebrity bounty hunters! So, if you’re in business and are focused on expansion, there is no better way than to become a celebrity expert in your field.

These expert celebrities and those who’d like to be expert celebrities have one primary thing in common – at one time, they were all just working folks.

These were people on the street with a passion for what they do and with a valuable knowledge that people need. Rachel Ray worked at a candy counter at Macy’s before her passion, her ingenuity and her personality enabled her to forge her own celebrity status. In most cases, the expert celebrities you see in the media today were ordinary people before they became household names, but now they are truly celebrities in their fields of expertise.

The first step that many experts take to establish their celebrity is to write a book about their area of expertise. In order to be successful, experts should ask themselves five questions before putting pen to paper:

• What message am I enthusiastic about that I want to convey?
• Who can benefit from it?
• How will it help them?
• Why am I the one to bring this idea to them?
• How can I make my points unique and different from what has already been said on the topic by others?

You must ‘zero-in’ on the one singular, unifying idea that excites and energizes you – the one that urges you to get out of bed every morning – the one that defines who you are and what you represent. This one central idea will be the driving force behind every single work within your book.

Building more business has been the primary driver behind the emergence of the expert celebrity.

Businesses are struggling in this economy and success in today’s world requires business leaders to market in a way they may never have done before. They need to rise above their competition, become THE ‘go-to’ guy in their field, the recognized expert people want to deal with. The credibility that comes with this recognition can build a business or turn one around that’s failing.

###

Marsha Friedman – author of Celebritize Yourself, www.celebritizeyourself.com, is a prominent business woman who has run her company successfully through prosperity and adversity. As a radio personality and public speaker, Marsha can be heard every week on the nationally syndicated talk radio show "The Family Roundtable" where problems that modern families face are discussed.

Marsha also publishes a weekly PR Insider newsletter, and you can signup to receive it by visiting her company website, www.emsincorporated.com.

Image by • ian via Flickr

One client asked me to write a piece for his company.  He owned a computer company in Australia called Propeller Head. He asked me to write a piece based on the famous “Think Different” ad campaign that Apple launched in the 1980’s.

I loved this assignment.  It was one of my all time favorites!  This is what I came up with:

Your computer ceases.
Crucial documents hang in the balance.
Communication crashed,
Cut off from the internet.
Has your system succumbed?
Not on the watch
Of your capeless hero
Of the cyberworld!
Donning his best propeller beanie,
Soaring through the clouds,
Ready to combat dark side hackers,
He arrives on your doorstep
With modest aplomb,
Wearing a quirky sideways grin
That comes before any great battle.
You step aside,
Hold your breath,
As your IT guru fights
All evil lurking in your network.
Sword drawn,
Sweat beading,
He fights for you.
Clever, creative thinking,
No mainstream solutions.
He conquers the code,
Your files are intact!
You applaud loudly.
He shies away,
Modest to the end.
Still he deserves your grateful thanks.
The Propeller Head,
Your Champion of Communication.

Image by Trevor Blake via Flickr

We all have our comfort zones.  Sometimes in many areas of life.  Today is a good day to do something new and different. 

Try out a new form of writing.  It might help you see things in a new light, allowing you to grow as a writer.

Are you a poet?  Try to write a non-fiction piece (sure, you can write about poetry, just not in verse).

Are you a copywriter?  Pen a short story.  Find a writing contest and enter, giving yourself a deadline.

Have you self-published a few books, but can’t seem to sell many?  Try your hand at writing a press release.  Heck, if you’re good enough at it, you might get hired to write them for others.

Do you write How-to books?  Try writing a Haiku (a Japanese form of poetry that is only 17 syllables).

Whatever your genre, try something different.  Shatter your comfort zones.

I asked my friend, Michelle Carlbert, to write a piece about fanfiction. I don’t know about this area, but she does. When she posts a story she gets thousands of visitors! To learn more about her work, please visit: www.MokisFanfictionBlog.com/blog.

Using Fanfiction To Improve Your Writing

by Michelle Carlbert

What is “fanfiction” you ask?

Fanfiction is work written by fans based upon published work – books, television shows, movies, comics, etc. People write fanfiction purely for fun, but it can also be a great way to practice your writing skills.

I have been writing fanfiction for the past four years. When I started, I didn’t have much confidence as a writer and didn’t think anyone would like my work. After getting lots of positive feedback I soon found myself with the courage to write my own original work. I now do freelance writing and run two separate blogs – all of which came about directly because of those first tentative steps I took in the world of fanfiction.

Here are some of the benefits of writing fanfiction…..

Get feedback right away

Why wait for your work to be published to hear back from your readers? With fanfiction you can often get a response within days, if not hours (or sometimes even minutes). Also, many of the readers of fanfiction are also authors, providing quality feedback.

Post a story before it’s complete

There’s no need to wait weeks or months until you’ve completed a story to post it. In fact, posting before a story is complete can help give you an idea of what works and doesn’t work, as you hear back from your readers. This allows you to do corrections as you go along.

Try as many genres as you like

Never written a romance? Want to try your hand at a humorous story? There’s no limit to what you can write in fanfiction. From romance to action to poetry, there are people interested in reading it all.

Build up a fanbase

Readers of fanfiction are very loyal. Having a ready-made group of fans can be a very nice thing to have when getting ready to publish your own original work.

Contests

Many fanfiction sites run contests based on “prompts” (a word or phrase used as a jumping off point for a story). Taking part in these contests is not only a lot of fun; it can really keep you on your toes.

So pick your favorite tv show, movie or book and start writing!

Here are two more Haiku for you!  I am learning that punctuation is a bit controversial.  As I experiment, I thought I would try eliminating these elements.  I welcome your feedback on this!

Science Fiction Haiku:

tinkling silver trees
shimmering in the two suns
makes me nostalgic

Romantic Haiku:

slivers of lightning
shoot across the pitch black sky
lovers spotlighted