I decided my book could use more exposure, so I did some research. A press release seemed like a good option. Only time will tell the final value of the release, but the experience was definitely educational.
The Internet has plenty of articles about writing for press releases. Most are about press releases in general, but there are plenty focused on book launches. Reading these gave me more confidence that I would be able to do this. The articles also pointed me in the direction of my next steps.
There are services available that will distribute your press release to a wide audience. Naturally there is a cost, but if you get proper exposure and sales, the cost is low enough. You must make sure the service is legitimate, but there are plenty of them with a good reputation.
Armed with information, I wrote my release and hired a service. Then I just had to wait to see which news and other agencies in the world picked it up. The service I hired sent me an email later in the day with a list of those news sites. There were even hyperlinks to the pages where those folks posted my release. It was thrilling to see my press release on the website for television news stations in major American cities.
As I looked through all the people who picked up my release, a pattern emerged. Many of the pages were in the financial news sections of their site. Some of the sites were entirely business and financial news. Why would a press release about a novel be picked up by the money people?
The press release had both a heading and a subheading. When I wrote the heading, I tried to pick something that would catch people’s attention. The heading was, “Who owns the company that owns your employer?” The subheading was, “New novel Hour of Consequence addresses this and other questions.” Looking over this, I think I figured out the issue.
I imagine that news services are flooded with press releases all the time. Like everyone else facing too much digital input, they probably use software to sort through it all. It is unlikely that a person decided that my press release was worth printing. A computer made that decision. At the same time, the keywords in the heading made the release look as though it contained business news. That’s why all the finance-oriented pages and sites picked up the release.
Fortunately, I saw the humor in that. The experience taught me several lessons. Since my day job involves software, I should be able to predict how software will view my next press release. My headings will contain keywords that computers will funnel but must still be intriguing to human readers. It should be an interesting exercise.