Archive for January, 2009

How To Self-Publish Your Poker Or Gaming Book

January 30, 2009 - 7:09 pm

Everyone thinks it is so easy to write a book. With so many people writing books these days, it is amazing there are enough people still buying books. In today’s world, if you have any amazing life experience, suddenly publishers want you to write a book about it. If it sells, then your experience was interesting enough to stimulate interest from a large audience; and if not, no one really cared.

This is why poker books fly off the shelves. Many people have life experiences playing poker. Many people want to read about these poker-playing scenarios, including the players involved. There will come a time when the reading public will demand more from its poker writers than in past years. After all, there is only so many ways you can cover the same game repeatedly when you are analyzing your own poker hands and games. This is where you come in.

As a writer, you can keep things in perspective. There will come a time when the poker players who write will run out of things to say if they are only covering their own play and games. Writers who are writers first and players second will have the opportunity to shine.

If you have a lot of talent writing about poker and gaming, you can launch your own online e-book store. If you choose to build a website and place your e-books on the website for sale, you will be branching into a new area of business you may not want to explore yet. While it can be profitable to run your own online e-book store, you may prefer to write e-books for clients.

Clients often hire ghostwriters to pen e-books to sell at their websites. Poker players and poker hobbyists who want to read about everything about poker will purchase these books online for a fee. The ClickBank.com marketplace, which sells gambling and gaming e-books penned by ghostwriters, is a good example of this.

SELF-PUBLISHING FOR SUCCESS

Many writers who are not brand names in the poker industry choose to self-publish their books and can still easily get their books sold at major bookstores, online and offline, like Amazon.com and Barnes and Noble. Many writers choose to self-publish their books in digital format only because the process is quicker and less of a hassle.

Self-publishing has many advantages:

1. You don’t need a literary agent.

2. There is no submission or rejection process.

3. You own the rights to your material.

4. Whatever money you make, you keep.

5. Royalties are much higher if you choose a print-on-demand publisher.

6. The publishing and distribution process is a lot faster. For instance, if you use LuLu.com, you can make your book available in less than a day.

The disadvantage: you are responsible for marketing your book and generating sales. This may be a disadvantage or an advantage for you. For me, I enjoy self-publishing because it gives me control and creative freedom over every aspect of my book, including generating sales. I find self-publishing exciting.

If you are going to self-publish, decide if you will publish your book in digital format or in paperback (plus digital format). I recommend you first publish your book in digital format to test your book in the marketplace. Most writers use LuLu.com, a digital publisher, because of the low cost, quick turnaround, and your book will appear in its marketplace. When you feel it is time to publish your book in paperback, then go with a print-on-demand publisher. Many writers use BookSurge.com (owned by Amazon) so their books appear in Amazon as well as other major book stores.

Other self-publishing outlets include:

1) Clickbank.com. Many self-publishers use Clickbank.com as a sales outlet to generate a steady stream of sales for their book. Clickbank has one of the largest audiences of affiliates who are ready to sell your book for a commission. You will need to create your own website and sales page (also known as a “landing page”) for your book and then sign up with Clickbank to use their ordering system.

2) LightningSource.com can make your book in digital format and paperback format. Once you submit your book for publication, anyone can order your title, as a print-on-demand or as an ebook. Many popular online book stores (especially ebook stores) order from LightningSource.

3) AuthorHouse.com

4) BookSurge.com

If you decide not to self-publish yourself, try a reputable e-book publisher to handle everything for you, including marketing. Many e-book publishers will consider poker-related material. If the e-book publisher decides to publish your ebook, they may also offer to place the book in trade paperback. The publisher will offer more royalties and sometimes a higher advance.

BOOK WRITING SUCCESS

If you choose to write your own books and e-books, then follow these tips:

TIP # 1: Know your market and know where you can gain the most readership.

TIP # 2: Remember, non-fiction sells in poker. Don’t try to re-invent the wheel because it won’t work.

TIP # 3: Have your manuscript ready before you approach a publisher for electronic submissions or for trade submissions.

TIP # 4: As you are writing your manuscript, begin searching for markets where you will want to submit your work.

TIP # 5: Buy a Writer’s Market book so you can read over the markets and decide the best market for your manuscript.

TIP # 6: Avoid work-for-hire contracts from publishers. Sure, what publisher wouldn’t prefer to pay an up-front fee to a writer in lieu of royalties? Go for the royalties and take a chance on your own talents.

TIP # 7: Know your poker.

If you want to attract your poker-reading audience, writing books about strategies and systems can sell if it is based on a mathematical advantage or a tried and tested theory. If you aren’t able to do this, no one is going to read about going on your “gut” feelings or how poker players win more when the stars line up in their favor. Fact-based theories and strategies will sell, and nothing else will in this corner of the market.

An excellent way to generate book ideas is to attend poker events and tournaments and get close to the action. Go to these events armed and ready to learn all you can. At the end of the day you will have dozens of book ideas buzzing in your head. Spend some time in casino poker rooms to find other topics. Talk and network with poker players and try to find out if they desire to write a book with the assistance of a ghostwriter or with you as a co-author. As a ghostwriter or co-author, an excellent way to gain business is to hand out your business cards at writing conventions, casinos, poker events and poker tournaments.

Blogging Beyond Leaps And Bounds

January 30, 2009 - 3:05 pm

Blogging is a passion and the same time an opportunity to get places. People who often find themselves searching for identity and purpose would be surprised at how blogging can make a difference for them. Indeed, it is something worth checking and people who love to write about anything should very well check it out.

And now for the one qualifier. Content may be king, but content alone is like a figure-head king who talks a lot but doesn’t get anything done. For the monarchy to be effective, you have t actually write good and appropriate content.

The first step to write a marketing blog is to set your goals and know why you blog. What this means is that you have to understand that a blog is not an open invitation to post sales material and self congratulatory tripe. The purpose of your blog should certainly be to inform, but it is also an opportunity to communicate with your clients. Search engines may like blogs because of constantly updated content, but customers have come to trust blogs because they feel like this is a chance to “get to know” the company &ndash not subject themselves to more mindless sales material.

When you are writing content for your blog you need to keep a few things in mind. First of all, a business blog, while not exactly creative writing, is not really technical writing either. Everyone has their own style and, depending on the subject matter of the blog, different styles are appropriate for different industries. But in general, a blog should be written in a more conversational tone. This will help you avoid the marketing-speak that can otherwise creep into a valid article.

Next, make sure that your grammar, punctuation, and spelling skills are regularly exercised. All you have to do is spend some time visiting forums or reading blog replies to know that most Internet users don’t have the best grammar or vocabulary in the world. This does not, however, mean that you can allow your blog to slip down to the same level. You are being held to a higher standard as a content publisher than you would be as a normal visitor. And visitors will recognize poor grammar in others, even when they don’t practice it themselves.

Now, what do you write about? Obviously a marketing blog is going to be heavy with articles about products or services. This is the perfect place to discuss your new endeavors, as long as you remember to keep it a discussion. People can get advertisements anywhere. They don’t need them and, more importantly, they don’t want them from your blog.

Ideas are hard to come up with these days because every writer wants to be unique in order to stand out and it seems like someone has already conveyed your idea to a site or several sites. Even if you write about something different, sooner or later someone will copy your work. Also, there are times when you do not feel like writing but you have to produce something at the end of the day.

If you have faced any of these situations, what can you do about it? You can browse online to get ideas. There is nothing wrong with having the same topic as someone else as long as you tackle it on a different angle.

Start right now

January 30, 2009 - 7:52 am

Start right now………. The most difficult thing in every task is to start. You are lost in a whirlpool of ideas, but nevertheless, you can’t choose the most appropriate to embody. Do you experience such situations? I presume, you do as most of people.

The same relates to starting work on your college term paper, the fact of getting a low mark or being excluded from the college makes the start-off even more loathsome and daunting. Leave alone all your fears and doubts. Free your mind and remember another philosophy or psychology term paper or even term paper research don’t mean a doomsday.

Here we will share some supportive tips to help you overcome this stressful and tense process of completing your term paper.

The starting point is easy - collect the information on the chosen topic. Fortunately now you have so many sources of information at hand, that you will have no great difficulty in finding sufficient information even on the rarest subject.

Use the library and its archives, surf the net, look through articles in the magazines, bury yourself in books. As you see there are a lot of options, choose the most suitable for yourself. Your next step is to put together all these rather diverse publications, from extremely learned to popular ones, and connect them logically. Mind that your college term paper should be written in consistent style.

Now you can play with your data, inserting each fragment of it in its correct place.

While you are doing it, you have already coped with another significant task - you got rid of useless and irrelevant information.

Moreover, as you are structuring your future masterpiece, you are gaining a clear idea of the image of your final product. In simple words, you almost have a completed plan.

Some resources recommend start working on your college term paper from outlining its contents. But we think that this is no universal instruction. You will compose your plan after numerous manipulations with your text with much less effort. Besides, it is more than evident that you are not always to find information on every aspect you mentioned in your outline.

During the stage of arranging the whole text I also advise you to create a special document, where you will note down all the used references and literature not to torture yourself with the thoughts about the origin of this very quotation afterwards. All the further work is so-called ”polishing” your college term paper before you can proudly call it your final product. Your aim at this level is to make your content coherent, homogeneous and rather brief. You will have to leave out some paragraphs, to paraphrase most of them and to add linking passages, to check on spelling, grammar and punctuation, to make a conclusion of your own and to structure it according to the established standards and that is the end!!!

Our attempt here is to show you that writing college term paper is not that terrifying. Because there always will be people who are sincerely enthusiastic about helping you in it.

Learn more about writing college term papers, philosophy or psychology term papers or term paper research at one of sites providing college term paper help - Term Paper Writing Service.

Back To Back: Two Good Reads On Entry Level Leadership And Culture

January 28, 2009 - 4:45 pm

This month, I read two books back to back: Soldier’s Heart by Elizabeth Samet and Punching In by Alex Frankel. Both of these works are an excellent introduction into entry-level corporate culture and leadership development.

Soldier’s Heart is a civilian English professor’s take on the leadership culture of West Point, based on her 10 years experience as a faculty member. Professor Samet is in a rare, but well qualified position to pen Soldier’s Heart. Only a fifth of the academy’s faculty is civilian instructors; the rest are military officers on rotation or “regular Army.” Samet’s academic interest also makes her special; she has studied the dynamic of command and obedience in American literature.

Soldier’s Heart is not the first work about West Point by a soldier or civilian, but it comes from the most interesting perspective: an outside working inside.

Soldier’s Heart has a balanced look at the military culture. Samet writes that no cadet wants to be, in one cadet’s words, a “non-thinking slasher,” someone who would kill for the glory of war, or the sake of killing.

West Point is, and has always been, a literate culture. Classical literature through Armed Forces Editions educates and entertains soldiers in battle, and reinforces American values. She writes of books as weapons to spread ideas, and counter actions meant to curtail freedom. But she also states that tales of war talk of motherhood or a woman’s love for soldiers &ndashbut not a woman’s love for soldiering. There is nothing about motherhood in the military culture, but there is the need to fight for mother.

The professor adds that today’s military culture has conflated military missions with spiritual missions; soldiers become instructed to regain faith when there seems to be little cause for faith. However, that might be necessary instruction to lead at a time when officers, enlisted and veterans are questioning our nation’s involvement in Iraq, a war that they believe to be unnecessary.

This faith extends to open displays of the Seven Army Values: Loyalty, Duty, Respect, Selfless Service, Honor, Integrity and Personal Courage. Soldiers tape the Values to their dog tags. Soldiers also display the Soldier’s Creed, officially posted in 2003:

I will always place the mission first

I will never accept defeat

I will never quit

I will never leave behind a fallen comrade.

The Values and the Creed are possible not only because of the culture, but also because our soldiers are professionals who have chosen to serve. Samet sites one Army study that mentions that professional soldiers still fight for each other, as they did, for example in World War II, but they also accept the responsibility that Army has entrusted to them.

The Army, as an institution, has had mottos and mission statements longer than most American businesses, and has a culture where everyone must live by them. Some of the most successful corporations have copied the military’s strengths&ndash and some of its imperfections. According to two online employment sites, GIJobs and CollegeGrad, 24 of the Top 50 Military Friendly Employers in 2007 also hired 100 or more college graduates for their entry-level positions. It is safe to say that these companies use the same values to develop and retain their entry-level and military transitional hires.

Which brings me to the next question: can those without the military orientation become as successful in these firms as those who have served with honor? The answer, according to Alex Frankel’s Punching In, is sometimes, if you can get along to go along.

Values, missions, attention to detail and duty are part of the dialogue in Punching In, another work where an outsider looks inside, and serves on the front lines of indoctrination into corporate culture.

Frankel worked in entry-level customer service positions at United Parcel Service (UPS), Enterprise Rent-A-Car, The Gap, Starbucks and The Apple Store, took online aptitude tests with two retailers: Best Buy and Home Depot and went through the lengthy interview processes at The Container Store and Whole Foods.

Like the Army, these corporations try to engage and turn their workers into fanatical and loyal employees. Interestingly enough, he refers to front-line workers as the Brand Army of these firms and called UPS the Other Army, because of the company’s esprit de coir and the spit and polish appearance of the front-line workers. Both the Army and UPS do not accept alteration, recreational display or desecration of their uniform.

Frankel respected UPS more than the other organizations, because their workers, especially the drivers, were the most trusted. He adds that this is necessary because UPS workers are all in the field. They can track their locations, but any problems must be solved on route. Each driver and their helper is like a platoon of soldiers; they must follow orders, but they have some lee way in how to execute them.

Frankel did not say the same about the other organizations. For example, he praised Enterprise’s efforts to motivate workers to believe that they can advance from desk clerks to regional managers &ndash though he adds that further advancement is less possible. The company hires approximately 8,000 entry-level employees, although the rest of the work force is no larger.

Frankel shows how Starbucks has become a “third place,” a neighborhood-meeting place away from home and work, but believes this will be a difficult strategy to maintain because of the standardized appearance of the thousands of stores and employees. He considers Apple Stores to be an excellent setting for those who are already fans of the technology; they need little indoctrination and training as well. And he shows The Gap to be little different from other retailers who are loathed by retail workers, a company bent on standards and policies that put store design first, product second, credit card sales third and the employees last.

Like the Army, these organizations have a uniform, policies and shared values, but unlike the Army, they can hire and fire at will. It was interesting that Frankel conveyed the most respect for the organization that was the most like the Army.

Given UPS’ success &ndash the company maintains 80 percent market share against several large competitors, including the U.S. Postal Services &ndash that’s quite a complement for our troops and the men and women who lead them.

Who Are You Calling A Moron?

January 26, 2009 - 10:22 am

Keep in mind there may be a good A recent chat with a friend reminded me of a copywriting lesson I learned long ago in a place far-far way (Philly): Never insult your audience. Easier said than done? Maybe. But we know there’s a fine line between insulting your audience and completely alienating them. Thank God there’s a solution:

Give your copy the “moron” test. I learned this during my days at a large business-to-business newsletter publishing company. We’d give our headlines a test to see if we could put an insulting name at the end of them - in turn killing off the headline.

Here’s an example:

Have You Complied with HR 1091?

Try adding “moron” to the end of that question. Flows pretty nicely doesn’t it? It’s almost like you’re a school teacher with a ruler standing over the reader.

You can change it to:

HR 1091 Requires Compliance by Jan. 1

Using this fact-based approach lets the reader ask his or her own compliance questions. Give the information or the germ of an idea and allow the reader to follow up on his or her own. We want to inspire thought and then subtly direct action.

Though I gave a headline as an example, you can apply the “moron” test to any part of your copy, especially the questions.

What’s the difference between an insult and a gentle nudge in your product or service’s direction? I’ve seen a few campaigns (via e-mail) where it’s obvious the goal is to shame the reader into action. An e-mail I recently received from expert e-mail marketer Stephen Pierce of the Whole Truth read, “Have you done this yet?”

Moron could easily be added to the end of that question. And though he didn’t want to insult, he did want to get the reader’s attention - and that’s just what he did. The well-written letter that accompanied that subject line was a gem - no doubt winning Stephen tons of sign-ups for his teleseminar.

The Bottom Line

With the prevalence of books from the “For Dummies” series you’ll have to weigh whether your audience has no qualms about being called a moron (or a dummy as the case may be). So measure your audience’s reaction to different tones of voice and approaches. Use these steps to create a test group of subscribers to try out your more creative e-mail newsletters and campaigns:

1. Randomly gather 15 to 20 names from your list and only send them your more alternative campaigns while sending the rest of your list more traditional information.

2. Ask you test group for feedback on the campaigns.

3. Monitor the group’s actions. Do they unsubscribe, click through or just open your e-mails?

4. Integrate some of your more successful ideas into the traditional information you give the rest of your list.

This way you have a relatively safe place to test out your tones of voice. With this technique you can find out whether your list loves - or hates - the whole moron/dummy approach to marketing.

How Can A Website Help Your Business?

January 24, 2009 - 9:10 pm

Maybe you are looking around for new ways to advertise your work, whether it’s a book, freelance writing, new software program, or possibly crafts, a website may be just what you need. A website can get the word out about your product. You can use it to write a simple Blog about you and your product or a full article about how you can help someone else.

There are many ways to set up your website from simple WYSIWYG, to more advanced HTML graphics, however what way you decide you will find the right one for you. The basic WYSIWYG is the easiest to use and have many basic templates preset for you to use. These templates are designed to get the most space per page without slowing the loading process down. You will find different colors and layouts, where you can have photos on different parts of the page and the writing from above, to below, or even on both sides of the picture. The pictures themselves can range from ones included in the templates, to your own personal pictures, so be creative and have fun designing that special web page hassle free.

The more advanced web site builders use different styles and products, one being the HTML page. HTML can be extremely hard unless you have had previous experience or courses. However, our friends at Microsoft have come up with Open Office Document. In this program accompanying the Microsoft Word, Works, and Suites you will find a simple and elegant way to build your web pages off line. There are a multitude of templates, backgrounds, designs and more. Another great aspect is that you can set you pages up completely off line linking them together, so when the time comes to publish your web pages you are only a few clicks away.

There are several other programs available and most websites will have some kind of page builder included. No matter which way you decide to go you will find an exciting way to get your news out to the Internet world.

Writing Contests: Building Writing Credentials

January 23, 2009 - 5:22 pm

One of the ways many writers can successfully add credentials to their portfolio if to participate in a variety of literary contests. This type of contest encourages writers to put their best foot forward in both creativity and attention to detail.

It is true that there are some contests that provide a cash award for their top finishers, but there are also publishing scams that will accept your work regardless of quality. When you receive notice that your work has been accepted for publication it can be a real boost, however, a quick look at many writer’s websites can help you define the contests that are essentially vanity publishers willing to print just about anything if they believe you will purchase copies of the book for friends and family.

Many cash award writing contests cover the cost of prize awards by charging an entry fee. This factor often discourages many writers who may not feel confident enough in their writing to pay a fee to submit. This allows those who do enter a better chance at placing.

There are also writing contests that present the opportunity to have their work published online, in a magazine or in an anthology. As a rule this type of contest does not require a purchase of the publication the work will appear in nor will they assume full rights of your work. The best writing contests only require a one time non-exclusive print right. This is important because it allows you the opportunity to sell or place the work in other venues.

Beware of forfeiting full (exclusive) rights in any writing contest. When this right is given the ownership of the work is no longer yours. You will have no right to use the material in any form without permission from the publisher. It is possible to pay to enter a contest, forfeit the rights to your work and allow a publisher to gain long-term financial benefit from your work.

Quality writing contests have the bonus feature of allowing you to fine tune your skills by reading the work of others. Reading can make a good writer even better. If you pay attention you can learn what works and what doesn’t while using writing contests as a means of gaining valuable insight into unique styles and structure.

On a positive note, there have been numerous incidents in which individuals who entered a submission for a writing contest were able to use that same work for publishing in other book anthologies and magazines. The key is making sure to participate in writing contests that preserve your right to control the reuse of the piece.

Writing Memorable Poetry Verses

January 23, 2009 - 2:55 pm

There are many occasions in life that spur people into writing memorable poetry verses. Some of these verses might come when we fall in love for the first time or they may come when we are exposed to a memorable experience that touches our heart in one way or another. Writing memorable poetry verses will only require a conscious effort since there is no true form to use to express the writing of poetry.

Some of our earliest recollections about writing memorable poetry verses might come from grade school. The time tested exposure to red roses and violets will lead us to create several sentences that tell some other people why we love them so much. Perhaps they already know that sugar is sweet, but they may not have any clue that someone loves them and to hear that verse is a memorable experience.

Other people begin writing memorable poetry verses after they have buried a best friend. The older tombstones at the cemetery might have verses of poetry on them that convey the true spirit of a person that might have lived 100 years ago. Some people are so enchanted by the verses that they read on some of the tombstones that they begin writing memorable poetry verses that can be used on greeting cards.

Many poets will begin writing memorable poetry verses to convey a message. These messages might be long and drawn out and by the time the verses are completed the words have developed into a play. Shakespeare wrote Romeo and Juliet in Acts that turned the verses of poetry into real life conjectures that conveyed how seriously people take falling in love.

When writing memorable poetry verses, poets should consider the power of the written words and realize that some people are willing to commit suicide from the emotion that comes from reading the words put to paper. People choose to compare their lives and their relationships to Romeo and Juliet and end up making the wrong choices in how to deal with their disparity. The poet is not at fault for how others perceive the end product of the he spent writing memorable poetry verses that anyone could find solace or pleasure reading.

Love is a powerful emotion that can enrich lives and form commitments that may last a lifetime. Many marriage ceremonies include poetry that the Bride and Groom speak to each other. They are writing memorable poetry verses that convey words of commitment and fidelity but are more personable because they are spoken when they are standing in front of a congregation of family and friends.

Copy Editing

January 23, 2009 - 2:28 pm

Copy editing is a most important and time-consuming task for those involved in the field. It requires the sensitive editorial handling of print material of every kind. And it requires the editor’s close attention to a document’s every detail, its format, and all of its elements; a thorough knowledge of what to look for and of the style to be followed as desired by the author or client; and the ability to make quick, logical, objective, justifiable, and defensible decisions in the correction of spelling, grammar, punctuation, terminology, sentence structure, clarity, conciseness, tone and voice, inconsistencies, and typographical errors. Valued editors are those who know editorial and factual things that others don’t know and who offer keen understanding of an author’s need to advance communication.

To begin with, copy editors are thoroughly familiar with and comfortable applying the universally accepted editorial and typographic marks and symbols&ndashas described in the Chicago Manual of Style and summarized under proofreader’s marks in Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, 11th edition&ndashthat are commonly understood by compositors working in English.

The editorial function comprises two processes: mechanical editing and substantive editing. Mechanical editing involves a close reading, with an eye on consistency of capitalization, spelling, and hyphenation and other end-of-line word breaks; agreement between verbs and subjects; scores of other matters of syntax; punctuation; beginning and ending quotation marks and parentheses; number of ellipsis points; numbers given either as figures or as words; and hundreds of other, similar details of grammatical, editorial, and typographic style.

In addition to regularizing those details of style, the copy editor is expected to catch infelicities of expression that mar an author’s prose and impede communication. Such matters include but are by no means limited to dangling participles, misplaced modifiers, mixed metaphors, unclear antecedents, unintentional redundancies, faulty attempts at parallel construction, mistaken junction, overuse of an author’s pet word or phrase, unintentional repetition of words, race or gender or geographic bias, and hyphenating in the predicate, unless, of course, the hyphenated term is an entry in the dictionary and therefore permanently hyphenated in every grammatical case. Job seekers, especially, need to attend to such details in their executive r

How To Write A Better Press Release

January 23, 2009 - 9:20 am

A press release is the most effective way to generate free publicity for your business or organization. A well-written press releases can generate mountains of coverage, and most of the time, that coverage will be more in-depth than any ad. Writing press releases are tricky; since they’re targeted mostly to journalists, the focus, style and tone is different from the typical business document. The following tips will help you craft a clear, creative press release.

THE BASICS

Like any news story or announcement, a press release must be “spun” — that is, it must have a particular angle interesting to journalists and, subsequently, to readers. Sure, the opening of a new office might mean big things for your company, but it’s of little interest to the rest of the community if you don’t tell them why they should care. Consider the following elements of a good press release and incorporate them into your work:

RELEVANCE: This is the most basic concern you need to address; how is your news relevant to the publication’s demographic? Are you providing jobs or new services? Is a prominent community figure involved? Does it relate somehow to a recent hot topic? Always know your release’s relevance before writing.

TIMELINESS: A journalist will rarely pay attention to a release if it isn’t timely. Does your release relate specifically to a holiday or event? Did it happen recently or will it happen soon?

DISTINCTIVENESS: What makes your news unique? Is it something interesting, or different, enough that people outside your company or organization would want to read about it? Would you?

LACK OF COMPETITION: Think carefully about other news or events taking place at the time of your release. Are you competing with holiday news when your release isn’t at all holiday related? Will publications have bigger stories with which to concern themselves? If so, hold off on releasing your story until there’s a bigger gap in the news cycle.

THE FORMAT

How you write your press release is equally as important as the information you choose (or choose not) to include. Follow these steps when writing your press release, and keep them in mind as you create a personal template for future releases.

RELEASE DATE: This should be the first thing under your letterhead. Include the exact date if the material is restricted to a specific time, or use the words FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE if time isn’t a factor.

HEADLINE: A strong headline will draw attention to your release, much like a strong headline draws attention to any news story. This should be one line only, in all caps and indicative of your release’s exact point.

LEAD PARAGRAPH: In three sentences or less, immediately summarize your story. This paragraph is often called a “nut graf” in the newspaper business — it tells the story in a nutshell.

BODY PARAGRAPH(S): The remaining paragraphs elaborate on your story and often include quotes from prominent people within the company or in your community. Keep the writing short and snappy, using familiar words and eliminating any clich