A good useful article on PR

Oriented mostly to writers and publishers, the tips really apply to all small biz entrepreneurs.

http://www.jeffvandermeer.com/2009/05/12/booklife-excerpt-general-tips-on-pr/

- Your sincerity and honesty make a huge difference. Try not to actlike a telemarketer or a walking info-mercial. If you can have funpromoting your book or other creative project, all the better, becausethat means readers will probably have fun as well.

- The quality of your creative project must be high to gainleverage. A high-quality creative project could be anything from anesoteric experimental science fiction novel to a heartbreakingly tragicliterary novella posted on a website, a book of poems about yourneighbor’s talking chicken or a techno-thriller about zombies. Thegenre is irrelevant. All that matters is creating a great book. If youdon’t create a great book, most of the advice in Booklife won’t help you.
- The form of the creative project affects your ability to promoteit. Currently, it is still easier to get leverage for a “book” that hasa physical presence in the world. An electronic version of the bookprovides opportunities for leverage as well, but despite all of theways in which the physical book has been put into competition withother forms of itself, it is still, as of this writing at least, theanchor and the goal sought by writers and given the most respect by thehighest number of gatekeepers. Also remember that although I amdefining “book” generally as a creative project, it will always beharder to create ongoing or “permanent” leverage for a short story oran article (and yet simpler because of the limited options) than forthe bulwark that is a novel or story collection or nonfiction book.
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- Make sure to create quality, professional-looking materials for yourPR effort. You would be better off not creating that website banner adif it isn’t up to professional standards. Similarly, you will doyourself more damage putting out a boring YouTube book trailer that’sfour minutes too long than if you did no trailer at all.
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