New Courses on Book Proposals, Blogging, and Press Releases
If you’d like to brush up your skills or learn something new about writing a book proposal, business blogging, or crafting press releases, come take a course with me this summer. I’m teaching three non-credit courses on these topics, all offered through the...
Time Travel Through Tweets?
Those 140-character messages so many of us send out on Twitter aren’t as ephemeral as we might have thought – in fact, they’ll be saved for posterity and will become a tool for research and the kind of time travel historians do. This week, the Library of Congress...
Authors of Non-Fiction Books Must Build a Sturdy Platform
Thinking of trying to land a non-fiction book contract with a publishing house? Here’s food for thought from an interview with New York literary agent Harvey Klinger (www.harveyklinger.com), featured on mediabistro.com’s GalleyCat for March 31, 2010: “I realize that...
Kind Words
Hi, Neighbor! Pull out your cardigan sweater and be neighborly tomorrow, because March 20 is “Won’t You Be My Neighbor?” Day. The creation of Family Communications Inc. in Pittsburgh, PA (www.fci.org/neighbor), this annual event celebrates the late Fred Rogers (known...
Repurpose Existing Content to Be a Better Blogger
I recently attended a workshop on using social media, and noticed a theme that ran through attendees’ comments: Provided we can find or make the time to blog, tweet, post status updates, and comment on other people’s blogs, how on earth do we generate enough content...
Is Your Press Release A Sinner, Not a Winner?
In his intro to today’s (02/04/10) Reporter Connection email, Steve Harrison made a point about press releases that I thought was worth sharing with you. (Reporter Connection, by the way, is a free media leads service you should subscribe to if you want to know who’s...
Media Gatekeepers are Looking Online for Sources – Will They Find You There?
The media’s process of looking for experts and sources has changed dramatically, over a relatively short period of time. Pre-Internet, when I first started working as a journalist, we all depended on battered Rolodexes stuffed with business cards from trade shows,...
Getting Publicity and Introducing Yourself – Two Presentations in January
Even in the middle of the pre-holiday whirl of project wrap-up and gift wrapping, I’m looking ahead to the new year. Here’s a quick heads-up on two speaking engagements coming up in the first half of January 2010: A workshop I’m co-presenting at the Enterprise Center...
NaNoWriMo 2009 – Mission Accomplished!
Whew! Last night I finished writing a 50,000-word draft of a novel as part of National Novel Writing Month (which ends tonight at midnight). See www.nanowrimo.org for more about this challenging event. This is the third year in a row I’ve participated and “won” by...
Marketing and Publicity on a Tight Budget
If you need to rev up your company’s marketing and publicity efforts but face the constraints of a tight budget, come to a breakfast seminar I’m speaking at next Tuesday, November 17th, to pick up some practical, budget-wise tips for marketing smarter and getting...