In Today’s Journal
* Quote of the Day
* Write Your Book’s News Release Upside Down
* Of Interest
* The Numbers
Quote of the Day
“I never saw a wild thing sorry for itself. A small bird will drop frozen dead from a bough without ever having felt sorry for itself.” DH Lawrence
Write Your Book’s News Release Upside Down
This is yet another guest post by the particularly lovely but sometimes cranky Dan Baldwin (grin)
The fastest and most effective format
for releasing news about your book, your award, your public appearance, yourself, or whatever is by writing a news release in the inverted pyramid style.
The inverted pyramid style of structuring a news release was invented in the 1800s. Time restrictions (telegraph and daily production deadlines, for example) required reporters to get to the heart of any story fast and then provide secondary and backup material to round out the story.
If the story being filed was cut by a downed telegraph line, the editor or rewrite guy would still have the most important elements of the story in hand.
Visualize an upside-down pyramid. The most important element is presented first. That’s the base, which is placed at the top. Each following step is decreasingly critical until the reporter reaches the tip of the pyramid—the smallest part at the bottom—which contains the least important fact.
How many times have you heard or said, “Get to the point, already!” That’s exactly what your reader wants.
An inverted pyramid has the advantages of being efficient for editors, who decide who and what gets in and how much of the story follows. They can edit easily from the bottom of the pyramid and still keep the more important information found at the top.
The style provides the information readers want most up front. The format works well for news organizations, podcasts, blogging, SEO creation, and digital marketing.
Avoid copying the style of writing that clutters internet news feed these days, releases that open with backstory elements, teases, personal anecdotes, cleverness that requires further reading to understand, personal opinions and so on.
As Detective Joe Friday on television’s Dragnet would say, stick to “just the facts, ma’am” in descending order of importance. The facts are the who, what, where, when, why, and how of your release.
Yes, social media is considerably looser about such things, but as an author you want to reach your audience (editors, readers, influencers) with something pertinent that grabs and holds their attention. This level of professionalism boosts your image (and prospects) with those who make the print or post decisions.
The release consists of three elements:
1. The lead states the most important fact in a way that hooks the reader. It’s okay to use a clever quote or observation to provide that hook so long as it’s followed immediately by the most pertinent fact.
Here are a few examples of my own leads:
- Movie mogul Samuel Goldwyn said, “A verbal contract isn’t worth the paper it’s printed on.” That bit of literary wisdom is born out in “How Find Me Lost Me: A Tale of Betrayal Told by the Psychic Who Didn’t See It Coming” by award-winning author Dan Baldwin.
- Dan Baldwin’s new political thriller, Sparky and the Twins, explores the possibility of Jack Ruby’s relationship with accused presidential assassin Lee Harvey Oswald and the “twin” who impersonates him prior to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.
- Did ancient astronauts visit ancient Native Americans? The Sky People and Our Ancestors by Dan Baldwin and George Sewell explores that neglected area of American history and answer with a definite “Yes!”
2. The body of the release conveys supporting information in descending order of importance. Here you can include raw data, statistics, evidence, quotes from the book or reviewers, and any other additional information.
Be aware of padding the body or of inserting puffery. Time flies in the newsroom, editorial department, or book review section and in the offices or basements of online producers. Wasting a reader’s time is a good way to have your release take a short flight to the wastebasket.
3. The tail rounds out the piece. You don’t want to just stop at the end. Construct a satisfactory closing. Whenever possible, I try to bookend the release with a word or phrase or sentence that refers back to the headline or the hook.
Enjoy yourself writing novels, short stories, scripts or poems in which you can express yourself in any way you want and probably get away with it. But when you want to promote a legitimate bit of news, make sure you’re upside down when you do.
Afterthought: I slug my releases with “News Release” instead of “Press Release” because a broadcast newsman once said to me, “I resent that. I don’t have a press; I’m in radio.” It’s a very small point, but I have taken his advice to heart. A little extra courtesy never hurts.
*
Thanks, Dan’l! Great words of wisdom.
That’s it for today. Talk with you again soon.
Of Interest
How to Get and Keep Amazon Reviews Without Getting Banned
“Immortal” Human Cells? Hey, SF writers: story ideas?
9 of the Most Mysterious Places on Earth
Cursive handwriting is making a comeback
The Numbers
The Journal………………….. 100
Writing of
Day 1…… XXXX words. To date………… XXXXX
Fiction for March……………………….…. XXXX
Fiction for 2026…………………………… XXXX
Nonfiction for March.………………….…. 2420
Nonfiction for 2026………………..……… 45720
2026 consumable words………………… 45720
2026 Novels to Date……………………… 0
2026 Novellas to Date…………………… 0
2026 Short Stories to Date……………… 0
Novels (since Oct 19, 2014)…………….. 123
Novellas (since Nov 1, 2015)…………… 10
Short stories (since Apr 15, 2014)……… 310
Short story collections……………………. 29