Free Publicity

I read, or really skimmed, 6 Steps to Free Publicity, by Marcia Yudkin. Promoting your art may seem horrible at first, but someone has to do it, and nobody knows or cares about your work like you do. (It actually gets better. I look at marketing as a business necessity now, not as a drag on my free time.) This book is geared toward all professions, and as an individual artist, I'm not sure I can employ the same strategies more than once a year at best. But I learned how to write a press release and I'm going to give it a try and hope one of the publications (I'm aiming for 6) will want to try and turn it into an article. It will in all likely hood end up in recycle bins, but it'll be good experience and then I'll have the contact lists and understanding on how press releases work, which will come in handy down the road. Top things I learned about press releases:

1. Correct format
2. Create a headline that has a news angle
3. Present basic facts for the angle of your headline in paragraph one. Answer 5 W's (who, what, where, when, why or how)
4. Gather or create lively quote that elaborates on the basic facts for paragraph two
5. Elaborate further on basic facts in paragraph three
6. End with the nitty-gritty details--where to find, etc.

 Here's a video that sums it up:



If you've had experience writing a press release that has been picked up as an article in a publication, I'd love to hear about it!