News Releases: Part 3 – How to Write Them

We’ve talked about what a news release is and what it isn’t as well as when to send a release.

Now it’s time to discuss how to write a news release.

There are so many excellent resources on writing press releases that I’m going to refer you to those resources rather than going into great detail on the process of writing a news release.

The only advice I’m going to give you is two items not generally included in press release writing articles:

• You can tag the news release with how the release can be used by journalists. I’ve never heard this advice from anyone but my news-release mentor, George McKenzie. He suggests (and includes in his The Instant Press Release Toolkit) a category in the upper left corner of the release: feature/human interest story, holiday tie-in, current topic tie-in, evergreen story about {subject}, … The journalist can have a story idea before even reading the release. If that person isn’t interested in the story angle, she may pass it on to someone in another department where it might be a better fit.
• End the release with a call to action. Schedule an interview, visit a Web site, find the book in your local bookstore, etc. Of course, this is not an advertisement: the call to action isn’t shop at my store or buy my book. The call to action is guiding the reader to more information.

For details on writing a press release, read the articles and try the templates below:
Build Buzz With This Book Launch Press Release Template by Jennifer Mattern at All Book Marketing
How to Write a Social Media Press Release by Muhammad Saleem at Copyblogger
Press Releases 2 by Helen Ginger at Straight from Hel
The Modern Day Press Release by Lisa Vella at Getting It Write for You
Writing Press Releases Part 1 by Angela at Pearl Writing Services
Writing Press Releases Part 2 – Formatting by Angela at Pearl Writing Services

In the next, and final, installment of the series, we’ll talk about news release distribution.

[tags]news release, press release[/tags]