Ask a Literary Publicist Vol.1 Press Releases and Tragedy

Ask a Literary Publicist Vol.1 Press Releases and Tragedy Ask an Award-Winning Literary Publicist #1: Press Releases and Tragedy Sandra Goroff is a veteran award-winning literary publicist with Reedsy. Over her illustrious  30-year (and counting) career, she has worked in-house at Houghton Mifflin and represented authors the likes of Clive Cussler, Maurice Sendak, Chris Van Allsburg, Hollywood legend Kirk Douglas, and former president Jimmy Carter.In this, her first guest post, Sandy will answer questions submitted by authors, shining some light on how to best approach publicity as an author.'Pressing' concernsR. Read asks, â€Å"Can self-published authors hope to submit press releases to news outlets?†The answer is an absolute and resounding YES! Self-published authors can always submit press releases to news outlets - in fact, they should.Anyone can submit a release about their book (self-published or otherwise) to various print and broadcast media. The key is to make it worth the time and effort by creating an effective release and making sure it gets to the right contacts. 'Ask an award-winning literary publicist' - @ReedsyHQ's new column answers your publicity Qs Research your contacts firstFirst of all, you will need the names and email addresses of newspaper reporters, editors, and television bookers and producers. The old-fashioned way to find these (which still works) is to ever-so-politely call the assignment desk and simply ask. No explanations needed. You don’t even need to introduce yourself or say why you are calling unless asked. In fact, the less you say the better.Is there anything you’d like to ask Sandy about book publicity? Drop your question at this link and it might feature in our next column.