There are dozens of different companies that you can use to distribute your press releases. Some are free; some have different prices for different service packages, typically between $100 and $1,000. You can spend even more, but it should not be necessary.
In the past. I've used PR Newswire to distribute news releases and have been quite pleased with the results.
For April Fools' Day in 2008, I launched a 90%-false press release as a joke and an experiment. It had nothing to do with publishing.
Within a few hours, it was picked up and published by websites around the world. Many news writers added original material to demonstrate their extensive knowledge of the bogus subject. Some made silly mistakes that showed that they did not even read what was in front of them. Only one called me to verify the story and I told him that the news was a spoof.
A retraction was distributed after a little while, but some news writers refused to believe the retraction, and even gave me additional coverage.
Even many months after the circulation of the non-news and the retraction, Google shows about 500 links to the story -- some translated into foreign languages.
Apparently I write very convincing press releases. Unfortunately, my too-successful experiment got me banned from PR Newswire. I made Public Relations history!
In 2009, as a new self-publisher, I needed to publicize my books. Since I could not use PR Newswire (which I had regarded as number one in the field), I decided to use PR Web. I'd used their services in the past for less-important news when I wanted to save some money.
Both companies offer various packages with different prices, based on distribution and the included photos, audio, or video. PR Newswire can even display giant photos in Times Square in Manhattan. The prices at PR Web range from $80 to $360. At PR Newswire, you can spend from $680 to several thousand bucks. If you are interested only in state or regional coverage, you can pay less.
I chose the top-level $360 package from PR Web and was amazed at the performance. Within an hour of the distribution, Google showed many news websites picking up the story about I Only Flunk My Brightest Students: stories from school and real life.
After a week, there were about TEN THOUSAND links in media all over the world. Some of the links were on my own websites or on the sites of stores selling my book, but the vast majority were the results of my $360 payment to PR Web.
I recently saw a really silly press release about Lisa Genova, who wrote Still Alice. It says, "Lisa gives this advice for everyone who has already self-published their book: Get a website. Network online. Write your own press release and post it free at www.pr.com." Strangely, this release was not sent out by Lisa using PR.com as she advises other writers to do, but by a competitor, SanePR, working for vanity press Xlibris.
If Lisa used Xlibris, she is NOT a self-publisher, even though the headline says she "advocates self-publishing."
Also strangely, the online PR release carries Google-provided ads for other PR distribution companies that compete with both SanePR and PR.com. It also has ads for people with bad credit.
The release concludes with this bit of idiocy: "Why not get started on that book now? What is your book's name?"
That's unprofessional, and unabashed advertising for Xlibris that would instantly turn off any news writer who saw it. The environment did not help the author. When you pay nothing for a press release, you get what you pay for.
Vanity publisher Outskirts Press frequently sends out press releases promoting their author-customers, and tooting their own horn.
Rather than spend money with first-class news distribution services like PR Web, PR Newswire or Business Wire, Outskirts instead does it the cheap way, with no-cost news services like PR Log, PR.com, Newswire Today and Free-Press-Release.com.
The freebie services generally get little attention from media. When I checked, I saw that a release for an Outskirts book, Eternal Life, was not picked up by EVEN ONE website.
The services that Outskirts uses often present ADVERTISING FOR COMPETITORS of Outskirts -- on the same web page! Was Outskirts too lazy to check, too blind to see, or too stupid to care?
Michael N. Marcus
