WOW! Women On Writing Blog: writing at any age

Saturday, December 05, 2020

Fred and Jean

I like to make it obvious what my blog posts are about with my title. So, you won't be surprised to find out that in this post, I want to discuss press releases as a marketing tool for book authors. No, you haven't landed in a time machine and gone back to the past way of marketing books. I'm starting to become a believer in using the newspaper or ezines--and maybe even radio or TV!--to get the word out about books and authors, and here's why.

Editor-911 Books, my publishing company, has currently published one amazing author named Fred Olds. Fred is 91! Fred is a veteran of the U.S. Army. So when his daughter called The News-Gazette (Champaign-Urbana, IL newspaper) to let them know that they had a 91-year-old first-time published author living in their readership area, they were interested. Since it was close to Veteran's Day, they interviewed him, took photos of him and his books at his house, and put him on the front page of the paper.

And guess what? It sold books. It's one of the most effective marketing tools we've tried so far!

So then I got to thinking--maybe we should do some press releases because--This. Is. A. Story. There are not very many 91-year-old authors who are getting their children's books published for the first time in their lives. Plus, he is a dedicated husband--as the reporter wrote, "The father of four still stays busy, making daily trips to Tolono’s Arbor Rose nursing home to see his wife, Norma Jean, and focusing on his writing."

He doesn't want the publicity, and I haven't told him my marvelous idea yet, but I am planning to investigate how to get press releases out into the universe and use them as a marketing tool. I will think about the story of Fred and his books, just like I do when I write my own books or even blog posts.

Fred's books have been so well-received--the Read-Aloud Stories With Fred Vol. 1 has almost thirty 5-star reviews on Amazon.com, and so he wrote a volume 2. He's a hard worker, great storyteller, and just a fantastic person, and I want the world to know about him. So I'll fill you in on how this press release idea goes. If you know anything about sending out these "old-school" marketing tools, please tell us in the comments below! Share the knowledge. Help us out.

Just don't tell Fred... yet.

Margo L. Dill is a writer, publisher, editor, teacher, and writing coach, living in St. Louis, MO with her daughter and dog. To find out more, visit Margo's website here or her publishing website here.