Writers: The Truth About Advertising, Publicity, and PR

Many of us are trying to do business and don't know how to define these words. We read articles and think, this could have just as easily been about me! We wonder why the reporter picked that person instead. We wonder how someone got into magazines and onto radio shows. We attribute big successes with an expensive publicist. We are not sure what a publicist does but since the guy on Entourage has one, they must be a good thing. Some of use have publicist and secretly wonder why they can't get us on the Today Show or Good Morning America. We have written books and wonder why we are not on the Oprah book club/

Advertising is something you pay for. Most of the time you have to come up with the content or copy. You need to hire a copywriter or take some training. There is more to getting people's attention than a goofy picture. Advertising must be effective and have a call to action. You are asking the people to do something and they must be clear on what to do. Advertising has laws on what you can show and say. FCC rules in advertising will not apply to satellite radio, which is why Howard Stern is leaving regular radio. More and more people are choosing to keep out a lot of advertising by using pod casting and personalizing their media intake. Cell phone use to watch TV and communicate with people can make Generation X unreachable. Advertising is also so overbearing that people can tune it out if it does not directly speak to them.

Writers must promote their book, even if they are published by large publishers. They must create a campaign that is book effective and within budget. Publicity and PR stretch those advertising dollars.

Dr. Letitia S. Wright is the host of the Wright Place TV show at http://www.wrightplacetv.com. For a free audio interview about Publicity, subscribe to her ezine at info1080-89555@autocontactor.com