Tips, Tricks & Tools for Free Publicity
Food writing isn’t the glamour job everybody thinks it is.
That’s why I love the practical tips from food writer Melissa Bradley Diskin on how food writers, restaurant reviewers, bloggers and hospitality reporters who write about food can make their jobs easier.
If you’re dying to write about food, either as a freelance food writer or a staff writer at a newspaper or magazine, make sure it’s for the right reasons—and know what you’re in for.
What’s a publisher to do when the content of a new book is so racy and offensive that newspapers and magazines won’t touch it?
Build the buzz online by spending only $10,000 to create three short, risque, sexist videos about the risque, sexist book. Then post them at sites such as YouTube and watch as word spreads to other popular social networking sites like MySpace.
That’s exactly what Harper Perennial is doing to promote the steamy book “The Average American Male,” a salacious tale of how men daydream about women.
The Wall Street Journal article about the promotion didn’t link to the videos, so I had to go over to YouTube and spend 10 minutes searching for them. If you don’t want to be offended, skip to the next paragraph. If you’re curious, take a look: What Guys Really Think About Saying I Love You, What Men Really Think (on Dates) and What Men Really Think (About Marriage).
The videos have become a web sensation, with more than 1 million verified views in the past two weeks. Since its March 13 publication date, the book has gone back to press three times, raising the total in print from from 20,000 to 30,000.
The campaign is a super example of how a company with a tiny advertising budget is able to reach huge audiences quickly and cheaply. The WSJ says the campaign is particularly significant for book publishers, which prefer to rely on word-of-mouth chatter to drive sales more than conventional advertising.
Thanks to self-publishing guru Dan Poynter whose excellent Your Publishing Poynters Newsletter included a one-line mention and a link to the WSJ article.
The promotion is just one more example of how the old rules of publicity—measuring success with a thick pile of newspaper clippings—just don’t apply anymore.
Felicia Coley of Rochester, New York writes:
“Over the holidays, I launched The Well-Heeled Society. It’s the first online gift registry that’s exclusively for single women.
“With us being the ‘it girls’ thanks to the backlash of The New York Times quoting the U.S. Census, which clumps 15 year-olds and up into our ‘eligible single status’, I have received local news coverage, one radio spot in California and some blog references.
“However, I have not been able to break into national media. Any advice from the Hounds would be appreciated.”
Her blog is here.
Here’s another tool for restaurant owners who receive bad restaurant reviews and want to fight back.
Start blogging, and review the reviewers.
That’s exactly what Roberto Donna, owner of Bebo Trattoria in Arlington, Va., is doing. He’s upset about the factual errors in a review his restaurant received in this month’s issue of Washingtonian magazine. So upset, in fact, that he’s starting a blog to critique local restaurant critics.
Roberto is rounding up his fellow chefs to participate in the blog, scheduled to debut next month. He’s even printing thousands of bumper stickers that say ”Don’t Believe the Washingtonian.” He’ll give them to his chef buddies and patrons.
The bumper stickers appear to be sour grapes. But I love the blog idea. In the past, restaurateurs have retaliated against newspapers and magazines that print bad reviews by doing dumb things like pulling their advertising, which can often do more harm than good.
But a blog offers restaurant owners a chance to take reviewers to task, explain their side of the story, and even post comments from patrons. I’m a former restaurant reviewer, by the way, and I offer 11 other tips for restaurant owners on how to respond to bad reviews.
Thanks to Bulldog Reporter’s Daily Dog ezine for tipping us off to this one.
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The Publicity Hound
