There is a powerful tool for book promotion that, as far as I can tell, most authors (and publishers) seem to have missed entirely.

This tool can get more people to book signings. It can sell more books. It can even help improve your blog’s position in Google.

And it is free.

Best of all it requires only one skill and it happens to be a skill all writers have – writing.

I’m talking of course about press releases; three to four hundred words on some upcoming news.

What really confuses me is that despite the manifest power of the press release, few if any authors or publishers seem to issue them. I should know, I’ve been looking for author related press releases for the last four months with very little success.

All you need to get started are your writing skills. Then the press release is ready to go out to bloggers, local press, and PR sites (the free ones are good for free links, which is surprisingly powerful).

You may need to start curating a list of email contacts for editors, journalists, bloggers, and so forth. Even so, the local press where your book event is taking place should be easy enough to find and there is a reasonable chance they may publish your release with little or no changes. All you have to do is write it for them.