Dan Janal | Publicity and PR Leads Blog

Who wouldn’t want a celebrity to endorse your book?

In fact when new clients come to me and show me their books, I look for the endorsements to see how “expert” they really are! Many of them do have endorsements by great people like Mark Victor Hansen, Ken Blanchard, Steven Covey and the presidents of major companies.

Endorsements do make a difference! After all, who has heard of you? You need the credibility of leading authorities!

One of my new PR LEADS clients runs a terrific business that can put you in touch with just about any celebrity! In fact, it is endorsed by my good friends, Dan Poynter the godfather of self publishing; Steve Harrison of Radio TV Interview Report; John Kremer the expert on book marketing, and many other leading PR people, so I know it is real!

The service is called ContactAnyCelebrity and I strongly suggest you try it out when you need to get endorsements for your books or products. In case you are running a charity auction, you can even use this service to try and get autographed items for your fund raisers. Lots more uses too. What a brilliant idea! Congratulations to Jordan McAuley for creating this wonderful service.

I interviewed Liz Kelly, author “Smart Man Hunting” on how she got celebrities like John Gray (author of “Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus) to endorse her book. The tactics she shares are the kinds of things that any of us can do! Click here to get the CD and hear how Liz got celebrity endorsements for her book.

Dan Janal
Your Fearless PR LEADER
PR LEADS Expert Resource Network
www.PRLEADS.com

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The end of summer means trips to the Minnesota State Fair, the beach and saying good bye to summer.

But it also serves as a reminder that the Christmas holiday season is right around the corner — at least in the eyes of magazine editors. For it is now that they are beginning to prepare their stories for November and December.

What should you do to get quoted in newspapers and magazines for the holiday articles?

First, of course is to find the angle that will interest your editors.

If you have a product to sell, make sure you have artwork available in digital form so you can send it to editors at a moment’s notice. Better yet, put the files on your website so they can grab them. Use every file size and format possible.

If you are a content speaker, think of how you can help people during the holidays. The list is endless:

1. Stress is a big thing, of course.
2. Family relationships
3. Dating
4. Gift giving
5. Blended religious families
6. Office etiquette and parties
7. Depression

I interviewed Bill Stoller, who is an expert on getting publicity for his clients in holiday articles. The best time to start is right now — late August and early September. For additional tips on how to get quoted, go here We’ve put together an information-packed CD with 60 minutes of tips and tactics that will help you uncover the secrets to getting quoted in the holiday articles.

Dan Janal
Your Fearless PR LEADER
PR LEADS Expert Resource Network
www.PRLEADS.com

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J. Mark Davis, Valitus Group, Inc., http://www.valitusgroup.com asks:

See this link for a quote of mine that was used in today’s edition of USA Today: http://www.usatoday.com/money/workplace/2006-08-21-salaries-usat_x.htm. I am still trying to figure out what makes sense in terms of reprints and website posting. The latter seems a bit steep – $1000 for posting the article on my website for one year. Does this sound typical? Thanks.

Hi Mark,

Many publications make serious money by selling reprint rights. You should also be aware of the copyright laws:
1. You cannot print the article in full on your site, nor can you print their logo, unless you have permission.
2. You can link to the article on the publication’s web site. You don’t have to ask permission.
3. You can use 2-3 sentences from the article without permission (i.e. USA TODAY calls Dan Janal “a true Internet marketing pioneer” which they in fact, did write.)

If the article can really help you build your business, then you might want to bite the bullet and pay the big bucks. Consider it advertising. I wouldn’t do this if there were a 2-line quote. I’d just say “I was quoted in USA TODAY on August 20, 2006.”

I’d also suggest you send the link to the article in an email tto everyone you know — present clients, former clients, prospects, everyone!

I interviewed PR legend Raleigh Pinsky on “Now That You’ve Gotten Publicity, What Do You Do” and created a CD from the talk. You can hear Raleigh’s tips and tactics that anyone can do when you listen to the CD. Raliegh, by the way, was the PR person for Sir Paul McCartney, back in the early years!

I hope this helps.

Send your questions about publicity and marketing to me at dan@prleads.com. I’ll try to answer as many as I can.

Dan Janal
Your Fearless PR LEADER
PR LEADS Expert Resource Network
www.PRLEADS.com

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