Rule #1: Never send a release without a news hook. You have 3.5 seconds to catch an editor’s attention or it’s Dead on Arrival.
Rule #2: Fewer words are stronger than many, especially in a headline. Over 25 words? Your release most likely will be DOA!
Rule #3 Use news for bait or media fish will swim right by . . . uncaught, unimpressed and you’ll be unpublished!
Rule #4 Wordy is dirty. Be clean, compact, TERSE! Or you might as well send your release in a HEARSE.
Rule #5 If you’re struggling and just can’t seem to make it newsworthy, don’t send. You’ll just show your skill is nil and your nose for news is clogged.
Rule #6 Be smart. Be topical. It’s easier to sail your news on a river that exists instead of trying to create a whole new wordy waterway.
Rule #7 Humor is a doomer if you’re not that funny.
Rule #8 Avoid clichés like “revolutionary,” “ground zero” and “defining moment” like the plague, including “like the plague.”
Rule #9 Please know the difference between affect and effect, compliment and complement, farther and further or you’ll be buried underground. And where else would you be buried?
Rule #10 Never, I mean NEVER, say “centers around.” That trite phrase should be put against Trump’s wall and shot. How could you center AROUND something? Impossible! Not even the President can do that. Fire!
TM