5 Book Cover Tips for Indie Writers


These days writers--both fiction and non-fiction authors--have so much control over  their books. You can publish your own work yourself, do the layout yourself, and even have creative say over your book covers. The problem is, if you are not a designer, total control can be very challenging and potentially devastating to your career. The reality is readers do judge a book by its cover...so make yours fabulous. Below are a few great tips from one of my favorite designers, Read more

Best selling Novelist Inspires Kansas City Talent


Special Thanks for inspiring the community! USA TODAY Bestselling novelist Rebecca Forster  shared insider secrets on how to start following your professional dreams. This paperback writer is a Queen of Kindle Legal thrillers. She is on the list of Movers and Shakers for Amazon because her thrillers have held 6 spots in the Top 20 Kindle legal thrillers simultaneously - including #1 and #2. "It's been an amazing two years," Forster says. "I have traditionally published with major New Read more

Interview with Leslie Daniels


I started reading Cleaning Nabokov’s House by Leslie Daniels in chunks of spare time across a couple of very busy weeks. The book was so engaging that I found myself not only carrying it around to sneak a few pages here and there but also recapping certain amusing moments by phone to a friend who is going through a divorce—kind of a ‘you gotta hear this’ kind of thing. The novel really is that kind of Read more

New Biz Book!


  Six Hats by Robin Blakely When you work for yourself as a writer, consultant, or any kind of small biz talent, you have to wear a lot of Hats to keep your career afloat. This ultimate field guide for the one-person business delivers powerful strategies to overcome your hat-juggling challenges. Finally, creative thinkers can embrace business development goals in a comfortable way that makes success easier to achieve. Six Hats - The Inside Out Strategy for Read more

The Truth About Better Mousetraps


Attention: Entrepreneurs and, yeah, Writers, too. This is a big idea about target markets and what you do. It starts with the old adage about creating something that makes people want what you have.  It goes like this: Build a better mousetrap and the world will beat a path to your door. Okay, so you've finally built the proverbial better mousetrap. Maybe it's a book...or a cool product...or a wonderful array of services. Anyway, lately, you've been telling yourself: "I’m ready and Read more

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PR Therapy for Experts

Web Necessity: The Media Room

Posted on January 21, 2011 by Robin Blakely in PR Therapy for Experts, PR Therapy for Writers | Leave a comment
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Cool press kits used to be expensive to design, and they required lots of effort to duplicate, assemble, and distribute. Today, all that’s changed. Your press materials, high resolution photos, and graphic images can be downloadable and available in an instant if you build a Media Room on your website and furnish it properly.

Here’s an excerpt from my book PR THERAPY.

So, what belongs in your website’s Media Room?

Your core communication tools. This is the place where you formally spell out who you are and what you do. Visitors to your website’s Media Room will include radio producers, TV producers, reporters, bloggers, and event coordinators.

Your website’s Media Room is the Internet home where you store your press kit and your portfolio—the digital versions in downloadable PDF files. You want to make it easy for visitors to download and print your information in a way that meets your vision of quality…that is, you’d rather package your bio in a gorgeous one-page format that’s easy to print, rather than direct people to cut and paste bits and pieces of info that’s listed across your website.  Always offer up your foundational information in the most succinct and functional ways possible.

Here’s the checklist:

Personal Contact Info. List your contact information prominently. Make sure a visitor can visit your site and easily cut and paste needed contact details that should include your name, business mailing address, and business phone number.

PDF Reader.  Consider making it easy for visitors to access your PDFs by adding a link to a free PDF reader in case they don’t have the software installed on their own computers. You can use the “Adobe PDF” icon and “Get Adobe Reader” logos on your website…the directional icons for your website and the actual software to read PDFs are free.

Bio/profile. List this communication tool prominently in a printer-ready PDF format.

Backgrounders, fact sheets. Be sure each separate sheet is clearly labeled and available in individual printer-ready PDF formats.

Publicity photos, product photos. You need to have high resolution and low resolution images available on your website for downloading. Be sure each image is clearly labeled. Provide multiple resolution versions of the same image. NOTE: 72 DPI is the lower resolution preferred by online publications and websites, and 300 DPI is a higher resolution usually required by commercial print publications. Typically, it helps if the image size is at least a 5 inch x 7inch image for either DPI resolution.

Press Releases. Place press releases in chronological order with the most recent at the top. Use individual printer-ready PDF formats.

Awards, reviews, endorsements, accolades. These details need to be embedded in your website content so that your credentials are highly visible. But, even though the info is available, don’t forget to compile a list of praise in an individual printer-ready PDF format.  Remember, you want to make it easy for people to have the info they need about you…package it and make it easy for them.

Videos. If you have videos, make them accessible. Post clips of press conferences, product demonstrations, presentations, and more.  Short clips are better.  A reel of your clips, professionally edited? Fabulous.  Tell them what they will see and make it interesting. 

Media coverage. Keep your media coverage alive. Include links to TV appearances, radio appearances, as well as magazine or web articles.

Your Portfolio.  A visual collection that highlights your work? Yes!  Share the highlights of what you do so that others clearly understand the level at which you’re really working.

Once you have a Media Room, what else should you do? 

Use it. 

Moving On When You Outgrow Where You Are

Posted on November 17, 2009 by Robin Blakely in PR Therapy for Experts | Leave a comment
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One thing you can count on from a good PR journey is growth.  Sometimes, as you grow and change, your own environment will no longer be appropriate for who you are and who you are becoming.

At first, you may not grasp exactly what’s transpiring.  So, know this…If you are in the wrong environment, it is common to feel crazy, stupid, or worthless–maybe all three! You may waste a lot of energy and time exploring whether the crazy, stupid, and worthless labels are accurate or not. Don’t bother; the solution to the problem does not lie there.

Stop questioning how you feel. Accept your feelings, and change your focus to the wrong environment part of that scenario.  When you are in the wrong environment, you feel wrong when you don’t fit in. Not because you’re wrong…because the environment is wrong…for you. 

Sometimes your environment does not fit who you are. 
It can feel as if you unwittingly contributed a box full of rocks to the neighborhood rummage sale.  If you put those rocks out on the sidewalk right where you are, chances are the neighbors will talk. Rocks in a box just aren’t garage sale material.

What can you do? Carry that same bunch of rocks over to the Rock Show and it’s a whole different scenario–rock hounds will wildly appreciate what you’ve got. 

Your talents and skills are a lot like those rocks. The right environment for who you are or who you are becoming matters. When it’s time, you can move on, and sometimes you must move on before you wanted or ever planned on moving on. 

So, if you’re outgrowing your environment, remember this: Rock On. 

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