Using AI to Help Write a Press Release for Your Book
Here’s another way AI can help authors: crafting press releases. I just finished putting out a new press release, with some help from Perplexity.ai, and thought you might find it helpful to see how the process played out.
I’ve written before about the positive value of generative AI tools for things like outlining book topics and plots, brainstorming titles, email subject lines, and marketing hooks, and drafting author bios and book descriptions for back covers and Amazon pages. I’ve also warned about the dangers around AIs “hallucinating” to give you flat out false statements with bogus sourcing links and the various legal and ethical problems around copyright, plagiarism, and the ownership of work you create with AI assistance. See e.g. Publishing Trends and Changes that Indie Authors Need to Keep Up With (Trend #2), [TfTi] Who is the Author of a book these days?, and Taming the AI Beast: How to make ChatGPT serve, not enslave you.
Two things to note about the way I used AI and recommend to you:
First, the entire process I describe in some detail here took me only about an hour or so to get to my “final” draft, plus another half hour to an hour spread over three days to get it set in the PR platform. That second part is because we work with a platform, YESPress!, that includes a real human editor/advisor who helps us optimize the SEO value of our releases before they’re sent out.
Second, as with everything we do around here, we prefer quality over quantity. We have no interest in pumping out the AI’s first answer to a prompt that’s hastily written without full context, important details, and strategic direction. You’ll see that my own thinking evolved as I interacted with the AI.
Giving the AI the Backstory
My task here was to continue our marketing efforts for I Am Perfectly Flawsome: How Embracing Imperfection Makes Us Better. We put out a press release back in May, after our launch campaign for the ebook version took it to #1 on Amazon in multiple categories across four country marketplaces. I used Perplexity for a first draft of that one, with a simple prompt:
“Acting as a PR expert in the publishing industry, draft a press release touting the release of the new book, I Am Perfectly Flawsome: How Embracing Imperfection Makes Us Better, by Tom Collins, JD, and Michele Molitor, CPCC, CCHt. The book has hit #1 on Amazon.com in multiple categories in the US, UK, CA, and AU marketplaces.”
I also gave it a link to the editorial review we’d received from The US Review of Books.
I didn’t run any follow-up prompts to refine it and just rewrote it into the language we preferred, substituting quotes from our reader testimonials, actual editorial reviews, and myself for the “ad-speak” that the first draft contained.
It did save me time, even then, by providing the standard structure of a press release to work from.
Here’s one example of the coverage that resulted in May where that release was picked up by a TV station in Louisiana (please forgive that the examples I’m using sound like self-promotion; of course they do; we’re talking about how you can promote your books, too, right? — also, forgive the size of the images; I wanted to give you the full examples and make the text readable on most screens):
So my new prompt began with reminding Perplexity of the earlier attempt, which contained a good deal of basic information about the book.
Next Step: Talk to the AI Like a Pro
I added the new information about the release of the companion I Am Perfectly Flawsome Journal and the audiobook version, the ongoing rankings on Amazon, and some speaking engagements:
“It’s two months after the press release you drafted. We’ve just released the I Am Perfectly Flawsome Journal to help readers implement “the way of the flawsomist” in their lives and the new audiobook edition of the main book, I Am Perfectly Flawsome: How Embracing Imperfection Makes Us Better, by Tom Collins and Michele Molitor (narrated by Michele Molitor). The eBook edition has been on Amazon’s Best Seller pages for more than two months and gone back to #1 in the US and Canada with a Prime Day 2024 promotion. Molitor has been appearing on podcasts discussing flawsomism and will be presenting a keynote address at the UC Berkeley Women’s Initiative event on October 10, 2024.”
If you’re wondering about my phrasing that sounds like I’m talking to a human assistant, that’s intentional. I’ve found that it helps me organize and articulate what I want. And to me at least, the results I get back improved greatly after I adopted that style.
I got back a well-written and formatted draft. But one that fell flat, for me. For example, the AI suggestion for the headline was, “I Am Perfectly Flawsome Expands Its Reach with New Journal and Audiobook Editions.” Kind of a Joe Friday, “Just the facts, M’am” statement.
The rest was as set of subheadings with expanded writing on each of the facts I’d given in my prompt, but with nothing that sounded “newsworthy” to my ear.
Explain What Else You Want — and Why
This time, however, I wanted to justify — to any human journalists who might see it — why we were sending another release about the book. I next gave Perplexity the opportunity to suggest a “hook” with this prompt:
“With the new facts I listed and any you choose from the earlier release, note as well that the book has been nominated for the Eric Hoffer Award and lauded by reviewer Christina-Ioana Toader as follows: ‘I Am Perfectly Flawsome is a transformative read that challenges the relentless pursuit of perfection, which so often leads to stress and unhappiness. This book guides all readers toward cultivating a healthier, more productive approach to personal and professional challenges. … 5 out of 5 stars!’ Now, draft a new press release with a newsworthy headline (consider piggybacking on a relevant current events item, if you can find one that fits) and cover the growth of flawsomism as a social movement.”
One of the things I love about Perplexity is how it shows its work, listing the research steps it takes and the sources it finds with links to real content (yes, that’s a dig at ChatGPT’s famous willingness to make up facts and sources willy-nilly). In this case, Perplexity noted among its steps, “Identify a relevant current event that the press release can piggy-back on.”
It came back with a new draft with the following headline and lede paragraph:
“I Am Perfectly Flawsome Movement Gains Momentum as Mental Health Awareness Takes Center Stage
“As July marks BIPOC Mental Health Awareness Month, the groundbreaking book I Am Perfectly Flawsome: How Embracing Imperfection Makes Us Better, by Tom Collins and Michele Molitor, continues to make waves, challenging societal norms and promoting mental well-being through its revolutionary ‘Flawsomism’ philosophy.”
Now we were getting somewhere! But we had used a similar linkage to May’s general designation as Mental Health Awareness Month in the first release. I get that this might be a reason for Perplexity choosing it, but I wanted something a bit fresher and more exciting.
Another great feature of Perplexity is how it follows each of its answers with a set of five additional questions or topics it calls “Related” that you might want to explore. These appear to come from the research steps it takes and it’s a mystery to me why some of them weren’t incorporated into the draft. But I found several of them interesting enough to follow. So, before asking for a “fresher and more exciting” draft of the press release, I let it run with several of its suggested deeper dives:
- What feedback have readers shared about the book’s interactive design?
- What do readers think about the practical tips and strategies in the book?
- How do readers feel about the use of Japanese philosophy in the book?
- How do readers feel about the practical exercises rooted in Japanese philosophies?
After searching and finding both of the online editorial reviews and the dozens of customer reviews on Amazon, the AI came back with summaries of the reader feedback organized into useful lists. For example, to the second bullet question it pulled out these “key points”:
- Therapeutic Experience: Many readers describe the book as akin to a therapy session, filled with actionable advice that helps them navigate personal and professional challenges more effectively.
- Healthier Approach: The book guides readers towards cultivating a healthier, more productive approach to dealing with life’s demands by rejecting perfectionism and embracing their imperfections.
- Transformative Strategies: The practical strategies offered in the book are praised for transforming perceived flaws into opportunities for growth and success. This approach resonates deeply with readers who are looking to shift from self-criticism to self-acceptance.
- Interactive Design: The book’s layout, with wide margins for notes and reflections, enhances the reader’s engagement and allows them to interact deeply with the content, making it a dynamic tool for personal growth.
- Real-World Application: Readers appreciate the blend of psychological research, personal anecdotes, and expert interviews, which provide a solid foundation for the practical advice given. This combination helps readers understand the real-world implications of the strategies and how to apply them in their own lives.
Back to the Task: a Draft Press Release to Work With
While those kinds of positive feedback warm the heart of an author, they weren’t getting the press release written! So I pulled us back on track by nudging the AI to offer some alternative headlines and current events hooks with this prompt:
“While I love the headline and current events hook you came up with, now, with all these additional pieces you’ve generated, go back and analyzing current events again, come up with 10 more alternative headlines, using both the mental health awareness hook and any other good ones you can find. We’d love to hook it to a newsworthy topic, but maybe not as narrow as BIPOC. Include a 2-3 sentence summary of the points to be made in the revised release under each new headline.”
While it did offer a list of ten different headlines, it seemed stuck on the mental health angle. I was disappointed that it didn’t make the connection to the Paris Olympics starting this week and how Aly Raisman and Simone Biles are both noted as inspirations for the Flawsomism ideas. And we’ve mentioned that angle in my LinkedIn postings and on our blog, which Perplexity said it had searched.
So I prompted it directly:
“One other possible new hook is the Olympics, since one of the inspirations in the book is gymnast Aly Raisman and her quote, ‘I think imperfection is beauty.’ The book tells the story of her struggles to enjoy her two gold medals in 2012, while feeling bad about her bronze and ‘failing’ to medal in the All-Around after losing the tie-breaker for third place. It traces her evolution as ‘Grandm Aly’ to the team in 2016 and taking the silver to Simone Biles’ gold in the All-Around, with Biles pulling her onto the top podium to share their success. It also covers Biles’ own struggles, taking time off after the Tokyo games in 2021 and her triumphant comeback going into this year’s games. In addition, the book talks about both women’s leadership through the USA Gymnastics abuse scandal. Try again with those facts and draft 5 more headlines and hooks, with summaries of points to be made under each one.”
That got us closer. One of the new headlines read, “Olympic Legends Inspire ‘Flawsomism’ Movement in Bestselling Book.” From that one I prompted:
“Great! Now, using the headline in your bullet 2, blend these summaries about Raisman and Biles into the full draft press release without losing the overall flawsomism movement and mental health awareness angles and mention how the book discusses Biles’ bout of ‘the twisties’ in 2021 in relation to mental health self-care.”
And that one produced a draft I felt covered most of what I was looking for. After some more tweaking and a further round of edits prompted by our press release guru, Brian Gregory, of YESPress!, here’s the ultimate result, picked up by one of our local stations:
The bottom line for authors, AI can be your helpful research and writing assistant for drafting press releases. If you treat it like one.
The “conversation” I had with Perplexity may seem unnecessary to some. But I’m convinced that it would have taken me longer to get an equally comprehensive final product if I’d started without a “helper” and staring at a blank screen.
Just remember to make the final version your own.
Update: Apparently the AI Needs Us, Too
Shortly after I clicked publish on this post, the newsletter from the science journal Nature hit my inbox with the headline, “AI fed on a diet of AI-generated data spews nonsense” (my serendipity research method was a bit late this time).
Here’s the opening paragraph of the article on the Nature website:
“Training artificial intelligence models on AI-generated text quickly leads to the models churning out nonsense, a study has found. This cannibalistic phenomenon, termed model collapse, could halt the improvement of large language models as they run out of human-derived training data and as increasing amounts of AI-generated text pervade the Internet.”
Run out of human-derived training data, eh?
So you might think of your conversations with your favorite AI has brain food in the effort to protect them from AI‑Alzheimers or model collapse. And more immediately, as I said above, to improve the output of whatever you’re collaborating with it on today.
Leave a Reply