Just now I received a "press release" of sorts from the author of an ebook. Ironically he's getting the buzz he wanted (me to post about him), but it's worth it so you can learn something like I just did.

Upon receiving this email, I instantly trashed it. Opening up a second email from someone in the PR game, and I thought she might appreciate knowing why I took that instant trashing action. As I wrote her an email, it made me think a bit more deeply about what was wrong about what he did and his approach.

The "self-PR'ed" author of the ebook just blasted out this 'press release' with zero personalization — which I usually receive so it at least appears the PR person has some awareness of my blog and its thrust. Not even a paragraph of introduction on why a blogger like me would have ANY interest in what he's offering which would've been trivial to do.

Here's the kicker:  If he had started off telling me a story about why he wrote this, maybe that he had a full-time job so couldn't afford to take the time to personalize the email (and say "sorry about that" or something to that effect), nor that he was in no position to retain a PR agency adept in social media to help him get the word out, I might've looked at this email and thought, "Hmmm….I'd like to help this guy out" and did a mention on my blog. He made a fundamental error in not finding some way to connect with me, and telling me his backstory on why he wrote it, what drove him to offer it, and so forth. (Note: and it goes without saying that the story better be true).

So it got trashed instead, until I decided to send her an email and then realized it would make a good post. The so-called press release is after the jump for your consideration.

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