George Alfred Henty, 1832 – 1902, History Teacher?

By: Roger Childs

Henty was a writer best known for adventure stories that taught history to generations of impressionable British and American youngsters, along with all the benefits of manliness, honesty and self-reliance. Many biographies from readers of the time tell the same story of schoolroom classes, after the boys being told that they may read, echoing to the sound of desks being opened, noisily closed and every boy banging down a Henty volume onto his desk !

Henty wrote 122 books, contributed to 72 books and annuals, and 34 periodicals and newspapers. More contributions and stories continue to be discovered as researchers for The Henty Society continue investigations.

This ‘essay’ was prompted by the errors of judgment that well-meaning sellers of Henty books make with their internet listings. My main complaint being that these errors are always seen as fact by the reader, thereby compounding the problem.

A common mistake is that of sellers stating that dated American editions of Henty are the ‘true firsts’! Not so!?! Blackie & Son Limited was the prime publisher in the UK of Henty books. The majority of Blackie first editions were dated for the coming year so, for example, the Blackie first edition of Held Fast for England was published on 1st August 1891 with the title page showing 1892. The American first edition of Held fast for England published by Charles Scribner’s Sons showed a title page date of 1891. The Blackie edition, despite the post-dating, was the very first issue of this title. There was just one Henty title published in America before the UK. That was In the Hands of the Cave-Dwellers by Harper & Brothers of New York with a title page date of 1900. The UK edition from Blackie was issued on the 18th July 1902 and the title page was undated.

The very first authorised publisher of Henty in America was Scribner & Welford (S&W) of New York. The agreement was that Blackie printed the S&W titles and shipped them to New York. S&W then replaced the title page with their own and inserted their catalogue prior to issue. There were 32 titles issued by S&W between 1886 and 1890, some dated, but most not. An American collector of Henty researched these S&W editions and The Henty Society published a booklet of the results that is invaluable.

Another bone of contention is the number of unauthorised or ‘pirate’ editions of Henty from American publishers. The many unscrupulous publishers of the time included Burt, Donohue, Hurst, Lupton and Mershon, who was probably the most prolific. The Boy’s Dumas by John Cargill Thompson, published in 1975, lists 58 American publishers of Henty titles.

The problem with these ‘pirates’ is that they were usually very cheaply produced on poor quality paper and within bindings that reflected patriotic American themes that were nothing to do with the Henty story. Collectors have nothing against Americans, but the sight of an American cavalryman leading a charge of uniformed troopers with a Stars and Stripes on the cover of a book about the freeing of The Netherlands in 1585 is extremely annoying. But that was the problem with ‘pirate’ publishers who also didn’t pay a penny to the English author.

If any reader is interested in collecting G.A. Henty, the following publications may help:

Bibliography of G.A.Henty & Hentyana by R.S Kennedy & B.J.Farmer

1. privately published in c1955

G.A.Henty A Bibliography by Captain R.L.Dartt

1. published by Dar-Web Inc. and John Sherratt and Son Ltd in 1971

G.A.Henty 1832- 1902 A Bibliographical Study by Peter Newbolt

1. published by The Scolar Press in 1996

Each is useful and includes information that the others do not, but by far the best is the Newbolt book of 710 pages of solid detail. Included are pictures of over 330 of the editions on 74 plates. Unfortunately now out of print.

The Henty Society organised a ‘Gathering’ to remember the life of Henty on the one-hundredth anniversary of his death on his yacht in Weymouth Harbour, Dorset, England on 16th November 1902. The Gathering occurred over three days, with almost 70 attendees, was a great success and took place in an hotel overlooking Weymouth Harbour.

If any reader is interested in joining The Henty Society, the contact detail is:

Dr Bruce Lees, Hon. Secretary, The Henty Society, Hayfield, Bourne Fields, Twyford, Winchester, Hampshire SO21 1NY England

The Henty Society was formed in 1977 by a small group of enthusiasts, led by the late Roy Henty, a distant relative of G.A. Henty, and has thrived ever since. We have members all around the world. It is probably fair to say that the best collection of Henty is with an American collector. The second best collection may also be in America, but there are some very good collections on this side of the ‘Pond’.

The titles shown in the picture are of Henty rarities from English publishers, with the one title to be issued in America before the UK, In the Hands of the Cave-Dwellers.

Roger Childs Collector and Henty Society Researcher Email address: roger@childs.freeserve.co.uk April 2003

#collecting

Neglected Americana: The Woman’s Rights Movement

This is the second of two articles on notable events, books, and ephemera of the 19th century suffrage movement. The first article is in the IOBA Standard, Volume III, Number 4. Both articles are just overviews. I’ve tried to emphasize the most often repeated stories and the major books and, very cursorily, the ephemera of the movement. Although much new material continues to be written, The History of Woman Suffrage is still the main source of information.

The period from the late 1870’s through the early twentieth century was a comparatively quiet time in the history of the suffrage movement. As passage of a federal amendment seemed increasingly distant, many suffrage workers turned to the approach favored by conservatives, campaigns for passage of state amendments. These campaigns were time-consuming and, often, frustrating; by the end of the nineteenth century, only four western states, led by Wyoming, had actually enfranchised women. The first of fifty-six state votes on women’s suffrage was in Kansas in 1867, and legislatures refused to allow referenda almost five hundred times. These efforts were organizing and unifying events for suffrage supporters, but they were draining and expensive as well. (1)

Two dramatic events particularly captured public interest during the 1870’s and are important in the history of the suffrage movement: Susan B. Anthony’s arrest for voting in the presidential election of 1872 and the suffrage demonstrations at the 1776 Centennial Celebration in Philadelphia.

Other groups of women attempted to register in the same election as the one in which Anthony so famously succeeded. The only successful group was the Rochester, New York group of fifteen women led by Anthony, but others who attempted to vote included Sojourner Truth, probably the best known of the African American suffrage workers, Isabella Beecher Hooker, and approximately thirty-five more women in Rochester as well as scattered groups and individuals elsewhere.

Although the legal case was somewhat tortuous, the basis of the suffrage argument was simply that voting was a right. Women had not been specifically excluded in the constitution and the amendments giving African-American men the right to vote first introduced the word male as a requirement for voting. In a speech first delivered on January 16, 1873, (between Anthony’s 1872 arrest and her trial in the spring of 1873) at a NWSA meeting in Washington, Anthony presented her case, that voting was both a natural and a constitutional right. The text of the speech was reported and a revised version appears in Anthony’s published account of the trial. (2)

Anthony, the women who voted with her, and the election inspectors who allowed them to vote were arrested on November 18. At a subsequent examination before United States Commissioner, William C. Storrs, prosecution and defense agreed that the decision arrived at in Anthony’s case would apply to all the women. The election inspectors were tried separately — and convicted. They were the only defendants jailed as a result of the illegal votes.

At Anthony’s trial, held in the spring of 1873 in Canandaigua, NY, about forty miles from Rochester, Anthony was found guilty in a directed verdict (it was a juried trial but the jury was not allowed to deliberate). The penalty was ten days in jail or a $100 fine. Anthony refused to pay the fine but was never jailed, perhaps because that would have enabled her to appeal the case to the Supreme Court. News coverage of the trial strongly criticized the Judge’s refusal to allow the jury to deliberate.

In 1874 the Supreme Court ruled, in a landmark case, Minor vs. Happersett, that “the Constitution of the United States does not confer the right of suffrage upon anyone.”

A complete record of Anthony’s trial was published and paid for by her under the rather daunting title, An Account of the Proceedings on the Trial of Susan B. Anthony, on the Charge of Illegal Voting, at the Presidential Election in November, 1872. Three thousand copies of the paper-covered booklet were printed by the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle in 1874. As usual, Anthony carefully noted the cost, $700. At least one copy, inscribed by Anthony to one of the women with whom she voted, has turned up in recent years, but original printings are rare. Reprints of the trial proceedings are available. According to Anthony, there were also 5,000 copies made of Judge Selden’s argument on the Habeas Corpus “which she scattered broadcast.” I have not seen a copy of that. (3)

By 1776, suffrage leaders were ready for another battle —- this over the Fourth of July Centennial Celebration in Philadelphia. The Centennial was a national event of great importance and, to the suffrage leaders who were excluded from the proceedings, it was an opportunity to advance the cause. Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, and Matilda Joslyn Gage worked long and hard to produce a Declaration of the Rights of Women to be presented at the Philadelphia celebration and asked repeatedly to be on the program. Turned down, they decided on other action. Stanton and Lucretia Mott (then in her eighties) decided to hold a competing meeting for women’s rights in a Philadelphia Unitarian Church. Anthony, a “spinster,” was able to rent the space which Mott, a married woman, could not. They also pursued a more militant plan.

After repeatedly requesting to be on the Fourth of July program, Anthony, Matilda Joslin Gage and three other women obtained four seats on the platform (using at least one press pass from Anthony’s brother, Daniel) but were denied permission to be on the program. After the reading of the Declaration of Independence, they rose from their seats, handed a copy of their Declaration to the acting vice president of the United States, and walked out scattering copies of their Declaration as they went. Anthony read the Declaration from a musicians’ platform outside and additional copies were distributed to the crowd. Few copies of that Declaration have survived although the text is in the History of Woman Suffrage, Volume III.

Joslyn Gage and Anthony’s militance in this instance is sometimes seen as foreshadowing the media-oriented militance of 20th century suffragists. Lucy Stone, who was part of the convention organized by Cady Stanton and Mott, apparently disapproved, but said the action would “no doubt go down in the history books” and twentieth century biographer of the movement, Rheta Childe Dorr, pointed to it as proof that Anthony, not Emmeline Pankhurst, “invented militant feminism.” (4)

Two interesting paper items came out of the suffrage demonstration in Philadelphia, but an item promised in the advance publicity by NWSA is especially interesting because it never appeared. In order to pay for the headquarters, Gage, Stanton, and Anthony offered, as a premium, a history of the women’s rights movement to anyone donating $5. The three had long discussed writing the history and anticipated producing a several hundred-page pamphlet. The pamphlet was never written and the short history eventually turned into the six-volume History of the Woman Suffrage Movement. Anthony, always scrupulous about keeping promises, eventually sent each of the donors a $15 set of the history. (5)

Work didn’t actually begin on the history until 1880 although Anthony sent trunks and boxes of materials to Stanton’s home in Tenafly, NJ in 1876. When the work did begin, in Tenafly, it turned out to be an enormously more demanding task than the authors had anticipated.

According to Anthony “the task loomed up in an appalling manner.” 5 Stanton did most of the writing with Anthony providing history and factual information and Gage contributing some sections. Anthony was also publisher (a pattern established when they produced their short-lived suffrage newspaper, The Revolution) and was critic and provider of factual information. They requested information and records from others active in the movement and, though most people responded, Lucy Stone refused to contribute because she objected to their “attempt to write the history” of the AWSA. (6)

Anthony spent much time looking for a publisher. According to one biographer, Anthony took trips to NY as early as 1877 to look for a publisher. (7). The subject was unpopular and the books large and expensive. According to the Life and Work, the portraits of suffrage leaders (steel engravings) cost $126 apiece, an amount which some women paid themselves. Anthony paid for those who were unable to pay. The publisher finally found, Fowler & Wells, best known for their publications on phrenology, released Volume I in May of 1881 and Volume 2 in 1882. Volume 3 was held up due to lack of money. In 1884 Anthony inherited a little over $24,000 from an estate (Lucy Stone inherited a like amount), and work on volume 3 began. It was completed in December, 1885 and the book was copyrighted and published in 1886. At that time Anthony bought the rights to volumes 1 and 2 from Fowler and Wells. She also bought out Stanton and Gage’s rights, and volume 3, along with a reprinting of volumes 1 and 2, was printed by Charles Mann of Rochester. Stanton, Anthony, and Gage held the original copyrights for volumes 1 and 2, but later printings show only Anthony as the copyright holder.

The Fowler and Wells printings of volumes 1 and 2 are, of course, first printings and are quite scarce. Anthony’s 1886/1887 reprints, also scarce, are often mistaken for first printings.

After Volume 3 was completed, Stanton wearied of the project and volume 4, which lists Anthony as first author, was edited and largely written by Ida Husted Harper, Anthony’s biographer. It was published in 1902, four years before Anthony’s death. Volumes 5 and 6, edited and written by Harper, were published in 1922, two years after the Nineteenth Amendment, enabling women all over the county to vote, was ratified.

Anthony gave copies of the early volumes to libraries, schools and individuals. They are often inscribed by her, often briefly, but sometimes with quite personalized and interesting inscriptions. One of three copies inscribed to novelist and reformer Albion Tourgee says, in part “In memory of his truthful portrayal of facts in Fools Errand and Bricks without Straw at the close of the war…his Sincere Friend and Coworker Susan B. Anthony.” The inscription is dated 1893. That copies of the books were available for quite some time is indicated by a listing for the first four volumes in a 1911 NAWSA (National and American Woman Suffrage Association) catalogue, which also listed all three volumes of The Life and Works of SBA. Anthony had distributed many copies of both and willed the remaining copies to NAWSA.

The Life and Works of SBA, written by Ida Husted Harper, is both the official biography of Anthony and an invaluable reference. Anthony met Harper, a professional journalist, during the California suffrage campaign and persuaded her to move to Rochester and live at the Anthony home, promising her that the biography would be completed in a year. Work began in March of 1897. Anthony’s estimate of the length of the biography proved to be optimistic—-the first draft turned out to be much longer than expected and had to be cut. Anthony, Harper, and a typist/secretary, working together, completed the work in 1898 and sent the two volumes to the publisher, Bobbs Merrill. A third volume, written by Mrs. Harper, was published posthumously. Unfortunately for later historians, much of the original source material was burned after use. Ads promised “this is the only authentic biography of her that ever can be written, as the letters and documents will not be accessible to other historians.” Anthony also insisted that “letters and documents that reflected badly on others must not be included.” (8)

Mrs. Harper, who had expected the work to be complete with the second volume, was almost immediately persuaded by Anthony to start work on volume 4 of the History of Woman Suffrage.

Although The History of Woman Suffrage is the primary source for 19th century suffrage history, two other collectible works should be mentioned: Stanton’s very controversialWoman’s Bible, and her autobiographical Eighty Years and More, an informal collection of reminiscences and personal anecdotes intended, in part, according to biographer Elizabeth Griffith, to counter some of the very bad publicity resulting from the publication of the Woman’s Bible. (9)

Part I of the Woman’s Bible, published in November, 1895, by the European Publishing Company in New York, consisted of commentaries written by eight of twenty-two women on the “revising committee,” a misnomer since they did not revise the Bible but rather commented on selected verses. (9) Part II was published in 1898. Despite Susan B. Anthony’s pleas to the contrary, a resolution disavowing the Woman’s Bible was adopted at the 1896 NAWSA convention, a victory for conservative leaders Anna Howard Shaw and Carrie Chapman Catt. The day of the ultras (the radical suffrage wing led by Anthony and Stanton), was seemingly over. “By the last decade of the nineteenth century, woman suffrage had become respectable…a new generation of conservative women came into the suffrage movement to achieve the victory that the Stantons and Anthonys had made possible.” (10)

Stanton’s autobiographical Eighty Years and More was, according to biographer Kerr, her “apologia” intended to create an image of herself as “benign, nurturing, good-humored…” downplaying both personal and political conflicts and the reality of an often irritating, radical, charismatic but demanding leader. (10)

A conservative time in the movement had arrived. NWSA and AWSA had merged in 1890 and become NAWSA, the National American Woman Suffrage Association, with Stanton as President and Anthony as Vice-President. The movement had, by this time, arrived at such respectability that in 1892 the three leaders, Stone, Anthony and Stanton were invited to tea at the White House by first lady Lavinia Scott Harrison.

By the beginning of the twentieth century, most of the rights for which women had fought, including the right of married women to own property and to keep their own wages, the right to an education, and to enter a profession, had been won. A federal amendment giving women the right to vote in federal elections remained elusive and the traditional and, by this time, rather conservative women’s suffrage association, was putting much of its energy into the campaigns for the vote on a state-by-state basis. Out of these state campaigns came mountains of paper ammunition including pamphlets, fliers, postcards, broadsides and posters.

Although state campaigns continued during the twentieth century, younger women formed the National Women’s Party, led by Alice Paul, Harriot Stanton Blatch, and others who were impatient with the lack of progress toward a federal amendment and adopted increasingly militant tactics in their battle for a federal suffrage amendment: picketing, parades in Washington, and partisan political action. These ultimately resulted in the most violent phase of the revolution, the period between 1912 and 1919 when the 19th Amendment granting women the vote was passed. But that’s another story.

(1) Jablonski, T. “Female Opposition The Anti-Suffrage Campaign” in Jean H. Baker, editor, Votes for Women: The Struggle for Suffrage Revisited) (NY: Oxford University Press, 2001).

(2) Anthony, Susan B. An Account of the Proceedings on the Trial of Susan B. Anthony, on the Charge of Illegal Voting, at the Presidential Election in November, 1872. (Rochester: Democrat & Chronicle, 1874).

(3) Harper, Ida Husted. The Life and Works of Susan B. Anthony, Volume 1. (Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1899). p. 446.

(4) Dorr, Rheta Childe. Susan B. Anthony The Woman Who Changed the Mind of a Nation. (NY: AMS Press, 1970). Reprint of 1928 edition. p 283.

(5) Harper, Ida Husted. p. 475.

(6) Barry, Kathleen. Susan B. Anthony a Biography. (NY: New York University Press, 1988). p 272.

(7) Anthony, Katharine. Susan B. Anthony Her Personal History and Her Era. (NY: Doubleday, 1954.) p. 341.

(8) Huth, Mary. From a talk delivered at the Susan B. Anthony House in 2002.

(9) Kraditor, Aileen S. The Ideas of the Woman Suffrage Movement. (NY: Columbia University Press, 1965) p. 86.

(10) Griffith, Elisabeth. In Her Own Right The Life of Elizabeth Cady Stanton. (NY: Oxford University Press, 1984) p. 207

Primary Sources

Anthony, Susan B. An Account of the Proceedings on the Trial of Susan B. Anthony, on the Charge of Illegal Voting, at the Presidential Election in November, 1872. Gordon, Ann D., Editor. The Selected Papers of Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony. Two volumes have been published: Volume I: In the School of Anti-Slavery, 1840 to 1866and Volume 2: Against an Aristocracy of Sex, 1866 – 1873. Part of a massive project from Rutgers headed by Gordon, these two volumes include letters, diary entries, speeches and articles. Wonderful notes go along with the entries.

Harper, Ida Husted. The Life and Work of Susan B. Anthony. The first two volumes were written during Susan B. Anthony’s life, based on her records, and with her active assistance. They were published in 1898 and constitute her “authorized” biography. The third volume was published in 1908, two years after Anthony’s death.

Stanton, Elizabeth Cady. Eighty Years and More, 1815 – 1897. Stanton’s autobiography was first published in 1898. The most recent edition includes an Introduction by Ellen Carol DuBois and an Afterword by Ann D. Gordon, which add current scholarship and recent interpretation of Stanton’s work. Stanton, Elizabeth Cady; Anthony, Susan B.; Gage, Matilda Joslin; and Harper, Ida Husted. The History of Woman Suffrage. The six volumes were published between 1881 and 1922. The first three volumes are by Stanton, Anthony, and Gage, Volume 4 is by Anthony and Harper, and Volumes 5 and 6 are by Harper. They have been reprinted a number of times and are also available on CD-ROM.

Secondary Sources

Baker, Jean H. Votes for Women The Struggle for Suffrage Revisited. An excellent collection of articles on topics relating to the suffrage movement which had not been much explored. Barry, Kathleen. Susan B. Anthony: A Biography of a Singular Feminist. Published in 1988, this is the most recent biography of Anthony. Earlier biographies by Alma Lutz, Kathleen Anthony and Rheta Childe Dorr are, unfortunately, out of print. Barry’s is the most scholarly biography; Anthony’s is quite complete and very readable.

Dorr, Rheta Childe. Susan B. Anthony The Woman Who Changed the Mind of a Nation.

Griffith, Elizabeth. The Life of Elizabeth Cady Stanton. This most recent and comprehensive biography of Stanton was published in 1984.

Harper, Judith. Susan B. Anthony: A Biographical Companion. This 1998 alphabetical reference includes entries on all the people and events of the suffrage and other reform movements with which Anthony was involved and is an invaluable “quick” reference.

Kraditor, Aileen. The Ideas of the Woman Suffrage Movement, 1890 – 1920. Classic analysis of the philosophy and tactics of the leaders of the movement.

Rakow, Lana F. and Kramarae, Cheris. The Revolution in Words Righting Women 1868 – 1871. Excerpts and analysis of Stanton and Anthony’s suffrage paper.

By: Martha Kelly Gutenberg Books gtbooks@frontiernet.net

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How, When and Why to Write a Press Release and What to Expect if You Do

How

A press release has a standard format and should be as brief and to the point as possible. Think of how long it takes you to decide whether to read an e-mail or not. That’s about how long an editor will give your press release before deciding what to do with it.

Your press release should be written on your company letterhead if it is typed and should be double-spaced. The sentences should be short, and the word count should be no more than 300-500.

At the top of the page center the words “News Release.” Under that center the words: “For Immediate Release,” unless there is a restriction on when you want the information to be made public, in which case you may say “Release After_______.” Most press releases are for immediate release.

Following the release information is the most important line: your headline. Use this to grab the attention of an editor in a short, factual and interesting way.

The first paragraph should answer these basic questions of any news story:

• Who

• What

• Where

• When

• How

Expand on this information in the following two or three paragraphs. It is helpful and it adds interest if you can build a quotation into your story.

Conclude with your own contact information.

Accurate contact information is very important. In the words of an experienced journalist, “I can’t tell you how many times I’ve called the number provided to get a voice mail that says the person is on vacation. A little planning would prevent that.”.

The article should be able to stand alone where ever it happens to be cut, after the first, second, third or fourth paragraphs. So say whatever you think is the most important early in the article. Embellish later.

At the end, type ###, centered after the final paragraph.

Sounds easy, doesn’t it? The only way to get good at it is to practice, practice and then practice more. It’s surprisingly difficult to write in a simple style and to say what’s most important first. Practicing will automatically improve your skills in writing attention grabbing book descriptions though.

Whatever you write, have someone read it before you submit it. If that person thinks it’s blah, it probably is. Go back and rewrite, eliminating as many words as you can. Be sure you haven’t hidden your most important points somewhere deep within the article.

However, since editors don’t necessarily expect every press release to be professionally written, don’t hesitate to send some of your practice efforts off to the media if they are accurate, in the correct format and about something you want to publicize. You may be pleased with the results. Media need content more than they need perfectly written material. They can handle rewrites. That’s part of the job.

I edit and write a quarterly newsletter, The Downtown Beat, for Downtown New Bedford, Inc., a non-profit organization, and most of the articles we receive are not professionally written. That’s OK with us. We want the downtown news in whatever shape we can get it. We know that it takes many people three paragraphs to work up to making their most important points. We can live with that and edit accordingly.

The Boston Globe has a list of dos and don’ts for their calendar items and a format that they request that people use to submit them electronically. Using their format would give you practice at the essentials. You can find it at: http://www.boston.com/cgi-bin/globe_events.cgi .

Who & Where Before you write the press release, you need to develop a media list, which means calling or e-mailing the outlets where you intend to send the release to find out whom to send it to, what format they require and how far ahead of your intended publication date they need to have the release. You can usually find the right contact person by locating the publication on-line and consulting the ‘about us’ section. Even if you call the general information number, they will be helpful about directing you to the right department.

Press releases are usually delivered by first class mail, by fax, or electronically, although many places will not accept press releases by fax.

A journalist writing for an on-line publication says, “I prefer to get press releases via e-mail. I tell people never to fax me. I don’t get faxes quickly enough.”

If you submit your releases on-line, it is considered bad manners to include attachments. Say everything you need to say in the release itself. Although follow-up is the norm in almost every other business activity, it is not necessarily the case when it comes to press releases. If you call to find out if your release has been received and/or read, you may be considered a pest.

You can, of course, pay to have press releases written and released for you, but it seems worthwhile to spend some time trying to see what you can do on your own first.

If you expect to be issuing a number of press releases, it might be a good idea to invest in The Associated Press Stylebook or a similar publication.

If you are an on-line business only, you may wonder what good press releases can do you and where you can submit them. You can submit them to any trade publication. You can also post them to your own web site, although you might rewrite them a bit to make them more personal and informal. Don’t overlook your local community newspapers, even the weeklies. If you have a specialty business, they may eventually want to write a feature story about you, and the link to that story can be posted on your own web site.

When Write a press release for any kind of announcement you want to make. You are sponsoring an event. You have changed a business affiliation. You have moved. You have added a new line of books. You have made an important discovery. You have earned a new designation. You have been nationally published or recognized in some way. You can cure a common problem.

What & What you can expect Write press releases as a part of your overall marketing program, which may also include your own web site, print and on-line newsletters, discounts for repeat customers, workshops, etc.

News releases are effective but not terribly efficient. You may send out many with only a few published in entirety. The few that are published may reach thousands of recipients, but few will respond. It is a sort of dandelion seed effect. Many seeds are released, but most do not result in plants, and yet the dandelion is a very successful plant. The effort of writing and issuing press releases is never wasted according to Laura LaTour, publicity director for Baker Books, an independent community book store in Dartmouth, Massachusetts.

Baker Books hosts two monthly writing groups and sponsors at least three other monthly events, sometimes more. Each event requires a press release. That’s a lot of press releases in the course of a year. As a book lover, I read or scan most of them. And yet I have responded directly to only one, attending a book signing for Jon Vaughan’s self published book of photographs,Coastal Effects. I bought two books at the signing and later visited Jon’s shop in Chatham, Mass.

Laura says this low rate of direct response to a press release is fairly typical. The average event draws an attendance of 15 to 20 people, although a few draw many more. Only one or two may attend because they read about it in the newspaper. More are attending because of the store’s web-site calendar, the calendar posted in the entryway, or the weekly e-mail newsletter. (For ideas on how to write your newsletter see the last issue of The Standard http://www.ioba.org/newsletter/V10/ownnewsletter.php .

The indirect response to press releases is probably larger but more difficult to measure. Weeks after an author signing, for example, a customer may buy a signed book and saying, “I read about this in the newspaper.”

The cumulative response is larger still. Our community newspaper, the Standard-Times, publishes many book related human interest stories and a number of them originate with press releases from Baker Books.

What to do if a writer/editor calls

Your reason for writing press releases is to get publicity. If a writer calls, it’s a stop everything moment. Talk to the caller on the spot, or return the call quickly. When I write The Downtown Beat, I am always surprised at my success in getting people to talk to me or return my calls or make time in a busy schedule for me to interview them. After all, the Downtown Beat is a pretty tiny publication, with a very small circulation, and it’s only quarterly.

If you hear the keys clicking as you speak, it’s a sign that your press release and comments are on target and that your publicity efforts are becoming successful.