Paid Newswire Stories On Books Are Worthless

 

I recently spoke with an author who had running across his site: “As seen on ABC, CBS, FOX, NBC.” The TV logos were colorfully and prominently displayed on top. You would think this guy was a celebrity, pro athlete, famous musician, or best-selling author. He was none of the above. 

Nor was he ever seen on any television networks.  

The claim was misleading. Upon questioning, he said he’d sent out a press release over a paid newswire service and that he was given a report that said the release appeared on the websites of these networks.  

Well, not exactly.  

Paid newswires are complete bullshit. They used to serve a purpose. No more. 

10-15 years ago, people, including big publishers, had paid newswire services $500-$1,200 to run a story that the author wrote. The “story” was used to get into the email inboxes of journalists. Some reporters and producers would actually respond and sometimes they would interview an author.  

Then, with the advent of so many newswire companies, with each one sending out a zillion paid stories each and every day, overwhelmed journalists started to realize the quality of these stories was not always high. They sometimes ran them unfiltered and unchecked. Journalists stopped responding to them once they realized these stories were garbage. 

Then, newswire companies came up with some baloney service whereby a press release would get sent out and then posted to dozens or hundreds of websites of media outlets. But these outlets really didn’t feature these stories; they were technically on the site, and buried and unedited. The average consumer going to a site, say NBC.com, never sees these stories. And when you purposely search for the story on NBC.com, you can’t even find it. 

My guess is that media companies charge newswire companies for the privilege of parking a packaged story on a part of the site that no one comes to. Newswire firms charge a lot of money for something that gets no return. 

Authors like to see a report of coverage with NBC.com on it, but they should know this is complete B.S. 

Don’t waste your money or time on this stuff. And never try to pass a newswire story that you paid for -- and shows up nowhere -- as being featured on NBC. 

 

Please Contact Me For Book PR Help

Brian Feinblum, the founder of this award-winning blog, can be reached at brianfeinblum@gmail.com He is available to help authors promote their story, sell their book, and grow their brand. He has over 30 years of experience in successfully helping thousands of authors in all genres.

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About Brian Feinblum

Brian Feinblum should be followed on Twitter @theprexpert. This is copyrighted by BookMarketingBuzzBlog ©2022. Born and raised in Brooklyn, he now resides in Westchester with his wife, two kids, and Ferris, a black lab rescue dog. His writings are often featured in The Writer and IBPA’s The Independent.  This blog, with over 4,000 posts over the past decade, was named one of the best book marketing blogs by BookBaby  http://blog.bookbaby.com/2013/09/the-best-book-marketing-blogs and recognized by Feedspot in 2021 and 2018 as one of the top book marketing blogs. It was also named by WinningWriters.com as a "best resource.” For the past three decades, including 21 as the head of marketing for the nation’s largest book publicity firm, and two jobs at two independent presses, Brian has worked with many first-time, self-published, authors of all genres, right along with best-selling authors and celebrities such as: Dr. Ruth, Mark Victor Hansen, Joseph Finder, Katherine Spurway, Neil Rackham, Harvey Mackay, Ken Blanchard, Stephen Covey, Warren Adler, Cindy Adams, Susan RoAne, Jeff Foxworthy, Seth Godin, and Henry Winkler. He recently hosted a panel on book publicity for Book Expo America, and has spoken at ASJA, IBPA, Sarah Lawrence College, Nonfiction Writers Association, Cape Cod Writers Association, Willamette (Portland) Writers Association, and Connecticut Authors and Publishers Association. His letters-to-the-editor have been published in The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, New York Post, NY Daily News, Newsday, The Journal News (Westchester) and The Washington Post. He has been featured in The Sun Sentinel and Miami Herald. For more information, please consult: linkedin.com/in/brianfeinblum.