Book Review: PR Therapy by Robin Blakely

There are three reasons why I highly recommend Robin Blakely's new book, PR Therapy: Ignite Your Passion for Promoting Your Products, Services, and Even Yourself!. First, it addresses the fears and anxieties that small business owners, authors, speakers, and others have when they realize that they need (and want) to generate publicity for their products or services.

Authors, in particular, are uncomfortable with what they see as "self-promotion." Because they are so closely aligned with their products, authors fail to see that it's not self-promotion, it's product promotion. This topic came up over the weekend during my "How to Build Book Buzz" workshop at the Florida Writer's Association annual conference. I reminded the person who raised this issue that authors owe it to their readers to let them know their book is available to entertain, educate, or inform. I see it as a public service -- how can you help the people you wrote the book for if you don't tell them about your book? And you're not talking about yourself with the press -- you're talking about your book.

Robin's first two chapters help people better understand what might be getting in the way of their publicity success and offers tactics for dealing with those often self-imposed obstacles. Reading the first few chapters is a bit like having a conversation with your mother ("Of course you can do it! You are brilliant!"), your shrink ("I'm sensing some anxiety about the prospect of incredible success. . . ."), and your best friend ("You go girl!").

Second: It's the only one on this topic that I've seen that helps readers better identify their target audiences. I've written about the importance of knowing your audience well on this blog before, so I was happy to see that Robin spends several chapters on the topic. She helps readers discover how to zero in on the people who are most likely to purchase their products or services.

Third: PR Therapy is loaded with the kind of "here's-how-to-do-it" information that I also provide in my books. People without a PR background need to know the best time of day to call a radio talk show producer and how to craft the perfect pitch. It's all here in any easy to use, follow, and understand format.

Check it out in any local bookseller or on Amazon.com; learn more about the author at www.prtherapy.com.

What's the best publicity book you've read?