Linden Publishing

Getting good PR is easier—and cheaper—than you think!

If you want to get media attention, you don’t need to spend a dime—and you definitely don’t have to pay someone to do the work for you. Here’s how to do it yourself.

In DIY Public Relations, PR and marketing expert Dan Shortridge lays out a roadmap for your local organization, small business, or nonprofit to tell its story and spread the word. If you don’t have a communications and marketing staff, if you’re just getting started in your PR career, or if you’ve just been told to “get us on the news,” this is the book to read.

Full of hands-on advice scaled to the local level, it draws on the author’s more than 20 years of experience in community journalism and state-level PR to show how to ace a media interview, organize a successful press event, and steer your organization through a crisis.

“Getting your news out there isn’t about making friends with reporters or having a giant list of contacts—it’s about having a good story and telling it in the most effective way possible,” says Shortridge, who’s helped advise nonprofits, small businesses, and government agencies. “You don’t need a lot of money—or any money—and you can do it all yourself with some simple tools and by following these techniques.”

Business owners, PR and marketing professionals and nonprofit leaders will share their insights and tips to maximize positive publicity. You’ll learn about how to research targeted media outlets, pick the best time for reaching out, handle all the tiny details with confidence, and write a news release so an editor will run your story without changing a word.

With field-tested advice on every page drawn from newsrooms and PR people from around the country, readers will get practical guidance on how to:

• Pitch a story and stick the landing for success
• Adapt one of 14 specific story angles perfect for local organizations
• Make those first connections with local reporters
• Use bridging statements to handle a tough question
• Write well and clearly using seven simple steps
• Avoid saying “no comment” even when you don’t want to comment
• Attract and take care of elected officials and other VIPs
• Define, research, and reach your audience
• Be consistent with your media outreach
• Build a crisis communications plan that will let you sleep at night

One key chapter focuses on repurposing materials for the media into content for annual reports, social media, website copy, and newsletters—showing how PR can fit seamlessly into an overall marketing plan. Another chapter contains 16 tried-and-true tips on what not to do when working with the media, including playing secretive games or falling for scams.

As a bonus, it features a toolkit with examples and templates for writing a hard news announcement, event preview, media advisory, calendar item, staff promotion or hiring news, and crisis statements. DIY Public Relations is your complete guide for media success.

The Mafia comes to Comic-Con in this fast-paced suspense caper and outrageous pop culture satire.

Joey Volpe hit the high watermark of his acting career when he played a small role as a mobster on The Sopranos. If you blinked, you missed it. But now he’s unemployed, broke, and forced to make a living by signing autographs at pop-culture fan conventions, or “Fan-Cons,” for $35 a pop. His lack of income, along with his chronic womanizing, has put his marriage at risk, too. But Joey’s life gets even worse when real mobster Tony Rosetti shows up in the autograph line with a plan to rob the next Fan-Con—an offer Joey can’t refuse. When the heist goes awry, Joey has a beef with Rosetti and two long years to plan. Partnered with a smooth-talking con man, Joey is using all his acting skills on new projects: Revenge. Money. And saving his marriage.

The first complete scholarly work on a historically significant, yet almost entirely undocumented, California Indian tribe, The Chowchilla traces the history of the Chowchilla from their earliest known origins to today, with detailed information on the tribe’s kinship structure, social customs, and political development.

Until the Spaniards intruded on their territory, the Chowchilla Yokuts were peaceful hunter-gatherers. Outraged by Spanish oppression, the Chowchilla quickly learned the arts of war. They united the tribes of the California interior and led resistance movements against Spanish, Mexican, and American occupation. Among the California Indians, the name Chowchilla was a byword for bravery. Following the consolidation of American control of California, the Chowchilla were driven from their land, were forced to abandon their hunter-gatherer lifestyle, and sank into obscurity. The Chowchilla maintained their tribal identity by staying as out of sight as possible, sometimes not identifying themselves as Indian at all. In modern times, the Chowchilla are regaining their tribal identity and working to achieve federal recognition.

A serious contribution to American Indian history and anthropology, The Chowchilla shows the unique experiences and development of one California tribe from first contact all the way to the present, providing an invaluable reference for future scholars and for native people of other tribes as they redefine their tribes as independent political entities with traditional native values.

This expanded and revised second edition of The Chowchilla has been updated with seven years of additional research and study, shining a brighter light on the tribe’s honorable and courageous fight to preserve their rights against Spanish, Mexican, and American invasions.

You loved your college major. You worked hard to earn your degree. And now your day job doesn’t fully use your education, engage your mind, or feed your soul. But there are still limitless opportunities to do intellectually serious work—work that will win you professional recognition, travel opportunities, and even publication in peer-reviewed journals. All you have to do is create your own academic opportunities, and Passion Projects for Smart People will show you exactly how to do it.

The perfect career guide for the era of the Ph.D. barista, the underpaid adjunct, and the gig economy, Passion Projects for Smart People will help you take charge of your career and your life. Written by a high school science teacher who has done field work on five continents, published in professional journals, and worked with NASA, Passion Projects for Smart People details how to turn side projects into career-development opportunities. Passion Projects for Smart People shows you how to develop your own research and creative projects; form collaborations with universities and public agencies; apply for grants and professional experience opportunities; travel around the world for free; and develop your career as a teacher and mentor.

Minerva Rus can raise the dead. And it might get her killed.

Minerva’s life has never been the same since the childhood car accident that paralyzed her and killed her best friend, Raven. But when the long-dead Raven reappears in her life, now as a very attractive grown man, she discovers that her photographic memory has the power to bring the dead back to life ... heal her paralysis ... and shape reality itself.

Pursued by a rogue government agent who wants to eliminate her and her talents, Minerva must learn to control her powers to save herself and Raven. Because if she dies, he dies as well—again.

Early one spring morning, disaster struck San Francisco, and a young man grabbed his camera and started documenting the destruction and death surrounding him. Fearlessly going to the center of the devastation, the man captured scenes of fires, collapsing buildings, and people fleeing for their lives—scenes that no one else had a chance to record. His photographs were preserved in a family photo album, unseen by the public for over a hundred years.

When San Francisco Burned presents for the first time the photographs that young man, Louis P. Selby, took of the Great San Francisco Earthquake and Fire of 1906. These amazingly detailed and dramatic photographs show the earthquake and its aftermath from a street-level perspective, giving readers an unprecedented look at what it was really like to be in San Francisco during those terrible days. Selby’s photographs document the immediate damage of the earthquake; horrific action shots of fire consuming San Francisco; the heroic efforts of police, soldiers, and ordinary citizens to maintain order and protect the people; the somber ruins of San Francisco after the blaze; the misery and pluck of the refugee camps; and the city’s earliest days of rebirth and rebuilding. These unique, never-before-published photographs show the horrors of the earthquake and fire—and the stubborn resistance of the people of San Francisco—like you’ve never seen them before. An invaluable addition to the historical record, When San Francisco Burned is a must-have book for anyone who loves San Francisco and its history.

Learn to elevate and perfect your cabinetmaking skills!

Sharing his legendary techniques for coopered doors, dowelling, dovetail joints, frame-and-panel work, latches, hinges, fittings, and other cabinetry details, in The Fine Art of Cabinetmaking, master woodworker James Krenov elevates cabinetry to a true art.

With continual themes of perfection of technique and building to the limits of one's skill, this authoritative resource provides in-depth instruction for mastering the craft of cabinetmaking. A bevy of topics, including the proper way to sharpen and hone tools, hollow grinding methodology, and obtaining proper grinding angles, are detailed in this comprehensive cabinet-making sourcebook. Lessons devoted to using and understanding various woods, including common or exotic pieces, learning how to read grain, and the pros and cons in working with air-dried wood versus kiln-dried wood, will educate any level of woodworker. Chapters devoted to resawing as well as problems and concerns due to moisture content and wood movement are also included.

Beginning with the most essential part of cabinetry—selecting and preparing wood—Krenov shares his beliefs about the integrity of the material being the first priority so that the subtle use of figure and color will enhance the design. He shows how first-rate execution and flawless finished surfaces are the hallmarks of his work and can be in yours when you discover his secrets. In the end, true inspiration and masterful skill have never come together so exquisitely as in Krenov’s work.

An easy and fun introduction to the essential outdoor skill of bushcraft whittling.

In Bushcraft Whittling, master whittler Rick Wiebe shows step-by-step how anyone with a common pocketknife, a hatchet, and an itch to do something with their hands can make projects that are fun, eye-catching, and useful. Bushcraft Whittling will show you the tools you need (all available at any hardware store), the right cutting techniques, carving safety, how to select the right wood, and how to make dozens of useful items at your campsite.

Everyone who spends time in the outdoors—campers, hikers, ramblers, hunters, fishermen, skiers, and any kind of sportsman—needs to master the art of bushcraft whittling. Additionally, bushcraft whittling is the perfect low-effort introduction to the fun and relaxing hobby of whittling, as well as an excuse to use that fun knife you just bought.

If you're an outdoorsy person—or even if you just want to be an outdoorsy person someday—Bushcraft Whittling is a must-have book.

Illustrated throughout with color photographs of karate stances and techniques—plus clear English definitions of karate terms—The Shotokan Karate Dictionary is a unique reference guide indispensable for every martial arts library.

The Shotokan Karate Dictionary, fourth edition, is a complete compendium of essential terms of the practice of karate-do, with special focus on the Shotokan style. Clear, easy-to-understand, and accurate English translations of Japanese karate terms, plus color photographs of essential karate stances, movements, and techniques, will give karate students a firm foundation in karate terminology. A Japanese pronunciation guide and exquisite calligraphy of the Japanese characters (kanji) of each term will deepen students’ understanding of karate’s cultural roots.

This comprehensive reference book covers the Japanese numerical system, different target levels and directions of movement, the basic elements of karate training, basic and advanced katas, as well as the Japanese terms for typical instructions and commands you will hear throughout your karate training.

The Shotokan Karate Dictionary also explores the philosophical background of karate through an explanation of selected terms, the origin of the name karate-do, the Twenty Precepts of Funakoshi, the rules that govern the dojo, karate philosophies, and annotations by famous Zen masters.

Aaron Schuyler is a ne'er-do-well, a cheat, an exploiter, a drunk, and a lifelong New Yorker. New Mexico is about to change everything about Schuyler, in this fresh and witty comedy about second chances and redemption.

At 52, Aaron Schuyler has destroyed his life and doesn't care. Professionally ruined, flat broke, and estranged from his ex-wife and children, Schuyler's only concerns are sponging free drinks by crashing funerals and staying on the good side of his primary money supply, his formidable British mother, Clementine.

But Clementine has a plan. Praying for divine aid from her personal god, Winston Churchill, Clementine creates a Winston-inspired scheme to reform her worthless son. Clementine presents Schuyler with an ultimatum—she'll bail him out one last time, if he moves from New York to Santa Fe, New Mexico, and takes a job at the local Sam's Club.

In New Mexico, Schuyler meets people unlike any he's ever known—the enigmatic Indian artist Lone Goose, the blue collar Sam's Club workers who accept him as one of their own, and the beautiful and no-nonsense Anita Chatterjee, with whom Schuyler is immediately smitten.

For the first time in his life, Schuyler wants to be a better person—and as he rereads his diary of his past life, he realizes the extent of his failures and his misdeeds. Can Schuyler adapt to a life of responsibility? To a mature relationship? To New Mexico? To shaking scorpions out of his boots? Winston help him!

An inspiring true story of teamwork, camaraderie, and Americans at war.

On January 23, 1943, a B-24 Liberator bomber and its crew of ten men disappeared without a trace in New Guinea. Their families never knew what happened to them. Now, 80 years later, their long-forgotten letters and dusty photographs finally tell their story in The All-American Crew.

Stanley Low did not want to be a hero and would not have welcomed the description. A Chinese American kid from Salem, Oregon, who wasn’t yet old enough to vote or drink beer, Stan joined the army because there was a war on and it was his duty. As Stan trains to become a bomber nose gunner and heads into combat, he experiences loneliness, racism, his first beer, his first romance, and the horrors of war.

Stan also builds tight bonds with his crewmates, who come from every American ethnicity and walk of life, including Irish American pilot Scott Regan and Jewish American bombardier Jerome Lesser. The ten men of Stan's bomber crew—rich and poor, from old American families and recent immigrants—form an all-American crew whose dedication to the country and their team elevates them above their individual differences.

As the war heats up, Stan, his crewmates, and many other hastily trained bomber crews fly off dirt runways in the South Pacific tropics, thousands of miles from the nearest allied base, fighting the relentless forces of the Japanese Empire. The loss of life mounts at an alarming rate as many crews fail to return from missions. Those who survive quickly learn to fight. Now battle-hardened veterans, Stan and his crew fly toward their final rendezvous with destiny, willing to sacrifice everything for their country and each other.

Celebrating American diversity and ideals of honor, bravery, and freedom, The All-American Crew is a magnificent true story of men at war.

"Gary Rogowski leads us gently but surely upon the path to a type of success we may not have previously considered. (Hint: it involves blisters)." --Nick Offerman

In an era when there are countless competing claims on one's attention, how does one find the internal focus to be creative? For master furniture craftsman Gary Rogowski, the answer is in the act of creative work itself. The discipline of working with one's hands to create unnecessarily beautiful things shapes the builder into a more complete human being.

In the tradition of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance and Shop Class as Soulcraft, Rogowski's Handmade is a profound meditation on the eternal value of manual work, creativity, human fallibility, and the stubborn pursuit of quality work. Rogowski tells his life story of how he became a craftsman and how years of persistent work have taught him patience, resilience, tolerance for failure, and a love of pursuing beauty and mastery for its own sake.

Guide to Modified Exhaust Systems: A Reference for Law Enforcement Officers and Motor Vehicle Inspectors is a slim, portable manual for law enforcement officials, motor vehicle inspectors, prosecutors, and legislators, as well as all citizens who desire peace and quiet. Excessive noise is a major public health issue. High noise levels are associated with hearing loss, heart disease, sleep deprivation, chronic fatigue, ringing of the ears, and aggressive behavior. Loud noise also damages communities, reduces property values, and denies individuals the right to peacefully enjoy their own home and property.

One of the major sources of excessive and unnecessary noise is from motorcycles equipped with modified exhaust systems. By definition, a modified exhaust is not of the type installed at the time of manufacture, does not meet the manufacturer's specifications, does not comply with manufacturing regulatory standards, and is the root cause of excessively loud vehicles.

Guide to Modified Exhaust Systems: A Reference for Law Enforcement Officers and Motor Vehicle Inspectors concisely provides law enforcement personnel and regular citizens the tools they need to fight back against excessive vehicle noise levels. The book includes numerous color photographs to make it easy to visually identify the illegal equipment installed on some motorcycles that is responsible for the great majority of nuisance noise levels.

You're going on a journey to a strange new country where you will look different, act different, even feel different. It's like you're becoming a whole new person, and that person is your mother. Your new homeland is middle age, and you need a native guide to teach you how to survive here, or at least to show you where the good bars are.

Written for every woman who knows that turning 40 is no reason to become respectable, Kissing the Crisis is the field guide you need to blaze your own unconventional trail through the jungle of middle age. Humorist Kara Martinez Bachman reports from the front lines of the battle to stay awake after 9 p.m., and her adventures will make you scream with laughter, cringe with embarrassment, and vow to tackle your own midlife crisis with a can-do attitude and a tasty cocktail.

Whether she's searching for a child-friendly bar for a parents' drinking session, starting the world's best ukelele/harp gothic rock band, coping with a baby cursing like a sailor in the grocery store, or conquering her fear of a terrifying death during Hurricane Katrina, Bachman shows that life doesn't end at 40 ... it just gets weirder.

"I wish I had had this book thirty years ago, when I started out." —Mark Bowden, author of Black Hawk Down: A Story of Modern War

Name some of the huge bestselling books over the years — In Cold Blood; All the President's Men; The Perfect Storm; Black Hawk Down; Longitude; Jarhead — and they all have one thing in common; they all read like novels. Author and agent Peter Rubie shows the reader how to join journalistic research with riveting, character-driven prose to create narrative nonfiction. This is the only book to focus on writing and marketing the narrative nonfiction "novel." (An earlier version of this book was published under the title Telling the Story: How to Write and Sell Narrative Nonfiction (Harper). This version has been extensively reworked.)

A writer of narrative nonfiction lives in a gray zone of fact and fancy. How to balance those two things is what this book is all about. What all narrative nonfiction has in common is a story, engaging characters, the promise of adventure and controversy, the revealing of secrets, peering backstage and behind the curtain. The ill-fated boat ride (A Perfect Storm), the illicit taboo of an adult love affair with a missing father (The Kiss), going into battle in a modern war (Black Hawk Down) and so on. But every time a journalist turns a real person into a "character" and puts thoughts into their minds, every time a reporter recreates dialogue for scenes that weren't recorded and at which the writer was not present, no matter how scrupulously those thoughts and dialogue are based on extensive interviews the writer enters a gray zone of fact and fancy. Just how "true" are these stories? How much can I trust what I read? Does it really matter? Those questions are the heart of what this book is about.