Getting Your 15 Minutes of Fame and More – Edward Segal, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., May, 2000, 316p, $16.95.
Reviewed by G.A. “Andy” Marken, president, Marken communications Inc.
Despite the subhead…”a Guide to Guaranteeing Your Business Success,” don’t let the title of this book put you off. This isn’t another one of those “Free Editorial Coverage Cookbooks,” “Get Rich Without Lifting a Finger Guidelines,” “Get Ripped Abs and Lose 20 pounds in 2 weeks Regimens,” or “Earn $5,000 a Week From Home Telephone Pole Signs.”
While 15 Minutes of Fame initially seems to have been written as a set of guidelines for people to do their own publicity, it actually does a superior job of educating managers on why they need professional assistance. It is teaching without preaching. It shares actual experiences without saying “see how good we are.”
Edward Segal does a superior job of helping business people understand the public relations process. More importantly he helps business managers arm themselves with facts so they can make an educated agency selection.
Using a very readable and engaging writing style, Segal has gone beyond the school book paragraph by paragraph, chapter by chapter approach to demystify our art and science. Chapters aren’t really chapters as you might think of them. Each chapter is one single point. He quickly and cleary discusses the challenges, opportunities and reward of getting fame (media coverage). He liberally sprinkles each chapter with two or three easy to understand examples or quotes from people you will respect to emphasize key points. He then gives you an interesting tale from his hall of fame or hall of shame.
Sometimes the chapter is three pages long. Sometimes it is ten. He doesn’t waste the reader’s time by wrapping each point in a cloak of professional mystery. He never lets you forget that he has put together a roadmap for you to follow as well as a workbook you can use to get products, services and individuals media coverage that is wanted or needed…if the reader are willing to work for it.
If you’re a seasoned professional, you’re going to find yourself nodding your head and probably mumbling to yourself, “he’s right I need to reinforce the basics.” If you’re one of the hundreds of entry level PR people 15 Minutes of Fame can be a fast-track guide to developing your own practical public relations experience.
You don’t wade through pages of text. Instead you read through check lists, tool and technique guidelines to understand how a company or individual can get media coverage and how to keep getting it.
After reading the book and following some of the guidelines, business managers will realize that as soon as they can afford it they will want to hire someone to help the with the media activities.
PR professionals need to read the book because Segal arms the reader with the ability to understand, weigh and evaluate PR recommendations and activities. The 15 Minutes of Fame reader will understand that in public relations/publicity efforts there are no guarantees. However, there are logical activities that can be carried out to improve your chances for success.
There are a number of common sense chapters you’ll read such as how to prepare and give a speech, what to wear and how to sit during an interview and how to guide and control an editorial meeting to achieve your objectives. They may seem over simplified when you read them initially but then ask yourself how often you go over these points with a client? You probably don’t. They are simply too obvious. But to many managers they aren’t obvious. The minor points often make the difference between good results and great results.
Segal reinforces the fact that just wanting your 15 minutes of fame won’t make it happen. It takes time, money and resources to produce those 15 minutes.
Few people want to be a company’s first PR person. Fewer agencies want to be a company’s first agency of record. They don’t want to go through the arduous task of educating management on what public relations is, how it is done and what they can/can’t expect.
For far less than an hour’s billable time of a junior agency staff member, 15 Minutes of Fame can be the company’s first PR manager or agency. It’s also a book you’ll want to refer to from time to time…15 minutes of reality reminders could make you better personally and professionally. After all, 15 Minutes of Fame can hit anyone.
Getting Your 15 Minutes of Fame and More - To learn more about this author, visit Andy Marken's Website.
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