Book Club: Hype Yourself, by Lucy Werner
The Book Club got together for our third team read early in June, this time to talk about Hype Yourself, by fellow freelancer Lucy Werner.
The book, subtitled A No-nonsense PR Toolkit for Small Businesses, is Lucy’s first.
Most of us whizzed through the first two chapters, which Scott described as “Fundamental. The rest, you can just skip back to when you need it.”
It’s a practical book with plenty of examples and activities. Olivia appreciated it for the tangible takeaways and the details that showed the mechanics of what goes on behind the scenes in the PR world.
In particular, the section around creating a templated media kit, where you’d keep photos, logos and a bio so they’re ready to send out to PRs or collaborators, to be a great idea.
“Five years I’ve been doing this,” Steve said, “and I still write out my bio each time someone asks me for it 🙈.”
We wondered whether the book was intended for freelancers after Helen pointed out that she didn’t feel like the target audience. Some of the examples related to bigger businesses and talked about ‘teams’ and physical products in a way that doesn’t apply to most freelancers.
That said, whilst trying to get in the national press/media might not always be for us, we can hype ourselves via podcasts, events, blogs… and the book touches on a variety of these.
Tips we appreciated included the idea of sending photos along with pitches and press releases (so the journalist or contact on the other end knows you’re “not a crazy person”), and that size doesn’t necessarily matter when you’re approaching platforms and publications - what matters is that it’s the right audience.
Lauren said she didn’t learn all that much but she did feel reassured, at least, that she knows what to do. (Although, she admits, that doesn’t necessarily mean she’s doing all of it!)
Overall we found the book to be a simple, quick read that’s oragnised well, meaning it’s easy to refer back to, but we did feel that it would be best suited to a reader who is completely new to PR.
Quite a few weren’t sure it was worth the £14.99 RRP. A lot of what’s included in the book could be found on Google easily or via other PR experts who share free content. The benefit of buying Hype Yourself, we agreed, is that the information has been put in order for you to easily flick through and refer back to. Perhaps the value in that £15 would be found if you actually pulled off the various opportunities to hype yourself that the book suggests. And whilst the Kindle version may be cheaper, Olivia wish she’d had the paperback as it’s a book that benefits from being written in/highlighted/post-it-noted for reference.
As a book written by a freelancer sharing their expertise, chock full of case studies of great work they’ve done, the person this book Hypes the most is undoubtably Lucy Werner. It does a great job of that. Which of course begs the question: is writing a book something you’d consider to help hype yourself?!
Similar books (or people) that the BFF Book Clubbers recommend:
Previously in the book club:
Company of One, by Paul Jarvis (get the highlights here)
The 12 Week Year, by Brian P. Moran and Michael Lennington (get the highlights here).
(The links to books on this page are affiliate. If you click one and purchase within 24 hours, some pennies come in to help keep Being Freelance in biscuits.)
Thanks so much to these BFFs for turning up and sharing what they thought of the book:
Keith Fowler, Marketing and Lead Gen
Laura Smith, Copywriter
Sara Donaldson, Copywriter and Editor
Jo Gordon, Data and Analytics Specialist
Andy McAnally, Event Organiser
Helen Hill, Digital Learning and Content Designer
Scott Ellis, Freelance Business Consultant and English Teacher
Susie Jackson, Copy Editor and Sp>Eng Translator
Olivia Vandyk, Communications Strategist
Lauren Roberts, Marketing Mentor and Coach-in-training