Further Reading

Plenty of other people have written about PR. Here are a few takes that I’ve enjoyed. I don’t necessarily agree with every word, but who says I’m right about everything?

Mark Cuban’s Why Startups Shouldn’t Hire PR Firms
A really quick, great read.

Brooke Hammerling’s Why Most Startups Don’t ‘Get’ Press
Brooke is a highly-regarded PR entrepreneur (she started her own firm) who I worked with a bunch when I was still a reporter. She’s great (she made me mad sometimes, but I’ve forgotten when, so it must not have been that bad). This essay a must-read that won’t take you more than 15 minutes.

Caryn Marooney on The Best PR Advice You’ve Never Heard
Caryn is extremely well-qualified: currently a VP at Facebook where she runs the company’s ‘Tech Communications’, she previously co-founded and ran OutCast Communications, a top-tier firm whose clients include the likes of Facebook, Airbnb, and Twitter.

Rafe Needleman’s Pro PR Tips
Rafe was a longtime CNET reporter, did a stint working at Evernote, and now works at Yahoo Tech. This site, which he has updated occasionally for years, is full of quippy advice on dealing with reporters. A much better timesink than browsing Reddit again.

Ed Zitron’s This Is How You Pitch
This book is aimed at PR people rather than entrepreneurs, promising to help newbies in that industry hit the ground running. It’s an amusing and easy read, and while I was expecting a bit more on how to actually craft a pitch, there are some good anecdotes — and he recounts how abysmal the PR person ‘training’ process often is.

Have more suggestions? Let me know.