Elizabeth Taylor at Ben Thau’s wedding. Ben Thau was president of MGM and Jeanne Simon’s uncle.

4.    Write a great press release

Remember to focus on the story, not an obvious ad for you. Editors smell self-promotion a mile away and run from it. Look at relevant articles and copy their format. If you don’t feel comfortable writing a full press release, just write an outline with the most important elements and describe the art you have to go along with it.

When Elizabeth Taylor died, I remembered that my wife has a connection to her and we have unpublished photos of her. That was news and the hook was that my wife, a local Orlando entertainment business owner, had a connection to a movie icon. I didn’t need a full press release. I just offered the details and images and the local business paper picked it up and wrote the article.

5.    Write an article

I have written well over 100 articles for newspapers and magazines. Regardless of what I write about, my byline promotes me and my businesses. You are also seen as an expert when your articles see print and everyone likes to work with popular experts.

You’re reading these articles I write, aren’t you?

6.    Make personal calls/contact

You should make it your job to get to know the producers, editors and publishers of media you will want to be in. Introduce yourself. Write them letters telling them you are a local expert on some subject.

For the Elizabeth Taylor article I called my friend who is the managing editor at the Orlando Business Journal. It’s always easier to pitch to a friend.

7.    Enlist help

Other people are likely to have media contacts that you don’t. Syndicates can also be a great help for getting your press release about your strip, or anything dealing with you or your strip, to thousands of papers.

I wrote up a release about Mason Mastroianni, Mick Mastroianni and their B.C. comic strip and how they over the writing and drawing the strip when Johnny Hart, their grandfather, passed away. I asked the creators' to help and they edited the release and sent it to thousands of papers I didn’t have a connection to.

8.    Post on blogs

Become a member of blogs that deal with your subject and make contributions.

Make sure you post substantive info on blogs. If you only post obvious ads for yourself, people will ignore you. If you post great info, people will search out what you do and what you offer.

9.    Post to online press companies

If you have a full press release, you can submit it along with relevant images to a number online press companies. Some offer limited exposure for little or no cost and greater exposure for larger payments.

www.PRweb.com – Basic service is $80 per news release

www.PRleap.com – Basic service is $49 per news release

www.PrNewsWire.com - $129 and up per release

www.ArticlesSubmissionService.com - $12 per article

www.PrLog.org – Free

www.OpenPR.com – Free

www.i-newswire.com – Free

http://e-zinearticles.com – Free