A Manager’s Guide to PR Projects: A Practical Approach (2nd edition, 2017, Routledge)
A Manager’s Guide to PR Projects picks up where classic public relations textbooks leave off. It provides hands-on guidance in planning the preliminary research for a public relations project and creating a plan to achieve specific goals, guiding the reader through managing the project’s implementation. It contains worksheets that can be used for a visual representation of the planning process for both student edification and presentation to clients. The book is designed as a user-friendly guide to take the reader through the four-step public relations planning process from a number of vantage points. Intended as a learning tool for use in both the class and beyond, this book’s approaches are based on real experiences in the management of communications projects designed to meet organizational goals through achieving public relations objectives.
This fully revised second edition offers PR students and practitioners new material that includes the following:
- the impact of social media on each phase of the planning process;
- digital approaches to strategic and summative research, message dissemination and public engagement;
- strategies to enhance accountability;
- ethics considerations in the planning process. and
- completely updated print and web-based resources for PR managers.
The 21st Century Scholar’s Guide to Self-Publishing (Moonlight Press, 2017)
The 21st Century Scholar’s Guide to Self-Publishing (Moonlight Press, 2017) is a guide whose purpose is to introduce scholars to the concept of self-publishing so that they might consider if and how it has a place in their own academic careers.
This guide covers the following topics:
- Why publishing – in its various forms – is so important in academia.
- Why dissemination to a wider audience is important in the 21st century.
- The history of self-publishing: what authors self-publish and why they choose this route.
- How self-publishing works – including a glossary of relevant terms.
- The relationship between self-publishing and peer review, and how to have your self-published work peer-reviewed.
- How to choose a platform for your own self-publishing ventures.
- How to safeguard the quality of self-published works.
- How to disseminate your work to your target readership.
- How to explain your choice of self-publication to your peers.
The guide also contains a rich selection of online resources for scholarly self-publishers.
Available at Amazon.
Ethics in Public Relations: A Guide to Best Practice 3rd edition (London: Kogan Page, 2016)
REVIEWS
“This book offers students and practitioners of public relations a lively and engaging conversation around everyday ethics. Patricia Parsons challenges us to reflect on our hidden assumptions and darker motives when issuing misleading news releases, concealing sources or even using the office copier for personal stuff. There should be a copy by every PR water cooler.” ~ Johanna Fawkes, Senior Lecturer in Public Relations, Charles Sturt University, Australia. Author of Public Relations Ethics and Professionalism: the Shadow of Excellence (Routledge, 2014).
“Too often, the PR industry finds itself jammed between those who see ethics as irrelevant and those who view it as a branch of moral philosophy. Many of our colleagues hear ‘ethics’ and turn off altogether. ‘Ethics in Public Relations’ provides a pragmatic antidote to this malaise. Rooted in reality and pointing to professionalism, it reminds us of our societal responsibility. It’s readable, digestible and provocative. Whether you consider yourself to be a student, a scholar or neither, I contend that you ought to be both. As such, this book challenges you head-on. ‘Do unto others as you would have them do to you’ isn’t a platitude, it’s our raison d’être. Read, learn, implement and enjoy!” ~ Jason MacKenzie Found. Chart. PR Chartered Marketer FCIPR FCIM, Managing Director, Liquid, 2017 President, Chartered Institute of Public Relations
Permission to Write: How to Write a Book and Other Myths from the Real World of Writing and Publishing (2019)
Part memoir, part mentor, PERMISSION TO WRITE: How to Write a Book and Other Myths from the Real World of Writing and Publishing is a cautionary tale for writers toiling away, all alone at their computers, wishing and hoping that they might just be the next bestselling author.
The awful truth is that the digital age has made it much easier to publish a book―yet much more difficult in many ways. It is truly disheartening for both writers and readers to think that publishing a book is so easy―but ensuring its quality is seriously problematic.
PERMISSION TO WRITE helps you to give yourself that permission―if and only if you manage to improve your writing, take a more realistic approach to the fact that you probably don’t write as well as you think you do, and above all, disabuse yourself of the notion that just because you can publish your books, you should.
This book chronicles author Patricia J. Parsons’s journey through three decades of slogs with traditional publishers (including Doubleday Canada, the now-defunct NC Press, the University of Toronto Press, Kogan Page, London), as well as her romps through the increasingly convoluted corridors of the Wild, Wild West of the burgeoning digital-self-publishing world.
REVIEWS
“Patricia Parsons has written a truly useful guide to the modern online world of authors, writing, and books. If you think you have a book in you, read Parsons first. If you believe – as all authors do – that your book is the exception to the general rule that you’re not Stephen King and your book won’t sell — read Parsons first. If you think the online world doesn’t really matter to writers – read Parsons first. In short, read Parsons first.” ~ Dr. Nick Morgan, Communications Coach and Theorist, Acclaimed Author, Keynote Speaker & Forbes Blogger, Boston
“Patricia Parsons tells us what we need to know about trends, terms, facts and niches in the current publishing world. She examines the upsides and downsides of writing and preparing a book for publication and promotion. Her guide is a go-to resource every writer, unpublished, about to publish or well-published, will want to keep close at hand as they consider their projects and how to bring them to today’s market. It’s the book I’ve been waiting for—the one that helps its readers jump on the publishing train and get off at the stop that suits them best.” ~ Sheila Bender, Founder, Writingitreal.com
How To Write a Nonfiction Book Proposal That Sells: A Workbook (2022)
There are many reasons why you might consider writing a nonfiction book. You may be an expert and want to share your insights in a specific area of expertise. You may be an entrepreneur who would like to showcase your knowledge and skills to potential clients. You may have a passion for a subject area and want to share your research and insights with the broader world. You might have an interesting personal story and want to write a memoir to enrich others’ lives. Whatever the reason you may have for considering writing a book, your first step is to plan and write a book proposal.
Agents and publishers demand nonfiction proposals, and if you plan to self-publish, your submission (for yourself) provides you with direction for writing, publishing and eventual marketing.
This workbook is designed to help you understand what you need, why you need it, and how to create a complete draft of your nonfiction book proposal.
Author PATRICIA J. PARSONS sold her first nonfiction book to a publisher based on her first book proposal attempt in 1988. Since then, she’s written and successfully sold almost a dozen nonfiction books―all contracts awarded based on a book proposal. She will guide you through the real-world process of preparing a book proposal for agents, editors and yourself.
Professional Issues in Communication 
You must be logged in to post a comment.