Third, when you call, respect other person's time. Because media people face unforgiving, absolute deadlines, PR pros usually start off something like this: "Hello, this is ____. Are you on deadline or do you have a moment now?" Tell them only as much as is necessary to pique their interest. Don't take it personally if they appear brusque, and never argue with someone who's given you a "no." Simply go on to another person on your list.

Fourth, practice what you'll say when they want a full- length interview. Decide on three major points you want to get across and get a friend who's a Barbara Walters wannabee to feed you relevant and off-the-wall questions. Debra Benton got terrific results from columnist partly because she anticipated what he might ask and prepared compelling examples and convincing replies.

Phone pitches shouldn't replace targeted distribution of news releases, only supplement them in those rare cases where you sense a perfect match between a media outlet and your own specialization.

If you think you might be interested in reprint rights to my workshop, send me an email or call me and we can discuss it. My email is willie@williecrawford.com and my phone number is: 850-974-1346 (phone and voice mail)

The one thing you absolutely must understand is reason reprint rights are sold in first place. The product behind reprint rights is created to make money... plain and simple. If reprint rights are dirt cheap, creator is probably hoping for a viral effect. He wants as many copies as possible in circulation because this somehow benefits him. If you buy these reprint rights you must realize that you're not going to make a lot of money since market is probably going to be saturated very quickly.

Another reason publishers/marketers sometimes sell reprint rights is because product behind reprint rights is no longer selling. So they repackage product as "reprint rights" and generate a renewed revenue stream. However, if you buy these reprint rights you're probably buying something that you won't even earn back your investment on. That's why it's critical that you really look at what you are getting.

A third reason reprint rights are sold is because of backend sales built into product. The creator of these products sell you rights to a product that will probably earn you a good return on your investment. However, if it's a product that sells for less than $50, you can be sure that built-in backend sales all accrue to product originator. Something built into product drives subsequent, related sales back to source. These backend sales are generally for more expensive items and this is where product creator really makes his money. That's ok, provided you get a marketable product when you purchase reprint rights to front end product. Just be aware of big picture :-)

This is a fairly brief discussion of reprint rights. I assert that majority of reprint rights being offered to you today are virtually worthless. You rarely get something for nothing, so when you buy cheap reprint rights you need to ask yourself what are you really buying. Top end reprint rights can be expensive but are worth it if you are prepared to properly market them. I actually recommend creating and marketing your own products, but until you do, reprint rights offer a way for you to get lions share of proceeds. Just make sure you don't get eaten by lion during transaction.