A press kit is everything a journalist, podcast producer or event organizer needs to cover you without writing back to ask: what the news is, the key facts, bios, photos they are allowed to use, and a person to contact. Today it is usually a press page on your website with a downloadable folder, not the paper folder that once arrived by mail. In business the same bundle is often called a media kit.
The quickest way to see what belongs in one is to read a finished kit. Below are two written out piece by piece, one for a debut novelist and one for a small business, then shorter examples for a nonfiction expert, a speaker, a newsletter and a book festival, and the steps to build your own. Every name, book and company here is invented: copy the shapes, not the facts.
What goes in a press kit
Kits differ in emphasis, but the same parts turn up in nearly all of them. The rows run in the order a reporter tends to look: who to call first, extras last.
| Part | For an author | For a business |
|---|---|---|
| PartContact | For an authorPublicist or author, email and phone | For a businessA named person, email and phone |
| PartThe news | For an authorBook description and publication date | For a businessPress release or announcement |
| PartFact sheet | For an authorTitle, date, formats, prices, ISBNs | For a businessFounded, location, size, prices |
| PartBios | For an authorAuthor bio in two or three lengths | For a businessFounder and leadership bios |
| PartPhotos | For an authorHeadshots and the cover | For a businessLogo, product, team, location |
| PartStory angles | For an authorIdeas for different outlets | For a businessIdeas for different outlets |
| PartQuestions | For an authorSample interview questions | For a businessA press FAQ |
| PartProof | For an authorPraise, reviews, past interviews | For a businessCoverage, awards, customer stories |
| PartExtras | For an authorExcerpt, events, reading guide | For a businessVideo, data, brand guidelines |
Press kit, media kit or EPK?
The names overlap. Press kit is the traditional term, and media kit is the usual business word for the same bundle. Be careful with the second one: magazines, podcasts and newsletters also publish a media kit for advertisers, with audience figures and a rate card, which is a different document (there is an example further down). An EPK, or electronic press kit, is what musicians and film publicists call theirs. A band's EPK typically carries a bio, music, press photos and tour dates.
Example: an author press kit
June Hadley is a debut novelist. Her literary mystery, The Low-Water Mark, comes out in April. Her press page has seven parts. The fact sheet comes first, because it answers what an editor checks before anything else: what the book is, when it is out and what it costs.
- Title: The Low-Water Mark
- Author: June Hadley
- Category: Literary mystery, book club fiction
- Publication date: Tuesday, April 6, 2027
- Publisher: Kestrel Lane Press
- Formats and prices: Hardcover, $27.00; ebook, $13.99; audiobook, $24.99
- ISBNs: [hardcover ISBN-13], [ebook ISBN-13]
- Length: 320 pages, 6 × 9 inches
- For readers of: [two recent, widely read comparable novels]
- Setting: Calvary Bend, a fictional river town in southeast Missouri
- Author lives in: Cape Girardeau, Missouri
- Available for: interviews in person around St. Louis and southeast Missouri, by phone or video anywhere; bookstore and library events April to June 2027
- Review copies: digital galleys now; printed advance copies on request
- Publicity: Rosa Imbert, rosa.imbert@example.com, (573) 555-0148
Two lines do more work than they appear to. “Available for” answers the question every producer asks next, and the town where the author lives is the hook for every local outlet in the region. Page count and trim size are there for booksellers and librarians, who read press pages too. If you list comp titles, keep them to one “for readers of” line and choose books a general reader has heard of, not the niche comps you used to query agents.
In a drought summer, the Mississippi falls so low that the people of Calvary Bend can walk out to sandbars no one alive has stood on. Nell Ambrose, who runs the bait shop her father left her, is the first to see the car: a green Buick on the riverbed, wearing the license plate of the high school history teacher who left town twenty years ago to start over in Texas. Or so everyone said.
The sheriff wants the car hauled out quietly. Nell wants to know who last saw Tom Dorsey, and why the people who loved him most were so sure he was gone. As the water keeps dropping, the town's agreed-upon story starts to show its bones.
This is the blurb, word for word. A press kit is the wrong place to try out a new pitch: a reporter who compares it with the retailer page should find the same book.
June Hadley grew up in a river town in southeast Missouri and spent twelve years as a night dispatcher for a towboat company, tracking barges by radio. The Low-Water Mark is her first novel. She lives in Cape Girardeau with her husband and an elderly beagle named Captain.
June Hadley grew up in a river town of about 900 people in southeast Missouri, where her grandfather ran the ferry until a bridge put it out of business. For twelve years she worked nights as a dispatcher for a towboat company, tracking barges between St. Louis and Memphis by radio and phone, and she wrote The Low-Water Mark in the quiet hours between calls. Her short stories have appeared in two literary journals, and one was a finalist for a regional fiction prize. She teaches a community college course on writing about work. She lives in Cape Girardeau, Missouri, with her husband and an elderly beagle named Captain, and is writing a second novel set on the river.
Both bios are in the third person, so an editor can paste them without rewriting. A medium version of about 100 words is worth adding if you speak at events. There are more lengths and styles in author bio examples.
- Local paper and TV: Cape Girardeau towboat dispatcher publishes the novel she wrote on the night shift. Available for photos at the riverfront.
- Regional magazine: What the river gives back in a dry year. Hadley can describe what towboat crews see when the channel narrows, and how that became a plot.
- Book podcasts: A mystery with no detective. Nell has no badge and no authority, only a town where everyone is somebody's cousin, and Hadley can talk about building the reveals around that.
- Work and career outlets: Writing a novel around twelve-hour shifts: the routine, the notebooks, and what dispatching taught her about dialogue.
Angles are the part most author kits skip, and the part that gets coverage. A books editor already has a stack of novels. A features editor, a TV producer and a podcast host each need a reason that fits their audience, and an angle is that reason in one sentence. In each pitch, use the one angle that fits the outlet, the same way you would pitch an article to an editor. The full list stays on the press page.
- You spent twelve years dispatching towboats at night. How did that job end up in a novel?
- Nell has no badge and no reason to investigate. What makes her start asking?
- Why set the book in a drought instead of a flood?
- Calvary Bend is fictional. How close is it to the town you grew up in?
- How do you write a novel around night shifts?
- What did your old coworkers say when they read it?
- What are you writing next?
Good sample questions lead to a story rather than a yes or no, and they are ones the author enjoys answering. Skip “What inspired you?” A host will ask it without your help.
Praise comes next, if you have it: two or three short endorsements with each person's name and best-known book, and a sentence from any trade review with the outlet and date. Use only quotes you have permission to use, and never trim one so it says something the reviewer did not mean.
The download folder
Under the text, offer everything as one download. Name each file so it still makes sense in a stranger's downloads folder, put the photographer's name in the photo file names so the credit travels with the picture, and give anything a reporter will paste (the description, the bios) in an editable format as well as PDF.
hadley-press-kit.zip
hadley-press-kit/
hadley-fact-sheet.pdf
hadley-book-description.docx
hadley-bios.docx
hadley-interview-questions.pdf
hadley-excerpt-chapter-1.pdf
photos/
june-hadley-color-credit-ana-reyes.jpg
june-hadley-bw-credit-ana-reyes.jpg
low-water-mark-cover.jpgGalleys for trade reviewers
If you or your publisher want trade reviews, the press material goes out with the galleys, long before publication. Publishers Weekly asks for adult titles to arrive three months, preferably four, before the first day of the publication month, with the price, page count, 13-digit ISBN, publication date and a publicity contact on the galley. Kirkus asks for digital galleys four to five months before publication. For June's April 6 book, that means Kirkus between early November and early December 2026, and Publishers Weekly by December 1 (January 1 at the latest). Both run separate programs for self-published books, and all of these guidelines change, so check the current ones before you send.
Example: a small business press kit
Second Spine Bindery is a four-person bookbinding studio in Providence, Rhode Island. This spring it is opening a walk-in repair counter, and its press page is built around that news. A business kit leads with the announcement and the boilerplate, because those are the parts a reporter quotes.
Second Spine Bindery opens a walk-in counter for family Bibles, cookbooks and photo albums
PROVIDENCE, R.I., April 13, 2027 — Second Spine Bindery, a hand bookbinding studio, will open a walk-in repair counter on Saturday, May 1. Anyone can bring in a damaged book for a free ten-minute assessment and a written estimate, with no appointment. The counter will be open Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
The release follows the inverted pyramid: the whole story in the first paragraph, details after. The press release template has the standard format, from dateline to contact block.
Second Spine Bindery repairs and rebinds books by hand. Founded in 2015 by bookbinder Inés Moreau, the studio restores family Bibles, cookbooks, photo albums and yearbooks for customers across New England and by mail from anywhere in the United States. Its four binders work from a storefront studio in Providence, Rhode Island, and teach evening classes in basic book repair. More at [website].
- Founded: 2015, Providence, Rhode Island
- Founder and owner: Inés Moreau
- Team: four bookbinders and one apprentice
- Services: repair, rebinding, protective boxes, mail-in repair, evening classes
- Prices: repairs from $85; full rebinding from $240; classes $60 a session
- Books repaired since 2015: about 6,000, from the studio's order records
- Typical turnaround: four to eight weeks
- News: walk-in repair counter opens Saturday, May 1, 2027; Saturdays 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
- Press contact: Inés Moreau, press@example.com, (401) 555-0163
“About 6,000, from the order records” is a fact a reporter can print. “Thousands of happy customers” is not, and an editor will cut it or, worse, ask.
Inés Moreau trained as a bookbinder in a university library's conservation lab, where she spent eight years repairing rare books and archival bindings. She opened Second Spine in 2015 after noticing that most books people brought to the library's repair clinic were not rare at all: they were cookbooks, Bibles and photo albums that mattered to one family. She teaches the studio's evening repair classes and is training its first apprentice.
- Local TV: The oldest book on the bench, an 1850s family Bible with five generations of births written inside the cover, being resewn this month. Filmable, with the family's permission.
- Home and lifestyle: How to save a cookbook that's falling apart: what to do at home, why household tape does more harm than the tear, and when to bring it in.
- Business section: A trade with a waiting list, and why the studio is training an apprentice instead of hiring.
- Gift guides: A repair gift certificate for a parent's falling-apart recipe book, from $85.
- moreau-at-bench.jpg: Inés Moreau sewing a book at the studio bench. Photo: [photographer]. Free to use with credit in coverage of the bindery.
- cookbook-before-after.jpg: A 1940s church cookbook before and after repair, shown with the owner's permission.
- walk-in-counter.jpg: The new repair counter, April 2027.
- second-spine-logo.png and .svg: The logo on a transparent background, in color and in black.
Can we film in the studio? Yes, weekday mornings from 9 to 11, with a day's notice. Please don't show customers' family records without their written permission. We will point you to books we can show.
Who can speak on the record? Inés Moreau, about the studio, book repair and the trade. Customers who have agreed to talk are listed on request.
Do you work on rare or valuable books? Some, by appointment. For books with significant market value we refer owners to a conservator who can also advise on insurance.
More press kit examples, briefly
The same parts rearrange for other writers and organizations. What changes is what leads: an expert leads with topics, a speaker with talks, a newsletter with numbers, an event with logistics.
Dr. Lena Ortiz, food historian and author of Second Helpings, a history of American school lunch. She can talk about:
- What school lunch looked like in your grandparents' day, decade by decade
- Who decides what goes on a school menu, and how
- Why adults remember one school lunch for fifty years
- Back-to-school segments in August and holiday menus in November
Short answers for broadcast, longer ones for print and podcasts. Based in Columbus, Ohio, with a home setup for video interviews.
Dana Whitfield teaches plain-language writing to teams that send too many emails.
- Write It So They Read It, a 45-minute keynote on email and reports
- The One-Page Proposal, a 90-minute workshop for up to 40 people
Recent audiences: a state bar association's annual meeting, three regional hospital systems, two university staff conferences. Needs a projector with HDMI and a lavalier microphone. Fees and dates: [booking contact].
- The Back Room, a weekly newsletter on independent bookselling
- Subscribers: 8,400; average open rate 51 percent
- Readers: booksellers, librarians, small-press staff
- Sponsorship: one sponsor per issue, a 60-word message and a link, $240 an issue
- Open dates: [link to calendar]
- Date, hours, location and admission (free)
- Author lineup by session, each with a photo and a short bio
- Press credentials: request by [date], pick up at the information tent
- Photography: allowed in outdoor sessions; ask before photographing signings
- A press contact with a cell number for the day itself
How to build your press kit
- Write the news in one sentence
What is new, and why now: a book out on a date, a counter opening, a speaking tour. Everything else in the kit hangs on this sentence, so write it before anything else.
- Write the fact sheet
Every fact a reporter might check, in one place: names spelled exactly, dates with the day of the week, prices, one contact. Have someone else check each line against the source.
- Write the bios and description
Bios in the third person, in two or three lengths. The book description or company boilerplate exactly as it appears everywhere else.
- Collect photos you can share
Headshots in color and black and white, in portrait and landscape. Get the photographer's written permission for press use, and put the credit in the file name.
- Add angles and questions
Three or four angles for different kinds of outlets, and five to eight sample questions that lead to stories.
- Publish one page and one download
Put the text on a press page at a simple address such as yoursite.com/press, with the files in one zip below it. Send the link in pitches instead of attaching large files.
- Date it and keep it current
Put “Updated” and the month at the top. Remove events that have passed, add new coverage, and replace the photo when you no longer look like it.
For the download, these formats cover what editors, designers and producers ask for. Nobody on deadline will convert a file for you.
| File | Format | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| FileHeadshots | FormatJPG | Notes300 dpi at print size; color and black and white |
| FileBook cover | FormatJPG, RGB | Notes2,560 px tall, Amazon's recommended ebook cover size |
| FileLogo | FormatPNG and SVG | NotesTransparent background; color and one color |
| FileBios, description | FormatDOCX or TXT, plus PDF | NotesText people can copy |
| FileFact sheet, release | FormatPDF, plus text on the page | NotesOne page each where possible |
| FileExcerpt | FormatPDF | NotesThe first chapter or a self-contained section |
Mistakes that cost coverage
Reporters rarely complain about a weak press kit. They use someone else's. These are the differences they notice.
What reporters can use
- A named contact with a phone number, on every page
- Facts on the page as text they can copy
- Photos at print resolution, with credits and permission
- The news in the first line
- A date showing when the kit was last updated
What sends them elsewhere
- A contact form instead of a person
- Bios locked inside a designed PDF
- Small, watermarked or uncredited photos
- "Award-winning" with no award named
- Last year's events and a dead link to the book
Keeping the kit in Strokes
A press kit is a handful of short documents that must agree with each other, which suits a project folder. In Strokes, keep the fact sheet, bios, description, angles and questions as documents in one project, then export each to PDF or Word for the download. Share to web gives you one link to a document, such as the fact sheet, while the file stays on your machine. Version history keeps last year's bio when you rewrite it.
The AI Assistant is useful for the tedious parts: cutting the long bio to 50 words, or checking that the angles and the fact sheet agree. Select a sentence and press ⌘K to tighten it in place. Read every change before it goes out. Reporters copy press kits word for word, mistakes included.
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between a press kit and a media kit?
In public relations they mean the same thing: facts, bios, photos and a contact for journalists. Media kit also names a different document that magazines, podcasts and newsletters give advertisers, with audience numbers and ad rates.
Does a self-published author need a press kit?
Yes. Without a publicist, the press page is what answers a reporter's questions when you are not there to. One page with a fact sheet, two bios, a headshot, the cover and a contact is enough to start.
Should a press kit be a PDF or a web page?
Both. Put the text on a web page so it reads on a phone and can be copied, and offer the same material as a PDF or zip for people who want files. A press page also gives you one stable link for every pitch.
How long should a press kit be?
Short enough to scan in a minute. The fact sheet, the release and each bio fit on a page or less. Length comes from photos and extras such as an excerpt, not from long text.
Should I attach my press kit to a pitch email?
Usually not. Send a short pitch with a link to your press page and attach nothing, or one small file. A link keeps the email light and lets the reporter take only what they need.
