Giving birth on the double!
Lifestyle - Journalist Sandra Coffey wrote a book on media for businesses during lockdown. The first-time mother had her hands full but as she explains here, being busy focused her mind. The Athenry author hopes her publication will help organisations get back on their feet as life slowly returns to normal.
If anyone had told me I’d be writing my first book during a global pandemic, with the world in lockdown, and shortly after having had a baby, I would have thought it was impossible and frankly ridiculous!
But as with many parents during the pandemic, things that looked impossible at first somehow became possible, due to having to find a way to make them a reality.
During my 15 years as a journalist, I saw the power of a good media story and what it could do for a business, charity, or sport. I had always wanted to write this book so I could share some insights into the world of the media, to pull back the curtain so to speak. My aim was that it would help people find their media-worthy stories and allow them to develop the knowledge and courage to tell those stories. Getting publicity is one of the oldest and most trusted ways to grow a business – and it needn’t be something that people think is out of their reach.
I had the basics of the book put together before I had my daughter, Nicole in UHG in September 2018. Then, work on it came to a stop. I was a 41-year-old first time mom who had a lot to learn and get used to.
It was almost 16 months before I got back to the project. As I started writing again, Covid-19 had arrived. Its impact on our lives, along the fact that I was a new mother meant I needed to change the direction of the book.
Time-poor entrepreneurs and businesses needed PR advice that was going to suit their new reality. I was now snatching at time myself and trying to get things done in a shorter timeframe. I knew that having PR advice that could be easily digested was vital for businesses. I also decided that story ideas, prompts, templates, and checklists would be essential in order for the book to be of real help to busy people.
I used to sit at my kitchen table surrounded by baby bottles and bibs and ask, “Is it possible to read/digest/do this easily?” I also wanted the book to help businesses get back on their feet after what’s a difficult time for everyone.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
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