Todd Defren of the PR Squared blog wrote a post back at the beginning of May that I’ve been meaning to point our readers to for a while. He highlights a book, 77 1/2 Public Relations Tips, by Joe Chernov.

I recommend reading Todd’s original post, but here’s his opinion in a nutshell:

This is a quick read that will make any PR newbie sound like a legitimate pro. As Joe himself says in the book: “PR is not magic. It’s a trade.” If so, he’s written a first-class instruction book.

I’ll be adding it to our suggested reading list, along with several others I’ve been meaning to add …

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‘You stink!’ Young children haven’t learnt to avoid the plain truth. But adults often find it difficult to be direct. Have you ever told a friend or co-worker that their body odor is offensive? Could you tell your supervisor?

So, the simple truth becomes harder to tell as we grow older, and harder to voice when power enters a relationship. This explains the story of the emperor’s new clothes. It’s a parable about power and its tendency to distort the truth.

What does this have to do with public relations? Well, here’s another parable taken from my favorite management writer, Charles Handy. In The Empty Raincoat, first published in 1994, he picks up on a line by the socialist politician Tony Benn about kings and prophets: ‘the kings have the power and the prophets have the principles.’

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