🔍 What Is This Issue?
When publishing a press release in PR Distribution, some users see an error reading 'The blog summary must contain at most 45 words' even when their summary is 45 words or fewer. This is caused by a known discrepancy between the word counter displayed in the editor and the stricter validation check that runs at the moment of submission. The editor may show your summary as compliant, but the final check can count words differently and block publishing.
⚙️ Step 1: Try a Clean Browser Session
Before anything else, rule out a browser caching issue:
- Clear your browser cookies and cache.
- Open a private or incognito window.
- Navigate to Left sidebar → Authority → PR Distribution.
- Reopen your press release and attempt to publish again.
In some cases this alone resolves the error. If the error persists, continue to Step 2.
✂️ Step 2: Reduce Your Summary Below 44 Words
Because the editor's word counter and the submission validator can disagree, the reliable workaround is to keep your blog summary noticeably under the stated 45-word limit. Aim for 43–44 words or fewer to give enough margin for both counters to agree.
- Open your press release in Left sidebar → Authority → PR Distribution.
- Locate the blog summary field.
- Edit the summary so it is 43–44 words at most. Remove filler phrases, conjunctions, or secondary details to trim the count without losing meaning.
- Save your changes, then attempt to publish again.
This has resolved the issue for most affected users. If publishing still fails after trimming to 43 words or fewer, move to Step 3.
💡 Tips for Counting Words Accurately
- Paste your summary into a plain-text editor (such as Notepad or TextEdit) and use that tool's word count rather than relying solely on the in-editor counter.
- Hyphenated compounds (e.g. AI-generated) may be counted as one or two words depending on the validator — split or merge them to test.
- Avoid trailing punctuation or line breaks that could affect how words are parsed at submission.
📊 Known Engineering Status
This word-count validation discrepancy was identified and a fix was filed with the engineering team (ticket #109383477). A related fix addressing blog summary word-count validation has been marked as resolved for affected accounts. If you are still experiencing the error after following the steps above, your account may need to be reviewed individually by the engineering team.
🚀 Still Blocked? Escalate With a Screen Recording
If reducing your summary to 43 words or fewer and using an incognito session does not resolve the issue, the engineering team will need a recording to investigate further. Before contacting support, prepare the following:
- A screen recording that shows your summary text, the word count visible in the editor, and the error message that appears when you click publish.
- The exact word count of your summary (verified in a plain-text editor).
- The title of the affected press release.
If you need further assistance, open the chat widget in the bottom-right corner of the platform and type human teammate to be connected with a member of our team.