Thriller Marketing/Review/Comments: Marketing
A few weeks back, Ed Gorman wrote a blog entry he called "Whoring by any other name." It was inspired and partially quoted an item from the GalleyCat site, and was overwhelmingly down on a marketing effort for Brad Thor's forthcoming book, The First Commandment.
The gimmick essentially comes from another blog site, Dr. Blogstein's, where he made it known that he had a number of signed ARC's (Advance Reviewer Copies) that he would send out to anyone with a blog that would commit to posting a review.
Apparently there are a number of people who feel that this actually intrudes upon the territory of professional reviewers, somehow causing harm to their reputations or their industry, while at the same time unduly influencing the posted reviews. Professionals can be impartial reviewers but recipients of free, autographed ARC's cannot.
This I think is hogwash. So much so that I sent an e-mail to Dr. Blogstein and thereafter received one of the copies in question. I am now part of the anti-professional-reviewer conspiracy.
I really have only two points to make in all of this. The first one is that when I read a book review, I either come to respect the reviewer or not. If I don't believe in the reviewer's viewpoint, conclusions, or even their writing style, I don't read the review. And I stop reading that reviewer.
There are a number of reviewing "fouls" to my mind. Review the book that was written, and don't tell me how it would have benefited from this or that because then that wouldn't be this book, it would be a different one. Don't give away spoilers to mysteries or romantic entanglements in the book. Don't compare it to books from other writers: what good does that do?
Discuss the book, comment on its style, pace, viewpoint, uniqueness, how enjoyable was it to read, etc. Give me the inside scoop on why the book may have been written or come to published by so and so. Did it make you think? Feel? Dammit, was the book fun to read? Would you read another book by the same author?
My second point is that if I recommend anything to anyone and it turns out to be a lemon, my influence, such as it was, will be correspondingly reduced. It's a self regulating problem. If someone gives me a free book and I issue praise because of it, I only lose my credibility. And why would I write a blog, or anything for that matter, if I undermine any confidence a reader may have in what I have to say?
A few months ago another writer decided to post some of his earlier works on his website and make them available for free. This too was condemned. I gotta tell you, I don't see anything wrong with this, either. It would be difficult to argue with the notion that if a person (consumer) likes an author's works, he or she will buy the author's books. Is this guy hurting another author's sales by posting his work for free? I don't see how. Is he hurting his own? I think not. His fans will already be buyers; if there are a few who would have bought this book because they are already fans, they get a nice bonus. If they're like me they couldn't/wouldn't read a book on screen, anyway. But for the people, the mass majority of people, that would not blindly plunk down (too much) money on an author they don't even know if they like, this exposure could serve to convert them from readers to buyers.
I've always felt that the music industry comes down way too heavily on what they call pirating. I think that there's a huge benefit to the industry when people make copies of albums they've bought and give them to friends who WOULD NOT OTHERWISE have bought the album themselves. There's exposure. If they like the album a lot, they will be much more likely to buy the next one themselves. The uncomfortable parallel between music CD's and printed books are that both are currently way overpriced and in the case of music encourage much more egregious piratical ventures. But that's another story.
So I received a free copy of The First Commandment. It is inscribed "Thanks for your support" and signed by Brad Thor. I read the book last week. It was a book that I likely would not have otherwise read by an author of whom I was previously unfamiliar. He wanted a reader and he got one. I applaud his efforts to increase his readership. And in this he has my honest and enthusiastic support. As for the review, well, he'll get that in the next post.
The gimmick essentially comes from another blog site, Dr. Blogstein's, where he made it known that he had a number of signed ARC's (Advance Reviewer Copies) that he would send out to anyone with a blog that would commit to posting a review.
Apparently there are a number of people who feel that this actually intrudes upon the territory of professional reviewers, somehow causing harm to their reputations or their industry, while at the same time unduly influencing the posted reviews. Professionals can be impartial reviewers but recipients of free, autographed ARC's cannot.
This I think is hogwash. So much so that I sent an e-mail to Dr. Blogstein and thereafter received one of the copies in question. I am now part of the anti-professional-reviewer conspiracy.
I really have only two points to make in all of this. The first one is that when I read a book review, I either come to respect the reviewer or not. If I don't believe in the reviewer's viewpoint, conclusions, or even their writing style, I don't read the review. And I stop reading that reviewer.
There are a number of reviewing "fouls" to my mind. Review the book that was written, and don't tell me how it would have benefited from this or that because then that wouldn't be this book, it would be a different one. Don't give away spoilers to mysteries or romantic entanglements in the book. Don't compare it to books from other writers: what good does that do?
Discuss the book, comment on its style, pace, viewpoint, uniqueness, how enjoyable was it to read, etc. Give me the inside scoop on why the book may have been written or come to published by so and so. Did it make you think? Feel? Dammit, was the book fun to read? Would you read another book by the same author?
My second point is that if I recommend anything to anyone and it turns out to be a lemon, my influence, such as it was, will be correspondingly reduced. It's a self regulating problem. If someone gives me a free book and I issue praise because of it, I only lose my credibility. And why would I write a blog, or anything for that matter, if I undermine any confidence a reader may have in what I have to say?
A few months ago another writer decided to post some of his earlier works on his website and make them available for free. This too was condemned. I gotta tell you, I don't see anything wrong with this, either. It would be difficult to argue with the notion that if a person (consumer) likes an author's works, he or she will buy the author's books. Is this guy hurting another author's sales by posting his work for free? I don't see how. Is he hurting his own? I think not. His fans will already be buyers; if there are a few who would have bought this book because they are already fans, they get a nice bonus. If they're like me they couldn't/wouldn't read a book on screen, anyway. But for the people, the mass majority of people, that would not blindly plunk down (too much) money on an author they don't even know if they like, this exposure could serve to convert them from readers to buyers.
I've always felt that the music industry comes down way too heavily on what they call pirating. I think that there's a huge benefit to the industry when people make copies of albums they've bought and give them to friends who WOULD NOT OTHERWISE have bought the album themselves. There's exposure. If they like the album a lot, they will be much more likely to buy the next one themselves. The uncomfortable parallel between music CD's and printed books are that both are currently way overpriced and in the case of music encourage much more egregious piratical ventures. But that's another story.
So I received a free copy of The First Commandment. It is inscribed "Thanks for your support" and signed by Brad Thor. I read the book last week. It was a book that I likely would not have otherwise read by an author of whom I was previously unfamiliar. He wanted a reader and he got one. I applaud his efforts to increase his readership. And in this he has my honest and enthusiastic support. As for the review, well, he'll get that in the next post.
posted by Rick Ollerman at 7:13 PM
3 Comments:
Very interesting. I've written a book and thus find the whole topic relevant and you're probably right about the exposure being good.
I just don't think that whether one is a professional reviewer or not has any truck with a typical reader. What matters is whether or not they find the actual review well written, informative, inspiring, and what not. I find a good review is often educational as well as entertaining. A non-professional can do this just as well as someone who received a free copy and a check for ten bucks. I'm just not convinced a non-professional wouldn't be any more tainted by their free copy than a professional.
The non- is perhaps more likely to be ill-informed and poorly read but then won't their review resonate with a corresponding lack of conviction? Again, self-regulating.
An actor or a musician can audition and thereby get themselves accepted or rejected. A writer is constantly struggling for the audition, for an opportunity to be read. So I think this technique is a valid one, even if I never take advantage of it again.
Interesting to know.
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