Reflecting on the recent online ado (check out Chasing Ray and Read Roger) about how publishers and bloggers should best interact with one another, I offer three suggestions from my own experience:
Bloggers -- Consider the cost
I've heard it said that ARCs are expensive to print. Trouble is, "expensive" is such a relative term. But now, somewhere in this kerfuffle, I believe somebody mentioned/suggested/estimated that ARCs cost $8.50. Each. I'm a former bookseller and a published author, and I had no idea they cost that much to print. None. I come from a world where the average paperback is in the $6-7 range -- and I'm talking retail, not wholesale. $8.50? Yowzers. If that figure is accurate, and if it were common knowledge, I'm thinking a lot more bloggers would be a lot more judicious about which titles they request.
Publishers -- Pay attention to bloggers' submission guidelines (so to speak)
Publisher X: Your blog is great! Can we put you on our blogger mailing list and send you free books and ARCs we're excited about?
Me: Hell yes.
This conversation will never go any other way. I will never, ever turn down an offer from a publisher that will make free books appear in my mailbox. Ever the optimist, I always let a publisher know what genres and age levels I favor. And yet about 50% of the time I open an unsolicited envelope from a publisher, I find titles that make me wonder whether the folks at the online marketing helm really have read my blog: picture books, commercial fiction, series, etc. It's accumulating into a mini-slush pile, and the thought of the wasted postage alone makes me feel guilty every time I look at it.
I'm all in favor of being open-minded and trying new books, but bloggers, like editors and imprints, have their own tastes and interests, and very few are truly omnivorous. If the tables were turned, these generic blog mailings would be akin to an author simultaneously cold-querying a heap of publishers, and we all know how successful that approach is for all parties concerned...
(Incidentally, I've found that for the most part sales reps do a better job of gauging my tastes and supplementing my requests with appealing extras than the folks in online marketing. Marketing departments seem more prone to arbitrarily tossing in whatever books they're currently pushing. And at $8.50 a toss -- ouch.)
Bloggers -- Pass it on!
Why not offer to forward ARCs you're not planning to review? Seeing as we've got the gumption to request freebies, it seems like we bloggers could dish out $1.50 in media mail postage now and then to give a book a second chance with another reader.
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Currently reading:
Love, Aubrey
by Suzanne LaFleur
