3.3.10: Mass Emails – Friend or Foe?
One thing that happens when you are a book reviewer or editor is you get on a lot of email lists. Some voluntarily, some because you’ve reviewed a publicist’s book and they’ve added you to their media contact list.
I find that some companies use email well, others hardly at all, and some create a distaste for reviewing their books through their email campaigns.
I realize that most of these emails are just mass-mailings. I usually don’t mind, because it only takes me a second to delete something that I don’t need. When I get on a list that doesn’t have anything to do with me (an author keeps me on his events/publicity list after we’ve reviewed the book), I just unsubscribe. (Everyone sending out mass emails has an unsubscribe option right?)
Types of email lists that work:
- New release info: Info on a book coming out or just released
- Updated info: Change in release dates, good prepub reviews coming in, local author appearances for the calendar, etc.
- Upcoming imprint/publisher release schedule: Vintage/Anchor Books does this very well. I wish others would do this. Give me lists of galleys coming out soon, and release info. I get most of this information from catalogs, but its nice for a reminder, especially the galley notification.
- Follow-ups to check on the status of a title sent: I get to these when I can and usually only if I know the publicist.
Types that don’t work:
- Sending me a solicitation for a book I’ve already requested and haven’t received yet. Especially if its two or three months after the release date. Nothing like that to remind me you still have review copies left and I was on the bottom of the list.
- Sending me the same email more than once a month. There is one publicity firm that sends the same email up to three times a week. Because I usually only look at solicitation emails once a week or so, this guarantees I won’t ask for the book. And this firm has gotten so bad about this, I’m about to stop requesting any books from them.
- Badly targeted emails. You should know something about us before sending us requests for reviewing your book. And don’t send me solicitations for things that aren’t books. Otherwise we’d probably be known as the Sacramento Whatever-Comes-Our-Way Review. (One exception to this rule – if have wine you want me to review, please go right ahead and solicit away.)
- Poorly written emails or any that make me jump through hoops to get a book. If I can’t hit reply and request the book in the body of the reply, the email gets deleted.
Things I’d like to see more of:
- As I said, I like getting the Vintage/Anchor forthcoming emails. I can quickly scan for things that don’t look familiar or have been dropped in since the catalog, look for a galley of a title I’d like to have reviewed as early as possible. Picador does it as well. I’d like to see other publishers with decent lists come out with something like this or be able to subscribe to parts of a list (i.e., I probably wouldn’t want to see everything that Berkley/NAL is putting out every month, but parts of their list I wouldn’t mind a month-out heads up on. Same with Knopf, Little Random House, Crown etc.)
- Auto emailers that I can subscribe to for single titles. Let me know when something is available or changes (a big online list of upcoming books by season would be good. Signing up for a title would flag my interest in getting the galley or final/info on the title. Probably not just of interest to book reviewers.)
Email can be a powerful tool in promoting your book, or if you’re a publicist, your season’s titles. Overused, you start getting ignored (boy who cried wolf syndrome); underused, you miss promotional opportunities from reliable review sources.
–Ross Rojek, Senior Editor, San Francisco & Sacramento Book Reviews
email him at ross@1776productions.com
