Publicity gone bad: Telemarketing Reviewers
Last week I got an email pitch from Beautiful Planning Marketing Group based in New York City for a book called The Diaper Chronicles. I immediately dismissed the pitch because it was apparent the publicist had never even been to my site. What portion of my YA readership would (or my Mom) would be interested in a Dad’s how to guide on raising small children? It was not beneficial for me or the author for me to waste his precious review copies on a book my audience will care nothing about.
No big deal right? Happens all the time, we dismiss books we do not think we will like or have no interest in. My policy even clearly states that I do not accept self published titles. However today while I couldn’t find my phone and had to go pick my daughter up from the bus stop I came home to a missed call. From guess who? Beautiful Planning Marketing Group wanting to stress to me how important it is for me to review this book. Can you believe it? Telemarketing? Still it’s a little creepy but not a HUGE deal right?
Well the fact that like 17 people in this world have my phone number and not one of them are publicists makes it kind of a big deal to me. I am a semi-private person, and I don’t like phone calls. Ergo my business cards having only my email. Let’s discuss things from there mmmkay?
I have emailed the company asking where and by what shady means they even got my number and I have emailed the author letting him know just what is happening and bringing it to his attention. Hopefully he was unaware of this. Has this happened to you? Publishers and Self Published Authors beware, this is a definite breech of etiquette and will not be tolerated at least by this blogger.
I got this email. She wants me not to go to her clients anymore? Why should I have to reach out to only her, do the authors not deserve to know how their campaigns are playing out?
Hi Pam,
I received the below email from my client I guess you had forwarded through and wanted to take the time to address your concern. We are a very established PR firm located out of NYC and NJ with a ton of book clients. We received your name and contact info from the Jacob Javitz BEA media list as we have a number of clients appearing there next week. That is how we acquired your number and in no way shape or form do we use shady practices or any telemarketing companies. They are simply way too expensive for our blood.
In a standard campaign for our clients we will email a targeted list and then follow up with calls. My apologies if you felt in any way offended that we rang you at home as that is the number we were provided. We never received your reply to the email-possible spam filters of course or we would have definitely notated it and removed you from the list.
Please know that I am the owner of the firm and in no way do we ever want to offend our bloggers, editors, etc. Including you. Also as a side note if you ever have issues with our practices in the future please direct all grievances to me instead of directing them to our clients. We hold a very goos relationship with each and every one and do our best not to offend. I am pretty much glued to my computer 24-7 as any great publicist is and would see a complaint very fast and attempt to remedy it.
If you are visiting the BEA I do hope to see you there , meet face to face and shake your hand. Maybe one day we will have a client on our roster that you are interested in and at that time I would love a review from your end-fingers crossed : ).
Very Warm Regards,
By: Catherine
That is really creepy and annoying. :/
By: Ash
Wow that is insanely rude. I would be upset as well, haven’t run into any of this yet. I do hate it when I get requests to read books that totally violate my review policy. Grrr.
By: the story siren
you know what… i got that pitch too, and just deleted it as well. but i don’t answer my phone if it’s not a number i know, so who knows if they called me or not… that is ridiculous!
By: Kate
I got it too and deleted it, twice, they kept emailing me so I figured it was a scam and not worth my time.
By: Gaby
How annoying! I hate telemarketing….!!
Its impossible to understand how those people get your phone number.
By: Katy
Oh wow, that is very creepy. If you don’t provide your phone number as contact information, marketers should not go searching for it. That’s awfully stalkerish. :(
Our number is unlisted, so hopefully no one would be able to find it to call me.
By: Rebecca
I can’t believe they called you! How DID they get your number? Some company selling your info probably. And that is just completely disrespectful, not to mention ODD. If you say no, then respect that you mean no. You are right that it’s clear they’ve never seen your blog. Probably just wrote down a list of bloggers to contact and went down a list or something. Very shady. I will be keeping my eyes out for these losers.
By: Jenn's Bookshelves
I received this email as well. I see a bunch of “unavailable” calls on my phone, so I can’t tell if one is them. I’ll have to listen to my voicemails to be certain. Creepy nonetheless!
By: Amy @ My Friend Amy
oh yeah this one went to my spam filter. I guess I didn’t realize I was giving out my phone number with BEA, but that does make sense.
By: Cat
Grrrr. As creeped out as I was I was happy when you let me know you got the same call and then did all the investigative work for me. heh I was too busy texting my husband and freaking out about identity left.
And now that they revealed their source for the phone number I am exceptionally miffed at BEA for releasing the information.
By: Jess (The Cozy Reader)
They called me today. I don’t recall getting an email from them so I was sooo confused when they called today. I also had just stepped out of the shower w/o my glasses on which just added to my confusion, as well as the accent the caller had. I couldn’t understand what he was saying!
I’m not sure where or why they would have my phone number. Also, I don’t review parenting books. I was too confused at the time to be too bothered by it then but I’m definitely wondering what the heck is up! Don’t call me at my home, email me! Better yet, visit my blog and see what I am willing to review before pitching a book to me.
I’m glad I wasn’t the only one. :)
By: Kim (Sophisticated Dorkiness)
I guess this doesn’t seem that rude to me, at least not purposefully so (but I didn’t hear the voicemail, so that definitely could have made it worse).
Generally though, it makes sense that publicists, etc. registered for BEA could get contact information for people registered as bloggers or press. PR people contact journalists all the time as follow up to press releases — if the BEA contact info they got didn’t clearly indicate who was a blogger and who was a journalist, I can see it being an honest mistake (I didn’t register for BEA, so I don’t know how that worked).
By: Jen - Devourer of Books
Hmm, I do remember clicking the button that BEA could share my email, but I guess I don’t remember that it included sharing phone numbers. That’s obnoxious, but at least now we know how they got your info and I’m slightly less creeped out.
By: Lexie C.
Boy am I glad that we don’t pick up the landline in my house (ha! what’s a landline?).
It kind of bugs me that BEA would do that however, since I don’t remember being asked if it would be okay for a third party to receive my phone number. E-mail I expect, but not phone calls. Aren’t there specific privacy guidelines for the handing out of phone numbers?
By: Aarti
That IS creepy! I actually think the publicist asking you not to contact her client is normal. I probably would first contact the publicist, and if I didn’t get a response I liked, then maybe I’d contact the author, but generally I don’t think I would contact both at the same time. That may just be me, though! I have a feeling the author knows the way that the publicist contacts people- that would probably be in the contract? But as an email to him probably wouldn’t really solve anything (as he could really only forward your email onto the publicist and say something like “Please don’t bother this girl again”), then I might not do it.
That said, I would be SUPER freaked out by someone having my phone number, and it seems as though the publicist calls multiple times, so…. yikes.
I do think she sent you a nice email, though :-)
By: bermudaonion (Kathy)
I keep my phone on and with me all the time since our son’s away at school. Yesterday, I needed to re-start it and in those few seconds when it was off this PR firm left a message on it. I listened to it once, didn’t totally understand it and deleted it. It wasn’t until after I read this and searched my email inbox did I realize that I’d gotten the email too. I agree with you – it’s totally unacceptable.
By: heidenkind
Phone calls are definitely going too far. They need to keep contact to e-mail unless specifically arranged before-hand.
By: Linda Ellen
OMG! Those same people contacted me about the same book a week or two before BEA. I was wondering how they got my home number. I sent them an email, saying I wasn’t interested. I tried to be nice. I really tried. I haven’t heard from them again, but having them call my house? Very creepy.
I guess you and I have been victims of terrible terrible marketing.
BTW, I’m so glad I’ve met you at BEA! =)