Dear Publicist
Dear Publicist,
I love receiving your pitches via email. It makes me ever so happy to open each and every one. I think hard about what to accept for review. I ask myself questions like:
Will it fit in my audience?
Can I do anything to promote this book successfully?
Do I have time to read and review it in a timely manner with my other commitments?
I want to help you market your product to readers! I accept books in loads of formats to make it easier for you. I worked really hard on my policy page to get all important info there for you in one place so that you don’t have to search my blog for anything.
Alas, you never read the page though do you? This week alone I have had 16 pitches that started with “Hi Blogger” or “Dear Bookalicio”. What the heck is a Bookalicio? The pitches have ranged from books on how to meet guys, cookbooks, how to gain entry to heaven, what to do in your golden years and more.
If you would take the five seconds in the future to read my policy page it would be awesome. It will tell you that my name is Pam, my blog name is Bookalicious and I review Middle Grade and Young Adult material.
I love you I really do but we have to find some common ground here. I just want to help you get your books out to an audience that will appreciate them. Reviewing books that don’t reach my target isn’t helping you at all. I bet if you read the policy page of bloggers before you sent the books out you could create even more of a buzz for your titles by finding niche blogs that really support what you are pitching and have an audience for it.
I hope to hear from you again soon,
Pam van Hylckama Vlieg / blogger / bookalicio
By: Ruth @ Bookish Ruth (@BookishRuth)
I’ve been wanting to write a post like this for a long time. I got a “Dear Blogger” e-mail just this week. You made your point better than I would have, though! Kudos Pam.
By: Laura @ I'm Booking It (@bookingit)
LOL.
I agree with you on most of it, although I don’t actually mind “dear blogger” e-mails. If I’m interested, I respond. If not, I happily archive them without any further thought. If they go through the effort of looking up my name, I want to send them a personal reply, and I get sad when I have to keep saying “No, but thank you for thinking of me”.
By: The1stdaughter (Danielle) (@The1stdaughter)
Can I just say…DITTO! I think I received just about the same number and wish they would just click once more to find out I have a first name. Then, if they have just a couple of more minutes..read my review policy to find out what I like. It’s so difficult, because I LOVE helping and getting the word out, but it’s so hard when they send garbage like that. I want to say, ” you want me to care about what your selling, but you don’t care who you want selling it?”…no thanks! Ugh. At least they aren’t all like this and we do have a few awesome publicists out there! :o)
By: Natalie (@mindfulmusings)
This has happened to me a lot lately, so I totally understand where you’re coming from. Not that I don’t appreciate the offers, but when it’s totally out of my scope and not even addressed to me, I know they’ve just been copying and pasting e-mails all day to every blogger they could find. It always makes me more likely to accept it (or at least respond), when they’ve taken a little time and effort.
By: Clare (@mrs_S)
It does make you wonder doesn’t it Pam as to whether these people really think about promoting the books or whether they just have to fill a quota of requests. I do have to say though that so far *touch wood* I have been lucky and have always had emails address to me by name.
p.s. I love what you’ve done with this blog design – I have never seen anything like it!
By: Trisha (@Trish422)
Maybe you should start emailing this out to random publishing houses… :)
By: Dianne Salerni
Pam,
I always have to pop over here to read your blog anytime I see the headline:
Dear ….
Love your open letters!
By: heidenkind (@heidenkind)
So you sent this to them, right? :)