No, not fighting with reviewers or engaging in flame wars on message boards. Today I gotta talk about a different kind of bad PR, because even though I’ve talked about it before (but I can’t find the post, so I guess I can’t fault readers for not finding it either).
I’m a member of more than a few writing lists, from discussion groups to daily inspiration. Recently I started getting email from a new list where the advice was incredibly generic and I didn’t remember opting in. Being signed up onto message lists without my consent is one of my pet peeves (and it happens way too often, and by people who really should know better.) So I designated that all further messages from the list would go directly into my trash bin. Usually this is the easiest way to deal with stuff like this as unsubscribes don’t always work and no one knows on my end, so no one gets all upset at me or anything either.
But a few days ago a new note from the same list pops up from a new email address and this time (besides the new address) it really pisses me off. It’s not an essay on writing, it’s an ad promising writers a way to reach thousands of readers–by paying the owners of the list to blast their bios to the writing list. On one hand it now makes sense why I suddenly seemed to be subscribed to this list, and why there was no unsubscribe, and why the article qualities were along the lines of those at Suite 101 and Associated Content. Clearly I’d had my address harvested and be forced onto this list so that some asshole out there could make money off unsuspecting writers at the expense of my inbox.
So I spammed all further messages from that address. Two days later I got the same ad from another address. The next day I was “introduced” to my first author through yet another address. Yesterday the spammer was back to the piss poor writing articles with yet another address.
Who does this shit? I mean, who pays for this kind of thing? This kind of PR is going to get you in spam boxes AT BEST. Yeah the publishing blacklist is mostly a fallacy, but spamming little old me to buy your book is not going to get you anywhere. Nowhere at all. I mean if you really want to just spend some money there are many better ways to do it. (Like sending me a copy of your book cold, which is still going to get you closer than spamming my email is going to.)
So please, please look at the PR people you’re thinking of paying. A LOT of them do things you can do yourself for free, like press releases and sending copies of your book out for reviews, and some even charge to make you a Facebook or Myspace page, which are both free. It’s not just the cheapskate in me begging, but come on, you should always be asking if this is a good thing to spend your money on, before you type in your credit card number.
