Comments on: ALA Exhibits Epic Fail – Rant

By: Bloggasm » How a major publisher shouldn’t treat a book blogger

Bloggasm » How a major publisher shouldn’t treat a book blogger — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 18:43:00 +0000

[...] Brown to query about receiving advance review copies of their books. The resulting conversation has to be read to be believed: Me: Hi, I have a blog and you are one of the only publishers here I donâ€™t work [...]

By: Semicolon

Semicolon — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 03:14:41 +0000

LB sends me emails asking which of their forthcoming titles I would like to review. I don’t even know how they got my name and email, unless they just were trolling blogs and found mine.

I’ve never promised them anything, never been asked to promise anything, and I write what I want to write. I don’t get review copies from lots of other publishers, just enough to keep me busy. So I’m happy, and I hope they all are, too.

I’m sorry you had such a negative experience. And I’ll bet LB would be sorry, too, if the left hand knew what the right hand was doing.

By: Maggie Stiefvater

Maggie Stiefvater — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 02:06:41 +0000

Insert jaw drop here.

With my debut, I found that bad reviews are just as good for traffic as good reviews. And any review will cease to have meaning if readers feel that they are getting packaged content that is being doctored by publishers.

Just wow. Bad behavior.

By: Lenore

Lenore — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 20:44:06 +0000

They didn’t tell us they were paying for the dinner. In fact, I went mainly to meet other bloggers and wasn’t even aware that Little, Brown reps would be there. I was taken completely by surprise when they paid the bill, and certainly charmed. It was I who suggested the tour, simply because I was interested in seeing how a publicity department at a major house works (interesting too because my husband’s book is being published next year) and they were very accomodating. I thought it was very nice of them, but it certainly doesn’t guarantee them a good review on my blog or that I’ll ever read Twilight

By: saecker

saecker — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 13:05:14 +0000

Liz,

I had been using awstats and Google Analytics but both of those started counting Google Reader and Yahoo hits incorrectly. They gave one hit per hour rather than the actual number of hits as they had earlier. I now use WassUp which counts those services the way the others used to.

By: Liz B

Liz B — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 22:41:21 +0000

Tasha, what are you using for your statcounter?

By: saecker

saecker — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 16:47:42 +0000

Liz,

That audition review was exactly what I believed was being asked of me by the person at the booth. That was what had me so up in arms about the situation. I’m wondering if this is becoming more of the norm and those of us with existing relationships with publishers are unaware of it at this point.

By: saecker

saecker — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 16:43:21 +0000

Damn straight! Now that is exactly why I approached their booth in the first place! I was trying to get the same deal as Ed.

By: saecker

saecker — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 16:42:20 +0000

One of the problems with blogs is that the numbers are really tricky. My counting system that I used three months ago stopped counting Google and Yahoo hits correctly, cutting my numbers by more than half! I have since moved to another stat counter that still counts them correctly. I would never have figured it out except that the same month my stats dropped an equal amount on my other blog and our library website.

But you are right. Unique visitor are not visitors. Just as hits are not visits. And we wonder why publishers are confused!

By: Edward Champion

Edward Champion — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 15:15:29 +0000

I have had nothing but the most positive experience with Little Brown! I woke up this morning, only to find a manservant dressed in a fine silk suit at my bedside with a tray of the finest silver containing my breakfast. It was the most expensive caviar, of course.

“From Little Brown, sir,” said the manservant, who spoke in a genteel British accent.

I was then led into the bathroom, where I proceeded to shower with six naked women with rather ample anatomy, who all said that they were there “courtesy of Little Brown.” There were then several acts performed on me that I cannot describe in public without being arrested.

I then received a call from my bank. They informed me that Little Brown had deposited $15,000 into my checking account, and that I could use the money in any way that I could see fit. And even though I’m not really into drugs, the manservant was very careful to give me a small baggie with a few lines of blow in it. Perhaps I could get some spare cash by selling it to the teenagers in my neighborhood. How thoughtful!

Because of this, I don’t see HOW anyone can say a bad word about Little Brown! They’ve always been good to me. And if you talk to the right person, they’ll be good to you too! Who needs editorial integrity?