Comments on: What Not to Do for a Blogger Book Review

By: Sarah Kelley

Sarah Kelley — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 01:30:16 +0000

This is the exact issue respectable public relations practitioners fight on a regular basis with media outlets and reporters. It only takes a few bad eggs sending out mass pitches to cloud a reporters viewpoint on effectively working with PR folks. A bad pitch does leave you with a bad taste in your mouth and generally annoyed!

By: MoxieMom

MoxieMom — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 13:59:07 +0000

It comes down to the basic premise of energy in equals energy out. What you give is what you get.

The case study of the first author showed a lack of enthusiasm for the topic or a lack of time spent on preparing the request. The second author showed passion by putting energy into reading and understanding your blog. Great lesson. Thanks for sharing.

By: Peter Korchnak

Peter Korchnak — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 00:43:30 +0000

Bob,

I’d be happy to review your book on my blog. I find your focus on relationship building particularly appealing, as it greatly improves the social (People) bottom line.

I appreciate your reaching out in this way rather than through the kind of pitch you mention in the post. It’s all about creating pull, right?

Peter

By: Martin Bishop

Martin Bishop — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 16:12:27 +0000

Got the same email and pdf and had exactly the same reaction

By: Matt Armstrong

Matt Armstrong — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 15:00:33 +0000

Good topic. Here’s my experience as a blogger with a smaller but highly focused audience. I’m often approached by publishers, agents, and authors to review books and fortunately they’ve only sent me hard copy so far. Sometimes they are proofs – which I don’t mind but it does require a caveat when / citing the book. I agree that sending a digital copy is annoying and impersonal.

Overall, my experience has been positive as it is generally clear most have read my blog as they (authors) say they’ve been following it for a while or (in the case of publishers or agents) think I’ll be interested in a particular book. Occassionally I do get the book out of left field, but generally their aim is pretty close and its convenient to get new research delivered to me for free.

I agree that if the author contacts me directly, I’m more inclined to prioritize the review. It’s also nice to have a direct channel to him or her and possibly include a quote from the author (as well as stay in touch with them).

Perhaps this weekend is a good time to get at the five books waiting to be reviewed…