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Topic: The Right Way to Request Review Copies
| Author | Message |
| D_S | Posted – 11/1/2007 1:38:04 PM | show profile | email poster I have recently been hired as a book reviewer for an inflight magazine. It's a monthly column, and this is a one-year gig. The downside is that I don't get books from the publication, so I have decided to go the "request review copy from publishers" way. What I do is e-mail the publicity departments of concerned publishers (or whoever mails out review copies), introduce myself and the magazine to them, and tell them I need so and so book. I even tell them that I am happy to put them in touch with my editor in case they want to confirm my association with the magazine. The response so far has been kind of na da. Is there something wrong with the approach? Could I do it in a better way? Just so that you know, I don't always request latest books. My pub is not crazy about latest books, and they are happy to run reviews of books released in the last five years or so. |
| dribbledrive1 | Posted – 11/1/2007 1:43:51 PM | show profile If you're reviewing 5 year old books couldn't you just get them from the library? |
| D_S | Posted – 11/1/2007 1:46:53 PM | show profile | email poster That's a point, but I live outside the US, and the books I want to review are not always available in book shops, let alone libraries. |
| dribbledrive1 | Posted – 11/1/2007 2:02:50 PM | show profile I wonder if that's the problem: Publicists don't want to go to the time and trouble of mailing old books (which they've long since stopped pushing) outside the U.S. Or maybe they are suspicious of a non-US person asking for a review copy of an old book. |
| D_S | Posted – 11/1/2007 2:10:08 PM | show profile Might be. But there's no reason to be suspicious when I am providing them with the editor's e-mail. |
| Mag Girl | Posted – 11/1/2007 2:45:00 PM | show profile Maybe they aren't suspicious so much as it's not worth their time, especially to ship overseas; it's an older book that likely isn't going to get much in the way of additional sales, especially if it's a blockbuster that has self propelled and won't really benefit much from additional publicity. What kinds of books do they want you to review? |
| Mag Girl | Posted – 11/1/2007 2:45:46 PM | show profile Sorry dribble, I see you basically said what I did :) |
| dribbledrive1 | Posted – 11/1/2007 2:53:36 PM | show profile Yeah, it may be what Mag Girl said. These old books aren't a priority to the publicist, and they don't want to go to the trouble of checking your story out because they have more important stuff to do. If you request a review copy of a forthcoming book, the press it generates will be good for the publicist; no one will care nearly as much for the press of an older book that might not be on bookstore shelves anymore. --Might be. But there's no reason to be suspicious when I am providing them with the editor's e-mail.-- |
| maphop | Posted – 11/1/2007 5:42:58 PM | show profile Actually, I suspect you're running into a couple of issues, and only one of them is that you're outside the country; remember, most books are distributed internationally and the worst that would happen is that a US-based publisher would ask their distributor in X to send it to you. I think the bigger issue is that frankly most publishing houses have cut back to the point that it's insane. They're hiring fresh college grads at $26K a year, calling them publicists and overwhelming them with work. It used to be tha a major publishing house had maybe 15-30 publicists on board, each handling 5-10 titles. Now it's half the number of people, two and three times the number of books per publicist. Plus, there's little to no money being allocated to things like book tours, etc. so even authors are getting ticked about having to fill in the gaps where the publishing house used to step in. You're simply falling through the cracks. I'd keep trying until you find one or two publishers who respond in a timely way. Trust me, once everyone else sees that you're producing and that they should be on the bandwagon, they'll make the time to answer your requests. It's just a grim time. |
| prdiva | Posted – 11/2/2007 9:50:57 AM | show profile I agree with maphop... Book publicists are a rare breed. Meaning...they barely do anything to generate coverage. I review books rarely for the online magazine that I write for and whenever I've requested review copies of related books, inevitably, I get NO reply from the PR person and no follow up, but a random copy of the book will arrive in the mail later. It's amazing. |
| mrschorr | Posted – 11/4/2007 11:10:09 PM | show profile Try emailing the author Find the author's website and contact them directly. An author will always be anxious to get the book into a reviewer's hands -- even if they have to do it themself. |
| JerzyGirl | Posted – 11/6/2007 9:47:04 AM | show profile Yes, go to the authors. And if you think it's the overseas thing, maybe you can work with a stateside friend, have the books sent to him/her, and then the friend can re-mail them to you abroad? The other way to go -- simply to cut out the aggravation and time-lag -- since you are looking for "older" books, you can probably buy them from alibris.com, or the used divisions of BN or Amazon, for next to nothing. Depending on your fee for the review, it might be a justifiable expense. Good luck. |
| SpinDr810 | Posted – 11/6/2007 5:40:00 PM | show profile Book Pub opinion Hi All, I am a book publicist through a publishing house and receive many inquiries for current and backlisted titles. To be honest, we do send them all out, regardless of how old they are, but often it takes much longer to receive those books because we have to order them from old stock in our warehouses. I think it is appropriate to email the book publicist first, and 9 times out of 10, if you email the author directly, it comes full circle to me and I have to send it. So, to save yourself some time, just politely ask the publicist and state all of your credentials and where you expect to run the review/editorial. Maybe if you tell them you are on deadline they will move faster. If that doesn't work---call. All you can do is be persistent. The book industry is booming and many publishers are understaffed when it comes to PR, so just keep emailing and calling. A good publicist WILL get back to you. I'm sorry you've had such a hard time. |
| SpinDr810 | Posted – 11/6/2007 5:42:14 PM | show profile Also... Almost all publishing houses have distributors internationally. It would be just as easy for them to email the distributor and have it sent from there---nearest to your country. I often do this. |
| D_S | Posted – 11/7/2007 3:03:19 AM | show profile Thanks for the helpful advice, everyone! |
