Going up to publishers and saying that you are a blogger can be hard. When I first started doing this at ALA five years ago, I was met with blank stares because no one had even heard about blogs. Things have definitely changed.
I went up to one publisher, ready to do my spiel about how I am a blogger, and legit, and would like to work together. The person at the booth knew my blog, was shocked I wasn’t getting copies, and I was left just glowing from the entire experience. Easiest conversation of my life!
The next day, the last day of the exhibits, I walked up to a booth. I had been there before, been ignored because they were conversing with one another, but now I was back. Here is the conversation as best I can recall. I got the person’s attention after about 10 minutes of waiting, gave a big smile:
Me: Hi, I have a blog and you are one of the only publishers here I don’t work with.
Her: We hear from hundreds of people that they blog.
Me: Yes, I’m sure. And I know… (I was going to say that I knew it was hard to tell who has readers and who doesn’t, but she cut me off.")
Her: So we will need you to contact us with your numbers.
Me: OK, I can do that. I’ve been blogging for 5 years now. (That line is usually a winner.)
Her: Everyone has been blogging for five years. (Um, no. Really. No.) We need solid numbers.
Me: Well, I get x number of visits a day. (Don’t want to turn this into a discussion of the number of visits I get. It’s about more than that.)
Her: Everyone gets x number of visits a day. (Um, no.) We need real numbers, like unique visitors each day. (Which is the number I just gave her.)
Me: OK, I can do that. So I just email you with those numbers…
AND HERE IS THE PROBLEM!
Her: And if the numbers are good enough, we will send you ONE BOOK and IF WE LIKE HOW YOU HANDLE THAT TITLE YOU CAN HAVE ANOTHER ONE.
Me: (Blankly.) Oh?
Her: You can see that our titles have been embraced by the blogging community (Yes, there were several that were HUGE on blogs.) That’s because of this policy. It really works for us. (Yes, I bet it does. Didn’t doubt that for a moment.)
Me: I’ll have to think about that. I don’t do that with any other publisher I work with. It’s not how I do business.
Her: (Sudden change in demeanor. I think she just replayed our conversation and realized that she had completely misread the situation.) Well, we could send you hundreds of titles at a time. We wouldn’t hold you to one, necessarily.
Me: Well, I’ll think about it.
I stopped just short of ripping her card to shreds right there, but by the end of the conversation I was literally shaking in fury. She had been unnecessarily rude. Her tone of voice was hostile at best. The same information delivered in a kind way would have been fine.
UNTIL she got to that part about ONE TITLE AT A TIME and seeing how I handled it online.
Let me put it to you straight – publishers have absolutely NO RIGHT to decide how independent reviewers like bloggers treat their titles online. I am not going to blog happy little reviews in order to get fed another ARC to do the same thing with or lose my supply of titles. What a load of crap!
I shudder to think about bloggers who are actually participating in this little scheme. This is a large publisher who proudly announces that this is how they deal with bloggers. Not me. I am not going to request any books. No way. I’d rather check them out from the library when they are out.
Just to be clear, I get a lot of books from publishers but I have never, ever been told that my supply of books depends on how I handle their titles online. If any publisher said that, I would not work with them.
And so, Little Brown, I will not be calling. I am dismayed at the disrespect your company shows bloggers, the hold you believe you have over them, and the rotten attitude of your booth workers. I hope that anyone working with publishers under this sort of policy decides to no longer do it. It’s not worth selling the space on your blog for a copy of the hottest book.
I want to be treated as a reviewer, a legitimate, honest, passionate reviewer of books for youth and teens. So yes, I will accept galleys, but not in exchange for anything other than a potential review. And then only if it is awesome. I promise.
Waking Brain Cells 
Horrible. I’m not sure what’s worse; publishers saying it, or bloggers thinking this is OK.
LikeLike
I agree. The way the representative treated you was horrible. It’s a sad day in blogging when some bloggers are trading in their dignity for a new book. They’ll deal with you depending on what you say about a book? What was she thinking? Most of us that are blogging are passionate about readering not passionate about new books.
LikeLike
What if I give you two books in exchange for a good review? 😉 It’s a shame you were treated that way–not only because you ARE a well established blogger, but because you’re a human being in general! You should’ve hung out at the Sourcebooks booth! We had an open invite party with wine and a visit from Horrid Henry (video will be reposted as soon as I remove all the theme song to the Sopranos–it was pretty funny that way though!).
Regardless, just try and reflect on all of the good experiences you had at ALA (did you see the book vending machine?!–I can’t believe I forgot my camera!).
LikeLike
Oh the book vending machine was way cool! And so were so many of the people I talked with at the exhibits! I also loved the Italian DVD vending machine for inside libraries.
LikeLike
I’m sad to hear you were treated that way at that particular booth. I had the best conversations there that I had all conference–everyone else seemed so hectic and would hardly talk (which is what I wanted to do–just see what they were coming out with that would be hot this fall). I have been getting the “galley of the week” (which is not truly weekly) from them recently with no strings attached regarding my posts (I do more of a booktalk than a review though . . . ). I am disappointed to hear that, however, because I felt they were being nice to people. It’s too bad you got that reaction when you have so much to offer.
LikeLike
I am so glad to hear that. I think it may have been fatigue as Liz mentioned.
I watched the same person interact with someone else before me and she was amazing. Gave her a hardcover picture book from behind the curtain. So I had hoped for a positive reaction. It all went downhill when I said the word blog. Actually earlier in the convention they did give me some galleys of new books, but I didn’t mention blogging then. And it was another person manning the booth.
LikeLike
I can’t believe she said that!! Shocked!!
LikeLike
I have NEVER been able to get in touch with Little, Brown. While I do love many of their titles, getting in touch with anyone there seems to be absolutely impossible. I attend school librarian functions where Little, Brown presents and their rep always gives out an email address to use for ARC requests. The librarians never even bother writing it down because they already know they will never get a response. These are librarians!
After reading about your experience, I’m glad I am not on their list. I am not interested in being a publicity machine for anyone, publisher or not. And it’s not something I want to teach my students to do either.
LikeLike
I’ve had the same trouble which is why I went out of my way to contact them at the exhibits. We live in very interesting blogging times, don’t we!
LikeLike
I am sorry you had a bad experience and I try not to deal with a lot of publishers at all for my blog but one of the ones I do have an amazing contact with is Little Brown. I always accept books and never once have I been treated or asked any questions. I think it’s important for you not to ban a whole house from your blog because of one publicist.
However I think publishing houses should start asking for hard numbers. There is a level that each house is comfortable with and only so many review copies. I would be happy being asked because I know they are more intelligent about how to get the best bang for their book using quality blogs.
LikeLike
I really didn’t have a problem sending my numbers. OK, it peeved me that I was telling them to her and she was brushing them off. But my real issue was with the I give you one book, you review it nicely, I give you another tone.
And I won’t be banning them from my blog, but I won’t be asking for ARCs under those conditions. I’ll just read library copies! 😉
LikeLike
That’s incredible. I’ve never encountered that kind of attitude before. Good for you for standing up for principles.
LikeLike
Wow, that is astonishing. The day I let publishers determine what and how I review will be the day I pack up my blog and go home! I’m thankful that I’ve never had an experience like you described–in fact, that hasn’t been my experience in working with LB either. I haven’t dealt with their kids imprint, but still, I’m astounded and saddened that you were treated that way.
LikeLike
gah.
LikeLike
WOW. That just . . . that . . . wow.
Go Trish for making your displeasure known. You’re just about the sweetest blogger I know, even considering we’re a sweet bunch to begin with, and anyone, no matter how big, who treats you (and us) so snippily deserves to have that snippiness published.
LikeLike
Ack! I don’t get (or ask for) a lot of advance copies, but I haven’t had any problem with Little, Brown in the past. I will say that I’ve found that the booth representatives in general vary WIDELY in how much they know and how friendly they are. At BEA I had to almost pry a copy of a book out of the hands of one HarperCollins associate – even using the PBS blogger card. Another rep listening in cheerfully handed me the book and another besides.
My point, I suppose, is that I would HOPE that this is a case of an rude and clueless rep rather than a policy. (In which case, the policy should be to take the cards of bloggers nicely and give them to someone who knows what they are doing.)
LikeLike
I hope the same.
LikeLike
Go, Tash.
You’re WELL OFF just walking away. Some of these people do not seem to get that this is not a paid position, and that we’re working together and for the sakes of children, and readers and books, and not for them.
That woman is now schooled.
LikeLike
I’m sure that some of this was “booth fatigue” and also blogger fatigue, as well. We’ve seen/read/overheard some “I’m a blogger, gimme an ARC” talk and I can be sure it’s grating to hear it yet again, especially as sometimes it is overstated and sometimes people don’t use unique names for their newer blogs.
And I think, overall, trade show policies of “give me your card, we’ll see if your blog is a good fit for our books” is a much better, smarter policy to weed out the brand new blogs, the poorly written ones, the ones that don’t cover that publishers types of books, etc.
And perhaps “how you handle” meaant things as simple as grammar and spelling and punctuation.
But, given where we are right now in terms of review copies and blogging, I think anything that looks like “write the right way for publishers and you get ARCS” has to be looked at sensitively, perhaps overly so.
For the record, for the last two years I’ve stopped trying to get ARCs sent to me at trade shows, etc., because of the combination of being on Printz/getting a lot of books. So I haven’t had this type of encounter.
I have also always had nothing but the best encounters with Little, Brown; and never had anything said or implied about how/ what I review/ write.
LikeLike
Liz,
You are probably right about the fatigue! 🙂 Which is why I took a day before writing the blog post. I have no problem giving publishers my card and letting them check out my blog. I did that at several other publishers. But that stated policy was what sent me over the top. I am glad to hear from other bloggers who get galleys from Little Brown that it isn’t what they experienced. That is great news.
LikeLike
So many bloggers, so many different blogs… You are also a librarian (at ALA, I imagine you’re really appreciated), and a librarian/blogger. Gold! Booth girl might have had a better time sifting through the rules and coming up with the ones that apply to you if she knew you blogged about kids books as a librarian. Or, just say you’re a book reviewer. Publisher point of view: the two are pretty much the same now. Demo unit costs and freight are through the roof. Even LB needs to weed out the review list. Still, settle down with the attitude, LB booth attendant.
LikeLike
I definitely understand their need to check me out as a blogger. Very true. I hope that blogger and reviewer for those of us who review books become synonymous. That would be ideal!
LikeLike
I know that I’ve spoken with publishers who complain that at such shows all sorts of people come up and say they are reviewers or bloggers in an attempt to scam free books, so I can see why a publisher would want some sort of verification. I’ve never been to ALA but years ago I went to ABA and you’d see people come in with shopping carts, grabbing galleys and books out of publisher’s booths without even stopping–and if stopped, claiming they were reviewers. Shopping carts where banned, and then replaced by rolling suitcases. Now I think they’ve banned those, too.
Given that some other posters here say that they had a good experience with this publisher, maybe all they meant by “good experience” was that they saw evidence that you were legit and would discuss–good or bad–the books they send. Or, as some posters above note, it could have been pure booth fatigue. But regardless, it would be nice if the publisher reached out to you, and a shame if we could not read your opinions about Little, Brown books themselves, the authors of which have no influence on how the publisher behaves.
LikeLike
No worries! I promise to still talk about great Little Brown books. Just not with ARCs if that is their policy.
I am very glad to hear that people have had good experiences with Little, Brown.
LikeLike
So sorry, Tasha, to hear about your experience. How frustrating.
LikeLike
If it’s any consolation, Little Brown people have continued to treat me like this, even when I’m trying to request a book for a newspaper review. Well, that’s perfectly fine. Because if they won’t cooperate with me, I can always call ANOTHER publisher who WILL send the book my way without these interrogations.
Always stick to your guns. You are an independent reviewer and there is no quid pro quo here, no matter WHAT the medium.
LikeLike
Little Brown is part of Hachette and Hachette actually has the MOST progressive view of bloggers of any publisher I have come in contact with. In fact, at BEA, they treated us to dinner and gave me and two other bloggers a 2 hr personal tour of the office, letting us have as many ARCs as we wanted. I am VERY sorry you had such a bad experience with that rep at the booth, and she should not have treated you like that, but that’s really an exception in my experience.
As more book lovers become bloggers, publishers are having to come up with policies to maximize their publicity efforts. I see no problem in verifying that someone who says they are a reviewer really is one. But of course, there is no need to be rude about it!
LikeLike
I work in publicity at a large publishing house and I think it’s unethical to demand that bloggers (or anyone) write a certain type of review in order to ensure a supply of review copies. It is true that some (or many) blogs are not “up to par” — whatever that means to a publicist or house — but it’s up to the publicist to check out a blog beforehand and determine whether it’s worthwhile to send a review copy to that particular blogger. Many times I like what I see, i.e., the reviews are thoughtful and well written, and I send books; other times the reviews are not well written and the site looks incredibly amateur and doesn’t receive much traffic and I decide that it doesn’t make financial sense to give out a free book. However, I make those decisions based on the overall quality of the site, not on the basis one review — while I would absolutely love if every blogger loved every book I sent them, I realize that in the long run, it’s much more valuable for us all if bloggers are honest with their reviews. Freedom of the press should mean much more than words and it doesn’t help when misguided publicists attempt to create a virtual Tammany Hall.
LikeLike
But why is Little Brown taking bloggers to dinner? Mightn’t that obligate a blogger to write a positive review? I’d bet a million bucks that the company is certainly not taking Michiko Kakutani out to eat and giving her the office tour!
LikeLike
Tasha is approaching her sixth year blogging. Hardly a recent reader turned reviewer.
Susan, while I find it interesting that some bloggers were treated to dinner at BEA, it’s not that unusual, IMHO. Publishers regularly have 2ce yearly pub previews, with breakfast or lunch for librarians; or host breakfasts, lunches, and dinners at ALA (annual & midwinter) for librarians to meet with authors and hear about new titles. I’m not sure the context of the dinner, but I don’t see it as being that much different.
LikeLike
Liz, from the publisher’s perspective, I understand completely. Their job is to sell books and a huge part of that must be getting libraries to buy books. (I’m not in the business at all, just an observer.)
But, from a blogger’s perspective, my basic (rhetorical) question is this: Are bloggers obligated by the same ethics as journalists? And, if the answer is no, then, why not?
LikeLike
For books, at least, some of the people attending those previews w/ meal ARE reviewing for professional journals. So, yes, for this, in this context, it’s ethical.
LikeLike
As someone who has reviewed in print and blogged for over 15 years, I have never heard of a publisher trading review copies for good reviews. It sounds to me what other responders are saying, a misunderstanding based on booth fatigue and lack of clear communication. When I was began reviewing and wished to have review copies sent I not only presented my business card and credentials but also tear sheets and printouts of what I did looked like. I spoke about our target audience, subscription base etc. These are all legitimate business concerns of the publisher. I hope you do not give up on Little Brown/ Hachette- perhaps there is an on-line division that you should be in a relationship with rather than a library marketing person.
Lisa
LikeLike
The food & books events for librarians which you describe sound siimilar to press previews, and I don’t see anything wrong with that.
What I’m getting at is that there seems to be a number of book blogs that might as well be extensions of publishing houses–giving books away constantly, taking their cues about when to run reviews from the publishers themselves, running press-release descriptions of books without acknowledging that’s what they’re doing, and so on. Of course people can do whatever they want to with their blogs, but I see a slippery slope.
LikeLike
Susan,
I have the same concerns about bloggers who run PR pieces for publishers, accept blog tours without having read any books by the author, and even those who copy the summaries from the bookjackets. Where is the line between criticism/review and PR? It seems to me that we are blurring it in the blogging world
LikeLike
Exactly, Tasha.
LikeLike
I’m also concerned with the slide from criticism & review to blogs being part of PR.
Undisclosed contests/giveaways (and especially the circularness of it, that is, entries are based on comments/links, and then the blogger can point to those as stats to say send me review copies). But is it really about readers, or people trying to win a contest?
And I agree with the summaries being taken from the PR material; it’s not easy to do a summary. But seeing the same thing over & over tells me nothing new. There there is much new that a summary can reveal about a book, other than what the publisher has chosen to focus on.
Lisa, I think providing copies/links to already written reviews is a great idea, to show the publisher “this is what I write”. That’s way different from a publisher asking for an “audition review”, which a commentor on my blog said they were requested to do. Auditions are for journals, magazines, newspapers, not for publishers.
LikeLike
I have to disagree with this part of your post:
Me: Well, I get x number of visits a day. (Don’t want to turn this into a discussion of the number of visits I get. It’s about more than that.)
Her: Everyone gets x number of visits a day. (Um, no.) We need real numbers, like unique visitors each day. (Which is the number I just gave her.)
That isn’t true. The number of visits per day is not the same as the number of unique visitors per day. The latter is the more commonly cited metric for web traffic. But a large number for either should have impressed the publisher’s rep. :{-)
LikeLike
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!
LikeLike
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?
LikeLike
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.
LikeLike
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.
LikeLike
Tasha, what are you using for your statcounter?
LikeLike
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.
LikeLike
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 😉
LikeLike
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.
LikeLike
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.
LikeLike