Published on September 7, 2005
In response to last week’s article, When Authors Spam, I received the following inquiry this week:
By your definition, press release distribution services would always be sending spam? I agree it is a big problem but in the field of PR it is common to send form releases to a variety of markets whether they are addressed individually or sent to a group by a service. How else could someone contact book/product reviewers or columnists for a national campaign? One by one would take forever and I don’t think most individuals could even find half of the contacts the distribution services have.
Published on September 7, 2005
I would like to respond to your recent article titled Authors Who Spam.
I work for the editorial department of a local business newspaper where I receive and distribute all general e-mails to our publication. I also write a column for a national publication on playwriting for which I sometimes review books. While inappropriate spam is annoying and our e-mail server works to block it, we do not mind mass e-mailed press releases about books or events or news stories pertinent to our geographic area. We expect it, actually.
Published on September 7, 2005
Imagine you have written a book, say, about wine, or business, or how to get your cat through college. It really makes no difference what you have written, someone can use it. But there are limits.
Published on September 7, 2005
I have a question about copyright law and have been unable to find out the answer. Twice now professors have photocopied an entire book I wrote, to use as a class textbook. Each made 30 to 40 copies, which they gave to their students. Because copyright law mentions “educational institutions”, I’m not sure if this is considered “fair use” or not…
Published on September 7, 2005
Kelly James-Enger coined a phrase in which I recognize myself: “an extrovert in an introvert’s job.” Sure, I love the concentrated effort of writing, but I equally enjoy social situations. I especially like asking a lot of questions without people thinking I’m nosey or rude. In fact, interviewing is how I first got my name in a national magazine.
Published on August 31, 2005
Since last week, Frank has been injured, we’ve seen a UFO (or maybe it was UFL?), we were unsuccessful at touring a winery, stayed at a really bad and very crowded campground, watched two rabbits fight, and visited the Henry Ford Museum!
Published on August 31, 2005
I receive several hundred spams each week. Most want to show me how to make my male anatomy bigger (even though I’m a woman) while others want to dump a bunch of money into my account from some foreign dignitary who’s on the run from his or her government. The only spam that I usually forgive is spam from non-fiction authors. You see, I’m running an ezine for writers and authors. If they send me a marketing message about their book, I’ll usually overlook it. They could very well want me to review their book (even though we never publish book reviews). But, they may not know that, so I give them the benefit of the doubt.
Published on August 31, 2005
This Week:
- Enjoyed The Newsletter Writing Class!
- Regarding Angela’s article: World’s Worst Book Proposals
- Dealing With Jerks Online
- Regarding last week’s article: Who Cares If It’s Spelled Right?
- Thanks For The Leads!
- Angela Is In Current Issue Of Bottomline Personal
Published on August 31, 2005
While watching the evening news with my husband, there was a segment on NASA’s mission to collide with a comet. I turned to my husband and said, “Oh, I’m interviewing one of the NASA experts on this subject next week”.
He gave me the strangest look, and replied, “How’d you get that?”
“I just asked.”
Published on August 31, 2005
About a year after I started freelancing, I was getting pretty good at accepting rejections. Instead of letting it ruin my day, I would view a “No, thank you” response (as I prefer to call them), as part of the game. Usually, I would take the query, give it another good look, tweak it if needed, and send it out to someone else.
