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I am a big fan of author/artist email lists for exactly this reason. It's like advertising, but it's much cheaper. And it is more accurate as well.
I'm on about 20 musician notification lists (a couple are label lists) where I have said "only tell me about new albums" and a few more where I get "tell me about events in my area, and new music you have out in general" (Mal Webb does TV music and stuff as well as albums, so I download shows he does music for). The ones I am still on are the ones that do not get abused - there is no spam or "sponsored" mailings, only "Penelope Swales is appearing at The Harp in Sydney on the 19th of May" and "Elefant Traks announce the release of 'Distant Sense of Random Menace' by 'Urth Boy'". Those are great, and often result in me paying the sender money.
I would love to be on similar mailing lists for specific authors. Unfortunately most of them don't do this. The "but I only have a new book every two-four years" does not wash. In 5 years Mal has released 3 albums. Even if 90% of the addresses on his "new album" list bounce so what, it didn't exactly cost much to reach the remaining 10%, most of whom will buy the album, probably immediately. Especially if the author gets to pocket most of the cash... which is why I prefer to buy direct when I can. I pay authors, not advertisers, because I want books, not ads.
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