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Nate the great · 04-22-2009, 12:06 PM

I wasn't going to post this, but today I received an email promotion that was wrong on so many levels that I can't help but respond. And before you ask, yes, I did send emails to the publishers several weeks ago. I'm not blindsiding them.

I'm on a lot of mailing lists. In fact, I'm on most of the email lists for Macmillan, so I get regular emails with details about their current promotions. In spite of what has been said about how Macmillan values ebooks, they are rarely used to promote a book. Here are 3 examples.

Picador started a new book club on Twitter a few weeks back. To promote the club they decided to release copies of each book before it is discussed. The only problem with this is that they have released 20 paper copies of each title. No ebooks have been given away. But that's okay. It's not like the average Twitter user is fairly tech savvy. And just forget about the fact that there are Twitter users all around the globe; I hope Picador realizes that they wrote off 95% of the world's poplulation as potential customers. What's worst is that only half the titles to be discussed were available as ebook when the club started.

For at least the past two months Minotaur Books has been giving away a different free title each week. Like Picador, they are only giving away paper copies. Due to shipping constraints the contest is of course limited to the US. Why have you given up on the rest of the world as potential customers? If you gave away ebooks, anyone could download it.

And this brings me to the email I received today. In order to promote John Hart's latest work, St Martin's Press is giving away his first novel as an ebook. I thought this was great, then I learned that it will _only_ be available as a PDF. And you can _only_ download it after giving your mailing address, email address, and agree to the fact that they can send you promotional material (aka spam) in the future. Why do they need my email address? They need my mailing address?!? For an ebook? In what universe does giving away an ebook require a mailing address? The only type of person I know that asks for that much information is a spammer. Okay, I know they're not spammers. But can we really be certain of that?

04-22-2009, 12:06 PM	#1
Nate the great Sir Penguin of Edinburgh Posts: 12,375 Karma: 23555235 Join Date: Apr 2007 Location: DC Metro area Device: Shake a stick plus 1	Three Ways to not use promotional ebooks I wasn't going to post this, but today I received an email promotion that was wrong on so many levels that I can't help but respond. And before you ask, yes, I did send emails to the publishers several weeks ago. I'm not blindsiding them. I'm on a lot of mailing lists. In fact, I'm on most of the email lists for Macmillan, so I get regular emails with details about their current promotions. In spite of what has been said about how Macmillan values ebooks, they are rarely used to promote a book. Here are 3 examples. Picador started a new book club on Twitter a few weeks back. To promote the club they decided to release copies of each book before it is discussed. The only problem with this is that they have released 20 paper copies of each title. No ebooks have been given away. But that's okay. It's not like the average Twitter user is fairly tech savvy. And just forget about the fact that there are Twitter users all around the globe; I hope Picador realizes that they wrote off 95% of the world's poplulation as potential customers. What's worst is that only half the titles to be discussed were available as ebook when the club started. For at least the past two months Minotaur Books has been giving away a different free title each week. Like Picador, they are only giving away paper copies. Due to shipping constraints the contest is of course limited to the US. Why have you given up on the rest of the world as potential customers? If you gave away ebooks, anyone could download it. And this brings me to the email I received today. In order to promote John Hart's latest work, St Martin's Press is giving away his first novel as an ebook. I thought this was great, then I learned that it will _only_ be available as a PDF. And you can _only_ download it after giving your mailing address, email address, and agree to the fact that they can send you promotional material (aka spam) in the future. Why do they need my email address? They need my mailing address?!? For an ebook? In what universe does giving away an ebook require a mailing address? The only type of person I know that asks for that much information is a spammer. Okay, I know they're not spammers. But can we really be certain of that?