I’m going to do these things for a few weeks, but I’m not sure how long they’ll last after that. Some publishers are more cooperative than others, and since I don’t exactly get a lot out of this other than the ability to highlight work I’m interested in, I’m not really interested in fighting battles with them. Sample aggravation: I wanted to devote a week to John Dean’s new book, but his publicist (who sent me a review copy of the book a few weeks back) says that since the release date was a whole three weeks ago, they’re not interested. Having just been on book tour myself, I’m astonished that a publicist would blow off a site with an average of 15,000 readers a day (equivalent advertising on this site would cost a lot more than five free books), but in an odd way it’s reassuring — the various indignities I have suffered over the years at the hands of clue-deprived publicists were nothing personal, this is just apparently how the publishing industry works.
Fortunately, some people do understand that every little bit helps, like Paul Reickhoff (who gave me the idea in the first place), and Bill Bentley at Lookout Management, who was immediately enthusiastic about the idea, and provided the CDs for this week’s giveaway. (My thanks go out to both.)
I have a few more fun things lined up for the next few weeks, but after that, it’s really up to the publicists. I’m not going to be in the position of begging them to let me do them a favor …