The next bit of mail will be a promo for Jason Starr's new
book. He and Vintage are offering ten free copies to members
of RARA-AVIS. Free! And it's bound to be good. By all means,
enter the contest. Starr's often talked about on the list and
I've only seen one or two comments that ranked him below very
good.
As you may know, advertising isn't really permitted on the
list. Small and relevant announcements from writers and
publishers on the list are welcome, because that's one of the
ways we keep up with what's going on the world of hardboiled
and noir writing. Everyone's been very good about this--in
fact most times someone on the list has a new book out, it's
other people that mention it and review it, which is even
more effective.
One of the reasons against blatant advertising is that the
list is hosted by iComm, a non-profit that provides Internet
services for non-profits and community groups. They don't
allow commercial activity. Another reason is that the list
would be much less enjoyable if it was full of windy press
releases every time Bantam published a book featuring a guy
in a fedora.
This Starr contest is the first time we've ever done a
contest on the list. I'm all for list-members getting free
copies of books, and the quid pro quo is that the publisher
wants a bit of copy sent around a couple of times. Fair
enough, says I. We'll try it out and see how people like it.
If you have any comments about the contest or
commercialization, please drop me a note in private mail. If
I'm offered any more contests, I'll decide how to proceed
based on what I've heard.
Bill
-- William Denton : Toronto, Canada : http://www.miskatonic.org/ : Caveat lector.
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This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : 28 Nov 2001 EST