What follows was my response to the PR flack offering me a review copy of a book she’s representing and in which I have absolutely no interest. I didn’t respond to her first email, but after the second one I thought I’d give her some advice:
Couple of suggestions:
- If you’re going to pretend to be a reader of my blog, get my name right. You called me “Domenico” in the first email and “Trey” in the second.
- Don’t pretend to be a reader of my blog. Be honest. I see right through the deception and it offends me more than if you were just honest about reaching out to Christian bloggers.
- In a release targeted at the Christian market don’t refer to the “magic powers of song”. Call it “miraculous”.
- Know your audience. If you knew even a little bit about my blog, you’d see that this is not the appropriate venue for this book.
Thanks but no thanks.
I’ve worked on both sides of the public relations fence. As a magazine editor, I received (and still receive) many press releases. And several years ago I worked at a public relations agency doing IT work, but getting to know how the business works. It’s amazing how often there’s not a lot of difference between public relations and spam.
