How To Burn A Book

Like most of you, I enjoy reading good books.  Unlike some of you, I get the opportunity to review books here, meaning that people will send me a free copy to read in the hope that I find it worthwhile and will recommend it to others.  Some are sent to me blind.  Others I request.  Some  I praise.  Others I pan.  The authors seem to really hate it when I don’t think their books are good.  I can’t blame them, but that’s the nature of reviewing a book.  Some just suck.

As I write this, I have a bunch of books waiting to be read, time being the biggest culprit in my delay.  So much to read and so little time.  I can hear books calling my name, saying “read me, read me.”

But these are real books. legitimate efforts worthy of allocating my most scare resource because they hold the potential of enlightening me, broadening my world and understanding, making me better for having read them.  And then there are the mutts that come to me via scam emails, hoping to suck me in with some moron’s version of flattery so that I will promote their crap to readers of Simple Justice.  That a tree should die for their existence saddens me deeply, and compels me to abuse them unmercifully.

While I get these emails from time to time, two came across yesterday.  It was one too many to ignore.


I love your blog. My name is Sue Farley and I am the author of a new book on estate planning and I’m planning my official blog tour. My book is called, Trust — Are you Kidding.

I would love to include you as part of it. My book has some really important information I think your readers would not only enjoy reading but is so important to know if they are thinking about protecting their assets and their heirs.

Your readers really must have a basic understanding of estates and trust so that their money doesn’t end up in the hands of the government.

To make it easy on you, I can actually send you an interview that all you have to do is cut & paste in your blog. I’m also open to running a contest so your readers can win a free copy of your book.

Does that sound like something your readers would be interested in?

No.  No it doesn’t.  Not in the slightest.  Not even close.  And truth be told, I don’t think Sue really loves my blog at all.  I think Sue has never read my blog.  I think Sue is full of it.  As much as I appreciate her offering to send me an interview that I can “cut & paste” in my blog, and even (woo hoo!) run a contest of my readers can win a free copy of her book, I’m constrained to pass.  I am such an ingrate, after she’s done everything to make it easy on me.



Dear Scott Greenfield,

 


I have been reading your Simple Justice blog and it is apparent that we have a mutual passion… helping lawyers succeed. I have an opportunity for us to collaborate and do just that.>>

 

THE OPPORTUNITY

I am writing to you today because I would like to share a marketing opportunity with you.  On June 16th I will be launching my newest book, The Little Black Book: A Lawyer’s Guide To Creating A Marketing Habit in 21 Days, and I would like to invite you to be a part of it, you will  reach a million readers in the legal profession and it will only take five minutes of your time… yes, that’s right… our goal is to reach one million readers by offering them valuable, timely advice from industry leaders like yourself, on issues that matter to the legal community… to do this I need your help.

This is what comes from developing a strategy using a time-honored Nigerian marketing technique.  Again, I feel fairly confident that the author, Paula Black, has never read my blog, or she would have a clue that my real passion is ridiculing people like her.

So here’s the question: Are you really that desperate to brand your book as a worthless piece of trash, so lacking in value that you are constrained to put out scam emails to test the utter stupidity of the recipients to see if they will bite?

I haven’t read either of these two books.  I have no plan to do so.  I won’t lose any sleep over it.  Nonetheless, I will suggest that neither of these books is worth spit, which is why both of these authors have chosen to send out emails to bloggers in an attempt to co-opt them into participating in their scam marketing techniques.

When I review a book, it’s because I believed the book to be worth the time to read.  When I receive a scam email trying to promote a book, I believe that no tree should die for it.  If you had either of these books on your “to-do” list, guide yourself accordingly.

Should either of these books magically show up on your doorstep, I would urge you to put them to good use.  The fireplace comes to mind.

6 thoughts on “How To Burn A Book”

  1. Windypundit

    I suppose the first book might be okay. Just because the author is marketing her book in a misguided way doesn’t mean she’s a fool at her profession. The second book, on the other hand, is about marketing, so the foolish blog marketing nonsense speaks volumes about the kind of book it is.

  2. Doug Cornelius

    I got the Paula Black email as well. I particularly liked that she wanted to me to send out information to my “email list.” I guess spamming people is one of the marketing habits in her books.

  3. SHG

    Her’s was the one that put me over the top.  The Sue Farley one was just basically tacky, but the Paula Black one was straight out of the Nigerian playbook.

  4. SHG

    I might have agreed with you, but for the Paula Black email and the echo of the “cut & paste” interview.  It was then that the theme struck me.  While less overt in the Sue Farley email, the point was unmistakable.  Does she have something to offer on the fun subject of Trusts and Estates?  Beats me.  I know T&E lawyers love to hold “FREE SEMINARS!!!” to market themselves.  Is this more of the same?  I would assume so.  But regardless, her marketing efforts still bears the stink, made ever more clear by its sister-in-arms, the Paula Black book on “How to Market a Lawyer Like the Nigerian Lottery.”

  5. Rick Horowitz

    Another reason for not cutting Ms. Farley any slack is, assuming the email was faithfully reproduced, she appears to be somewhat challenged as a writer.

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