Comments on: “I’ve been ripped off by Benjamin Franklin!” – plus marketing etiquette question

By: John Sundman

John Sundman — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 12:12:30 +0000

My first book came out in 1999. I put the first 13 chapters up on my website for free download. It’s a thriller about nanomachines. So, I combed the web for people who were interested in nanomachines, and sent out a bunch of personalized, individual emails to them.

Several people responded with a “thank you” and a book order. Some just said thanks. Most people just ignored the message.

But a few people reported me to “abuse@$myISP” and I was warned to stop it or lose my email privileges.

I long ago stopped sending unsolicited emails announcing my books, even though they’re available for free download from my site. I do send out notes to people who write book reviews asking them if they would like free (paper) review copies. (Some people even regard that as spam, but I think that’s just an overboard response.)

By: Laura Wimberley

Laura Wimberley — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 02:09:56 +0000

What about creating a very brief (2-3 line) signature file promoting the book to go automatically at the end of all of your emails? Put in links to the free e-book, WorldCat, and Amazon.com. That way you’ll let all of your usual email correspondents know how to get the book, without creating any additional spam.

By: Henri Vieuxtemps

Henri Vieuxtemps — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 14:00:33 +0000

I get unsolicited individual emails sometimes, like this: ‘we found your website, we have this great company here in Bangalore, we can help you improve it.’ There is no doubt that it’s sent to me individually, and yet it’s still spam as far as I’m concerned. So, it’s not true that only mass-mailing can be spam.

By: dr

dr — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 13:44:58 +0000

I send unsolicited email, even unsolicited mass email, all the time. People rarely get upset, and when they do the problem is that I’ve misjudged whether they are interested in the thing I’m emailing about. It’s about assessment.

Now, the thing is, I don’t call what I do marketing. I call it organizing. In other contexts, in conscious echo of the power of buzzwords past, I would call it networking.
Using the network frame suggests some additional ways to think about who would want to hear about the book and why. In particular, it encourages us to remember that it can also be a bad thing to be excluded. For example, when I ask myself, who would benefit most from a free online Plato text, the answer that suggests itself includes a lot of contingent faculty, but it seems unlikely that many adjuncts made a list that has been carefully pared back to two hundred. Others have suggested using facebook, blogs, and other social media, and those go a long way toward addressing the sort of concern I’d raise about the exclusion of adjuncts. I’m just saying that if inclusion is a benefit, then an invitation can be a courtesy.

By: Josh

Josh — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 07:36:32 +0000

Regarding your point about the per-unit cost -> assume it’s an honest mistake quality of paper marketing materials, a possibly useful service: What if, as a method of getting past people’s spam filters, you could use an intermediary email distributor that would charge you a per-message fee and then deliver (some largish portion of) that fee to a charity of the recipient’s choice? That would both create a positive effect for the recipient and require due dilligence on your part to avoid wasting money with an overbroad list.

By: akatsuki

akatsuki — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 01:42:33 +0000

It is really about a social contract. For what purpose do you have my email address? The commercial motive of the type of contact really is what I would find offensive – you have my email address for whatever reason, but it probably isn’t too make money or fame for yourself. If I am interested in the field, presumably normal, non e-mail routes will be sufficient. Twitter is a great place for companies – instant feedback, very nice informal communication and the 140 char limit. Announcing on your site is fine too – it is like your own house and you can set the rules and determine what constitutes adequate decorum.

A commercial email that I didn’t ask for is just like the guy handing out flyers on the sidewalk, you might grab it on the way by because the guy invades your personal space that little bit (with that unspoken threat of him actually engaging in actual conversation about whatever it is) and hope that is sufficient to placate them until you find the trash bin.

I know it seems harsh, but it is hard enough to manage email as is.

By: max

max — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 00:05:28 +0000

“Sorry, but unsolicited email = spam.”
Well, this is sort of my instinct as well. Except it isn’t quite true. I’ve often sent colleagues I don’t know (or not very well) unsolicited email, asking them about their work or (more to the point) telling them about mine.

akatsuki left out a word. It should have been ‘unsolicited mass email = spam’. Sending an individual email to someone you don’t know is basically OK. That’s what teh tubes are for. If you sign up for a commercial service (these days) they usually ask if they can send you an email – if you say yes, it’s ‘solicited’. Sending a mass email (within limits) to a bunch of your friends is another thing (which may still piss them off if it was unsolicited – and you’ve got no right to kick if they ask you not to do that again, but presumably your friends will count as solicited by being your friend). Mass email to a bunch of people you don’t know is the no-no. The ‘mass’ may number 200 or it may number 10,000,000 but the same principle is at work.

That’s been the de facto rule for a long time (20-odd years, more or less), but people don’t see it articulated much, so they know it when they see it… but then the day comes when temptation kicks in due to needing to market something and suddenly, gee, the ‘know it when you see it’ rule seems… restrictive. You’re not a spammer, it’s those Russian dudes… with the ball caps and the 5000 stolen credit cards.

Trouble usually begins right after this point in the saga.

Anyways, sending an email to an appropriate email list that accepts that kind of traffic (commercial! check with the mod!) is A-OK. Posting to forums that accept commercial messages is OK. Twitter, Myspace, etc. are all OK. Purchased advertising (including a free blog in support of the book release!) is OK.

No spam.

If it helps, think of the difference between push (advertising) and pull. Anytime you’re pushing the thing out there onto people who may not want it and cannot avoid it, you’re in Giant Corporate Conglomerate Spam Land, even if you’re essentially a small business(wo)man.

You can get around the rule by individually talking to people, but that’s still door-to-door salesmanship, and many people have invisible ‘No Soliciting’ signs up.

max
[‘No one yet has invented the marketing scheme whereby all possible recipients of the information are unoffended by that information, much less pleased to recieve it and happy to purchase.’]

By: Dr Zen

Dr Zen — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 23:42:23 +0000

I get lots of well-targeted spam. It’s still spam, even if I did buy [word omitted to pass filter] sometimes.

By: Timothy Scriven

Timothy Scriven — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 02:22:05 +0000

I can’t speak to the wisdom of sending out such messages, nor can I speak to how the average philosopher on the street would react, but I can say that I would appreciate such a message. It’s like getting a free book in the mail! ( and not one of the weird religious kind.)

By: novakant

novakant — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 20:49:37 +0000

One thing to consider is that more and more people check emails on their phone. I personally use it parallel to and just like texting, so when that little red light blinks, I am always a bit annoyed when it turns out to be something other than business or friends, because I tend to check each and every message, as it might be something urgent and/or important. That said, should you send out emails, contrary to Eszter’s advice I would keep them very brief and to the point, as that makes it easier to discard them quickly, should people not be interested,

By: Matthew Kuzma

Matthew Kuzma — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 20:16:35 +0000

As long as you have a valid reply-to address and you abide by requests to be removed from future mailings, you’re not spamming.

By: John Holbo

John Holbo — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 16:11:41 +0000

As to ‘aggressive’: I’m not sure that I promised that adjective to my publisher. Certainly they didn’t request it from me in those precise terms. I think in this post I was sort of milking the ‘just war’ joke for more than it’s worth. You are right that ‘aggressive’ is inherently negative and I don’t WANT to be doing something bad. It is, as you see, a case of me wanting to think of everything that I can do – which other authors can’t, because they aren’t doing the free thing. ‘Exploring all options’ covers it.

By: bianca steele

bianca steele — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 15:56:15 +0000

I don’t disagree with the preceding comments, but I wonder whether it is worth raising the possibility of a quibble on the definition of “aggressive.” It might mean only “extending the range of your comfort zone.” More usually, it might mean “exploring all options, and even being creative in finding options” and possibly even “going beyond what’s ordinarily done in similar cases.” None of these definitions implies “behaving aggressively towards people” and none of them involves similar emotional or moralizing reactions to what people feel when others are unduly aggressive. It should be obvious from the context which is expected from your publisher.

By: Billiken

Billiken — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 15:37:53 +0000

How about a degrees of connection email campaign? Send email to people you know who might be interested, and at the end of the email ask the recipient to forward it to people they know who might be interested. Even people who did not buy the book might forward the email as a favor to people they know. You could also ask people to respond to you if they want future notices.

Humans evolved in small groups, and strangers were suspect. The internet allows spammers to broadcast marketing and malware to multitudes. It also allows you to build your own marketing network. :)

By: Eszter Hargittai

Eszter Hargittai — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 13:13:35 +0000

“Sorry, but unsolicited email = spam.”

That is way over-inclusive. There is a ton of email we send in daily life that is unsolicited, but would not be regarded spam (after all, every correspondence has to start with someone sending a message and how often has the recipient actually asked for that message?).

I think the key here is how careful you’ve been with the list. If it’s a list that contains names of people who are in the area then I don’t see why this would be a problem. Like you, many other people probably like to hear about projects related to their work and interests.

If possible, I’d do the following. I realize it’s a lot of time, but probably not more time than you may continue to spend wondering about this matter.:) I’d try to personalize the messages as much as possible. First, I’d include the name of the person (programs can help you automate this bit). Second, I’d include a bit of intro that is as personalized as possible regarding why the recipient might care. Example: Dear Jessie, we met at the Philosophers’ Division of the Cartoons-R-Us conference last year and based on our conversation, I thought you might be interested in the following. or Dear Jamie, I’ve seen your contributions on the Plato in Graphics mailing list and based on your interests, I thought you might enjoy knowing about the following.

Of course, this presupposes that you remember this level of detail about people. If not then you could still say something like Dear Jordan, we met at a conference a few years ago and based on our mutual interests, I thought you might enjoy knowing about the following.”

At the end of the email, you can apologize if this is unwanted email and assure people that this is not a list and they will not be hearing from you about this matter again. To make sure they are fully convinced, you can note explicitly that they should feel free to email you at this address with any questions or concerns.

With this level of targeting and context, I doubt that many people would be upset. I hate spam, but this isn’t it. (Re your note about hard-copy marketing materials, indeed, I do think of them as spam and get annoyed at receiving them, because not only have those wasted my time, but they have also wasted paper and other resources that go into postal mailings.)