David Bernstein feels he “doesn’t have enough”:http://volokh.com/2004_04_18_volokh_archive.html#108246863843005786 to read:
bq. I find it a bit odd that I’ve been blogging for the VC for almost a year but have not made it on to any publisher’s review copy lists … a smart university press (or even trade press) would put me on their list for review copies of law books, or at least some subset of law books. … I just find it interesting that book publishers have been so slow to recognize a new medium through which they can publicize their wares.
As it happens, we have almost been drowned by blog-based publicity for books. “The”:http://volokh.com/2003_10_05_volokh_archive.html#106582889309170254 “only”:http://volokh.com/2003_10_05_volokh_archive.html#106563477335982255 “thing”:http://volokh.com/2003_10_05_volokh_archive.html#10656538526880754 “is”:http://volokh.com/2003_10_05_volokh_archive.html#10656538526880754 “it”:http://volokh.com/2003_09_21_volokh_archive.html#106450848270473629 “somehow”:http://volokh.com/2003_10_05_volokh_archive.html#106553138229092263 “or”:http://volokh.com/2003_10_05_volokh_archive.html#106547755115976868 “other”:http://volokh.com/2003_10_05_volokh_archive.html#106555866011950443 “always”:http://volokh.com/2003_09_21_volokh_archive.html#106441717295055075 “seemed”:http://volokh.com/2003_09_21_volokh_archive.html#106427893234426462 “to”:http://volokh.com/2003_10_05_volokh_archive.html#106563450112693960 “be”:http://volokh.com/2003_10_05_volokh_archive.html#106555866011950443 “promoting”:http://volokh.com/2003_10_26_volokh_archive.html#106741121432737373 “the”:http://volokh.com/2003_10_19_volokh_archive.html#106660114558552134 “same”:http://volokh.com/2003_10_19_volokh_archive.html#106713811667575301 “book”:http://volokh.com/2003_10_19_volokh_archive.html#106657556477010526.
{ 6 comments }
Amanda Butler 04.21.04 at 2:03 pm
Can’t academics hit up their friends for free review copies of their books?
Publishers sometimes ask authors if there are any particular publications or people from whom they’d really like a review. So to break into the free review copy world, ask your friends who are publishing to list NYT, Am. J. Pol. Sci., my buddies Joe and Mike. . .
Now I just need to figure out how to convince anyone to give me free books.
Phill 04.21.04 at 3:22 pm
I don’t get it, I got review copies of books long before I even started a blog. Publishers have a list of people they consider influential in a given field and ‘review’ copies get sent. Even though most of the people who receive them never write a review.
Of course the big problem here might be that publishers in the social sciences are rather less free with their review copies. If you have a print run of a few hundred you are not going to have the same number of review copies you would for Bruce Schneier’s latest crypto book with a print run of a gazillion.
David Bernstein 04.21.04 at 4:55 pm
Imagine how much free publicity Kieran would give You Can’t Say That! if I had actually had the publisher send him a review copy!
Tuttle 04.21.04 at 9:15 pm
He blogs for the Viet Cong?
harry 04.22.04 at 2:38 am
bq. Imagine how much free publicity Kieran would give You Can’t Say That! if I had actually had the publisher send him a review copy
I think there’s a wierd rule that if one is sent a review copy of a book one would otherwise have read, one doesn’t. Certainly works in my case — oops, that’s knocked me off some free book lists..
Mithras 04.24.04 at 4:20 pm
Has anyone actually read Bernstein’s book? The one excerpt I read didn’t inspire me to rush out and get it.
By the way, the Volokh links in your post seem to be formatted incorrectly, at least in IE6 and Firebird.
Comments on this entry are closed.