Freebies

by Kieran Healy on April 21, 2004

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 }

1

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.

2

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.

3

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!

4

Tuttle 04.21.04 at 9:15 pm

He blogs for the Viet Cong?

5

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..

6

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.

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