Wet Noodle Posse

Friday, June 13, 2008

Question and Answer Friday

EEK! I went shopping and FORGOT today was Friday!! (seriously, 3 hours at Target....)

So, it's question and answer Friday - let us have it!

6 Comments:

At 1:25 PM, Mo H said...: Mary, AKA MJ Fredrick,
I'll throw one out on the theme of the business of writing. I believe this past week you received a fabulous review for your current release Hot Shot. So how do authors get their books reviewed? Do they send books to reviewers? How does it all work?
At 1:43 PM, MJFredrick said...: I'm such a newbie at this....maybe someone else can be more specific. Both my publishers have lists of reviewers they send copies to, and I've been VERY lucky. I did have one reviewer contact me because she was intrigued by the best friends premise of my first book, and I sent her a copy. But my publishers have done all the work thus far.
At 2:51 PM, Theresa Ragan said...: That's a good question, Mo.

And Mary, three hours at Target! Good job. I love that store. And I didn't realize publishers sent the books out for review...interesting.

I usually have a zillion questions, but on question day I can never remember what they were. I need to start writing all my questions down.
At 3:41 PM, Janet Mullany said...: Well, my question is, what did you buy at Target, Mary????

Mo, attempting to answer your question. It varies from house to house. The best ones send ARCs out early and give you a whole bunch of ARCs to do with as you will. And the others...find out from your editor who's handling the publicity and ask them to whom, and most important, when they're sending out review copies. If they say a month before release, aarg. Make a clean copy of your galleys, contact reviewers yourself, and offer to send them as early as you can. I've also heard of people emailing a pdf of their final ms., but I don't know whether I'd want to do that.

Publishers may not tell you who they're sending ARCs or review copies to, but you can always ask them if they're sending to reviewer X, and if not, if they will.

You'll spend some $ in shipping but you can write it off!

E-books, I've no idea.
At 5:12 PM, MJFredrick said...: LOL -I bought an inflatable swimming pool! We're already expecting 100 degrees this weekend - ack!

As far as ebooks, I just sent a pdf through email to the reviewer who asked.
At 10:18 PM, Louisa Cornell said...: Three hours at Target! I guess because I work at Wal-Mart that does NOT sound like fun to me! Jotting this down about ARCs. IF I ever have one to send out I would like to send it out to reviewers who have a pretty wide audience!