Jay Currie

In the States alert publicists for books and records are beginning to send bloggers review copies. John Scalzi has been moved to publish guidelines.

As the Canwest newspapers in Canada gradually abandon any sort of serious book reviewing and television and radio dispense with author interviews there is every reason for the Canadian book biz to start looking at blogs as a place to publicize their wares.

When I had my magazine, two chairs, I learned about the economics of the review game. Figure a review copy of a hard cover book costs the publisher around $3-$10.00. Sending out 100 copies is, at most $1000.00 plus postage. A mention in a major newspaper is worth ten to a hundred sales. A full on review in even a small weekly is worth whatever the price per column inch for ads in that weekly happens to be. It does not take much buzz for a 100 or 500 review copy campaign to pay off.

A smart publisher in Canada could hit fifty blogs with books for next to nothing. Hit them often enough and there will be lots of mentions of the books arriving and those mentions will add up to real publicity as more bloggers get interested in discussing books.

Plus, and this will be rather different than the current situation at the major papers in Canada, bloggers would be really happy to get the books.