CDL: Responses 1-6, "The Book Reader"?

These 6 responses to the following post:

From:  "Julie C. Blake" <jcblake_at_stcloudstate.edu>

Hello, all, 

        I've just had a request for information from a professor; he's
writing a mainstream book (not a textbook). He has been contacted by a
publication/newsletter called "The Book Reader" out of Scotts Valley, CA
- for $650 they will advertise his books to the recipients of this
publication, which he was told reached 13,000 libraries. He was
wondering if it was worth it.
        What little I've been able to find out about "The Book Reader"
is that it claims to be "America's Most Independent Review of New
Books," but if authors are paying to be included, I wonder how objective
the reviews are and whether libraries/bookstores/readers really do use
it for purchasing. Do any of you use this source or have input for this
professor-author?

Thanks, 
Julie C. Blake
Collection Management Coordinator
St. Cloud State University
jcblake_at_stcloudstate.edu


===#1
From: Metter, Ellen" <Ellen.Metter_at_cudenver.edu>

YIKES!

For $95 the professor can join the Publisher's Marketing
Association and pay for marketing in their cooperative
catalogs.  Plus, if he becomes a member and invests in 
one of their marketing programs he can also be
distributed by B&T and have their usual fee waived for
placement in their database.

(I have no vested interest in PMA per se, by the way, but
I am a member and they seem to be a wonderful association
for "micro" publishers.)

Ellen Metter

===#2
From: Denise Peeler <dpeeler_at_uillinois.edu>

Julie,

I subscribe to the list because I'm in the GSLIS program at the University
of Illinois.  I am replying as the Advertising Manager of the University of
Illinois Press.  We publish mostly academic books but also some books aimed
at the trade market.

I do not know of any publishers who do not set aside some amount of money
for advertising.  Your professor/author should really contact his
publisher's marketing or editorial department to see what their plans are
for his book before he invests any more of his own time and money.

If your author is not content with his house's efforts, or determined to
self-publish, he may wish to seek a free-lance publicist rather than try to
pay for advertising a book himself (unless he is of significant means).

Just my two cents.

Denise Peeler

===#3
From: Laurie Mahaffey <mahaffey_at_ctls.net>

Greetings from Central Texas.

I've been in collection development for most of my 26 years in public
libraries. I have not heard of this publication. I would suggest contacting
Booklist (published by the American Library Association) or Library Journal
(published by Cahners). Those are the top two review publications that
public librarians read. Other review publications I'd suggest are Kirkus,
Publisher's Weekly, and AAAS Science Books and Films (if it's a book in the
sciences).  These all have websites; please e-mail me if you have trouble
finding them. 

Laurie Mahaffey
Collection Management/Adult Services Consultant
Central Texas Library System
Austin, Texas
mahaffey_at_ctls.net

===#4
From: Margo Warner Curl <mcurl_at_acs.wooster.edu>

My initial reaction was that "The Book Reader" sounds like the sort of 
thing I get by the hundreds along with publisher catalogs & misc. ads and 
then throw out. I did check in OCLC & the title does exist - OCLC # 
25563468 - but there are no holding libraries.
My hunch would be that this $650 would be wasted.  If it is being published 
by a mainstream publisher, they will advertise the title.  Also better to 
get a good review in Choice or Library Journal ...
Margo

===#5
From: clenox <clenox_at_jcu.edu>
 
None of the seventy-some academic libraries that make up OhioLINK subscribe to 
"The Book Reader."  Neither does the Clevenet libraries, which is a similarly 
sized consortium of public libraries.

Cindy Lenox
John Carroll University

===#6
From: Waldman, Glenys A." <GAWaldman_at_pagrandlodge.org>

Hello Julie,

Never heard of it; but then, I'm in a "special" library.  I, for one, now
order almost all of my books online, even when I get publishers' blurbs.
Maybe he should advertise through these listservs?

Best,
Glenys Waldman, Librarian
The Masonic Library and Museum of PA