um.....thanks.

a while back I decided not to print friendly letters from my email because eh, seems like an intrusion. (as a fan pointed out) I might print horrible ones, but friendly ones. Not so much

The thing is, this letter is practically public already. An author on one of my loops asked, hey, anyone else get this? And, hey, wow, yes! At least seven other authors I know of got exactly this letter, with only the names changed. Same typos and everything---and we all got it in the last couple of weeks.


Summer,

Hello, my name is [name removed] and I am a huge fan of your books! They are so wonderful I could hardly put them down to go to bed at night!! I am patiently awaiting your next book because I know it will be just as wonderful as the others. I have recommended your books to several of my good friends and they are all in wow of them as well. I was wondering if it wasn’t too much trouble if you may have some autograph book plates and bookmarks that you may be able to send to me? I know you are extremely busy so I wanted to keep this e-mail short and I thank you for taking time to read my e-mail.

You’re Fan,

[Name removed]


I'm just intrigued and curious. Why does she want all those book marks? Is it some kind of bet? Is there really someone who truly does love a whole lot of us to the max? (and that would be way, WAY cool, by the way.) Is she looking a cheap source of decor? Does she hope we might send her a book or two?

It's fine with me. I'm not upset by something that could turn out to be a spam letter. I'll write back and say (truthfully) I don't have bookmarks or autographed plates. I considered asking her which book of mine is her favorite, but that seems sorta rude.

Comments

  1. jmc9:26 PM

    And it's grammatically incorrect spam. Your fan, not you're fan. Possessive pronoun, not contracted verb!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Kate9:28 PM

    yup, she got that wrong on the other letters.

    Copy, paste, copy, paste.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Anonymous11:14 AM

    So, she's an avid reader of your genre, she's a fan of you and several of your friends/colleagues, and ... what ...?
    She doesn't have good grammar skills? She's inconsiderate because she expressed herself to all of you with the same words?

    She's a fan!!! Make up some bookmarks (microsoft publisher has a template) and send them to her!

    It's fan mail!

    I'm a fan too by the way.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Kate12:03 PM

    I do hope I make it clear I'm not feeling critical. This is not an I'm-outraged-by-spam post--it's more of a "what would you do with all that" curious-about-it post.

    I've actually gotten a few of these kind of blanket emails--turns out a lot of people want stuff--and back when I had bookmarks etc, I would always send out. Always!

    I don't do bookmarks and plates any more because I'm pretty convinced they aren't worth the investment for me. I don't have a lot of money for promo and decided to boot that expense.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Kate12:14 PM

    And actually the idea of making bookmarks is intriguing.


    I'd decided that no bookmarks is better than a clumsily designed one. It's part of the whole discussion about image and branding etc. I'd heard a convincing argument that a icky bookmark is like too many typos in a book. Just makes the writer look like she doesn't know what she's doing. Bad promo items remind me of bad poser covers. They put me off rather than intrigue me.

    But I'm not sure. What's wrong with homemade? Do we all really want to look slick professional? (I know, I know, too late for me) Isn't it okay to actually reach for a less professional look,.

    I suppose it's fine if you make it clear you're doing it on purpose, when you're trying to brand yourself as homespun. Hard to think how you could convey that message on a bookmark.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Kate12:15 PM

    ......especially if, like me, you're crappy at design, sez the art school girl.

    ReplyDelete

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