I won’t be reading Nefertiti
I won’t read Michelle Moran’s Nefertiti. I really did want to - I loved stories about Egypt growing up, and I loved stories about Nefertiti - but now I refuse to read it.
Moran e-mailed me at the end of April, offering to send me a copy to review on my blog - the paperback comes out in about a weeks time. I agreed - as I said, I used to love stories about Nefertiti, and thought it would be fun to delve back into it. Then I proceeded to get two of the exact same e-mail within days:
Dear Courtney,
I’m the author of a novel entitled Nefertiti, which debuted in hardcover July 10th and is scheduled to be released in paperback on May 28th with Crown Publishers. I am a huge fan of your site (I loved your review of [various post titles], btw!), and was wondering if you’d be interested in reviewing Nefertiti. If so, I would be delighted to have my editor send you an early paperback copy.
Thank you for your time, and I look forward to hearing from you!
Michelle Moran
At that point I’m a little annoyed. Yes, I know what kind of power bloggers can have for a product. I work for a company that has considered using bloggers to promote products. Word of mouth is the best form of advertising these days. Much better than traditional forms of advertising. I understand that. But is it too much to keep track of WHO you have contacted? Even I know how to use a spreadsheet, and I avoid those kinds of programs like the plague. Keep track of what bloggers you have been in touch with from what blogs - it’s not that hard.
Even through all that, however, I was still going to read it and review it. Give it a chance, and all that.
Until today when I heard from FedEx that I needed to pay $20.25 in order to actually get the book from them… Let me think about that for a minute. Remembering that people often are charged brokerage fees when the product crosses the border, and remembering that I’ve had numerous ARCs sent to me from the USA before where I’ve never had to pay brokerage fees… Well, should I pay $20.25 for brokerage fees and whatever else I am being charged for, when if I really want to read it (which at this point that is highly unlikely) I could buy it from Chapters for a lot less than that. What would you do?
Needless to say, I refused the package and had it sent back to the sender.
Edited Wednesday morning to add: Since posting this, I have heard from Moran a couple of times (the first e-mail she has sent me was also posted in my comments, and can be read here). The second e-mail states that Random House had sent the book via payment on delivery for some reason. I have to say that I am very impressed with how this is being dealt with, and feel badly about making my post sound as harsh as it does.