A message for representatives of PR and advertising companies

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

If you’re emailing me to help you shill your book or film or whatever, you really must be desperate. No, really; you should see how many (or, rather, how few) visitors this place gets.

Let’s put this straight. I won’t help you shill your book or film or whatever, or otherwise act as an unpaid middleman between my discerning readers and whatever product you’re trying to shift this week.

Any books, films, etc that I do (rarely) puff on this blog will be ones that I have read, watched, etc on my own initiative and have enjoyed sufficiently to suggest any passing reader might do the same. I won’t tell any reader to read your book, watch your film, etc your etc, on the basis of your press release telling me they might like it.

So please, don’t bother. Your email’s going straight in the bin; the patronising, tweaked-to-personalise ones at double-quick time.

If you’d like more information about this topic, please email Justin McKeating, at chickyog@gmail.com, who will be more than happy to tell you to get stuffed.

NOTES FOR EDITORS
1. Why don’t you try doing your own job instead of trying to get me to do it for free?
2. See also.

Update: This is an open source press release. Bloggers should feel free to copy and paste it into their own blogs, and amend as they see fit.

Update updated: Jamie, on this subject, has a suggestion:

You know, it would be kind of cool if everybody who has been spammed… could link to a download of something really worth reading as a response.

So here’s mine: ‘The Club of Queer Trades‘ by the mighty GK Chesterton.