First, a note about how I work: I do not take paid ads, nor do I endorse crap.
I start with this simple statement because I got an email today from someone who wrote:
I do some consulting for a large outdoor activity and hunting equipment supplier company that is trying to strengthen their online presence. I thought that it would be great if we could get a referral link on your site that leads back to ours. This would only be a small unobtrusive text link. If you can help us out we would be happy to compensate you.
In answer, I wrote back:
Sorry, but I do not take advertising.
That said, if the product or service is unique or great, I may swear by it. Sometimes I swear at things too. I try to be a fair umpire, which is why folks come back (if they come back!).
And what did I get back? The following bit of nonsense and inanity:
I am not authorized to send you a sample of my client's products at this time. Is there any other way that we could work something out?
Ummmm... did I sound like I was asking for a sample? I do not want a sample! Hell, I do not even know what it is they are selling! Do they?
Tell me what you are selling if you have something to sell. Maybe I will buy it. A very small chance. I am a cheapskate and will not waste my money (or my reader's time) saluting crap. But for God's sake, stop waiving money and samples in front of my nose as if that will make me rise up to salute bullshit or offer up a link! It's disrespectful and ugly. I am not that kind of person.
Which brings me to the next pitch of the day... this one from a straight-ahead publisher.
The email was short, informative and actually had a product to sell.
Jason Liebman, Online Marketing Manager at Henry Holt And Company wrote:
I hope that this email finds you well! I wanted to let you know about a new book about Carl Akeley who revolutionized taxidermy and created the famed African Hall at New York's Museum of Natural History.
In the tradition of Eric Larson and David Grann, KINGDOM UNDER GLASS: A Tale of Obsession, Adventure, and One Man’s Quest to Preserve the World’s Great Animals by Jay Kirk is an adventure packed history that reads like a novel as it recounts an extraordinary life in a remarkable age. Akeley joined the hunters rushing to Africa, where he risked death time and again as he stalked animals for his dioramas and hobnobbed with outsized personalities of the era such as Roosevelt and P. T. Barnum. Akeley also famously killed a leopard by strangling it with his bare hands! Over the course of three decades Akeley and his partner in adventure, his plucky and brazen wife Mickie, traveled across the continent and back, hunting down the beasts that would fill their ark back in New York City.
KINGDOM UNDER GLASS is an incredible read that I’m sure you and your blog’s audience of hunter’s would enjoy reading.
Mr. Liebman offered to send me a review copy of this book, but I am NOT going to take him up on the offer -- I prefer to run a very clean shop here.
What I salute I salute on my own terms.
That said, let me tell you what I am going to do: I am actually going to buy this book!
That, ladies and gentleman, is an endorsement of sorts. A Scottsman's highest honor, actually.
Yep, the web site convinced me this is the kind of book I would enjoy, and that you might too. So I am plugging it for free -- and giving a small tip of the hat to honest promotion by Mr. Liebman and author Jay Kirk as well.
I do not know Jay Kirk, but he has written for some very good publications, and he has certainly picked a good tale to tell -- that of Carl Akeley who is the father of modern taxidermy.
Akeley, of course, was more than this: he was also a sculptor, a biologist, a conservationist, a hunter, an explorer, and an inventor with 30 patents to his name. Oh, and did I mention he invented the modern musuem diorama? True!
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| Click to enlarge for nice old cartoon. |
Akeley spent a year in Africa hunting with Teddy Roosevelt, and explored parts of Africa that even today are remote and hard to get to. He also patented a movie camera to help bring wildlife into every American home.
Plus, as the picture at the top of this post suggests, he had testicles the size of church bells.
Bottom line: My kind of book, and maybe yours too. You can read an excerpt here and order the entire book here.
Go for it! My cash bet is that you will be glad you did.
8 comments:
Well, actually, you do sound like you want a sample.
"I don't sully my hands with advertising, sir! But, if I were to try the product..." Wink wink, nudge nudge, say no more.
You can't expect a person used to working with humans to expect anything as straightforward as a person who works with dogs ;).
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Actually, there WAS no product.
I was supposed to greenlight an unknown service or product for the hint of money.
WTF?
A subtle hint to "go away" seemed to fall on deaf ears.
Maybe corruption has become this endemic.
Apparently it has.
Some years back, I was requesting bids for a $250,000 printing contract, and a huge gift bag of stuff -- wine, chocolates, etc. -came to the office even before their proposal. I had a staffer put it in a 35-gallon trash bag and carry in (by hand) back to the company it came from. I do not do business that way, and I am famous for not doing business that way. People know that if they win a contract from me, they you won it based on product and work, not sly grift or tickets to a baseball game. If you are not famous for integrity and square corners, then you are a suspect class.
For the record, "free product" is how all corruption starts.
If you will take pens, pencils and "free samples" you are simply a CHEAP whore, rather than an expensive call girl. That is not better; that is worse. At least have the decency and respect to offer me a million dollars!
For how this impacts the veterinary and dog fields, see my previous post at >> http://terriermandotcom.blogspot.com/2008/04/is-your-veterinarian-clean-dont-count.html Ignaz Semmelweis knew a few things!!
I have not yet written about how low-rent payola impacts the world of blogging, but I might warn up to that task ;-)
As for books, I always buy my own, even the review copies.
If I will not buy the book, I have already reviewed it of a sort, have't I?
I have had very, very good authors (ones I truly admire) offer me their books for free, but I always decline if I am intending to review the book, because now the pressure is on to say something nice in exchange for $10. I am not that kind of person.
And so, if I write something nice about Eddie Chapman or Don McCaig, or Steven Bodio, or John McPhee, or Nathan Winograd or Cesar Millan, it is because I value their words and their ideas, and not because I got a free book. Free books are given away.
And YES, if I review a book it means I have actually read the damn thing. Every word of it.
Perhaps I need to put up a "No Payola" sign on this blog, along with the "No Zombies" sign? Let's see if I can find a graphic for that....
P.
Akeley also invented the "cement camera" -- indestructible by rhinos, elephants and water buff. I've never seen one for sale on EBay.
That life/book sounds amazing
SBW
That's one of the reasons I always take your reviews seriously.
Although, as a long time reader (and as most of us would agree) knowing that you received the product for free would not skew my impression of the review one bit - but then again, I already know your reputation for integrity.
I think what it comes down to is a willingness to say what's on your mind, stick to your guns when you mean it, admit when you've erred, and being swayed only by personal experience or scientific fact.
This means we don't always agree, but I never take your opinion lightly and always know that if you're saying it it's because you truly believe it, and not for any other reason.
And you're right - it's why people come back.
Too bad Jason is unaware that it's the AMERICAN Museum of Natural History, not "New York's". He needs to get out more. But, I nitpick. And will probably buy the book about Akeley since one of my animal artist colleagues is the Senior Project Manager of the Exhibition Dept. at the AMNH, an heir to Akeley, so to speak and who recently wrote The Book on the Museum's dioramas. It's called "Windows on Nature" and is available through Amazon.
Jason is right actually, It may be CALLED the American Museum of Natural History, but it is the possession (the apostrophe "s") of New York, same as the Lincoln Memorial and the Smithsonian Institution are Washington's possession, but the nation's asset.
To see some of Akeley's diorama's check out this link >> http://www.life.com/image/first/in-gallery/51301/wild-dioramas-back-in-the-day
P.
This book reminds me of an adventure of the same era "Enchanted Vagabonds" by Dana and Ginger Lamb. They took off from Southern CA in the 1930's in a 16 foot kayak and paddled as far south as Panama with little more than a rifle, some flour, sugar and an oilskin. Amazing wildlife and native people along the way. They followed up with "Quest for the Lost City" when they went back to find the Lost City of the Mayas. Eventually they succeeded because they knew how to become one with the land instead of fighting it.
Kingdom Under Glass sounds like my genre. I like the ones that involve the wife, Mickie Akeley sounds like a wild animal too.
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