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Monday, June 24, 2013

Why Giving Advanced Copies to Friends Is a Bad Idea

First of all you have to examine your motives. It is a bit of bragging. Look I have a new book out. Look at me. This is the first reason you shouldn't do it. The second reason is the friend is now obligated to read his friends book. A problem. Your friend is in a terrible spot. If he likes it fine...but if he or she doesn't like it then the silence sets in and worse you might have something occur along the lines of...I didn't really like it. Whoa. Hold on daddy. Now your friendship is on the line.

And it wasn't fair to begin with. First of all by giving the book to a friend you are obligating them to read it. It might be something they would never buy. They might not be a reader. They might not read fiction. Maybe all of the above. But now there is that thing. Every time you meet there is the hovering question...did you read it? You both agree to not talk about it but it is there. The third person in the room hovering around until you migrate to...why didn't you read it?

I would say this goes double for family. I gave my brother a copy of my second third novel and he tossed it in the back of his car like an old shoe. The gesture will live in infamy. My hardcover that I has sweated bullets over for years tossed into the backseat with the McDonalds garbage. And then of course your family might not like it. Now you really have a problem. I mean these people are your family and they might not like your fiction. Nations have broken up over less

So I would say this in the end. Don't give it to anyone but reviewers, bloggers, movie people, agents, publishers...other authors you trust. After that just say: You know what I don't have any more review copies...you can get it on Amazon though.

Better.

The Pitcher...sometimes a dream is all you have

Books by William Hazelgrove