The new costs of entering prizes, and now the new costs of a Richard and Judy recommendation:
I've now been brought the paper copy of the article by Tom Baldwin in Saturday's Times about the the new Richard and Judy book club (which I wasn't prepared to pay to see online). The article is occasioned by a complaint lodged with the Advertising Standards Authority over TV commercials linking the new book club - which the Times says it has discovered requires a payment to W H Smith of £25,000 for a recommendation - with the earlier Channel 4 book club which producer Amanda Ross says never asked for money. Ross is quoted as saying: 'In the past we have certainly picked publishers who could not afford £25,000 or anything like that.' Commitment to the £25,000 fee and to supplying chosen books to W H Smith at a 'substantial discount' as well as paying 'a further 50p for every sale at one of its stores' are conditions of inclusion on the R & J list. A spokeswoman for W H Smith is quoted as saying: 'This is a standard arrangement.'
Yes, I guess that sadly now it is, and it won't surprise me if the standard of the R & J list plummets...
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
7 comments:
\well, it's worth nothing now then is it? I mean, not in terms of prestige - clearly it's worth quite a lot in money!
Wow! I knew it was expensive, like all these things are, but not THAT expensive. Actually, I hate the whole competition thing anyway, but I suppose it is part of the game, unfortunately.
I read this at the weekend and the defence seems to be that before the PR was effectively paid for by the TV company and now they say it's just switched to the retailer and publisher paying for the PR.
Of course this is complete rubbish as there is a big difference in the capital available from TV and a small indie publisher.
Sad days :-(
Yes, that's the crucial thing: the expense to the publisher.
Oh isn't this a sad time we live in? Money can buy you anything... it makes a bad book a good book now?
Yes, depressing.
Whoa! That is REALLY expensive!
Post a Comment