I have to admit to something here. I have a horrible addiction to books. Yes books. I spend my free time wandering used bookstores breathing in the dust of last year's bestsellers, going to yard sales to rummage through the stacks of 1960s paperbacks, and spending my lunch hours at my local Barnes and Noble. Not to mention all the time I spend on the internet reading reviews of titles I have yet to purchase.
I have found a way at St. Martin’s Press to feed my addiction through e-mail. They have a mailing list called Read-It-First. You sign up and they e-mail you a section from a book that takes five minutes to read. Each week you read a different book and by the end of the week you have read the first 3 chapters or so of the book. The next Monday you start a new one. If you don’t like what you have read just delete and wait for next week’s book to start.
Books they have offered in the past include Glass Houses by Jane Haddam, Sugar Daddy by Lisa Kleypas, Bermuda Schwartz by Bob Morris, Thief of Time by John Boyne and Bobbie Faye’s Very (very, very, very) Bad Day by Toni McGee Causey. They have a wide range of titles that they present including novels before they are released to the public. Also once you sign up you have the chance to be entered in drawings for autographed copies of novels when they are offered.
I have just signed up myself. The e-mails are easy to read, not a lot of extra clutter, and include links to past portions of the book that you might have missed. This is a solid idea; a great way to find new books, authors, or a series. Not to mention one hell of an add campaign.
But then again I’m always in the market for something new in books. It has to be worth a shot, right?
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