Reader's House "Literary Magazine"

 

All indie authors get scads of scam emails every day. I don't even find them fun anymore, but boring and lackluster. The problem with scammers using AI to compose their emails is that they all sound the same. Add a little pizzazz, scammers! 

When I opened the latest one yesterday, I was surprised to find it was more original:

Dear April Tompkins,

Warm Greeting from London. 

My name is Zosia, and I am reaching out from Reader's House, a literary magazine based in London. We are interested in conducting an interview with you about you and your titles. I'm not sure if this is the best way to contact you. If so please reply if you are interested in participating, and I will provide you with more details.

To learn more about our magazine, please feel free to visit our About Us and Media Kit pages. 

I look forward to hearing from you.

 

Kind regards,

 

Zosia

 

I recognize that they throw in that "London" part to make themselves sound discerning. They couldn't know that I'm kind of a sucker for all things British, maybe because my one dedicated fan is from the UK, and because the great editorial review Running From Herself received also originated there. Whatever, I was semi-interested enough to check out Reader's House*.

*Does "Reader's House" mean it only has one reader? Shouldn't it be "Readers' House"?

Here's the link. Looks quite professional, right? So naturally, I pulled up Google to ask if the outfit was legitimate. Google directed me to Writer Beware (which is an essential reference tool for authors, by the way). This is what Victoria Strauss had to say.

"For authors whose inboxes are stuffed with pay-to-play interview offers, this will seem like a welcome change. And indeed, the interview really is free…and it’s a real interview, with questions personalized to the author and their book... (emphasis: mine)

In reality, though, the interview is what’s known in the retail trade as a loss leader: a product the seller offers free or at a below-market price in order to attract customers and leverage more profitable sales."

Okay, cool. Now I know. So, essentially, it's a real magazine that readers don't actually read. It exists to lure authors into paying for a print interview, again, that readers don't read. Strauss states that the magazine is available at places like Barnes & Noble, but:

"...although you can buy a print edition at online retailers like Barnes & Noble (cost for a 68-page issue: a whopping $32.99), it’s not clear that Reader’s House has brick-and-mortar distribution, which would be necessary for it to appear on magazine racks in physical stores. And indeed, Reader’s House basically admits, in one of its followup emails, that acquiring readers is not its main goal: “Unlike other magazines, our print edition is designed for authors rather than readers.

In other words, author, you are our customer."

Here are the rates for being included in the print version of the magazine (again, that readers don't read):

  

Obviously, I'm not falling to a scheme like that. So, that's that. 

Then I read the article's comments. One person wrote:

"I too was contacted and answered their questions. I didn’t hear back but decided to go and further check out the online interviews. To my amazement I found my interview, which was dated about 4 weeks later. Interestingly it did not have my picture on it, but the write up was great!"

Another added: 

"But the moment I saw that I had to pay to be in a print edition, I thought this is a joke. However, I will use the interview on my website and in my Substack newsletter..."

(all bolded above: mine) 

So, why not do it? Nobody's going to read it, but it does provide content for my website and perhaps social media, if I ever decide to go back to social media. Free advertising! I can say, Hey, look! I'm in a literary magazine! 

Thus, I told "Zosia" that yes, I am interested. Now I await her questions. 

One's gotta weigh the pros and cons of any offer. But this one's not gonna cost me a penny, and I get the "pro" of so-called cachet, if only on my author site. 

If any of my followers can think of a downside, let me know! Otherwise, shoot, I'm going for it. Besides, after my Grok interview, I'm primed to do another.