Joanne Jacobs’ self-marketing

Joanne Jacobs is trying out a new way to generate buzz for a new book: asking bloggers to mention two book-readings in May, one last week in Washington and one this week in Philadelphia. On May 4, I received an e-mail from her asking me to mention the events in my blog, and I’m guessing she wrote similar e-mails to a bunch of other education bloggers. It worked to some extent, with comments recently in edspresso, D-Ed Reckoning, Mentor Matters, Scheiss Weekly, Education Wonks, DC Education Blog, and Eduwonk. Only the first three clearly stated that Jacobs had solicited the mention (and D-Ed Reckoning was highly critical of Jacobs’ planned appearance at one school). Let me be clear: I have no problems in general with this publicity. Books are books, the more people read ’em, on the whole, the better, and it’s common to get friends and colleagues (and, I guess, strangers whose blogs you know of) to recommend books and various events. I’m just a little surprised at the lack of disclosure by fellow bloggers (several of whom have no problems acknowledging sources). I’m also a little curious why she didn’t respond to my e-mail asking if she’d be willing to reciprocate when my next book came out.
Correction (5/21/06): As KDeRosa (author of D-Ed Reckoning) explains in the comments, that particular mention was not prodded by an e-mail from Jacobs.