Question: in a BEING-FAIR vs NOT-BEING-A-BITCH match, who wins?
A writer I know online via her blog recently threw a big birthday bash by giving away a bunch of her own e-books and writing courses to her blog readers supposedly picked at random. Out of the 1200+ people whose names were in the random drawing, 22 people won - but somehow, AT LEAST 11 of them (that's all I can be certain of, it could easily be more) were her close friends. She also gave one of her ebooks free to everybody who entered (yep, all 1200 of them).
The big giveaway generated a lot of publicity for her and her writing and the ebooks she sells. She's probably going to use this to get a tax break. She is unabashedly open about using this as a promotional tool primarily.
Now, normally I'd say, more power to her and cheer her on. I have a lot of respect for this woman and her contributions to the writing community, even though not her writing itself. But this is really bothering me. It's just not right to claim that a lottery drawing is random when it's so obviously not.
But then again, the giveaways were undoubtedly generous, especially since EVERYONE got at least one ebook.
GAH.
Part of me wants to name names and really rant out loud. The other part of me wants to quit being such a bitch and get on with life.
FWIW, I didn't download the freebie I was entitled to.
The big giveaway generated a lot of publicity for her and her writing and the ebooks she sells. She's probably going to use this to get a tax break. She is unabashedly open about using this as a promotional tool primarily.
Now, normally I'd say, more power to her and cheer her on. I have a lot of respect for this woman and her contributions to the writing community, even though not her writing itself. But this is really bothering me. It's just not right to claim that a lottery drawing is random when it's so obviously not.
But then again, the giveaways were undoubtedly generous, especially since EVERYONE got at least one ebook.
GAH.
Part of me wants to name names and really rant out loud. The other part of me wants to quit being such a bitch and get on with life.
FWIW, I didn't download the freebie I was entitled to.