Great Comment About Author Advocate Defense Fund Publicity

This came in comments to my last post - and I think it's worth bumping to the front page.

To be clear, I have been commenting where I can find a polite reason to, but I'm not going to become a comment spammer. The post has to have some relation to Barbara Bauer v Jenna Glatzer . I have also sent emails to a number of those writers and agents mentioned. I'm still waiting responses from some.

There are some names I will definitely email that I hadn't known of or thought about, because I'm not a writer so the "how would you get the word out if it were about your book" part didn't occur to me. I should research this as if I was going to send out a query! All these years on Absolute Write and have I learned nothing?? *grin*

But, the suggestions are all good ones and I thank you, anonymous, for the comment. One question, though - who's Patry Francis?

I've underlined some really important points of the comment, not about publicity, too (bold doesn't work, I've discovered). Anonymous is dead right about the cost of this - these defendants really need your help. I'm not a publicist, nor can I dedicate long hours to this, as I have a day job that demands its own long hours, but I'll do what I can.

How would you get the word out if it were about your book? A press release? You'd notify bloggers and publishers that have high reader volume like Gawker, Galley Cat, and Publisher's Lunch. You might ask some of the better known blogging agents for help,people like Kristin Nelson, Jessica Faust, Janet Reid, Nathan Bransford, Jennifer Jackson, Jonathan Lyons, Evil Editor, and so on.

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Even if they didn't, or couldn't, for legal reasons, add a link in their next daily post, they might not mind if you left one in comments. It never hurts to ask. Remember how we all got together to help Patry Francis?

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Organize a blog tour. (note from Dawno: I've posted about this at the AW blogging board, but I can't organize the tour right now, maybe in a couple of weeks, after my son goes back to Iraq) Get out there and be seen and heard. Faint heart never won a fair amount of money, and I can tell you for fact that's what is needed. Would any one of your readers like to mortgage their home for the cause? That's what some of the defendants are being asked to do to pay their lawyers.

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And have you calculated the number of lawyers involved? (note from Dawno: yes, I know exactly how many lawyers are involved, it's public record who is defending them) Everyone is gung ho to jump on the Babs Bandwagon, but in all honesty, they have no idea at all exactly how much this is costing the defendants. The case is what's commonly known as a SLAAP suit -- litigation intended to intimidate and silence critics or opponents by burdening them with the enormous cost of a legal defense so that they abandon their criticism or opposition.

I am not a lawyer, and I can't say whether or not this qualifies as a SLAAP suit, but regardless, it will be expensive and they do need help. Please donate!