Certainly you know what an impact a review, or a mention, or a slam (such as this), can have on sales of a book. While your observation is correct, I can't say I fault Angela (or her interns) for taking an original approach to getting someone's attention in the book business. Shame on you for calling her (them) out like this and publishing her phone number and email address. Shame on her for not drafting original notes for each of the interns.

I would just say shame on her interns for not making sure that books going to the same place got notes from the same person.

Shame? What shame?

McSweeney's produces a lot of wonderful works but at times they can "package" themselves out of the market. I think it is great that they are trying a less difficult manner of getting your attention. The nature of these letters does not speak to your specialness. It speaks to the struggles a publisher faces in getting their titles reviewed. I feel that in this competitive market a publisher has to do anything they can to get attention. Interns or not I give Kudos to McSweeney's.

Per your "what we ask for" manifesto: "Please include a separate cover sheet or letter for each copy of every title submitted." McSweeney's: Just following orders since 1998.

Etiquette coursework might be an excellent add-on for any mfa purchase.

Zing! You really showed those folks at McSweeney's! Next time they'll know not to bother taking the time to include hand-written notes to Publishers Weekly. Instead they can join the rest by making you feel unspecial with the standard form-letter version printed off the computer by the hundreds. If there's a difference there, I'm not sure what it is.

Does PW review books, or the submission practices of publicists?

Oh people relAX, it's funny. A heartbreaking work of staggering shame it AIN'T. Angela should switch to sparkly purple ink though. Trust me.

Kudos to Angela and/or the intern for CARING enough to write a note--even two! Most of us are too busy to bother. And how unprofessional to publish her contact info. . .

This post is so much more revealing of the blogger than of Mcsweeneys. P.R. people can't make you feel like a less special person, Jonathan -- only you (taking the time to scan handwritten notes with un-redacted phone numbers on them) can do that.

Interesting how a reviewer just one step up from an intern can go snarky on those who are "paying their dues". Makes you wonder if -he- did. And kudos to McSweeneys for a rather clever promo idea. Hell, they could have just used a handwriting font and output different color inks. Very easy to do in Quark or InDesign with an inkjet. But they made an effort to be innovative. Unlike you, Jonny boy.

The affair of The Two Angelas is only a crack in the whimsical facade that McSweeney's is somehow something other than (or greater than) a business -- a business that stands on the shoulders of interns. It seems pretty clear that Mr. Segura is, fundamentally, a journalist, and would be remiss if he failed to report on this. And naturally McSweeney's is a Cultural Movement, and would be itself remiss if it failed to call up the committee of eager Eggersards and drown its enemies in accusations of snark, impolitesse and meanness.

Head Full of Rocks penned... "...a crack in the whimsical facade that McSweeney's is somehow something other than (or greater than) a business -- a business that stands on the shoulders of interns." And what business (including your employer, Publisher's Weekly) doesn't do exactly that, my boy? Head Full of Rocks also whimpered..."accusations of snark, impolitesse and meanness" Accusations? What accusations? We don't need no stinkin' accusations! The evidence is right there, son, in your own meandering, meaningless mots (that's French for "words", kid). Just re-read the ridiculous ramblings at the top of this page.

The question is: why would Segura go through the trouble to forge a second note and write about it? Is he just a pawn in some kind of McSweeney's masterplan too? The gulag thickens...

Hilarious and sad how all the McSweeney's army of douchebags line-up to defend their boring god. McSweeneys has been over for so long now.

What a Jerk posting. Funny though.

Right. Shame on you for not redacting McSweeney's public phone number and office email. SHAME!!

What's the big deal about the notes? I don't get what the fuss is about. It's not as if you know this person. It appears to me that McSweeney's probably likes the personal touch of handwriting in general so probably graces correspondence with it. I'm not a particular fan of theirs - but - I think it's a little arrogant of you for making such a big deal out of nothing. If you don't like their way of doing things and expected a kiss on the ass, fine - but this is egotistical and petty.

"egotistical and petty"? Is this your first time on the internet, SL? my question is, are we really so pampered in this industry that hand-writing a note (or even, like, a bunch of notes) counts as hard work, worthy of the utmost respect? i mean, "paying dues"? when i was interning, "paying dues" meant getting screamed at on a daily basis in front of my colleagues. i would have been delighted to hand-write some friendly notes.

Hello! I would just like to point out that this is why "Bring Your Kids to Work" day is a *bad* idea. Haha. Seriously, take a penmanship course, "Angela". -Claire

I was a McSweeney's intern. Angela would generally give three versions of the notes for each book: a long note, a medium note, and a note that might stretch onto a second line if you wrote really big. From the scan, you seem to have gotten the Long Note. Twice, at that. You should feel proud you weren't relegated to the Medium Note, or, God forbid, the Short Note class. But is it really that shocking to you? Show me a publisher that doesn't have its interns draft publicity copy. At least Angela's words are her own (if written by someone else's hand), and not something an underling came up with and she happily signed.

For what it's worth, Mr. Segura, I think your post is funny.

Jesus. And you Eggers-heads wonder why you and your head cry-baby are so despised--and so often accused of being totally phony assholes. Your dear publisher got caught pretending to send personal letters to the press, it turned out she was forcing interns to do it in her stead (what the hell was she so busy with that she could not do it herself? MCSweeny's creates and distributes almost nothing each year)and she got busted. Interesting, that nearly every comment here sounds amazingly like the whining Eggers did when he was questioned about his PR attack for the paperback of his first book. You guys should find something else to believe in. Eggers is not something an adult should give their time to. How many times do you have to catch him or his people lying before you figure out that he's just as much of a media-obsessed, fame-chasing dick as all the reporters he used to accuse? Moreover, he is an incredibly bad writer. Can you really stand up and believe in his prose? Can you believe in Neil Pollack? Please! Wake up! You're not in college anymore. PS I don't think I'll be looking at this stupid thread again. If you want to curse me out, I can be found easily enough.

i read a galley and this book is awesome.

I gotta say, from the standpoint of an editor, I do find it unnerving when someone tries to come across as knowing me personally, simply to get my attention. (I get a lot of "Hi, how have you been? Hope you had a good week! I have a great pitch for you...") These notes, in my opinion, fall into the same bin. The fact that you got two of them just points to sloppy PR work. But ultimately, it's PR, no more and no less, and people who pitch to us are not our friends reaching out (unless we know them, and even then, they're our friends wearing their PR hats).