Impressed with Bel Kaufman and Open Road Media

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Bel Kaufman, author of one of my all-time favorite books. (img src)

I got an email yesterday from a Ms. De Silva of Open Road Media. It was a marketing email telling me about the release of Bel Kaufman's cult classic, Up the Down Staircase, in ebook format. It gave the usual short background about the author and a link to new content, specifically a video of Bel Kaufmann.

Now, I usually do not do anything about emails like this. Not that I don't appreciate them--trust me, I do. I am shallow and, once in a while, I like feeling important enough for a marketer's email. But I have a lot of things on my plate--as might be obvious from the sporadic posts on this blog--so I really don't have the time to take books for review or even post announcements and such.

But I'm making an exception for this. Because I am truly impressed. 

First, I am impressed by Bel Kaufman. My God, the woman is 101 years old! And lucid as ever. I fell in love with Up the Down Staircase because of the honest, inspiring, and hilarious view of the teaching profession. It resonated deeply, hence I wrote about it way back in 2009. To this day, I still have mushy feelings towards it, hence this post.

But the other reason I am impressed is due to the tenacity and the research by the people in Open Road Media. Ms. De Silva's email started with the following:

Hi there, 
I'm writing because of your honest and thoughtful review of Bel Kaufman's Up the Down Staircase a few years ago. I recently came across your post, and I absolutely appreciated your take on Kaufman's work.

I don't know how sincere this is. I'd like to believe it is. But either way, I'm flattered. The email's very targeted and personal. Ms. De Silva did her research and reached out. And I know this is sort of a basic thing that book bloggers will say to and expect of publishers' online marketing teams but believe me, not everyone does their research. Not everyone will even take the time to Google their book's title, see who wrote about it, and approach them. 

And I love that they created a page specifically for the upcoming ebook editions of Ms. Kaufman's works. And that they added a new interview with Bel Kaufman. Fantastic marketing.

Granted, Open Road Media might have more resources than other smaller players. Still. It's a joy to see things done right.

Within the same email, Ms. De Silva says "If [the video] moves you, I hope you'll consider sharing it with your friends and readers." 

So Ms. De Silva, yes, the video did move me. I got chills when I saw the text from the book again. Makes me think it's time for a reread. What also moved me is the attention you guys put in reaching out to readers. Thank you and more power to you.

And to everyone else: my recommendation from three years ago still stands. Go lose yourself in the book. I doubt many of you will regret it.

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