Date: Fri, 3 Apr 1992 22:21:00 EDT
From: ELEANOR COOK <COOKEI@APPSTATE.BITNET>
Subject: RE: Unsolicited Journals

Reply to Steve Murden about unsolicited Chinese journal title:

 Steve, you're not alone in being a little irritated! I am also getting
ready to pen a letter to that very prominent publisher who thought it
a clever marketing technique to send unsolicited and very mysterious
titles from the far east.
   Our serials office manager has been collecting issues of the offending
title for months now. They were coming with such regularity that she
was suspicious and did not toss them. She tried writing to the address
inside the front cover but received no reply. Just recently we received a
letter out of the blue from the parent company. (It's time to write to
M. Tuttle's newsletter I think!)
  We wish to return them to the publisher. In lieu of that, we will send
them off to USBE or a back issue dealer. No need to throw them away.
They will eventually cost somebody some money!
  The big publishers of scientific journals have been coming up with
all kinds of marketing techniques. The bottom line: if I didn't order
it in the first place, I usually don't want it. That goes for the
telemarketers as well. Just the other day I received a call from a obscure
company trying to sell us a hotel/motel guide. The young lady wanted
to RECORD my acceptance of their conditions for a trial subscription!
No thank you, no gimmicks please. Give me a sample, and maybe I'll give
you a purchase order! This person didn't even have the courtesy to
identify herself or company when first beginning her spiel.
   I suspect that publishers are going to continue to get even more
creative as our budgets continue to tighten; let the prosepctive
buyer beware!

Eleanor Cook
Serials Librarian
Appalachian State University
Boone, NC 28608
cookei@appstate.bitnet