Free advice
It’s usually free to talk to me.
My tagline is “I help nonfiction authors succeed.” And I mean it. If you’re a nonfiction author, I’m nearly always ready to spend half an hour on Zoom to talk about the endlessly confusing alternatives for writing, positioning, and publishing a book.
I recently got an invitation to give free advice that didn’t sit right. It came through LinkedIn InMail. Here’s what it said:
I’m currently considering the acquisiton [sic] of a book printing business and am seeking insights into the future of book and periodicals publishing to inform my decision.
Do you have 15 min in the coming week to share your insights with me? If so, I’d love to jump on a call to introduce myself and hear your thoughts.
[Confidential details regarding desired information on the publishing industry, redacted]
This is an exciting space, and I’m eager to learn more from expert professionals like you.
The limits of free advice
I consider and rejected the idea of doing this for free. Since I do so much for free, why did this request not seem to it that philosophy?
- The person requesting it wasn’t an author or anybody else in the publishing ecosystem.
- They weren’t referred by somebody I know. I’d generally say yes to giving free advice based on a referral, but this was a cold ask with no introduction.
- It didn’t enhance my visibility. I’d happily do a Zoom webinar for your group of authors or publishing industry professionals, but this would not be seen by anybody but the original contact.
- There was very little chance this would turn into business for me in the future.
- It was purely commercial. The person making the request was seeking to make a profit and asking for my knowledge to do so. What’s in it for me?
If any of those five criteria were different, I’d have gladly said yes. But this request was 0 for 5.
How I responded
This was my response:
Thanks for your outreach. My consulting rate is $375 per hour. When would you like to set this up?
Guess what happened next?
They’re buying a “book-printing business” and they’re not in the “publishing ecosystem”?
Not the editorial part that I participate in.