Pub Free Lunch?

There’s a discussion going on on one of my loops about the ethics involved in posting Publisher’s Marketplace/Publisher’s Lunch announcements. It’s done quite a lot on loops and blogs. My general feeling is that if it appears in the free lunch that anyone can sign up for (which many deals do, a week later), or if it is posted with permission from the writer, then it’s fine. Otherwise… I feel uncomfortable about it.

As the full PM announcement is a paid service ($20 a month), and those paid subscriptions are what keep the program going, it feels odd to just pass out that information. If the information in PM is available everywhere, then what is the incentive for someone to pay for it? If no one pays for it, then maybe they’ll stop providing this service, which I think is one of the best around.

I’ve been known to slip and talk up particular books that I’m super excited about (my sitemeter regularly checks in on the hits I still get from posting on Ellen Emerson White’s latest Meg book) so I’m certainly not perfect on this stance. I did this once in February of 2006, and once (much more recently) in April of 2007. I also occasionally discuss something I learned in a conference workshop. But I don’t go around posting full Deal Lunches, nor do I report in from a conference with every tidbit that all the other conference goers are paying for (except, you know, the ones who sneak in).

Is it “fair” that people who can’t afford access to this subscription can’t get the benefits from it? Well no, of course it’s not fair. Fair would be free. If I want information that it costs money to get, I pay for it. I’m not a subscriber to Publisher’s Weekly, so I know I only get to see a few of their articles in their free online version. Ditto with RT. Don’t even get me started on Bookscan.

PM isn’t cheap, but it’s a subscription I think is worth it. For those who can’t afford it, I have often suggested signing up for one month and doing an archive deal search. best $20 you’ll ever spend if you’re about to start on an agent search.

Meanwhile, there is SO MUCH information that’s freely available online, it’s astounding. The first year I was writing, I amassed a huge amount of knowledge from free online sources. I was too poor for any paid services. Too poor for RWA. I practically lived on Writers Weekly (which taught me the fundamental rule of writing: money flows toward the writer). I got the free version of Pub Lunch for years and managed just fine before I finally splurged on the full version (supposed to be just a trial, but I loved it so much I made the full-time investment). And now, six years later, there is even more information, in the form of industry pro blogs, newsgroups, etc. Most of these didn’t exist in 2001.

So what do you think? Is it fair to post Deal Lunches that only subscribers should receive? Is it fair not to?