Swag Off

Published Feb 01 2008, 09:42 PM by Sharon Steel

This Thursday Styles piece about beauty bloggers and swag is basically just repackages a million-year old story about beauty editors (or fashion editors, or whatever kind of editor) and the swag that they're inundated with on a regular basis.

What's funny is the subsequent debate that flared up on Jezebel. Word Up loves the Jezzies but man, they've been bitter lately. We guess yelling at people for jumping on the Juno backlash wagon is okay, but enjoying the idea of playing with make-up as we approach a recession is not? For what it's worth, the impending recession is exactly the sort of thing that makes a lot of girls want to buy themselves cheap lipgloss and chai lattes to help them feel better about life. Delicious books to read while drinking the chai lattes are also in order, which brings us back to the freeloading.

We were just imagining how odd and awkward it would be if the publishing industry worked more like the beauty industry does. So, say Elizabeth Gilbert pens another find-yourself-travel-memoir that is set in Hawaii, just for example's sake. And her publicist sends out a few select emails that go something like this: Dear Book Editor, we would like to fly you to Honolulu and give you spa treatments to help you remember your spirit and vibe with Liz's latest message! OMG please come! It's our treat! Yay! Then write about it! And give Liz another hot-30something-blonde spread in the pages of your magazine!

Instead of, you know, sending out a galley, and advance praise blurbs and then following up with a comped review copy of the book. Which can also work wonders. Especially if Oprah gets involved.

We're quite sure the alternative scheme would never happen. But considering how shallow the publishing industry can be sometimes, we suppose it suffers silently in its own way. Even if the latest chick-lit or lad-lit from whatever major house doesn't come with a free jar of La Mer.