Waiting for the sales pitch. Sigh.

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I just received a phone call from Who's Who in America. Because I've published a bunch of "scholarly" articles, and because I've done good stuff in the community, they want to give me a "lifetime achievement award," which includes a detailed biographical sketch about me, complete with pictures, on the internet. The lady on the other end was nice, and asked me a bunch of questions about the articles I've written, who my major influences were, etc. But when she started mentioning how their biographical narrative would "increase my web presence" (something I don't particularly care about), I started wondering when the sales pitch would occur. It wasn't until about 25 minutes of conversation (during which I got to make myself sound like a Saint) that it became apparent I'd have to pay for all of this. Alas, Who's Who is just another "vanity press." When I let her know that I wasn't interested in buying anything, the conversation ended pretty quickly. Do you have any experience with "vanity presses"? They include books/websites like Poetry.com, where you can have your poem published, no matter how good it is or is not. They bank on a certain number of "published" poets buying the volume their "work" is in. The cost is pretty high, perhaps around $100. As University of Chicago Economist Milton Friedman used to say (I think he may have written a book using it as a title): "There's No Such Thing as a Free Lunch."