Tagged: author attacks

Discussion: Author Drama

It’s sort of known that in the book blogging community, at one time or another you are going to have author drama.  You can be the nicest, sweetest, most agreeable person ever and an author is pretty much guaranteed to attack you for one perceived slight or another.  It’s unfortunately inevitable, particularly if you’re like me and accept books from self-published authors, who are disproportionately responsible for author drama.  You can read of my experience with one such person here.

What I want to know is this: Have you, as a book blogger ever experienced author drama?  What happened?  Or, if you’re an author that does book reviews, have you ever been attacked by a fellow author?  Or, somewhat worse, if you’re an author that doesn’t review books have you ever been attacked by another author for a different reason?

Don’t name names here if you’re not comfortable doing so but I’d appreciate it if everyone would share their experiences.  The majority of author-blogger interactions are perfectly fine and even friendly but sometimes bad eggs crop up.  It’s unfortunately part of reviewing books online and I in no way mean to insinuate that only authors initiate drama; plenty of book reviewers do the exact same thing.

Discussion: One Star Reviews

Although I honestly had no idea this whole controversy existed until a year or so ago, apparently posting one star reviews is a little controversial in the book blogging community.  Some bloggers believe that posting one star reviews is part of an honest and open reviewing process.  Others believe one star reviews are a waste of their time or invite unwanted negativity and possibly author attacks.  It really varies blogger-to-blogger.

As my regular readers know, I do post one star reviews.  Sometimes I’ve posted 0.5 star reviews.  Why do I read books I clearly don’t like?  Well, like any sane human being I pick up a book because it’s interesting and I think I’ll like it.  Sometimes the promise of the blurb and the other reviews encourage me to do so only to disappoint me.  When I start a book I don’t like to not finish it.  This is in part because of my natural stubbornness but also my determination to give books a fair review.  If I hate the character in the beginning, maybe they’ll get better.  If the editing is bad in the beginning, maybe it gets better as the novel goes on.  But if I’m honest, it’s mostly stubbornness so I can say that I gave the book an honest try and really didn’t like it.

While it does invite author ire (mostly) in the case of self-published authors, I will continue posting one and 0.5 star reviews if I think it’s a fair rating.  For me it’s part of my honesty-is-best policy.  However, I differ from the book bloggers that give the rest of us a bad name in that I never author-bash or really go crazy on the book bashing.  Still, some people feel that for themselves it is wrong to post one star reviews for a number of reasons.  And that’s absolutely fine by me; it’s their blog after all and it’s totally up to them.

What I want to know now is this: If you’re a blogger, do you post reviews of books you didn’t like?  Do you think it tends to invite author attacks in some cases and thus avoid it or do you have other reasons for not posting negative reviews?  If you’re an author who does reviews, do you post one star reviews or do you just give constructive criticism to your fellow authors in private (if you were requested to read the book)?

Happy 3rd Blog Anniversary!

Happy 3rd BirthdayThree years ago, around 5:30 pm I started The Mad Reviewer.  I was half asleep and exhausted after work but had been planning to start a blog for a solid two weeks or so.  I had all of my first posts typed up to post right away and my first review was The Iron King by Julie Kagawa.  It was rough and not very well written I must admit, but I like to think I’ve gotten better after three years and 600 more reviews as practice.

So here I am, three years, 600 reviews and 200,000+ views later.  On my first day ever, my blog got 18 views whereas now I average anywhere from 150-200 views per day, depending on what I post that week and any holidays that are currently going on.  It’s been an incredible journey.  I’ve made so many friends and met so many interesting people (as much as one can make friends and ‘meet’ people online) and I’ve learned a lot.  Here are just some of the things I’ve learned in three years of writing nearly daily:

1.  Even though not everyone sticks around for long, you do build up a core section of regular commenters.

People follow and then unfollow your blog; that’s just the way the internet works.  But over time, blogs build up communities of sorts where a few people will comment pretty regularly on your posts.  It’s gratifying to see that community build and change over the years and although I love all of the comments I get, the comments from you regulars always mean so much to me.  It shows me that even when my writing is not necessarily my best, you’re still willing to give it a read and leave your thoughts behind.  That’s a pretty incredible feeling and I like to think we’ve had some pretty interesting conversations and debates over the years.

2.  Blogging can be exhausting and that’s normal.

You will eventually get burned out.  That’s just the way blogging goes, like so many other creative pursuits.  You’ll be posting daily and regularly and all of a sudden something awful will happen in your real life that completely throws everything off.  Or maybe something happens that isn’t all that dramatic and you just lose the ‘shiny new’ feeling you get when you blog.  Either way, every blogger will hit a slump.  Mine was just recently after my beloved boss/mentor/role model died in May.  It was really bad in July and August but this January my resolution has been to move on and write daily like I used it.  So far so good and it’s such a relief to get back on a schedule.  It just makes me feel better about the whole thing.

That’s why my main advice for new bloggers is this: you will burn out eventually.  But when you do, take a break and get back on that horse.

3.  Some posts will be surprisingly popular; others will not.

If you write articles with popular internet buzzwords like ‘Game of Thrones’ and ‘nude’ (preferably in the same sentence), you’re going to get a lot of views.  42% of my traffic last year came from a post with just those words and most of those views were from search engines.  Rants like the aforementioned rebuttal are satisfying to write if only to let off some steam and it’s also satisfying to look back on those rants and see that they’re still popular.

But I’ve got some bad news for new bloggers: the articles that you generally will care the most about and put the most effort into will not be the most popular.  (Especially if you’re a book blogger.)  In general, what you like to write about and what your core group of loyal readers loves will not be as popular with the general public.  I love to write about obscure historical figures in my Forgotten Figures series but the problem with writing about obscure historical figures is that they’re obscure.  Not many people search them out.

Of course you can love to rant about popular topics and get views from those, but don’t be surprised when articles you put your heart and soul into don’t get the number of views that are proportional to the effort put into them.

4.  There are some bad times, but there are mostly good times to be had.

Sometimes, just like in real life, people can be assholes online.  This shouldn’t be news to anyone who has ever been online.  Sometimes those assholes will attack you.  It’s just a fact of life on the internet, particularly if you’re female (then you get all of the bonus sexual harassment in addition to regular harassment!).  And if you’re a book blogger like me, it’s inevitable that an author will go ballistic at you for doing something ‘wrong’.  Whether it’s rejecting a review request because your requests are closed or not being totally 100% happy and completely positive in your review of their work, you’re going to get attacked by an author.  You need to develop a thick skin and deal with it, unfortunately.  They’re not going anywhere.

Those are the low points of being a book blogger.  They’re rare, but they are there.  Fortunately, most of the times will be good.  Your posts will be read by at least a couple loyal readers a day and you’ll meet some amazing people in the publishing industry, be they editors, bloggers or writers.  You’ll get to share your love of books and that’s really what book blogging is all about, at least for me.  The good times have definitely outweighed the bad here on The Mad Reviewer.