Tagged: book bloggers
Poll: Do you do Book Tours?
For some bloggers, book tours are all they seem to do on their blogs. Others never host book tours. But at the end of the day, most bloggers seem to find a happy medium between the two. As you guys have noticed over the years, I’m affiliated with a couple of tour companies but only really participate in a few blog tours a month, sometimes even less. It really depends on what else I’m posting as well as how interested I am in a particular book or author.
And as always, if you have any additional thoughts or opinions please leave them in the comments section below.
I Need Your Help with an Ethical Dilemma!
When I started this blog I never even imagined I’d have the opportunity to make money from it. Get some free books, yes. But actual money? Not in a million years. Even now, three years later, I never really thought I’d have that opportunity. Except now I do.
Yesterday I received an email from Penny Sansevieri of Author Marketing Experts, Inc. She gave me a pretty good offer that was essentially this:
- If you become a reviewer for us, you can receive free swag OR
- You can directly get $20 per review, positive or negative.
I thought this sounded a little fishy so I did about two hours of research on Sansevieri and the history of the company. As far as I can tell, it all seems legitimate and I think the offer is a valid one. It seems more than fair to me to either get swag or money for doing a review, positive or negative. But will the company stick to the ‘money for a review positive or negative’ or will there be pressure to only write positive reviews? If I were to accept the offer and take the money for reviews I would be my usual brutally honest self. If I received undue pressure to only write positive reviews, I would walk away rather than compromising my principles as a book reviewer.
My main concern lies with you guys, my readers. Without going too much into my financial situation, essentially in the next half of this year my expenses are going up and my income is going down for a bit after my move to the city. I need a little more incentive to keep going with my blog and having a little bit of positive cash flow would be nice so I don’t keep spending my own money on giveaways. If I were to take the offer I would likely just sink the money back into The Mad Reviewer so that maybe I could finally afford to get my own domain name and move off the free WordPress site where the threat of arbitrary suspension constantly hangs over my head. And if I had any extra cash it would also go to more giveaways. So essentially it would make my blog a net neutral in terms of cash flow.
However, the trust of my readers will always be my number one priority. Even if I disclose when I am being paid for a review, you guys may not be comfortable knowing the fact I was paid. After writing 650+ reviews over three years I believe that the money will not influence me but if you guys are uncomfortable with that I will not take the offer. Honesty is always my priority and I do want to hear from you guys.
So:
1. Would I be compromising my integrity by accepting money in exchange for my usual honest reviews? (As a side note, my own personal submissions will always remain free of charge.)
2. Are you comfortable with the fact that I might be paid for reviews? (Note: I will always disclose whether or not I was paid, as has been my policy from the beginning regarding where I get my books from.)
Please let me know in the comments section. Or, if you’re not comfortable with that, feel free to drop me an email directly or go to my Contact page. I really do want your input and feedback, positive or negative. It will certainly help me decide whether or not to accept the offer.
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)?
The Best and Worst of November 2014
November went by in a blur for me, to be honest. Between not having internet for half of it and not having water for the past day and a half currently, I’m really quite sick of rural life. Still, it makes me appreciate all the more the fact I’m moving to a real-life city in the summer. So overall, not a bad month but not a great month.
In November, despite spotty posting, I managed to get 6,022 views including a total of 3,875 unique views. That’s fewer views than October, but I can’t really complain because of the aforementioned spotty posting. Hopefully the internet I pay through the nose for will be slightly more consistent in the future.
So what were my best posts this month?
1. Why Girls Hate Game of Thrones—A Rebuttal
2. How to Read 100 Pages in an Hour
3. The Hunger Games and Ancient Rome
4. Best Seller by Martha Reynolds
5. The Mad Reviewer is Open to Review Requests (Temporarily)
That’s actually a pretty respectable list, with two new posts finally making it. My review of Best Seller by Martha Reynolds is still going very strong and I’m glad that the author is still promoting it. It makes me far more likely to review books by authors in the future when they promote the heck out of my reviews, even mediocre ones. As for the last item on my list, I’m quite happy with the response I’ve had to my call for submissions. I’ve got 14 locked in right now and I’ve reviewed four of them; so far, so good.
And what were the worst posts this month?
1. A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness
2. Anastasia: The Last Grand Duchess by Carolyn Meyer
5. “Game of Thrones man hatred” and More Weird Search Terms
The only surprise there is that one of my weird search term posts finally made the list of the worst in terms of views. That’s shocking, actually. As for the rest, I can’t really complain. They’re either old articles or announcements or books that aren’t necessarily the most popular at the moment. Next month that list will totally change, just like every other list of the worst articles/reviews.
Well, that was how my November went. How was yours? Did you watch that heartbreaking mid-season finale of The Walking Dead last night?
Discussion: NetGalley
For those of you that don’t know, NetGalley is a site where publishers and authors put ebooks (usually ARCs, but they don’t have to be) to be requested by reviewers. Us reviewers fill out a profile containing our blogging information like our statistics and what we review and then we request these books. Sometimes you get accepted, sometimes you don’t. Since I hit 1,000 followers I don’t usually get turned down, but then again I’m very picky about what I request and I read their criteria for reviewers.
I’ve always found NetGalley’s user interface clean, simple and easy to use. Edelweiss was an absolute nightmare when I tried to sign up after using NetGalley for so long. Seriously people, how do you use that site with tiny writing, no logical order and pretty much zero instructions? Unless they’ve vastly improved it, I doubt I will ever use my Edelweiss profile. NetGalley is enough for me at this point.
But what I want to know now is this: If you’re a reviewer, do you use NetGalley? What are your experiences like on there? If you don’t use NetGalley, why not?
And, if you’re an author or a publishing professional, are your books on NetGalley? Why or why not? If so, what are your experiences on it like?