Tagged: book blogging
The Best and Worst of August 2013
It’s hard to believe August and therefore summer are over. Here in Saskatchewan we had absolutely miserable weather for 3/4s of the summer and it’s only really been nice these past two, maybe three weeks. Oh well, that’s life I guess.
Anyway, August was a bit of a hectic month for me. Life-related things took over so I didn’t get as many books reviewed as I would have liked, an author suggested I kill myself and I ran a few giveaways. August was also my second most successful month in overall statistics since I reached 6,545 views with 3,899 unique views. That’s pretty good for me, especially considering that I just reached my 500 follower milestone. I hope to hit my 500 review milestone this year as well!
But what were my most popular posts this month? Let’s take a look at the statistics:
1. The Day an Author Suggested I Kill Myself
2. Why Girls Hate Game of Thrones—A Rebuttal
3. The Hunger Games and Ancient Rome
4. The Ugly Side of Book Blogging: A Particularly Bad Example
5. The Outsiders by S. E. Hinton
None of these are a surprise, especially the first one. The reaction from the book blogging community to that particular incident was both swift and relatively severe. I know it inspired a lot of fellow bloggers to start ‘do not read’ lists, which is good considering what the author did. I’ll just leave it at that. The other posts are either old favourites, ones with good SEO **coughGOTcough** or ones to do with my little author trouble. None of the ones appearing on this list are surprising in the least.
So what were my worst posts this month, you ask? Well:
1. Just Thought You’d Like to Know
2. The Mad Reviewer is Open for Submissions
3. Mary, Bloody Mary by Carolyn Meyer
4. The Princess, The Crone and the Dung-Cart Knight by Gerald Morris
5. The Surprising Benefits of Book Reviewing
Really, there are no surprises here either. These posts are either really dated like the first one back when I celebrated my 50th review or are just unpopular books. It’s too bad since the two books on here are good, but that’s just the way the cookie crumbles. Seeing as no book/post is on the 5 worst list every month I won’t lose any sleep over it.
That’s how my August was. How was yours? How did you enjoy the summer? Was it warm where you live? Did you find any good books?
The Mystery of the Randomly Appearing Books
As a book blogger, I’m quite used to getting books in my mailbox. I don’t get several a week like some reviewers do, but I do receive a couple every month. Sometimes I don’t remember where these came from or whether they’re from a publisher, author or giveaway. Usually a quick glance through my inbox will tell me whether I’m supposed to be reviewing it right away for a publisher or author or whether I won it in a giveaway and can put it in my leisure reading pile.
Which brings me to my current dilemma. Last week I received two books in the mail: The Beautiful and the Cursed by Page Morgan and Doomed by Tracey Deebs. As you can see, they’re not by the same author (not even the pen name is the same) and the publishers are different (Delacorte Press, a division of Random House and Bloomsbury respectively).
Since I actually don’t win that many giveaways, I am in doubt as to whether this was a giveaway prize because I would remember winning two books. At least, I hope I would. Especially since the mysterious sender went through all that trouble to ship me two hardcover books from the US at a cost of over $20!
So here are my clues to this mystery:
- The authors are not the same
- The publishers are not the same
- I don’t remember winning a giveaway with these as prizes (or it was a giveaway and I wasn’t contacted by the prize provider beforehand)
- This package was sent to me by an M. Boone of G something ville, USA (the writing is illegible)
- They used the wrong postal code (one letter off) so the package was lost in Quebec and Ontario before making its way here
Well, I’m putting it out there for you guys: Where did these books come from?
What it’s Like to Write Seven Reviews in One Day
Due to work being busier than ever, my little health problem and family obligations, in July I had been reading a lot and reviewing very, very little. By mid-July I had probably read 20 books and written zero reviews for them. As you guys know, I’m a horrible procrastinator, but every once in a while inspiration strikes like lightning.
All the authors reading this know what I’m talking about: your heart speeds up and you feel the instant need to go on your computer and type like mad to get all of your ideas on paper while you can. You don’t stop for anything: food, drink, bathroom breaks, etc. It’s energizing, but it can leave you drained for days afterward. I know some authors that get completely wiped out after 5000 words in a day (fair enough, really), but what’s it like on the reviewer end? Do reviewers experience similar fatigue after going on a review writing binge? See for yourself! Below is an accurate recreation of my thought process as I wrote seven reviews in one day, my record to date.
Review #1: I am in the zone!
The first review I tackled on that day was a review for a book I absolutely loved. As you guys may or may not know depending on whether you write reviews as well, it’s very easy to gush about a new favourite book than to do a ‘meh’ review. My average review is about 3-4 paragraphs, but this review ended up being 6 paragraphs long after some substantial editing so you guys wouldn’t get sick of my gushing. Writing this review had the effect of truly putting me in the zone, meaning I was all energized for review #2. Continue reading
The Day an Author Suggested I Kill Myself
I’ve been book reviewing for one year and seven months now. Comparatively I haven’t been around for very long in the blogging world, but I have been around long enough. What’s ‘long enough’? Well, I’ve been blogging long enough to have trolls try to start flame wars and authors attack me for having an opinion and expressing said opinion. I’ve learned to deal with it because, hey, most authors and commenters are awesome people. I was also blessed with a thick skin as well as an iron-clad commenting policy that I’ve always followed.
Compared to the experiences of some book bloggers I’ve had it pretty good. Some book reviewers have faced far worse than I have, others have faced far less. For the most part I’ve put up with it and have not called out authors publicly because I didn’t think their behaviour constituted public humiliation.
Until now.
Discussion: The Ugly Side of Book Blogging
A lot of my readers here are book bloggers as well and as we know, book blogging isn’t all roses and sunshine. There are disputes with authors, jealousy within the community, pressure to write good reviews for publishers, etc. But overall, in my personal experience, I’d say that authors are the best and worst part of book blogging.
I have met some absolutely incredible people through my book blog that I never would have otherwise. You guys know who you are. At the same time, I have been subjected to nasty comments, author meltdowns (only in private emails so far) and generic emails by authors who think they’re entitled to a review without remembering basic courtesy. So yes, authors are the reason why I’m doing this and the reason why sometimes I feel like saying “screw it!” and not accepting review requests at all. (It’s very tempting at the moment, believe me.)
My question for my fellow bloggers is this: what’s the worst part of book blogging? What about the best part? Did you ever have an incident so nasty you almost considered giving up book blogging?