I’ve only been blogging about books for a year, so that makes me both qualified and unqualified to give advice about it.  I figure I’m as qualified as most people out there when it comes to giving advice to random strangers on the internet, but please, take it with a grain of salt.  There’s no way I can know your exact personality and set of circumstances, therefore this is more of an article with general guidelines rather than strict book blogging rules.

So why am I even writing this?  Well, before I decided I would blog about books I went looking for advice specific to book bloggers.  There was a shocking lack of it, especially for a newbie with virtually no knowledge of the industry and community.  I don’t wish that feeling of flying by the seat of your pants on anyone, which is why I’ve compiled this article.  Here are some bits of ‘wisdom’ I learned the hard way.

1.  Be polite and flexible when you work with authors, but know when to put your foot down.

Being a book blogger who accepts indie and self-published submissions, I get to work one-on-one with a lot of authors.  This is probably one of the best parts of my ‘job’ (aka volunteer work/hobby).  However, there is one particular incident that I’m ashamed of and I want all new book bloggers to avoid.

A couple months into blogging I was sent a book by an author and gave it a not-so-great review initially.  About 3/5 stars, if you’re curious.  Since I let authors get hold of a copy of my reviews a week in advance of the publication date, this author asked if I could change the wording around a little bit to make it less ‘harsh’.  She pressured me because she had spent the money to ship me a print copy of her book all the way up to Canada.  I felt guilty about this and changed the wording and the rating so that it was a little less harsh, but never an outright lie.

This was a mistake I’ll always regret.

Honestly, being polite and accommodating is important when working with anyone (especially authors), but you have to know when to put your foot down.  You have to set moral and ethical limits for yourself that you will not cross under any circumstances.  I crossed that line once and vowed never to do it again; I’ve kept that vow.  That is why I am always extremely open in reviews about when an author sends me a book in exchange for an honest review, whether it’s a print or ebook edition.  And that is why I am telling all you new (and old) book bloggers out there that you need to stand up for your right to your opinion.  It’s okay to give a mediocre, even negative review.  What’s not okay is to lie.  Don’t learn that the way I did. Continue reading →