Tagged: discussion
Discussion: Book Releases You’re Looking Forward To
Every avid reader has a series they just love and cannot wait to finish. The waiting, even though it’s usually only a couple of years, seems like forever. You obsessively check Goodreads to check and re-check the expected publication date, you talk to your fellow fans, you stalk the author’s blog just to see if they’ve made any announcement pertaining to their next book. Yes folks, that’s the level of obsession I’m talking about.
I’m really only that way with a few books. Most notably, The Winds of Winter by George R. R. Martin (which is not going to be released this year, argh!), Hidden Huntress by Danielle L. Jensen, Prophecy of the Betrayed Heir by Diantha Jones (hurry up, you crazy busy lady!) and whatever book comes after Shadow Dragon in the Shapeshifter Dragon series by Marc Secchia. I actually have rapport with the last two authors so I can playfully bug them once in a while but being able to do that makes the wait for traditionally published books even harder now. I can’t exactly email George R. R. Martin and ask when he’s finally going to write his next book!
So what books are you super looking forward to? Why? How long have you waited?
Discussion: Book Exhaustion
This is sort of an odd topic but it’s one that I find I have to struggle with every once in a while. I can’t be the only one, can I?
Book exhaustion is a term I use to describe a feeling of total emotional and sometimes physical exhaustion after reading a book. Sometimes it’s after slogging through a really terrible book. Other times it’s provoked by reading a really good book. And the book length doesn’t really seem to matter when it comes to book exhaustion; I’ve been exhausted after 200 page books and 800 page books alike. I personally think book exhaustion is brought on by either reading too many books at once or in a row and/or reading an emotionally exhausting book (one where you really, really connected with the characters and their struggles).
As a reader, have you ever experienced book exhaustion? How long does it usually last? Does it lead to a reading slump for you? Or do you just get back on the horse the next day?
Discussion: Writing Inspiration/Motivation
Sometimes no matter how hard you try you can’t write. The words feel like you’re trying to pull rusty nails out of a board and you’re just not getting anywhere with your writing. No matter what you write, whether it’s blog posts or full length novels, you’ve probably experienced something like this at one point or another.
I personally cope with this by either starting a different blog post, one that I’m more motivated to write (i.e. one for a book I really enjoyed) or just walking away for a little bit. Walking away can mean saving the post as a draft for as little as an hour or so or as much as a year. Usually I will come back to a post, particularly if it’s a review but sometimes it’s really hard. So I try to motivate myself by listening to music I enjoy while writing it or giving myself a little pep talk. It’s kind of weird but it generally works.
Now what I want to know is this: If you do writing of any sort, what motivates and/or inspires you to do it? When you’re struggling to find the words, how do you get past your writer’s block?
Discussion: Befriending Authors
We in the blogging community often work quite a bit more closely with authors than, say, a reviewer for a national newspaper or bigger book reviewing website. One of the consequences of that is we develop pretty good working relationships with authors and sometimes those develop into friendships (insomuch as one can be friends with someone purely online). But that also brings up a big ethical question: How do these relationships affect our reviews? Should book reviewers befriend authors and review their books?
No review is completely objective, obviously. Your own experiences and likes and dislikes go into your perception of a book and the writing of the review. But being friends with an author can make writing a review a little harder so should bloggers either a) not befriend authors at all or b) not review books by their friends.
Personally I consider myself friends with some of the authors I’ve reviewed here on my blog and I still reviewed their books anyway. (This is a limited number because while I’m friends with about 5 authors most of my relationships with authors would be considered ‘professionally friendly’.) But when I write a review I totally block out any perceptions of the author as best I can. If my friend writes crappy dialogue, I’m going to tell her in the review. If the characters seem one dimensional and have very few realistic motivations then I’m going to call him out on it. Sometimes it’s hard; I’m certainly not going to claim that it’s not. However, I feel that I am generally objective enough not to let my friendships as they stand interfere in my criticism. If at some point in the future I did feel like I couldn’t objectively review a book by a friend, then I simply would not review the book.
What I want to know now is this: As a blogger do you feel it’s right to make friends with authors at all? If you are friends with an author, do you feel it affects your ability to give them an objective review? How do you balance your friendships with your reviewing principles of honesty and openness?
Discussion: Does Anyone Actually Watch Book Trailers?
I’m not trying to be my usual snarky self about this topic but I’m genuinely interested: do people actually watch the trailers for books? It seems that every author and/or publisher releases them for their books but I really fail to see the point. The ones I’ve seen had really poor production value and were essentially just readings of the book blurb (which I could have done myself much more quickly and without the cheesy graphics). No doubt there are probably some ‘good’ book trailers out there but I really just don’t see the point.
I asked this question last year in a discussion and most people said they don’t watch book trailers but now that my audience is significantly bigger I want to pose the question to a wider audience. It’s possible that I’m just missing the point.
So do you watch book trailers? If so, could you link to an example of a good one? If not, why? If you’re an author, have you had a book trailer done and why or why not? Did it help with marketing your book?