Tagged: musings

Blogging Goals: Attend Book Expo America

Many, many people have asked me where I’m taking this blog.  What are my goals for its future?  Do I foresee a time where I’ll have to stop blogging?  (Let’s hope not!)  What direction do I want to take The Mad Reviewer?  Is my goal to monetize my blog?

To tell you the truth, I don’t know the answer to any of those questions at the moment.  Right now I just want to talk about books like I always have while building up a following of awesome readers.  So far, so good.  It’s basically what every other book blogger wants.

But lately I’ve been thinking about book blogging conferences and book fairs.  Particularly Book Expo America (BEA), which has a book blogger’s conference in conjunction with the regular show.  From what I’ve seen of other blogs it seems like a great place to go: you get some free books, listen to interesting talks from industry professionals and network with other bloggers.  So yes, as a dedicated book blogger I obviously want to go.  The only question is when.

Looking at my financial situation right now, going in 2014 is out of the question, unfortunately.  2015?  Maybe then, but certainly not next year.  Right now it’s really only the financial part that’s holding me back.  Travelling alone to somewhere like New York is a little intimidating I’ll admit, but it’s not like I haven’t travelled alone before.  Just never that far.  I may splurge and buy a bunch of business cards for my blog beforehand, but that’s something to worry about in the future when I actually have a permanent logo and more followers.

So yeah, attending Book Expo America is currently my only book blogging goal.  If you’re a blogger or an author, would you want to attend something like BEA?  Have you already attended it?  What was it like?

Some Advice for Book Bloggers

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.

Assertive

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 →