Tagged: ugly side of book blogging
The Ugly Side of Book Blogging: A Particularly Bad Example
What a coincidence it was that today I posted a discussion post about the ugly side of book blogging! You see, today I got a generic email from an author named Robin Wyatt Dunn. As per my usual policy, I sent links to my review policy (where it states that I am closed to reviews) and to “How to Alienate Book Reviewers“, in which I rant eloquently about generic emails.
Now, usually I don’t care how such authors reply to this. Usually they don’t reply at all. However, Robin Wyatt Dunn replied like this:
“Here for my answer to your answer: http://www.ign.com/boards/threads/whats-a-cheap-quick-and-painless-way-to-kill-yourself.189242754/”
Yes, I’ve saved the email from said author for future reference. Screenshots can be provided.
And yes, I was just told by an author to kill myself. Isn’t book blogging just wonderful?
[As a side note to anyone who might think about retaliating: Don’t. The best thing you can do is ignore this type of behaviour and the person behind it. The only reason I’m going public with this is to draw attention to this type of sick, immature behaviour.]
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?