So to whom does this apply? Only currently selling authors? Or all authors? I do still get a good number of hits – and not all from spybots. Geez, this business is dodgy enough without feeling like I’m pissing off readers. I’d really like to know.

Okay, I confess, it annoyed me a little that my book got trashed in a public venue, without any sort of explanation. And it’s making me crazy, wondering what it is she thinks I got wrong – if I DID get it wrong. I try very hard not to get things wrong, but I’m sure it happens. Who among us knows everything?

I thought about posting and asking her to email and tell me her thoughts, but I didn’t, because I never post on that blog, and didn’t want to appear as the whiney author, crying because somebody dissed her book. If she’d said, Man, I really hated this book, it would make me feel bad, but I’d move on and not let it bug me. In this case, I just really want to know what it is I screwed up – if, indeed, I did.

Like I said – it’s a fine line.

Well, hard fact. While reviews are not for authors, they are *about* the books that authors write. Writers are going to be hurt by reviews that pan the books they sweated blood over. And when writers are hurt, they tend to talk about it. Even if the rest of the world thinks they should just bear the pain and shut up.

Actually, I do think authors should just bear the pain and shut up about it. But I get why they don’t. No, they shouldn’t blame the reviewer for having her opinion and sharing it. But they do. And they will. Until they’ve been around long enough to see the true futility of such behavior.

Oh, and re my dead MySpace. I’d like to take it down, but I have no idea how.

I don't care that authors don't like reviews, but we have said time and again that reviews aren't for authors but for readers and thus the seeming non stop conversation about them at Romancing the Blog is becoming tiresome to me,

I don’t expect authors to be unaffected by reviews, because for whatever reason, many if not most authors can’t refrain from checking them out, and, after all, reviews are publicly circulated. I think where I get frustrated is in the way some author comments shift responsibility from the author herself (and her reaction) to the reviewer — like it’s the fault of reviewers that authors get their feelings hurt, when, as you say, reviews aren’t directed at authors, so whatever their reaction is to them is more about the sense of worth an *author* has around her work and herself. *Of course* feelings will be bruised; that’s only human. But when the reviewer seems to be held accountable for those feelings IMO a line has been crossed and the author has inserted herself into the reader – reader dialogue and actually interrupted the attention her book has the chance to garner through that discussion and dialogue among readers.

I don't care that authors don't like reviews, but we have said time and again that reviews aren't for authors but for readers and thus the seeming non stop conversation about them at Romancing the Blog is becoming tiresome to me, maybe not to anyone else, but to me. I don't even read the blog posts at RTB if the word “review� is used in the first paragraph or so.

You thinnk you’re tired now? Wait ten years. Particularly when that’s all that’s basically talking about on most sites. Which is probably not a fair comment but sometimes that’s what it seems like.

and drag the button marked zap_colors to your browser toolbar. When ever you find an unreadable page, click on that button and you should be able to read teh page.

I don’t care that authors don’t like reviews, but we have said time and again that reviews aren’t for authors but for readers and thus the seeming non stop conversation about them at Romancing the Blog is becoming tiresome to me, maybe not to anyone else, but to me. I don’t even read the blog posts at RTB if the word “review” is used in the first paragraph or so.

Did I mention technology hates me? *sigh* The words I hear most often from tech support are, “Wow! *wow is never good to hear in response to a query* I’ve never had that happen before.” and “It’s not supposed to do that.”

Surely writers don't have to be so conscious of upsetting the delicate sensibilities of reviewers that we can't have a bit of a laugh?

I didn’t have a strong feeling one way or another about Showalter’s column, but in general I don’t think Jane’s point is about offending readers. I read her comment as more about how those columns tend to characterize and portray authors, especially since the topic has become so ubiquitous in authorland. Do authors STILL need that kind of reassurance? Really?

Obviously reviews are of interest to authors and readers alike, because we’re all talking about them regularly, but one thing I’ve noticed is that we can’t seem to get past the same arguments back and forth, the same concerns, and the same gripes. Showalter’s column didn’t make me want to poke my eyes out, but I did find it kind of disappointing that the conversation stays at the stage it does, instead of moving into other related areas like whether there’s a disconnect between what readers find worthy of praise and what authors enjoy writing/feel compelled to write/like about the genre, etc. IMO reviews tell a lot about where readers are with the genre, but no one seems to be any real global attention to that, which I find curious, especially as it relates to where the books are and where authors are in terms of their writing.

I thought point number three was a bit unreasonable, though. Gena Showalter’s piece on ‘Coping with a bad review’ came across as completely good-natured and quite tongue-in-cheek to me. Entertaining (I bet) to both readers and writers, alike.

Surely writers don’t have to be so conscious of upsetting the delicate sensibilities of reviewers that we can’t have a bit of a laugh?

If you have a guest column at Romancing the Blog, please do not write about topics which make fun of readers, even your stupid, crazy ones, because it makes readers wonder if you are mocking them as well.

I’ve been pretty adamant about not taking out an author’s unpleasant online presence on his or her work, but this one has got me thinking more about that.

It seems to me that Romance is a genre that has thrived on, encouraged, and gained readership through a “fan” relationship with the books, and even more so, authors. Never mind that no average reader *knows* the average author — the perception of a relationship is cultivated in myriad ways, from “Dear Reader” letters to MySpace pages to elaborate blogs and websites to various Romance reader conventions, etc. How far does a fan go before she/he becomes a fanatic? I don’t know, but do authors who diss their “fanatic” fans also hope those fans fail to buy the next installment in that series about the virgin courtesan in King Arthur’s Court who falls in love with the lowly but handsome pauper who’s really the handsome prince (with apologies to Sam Clemens)?

Starting with the proposition that an author’s online persona is basically a fiction of sorts, or at least part invention, at what point should I, as a reader thinking of investing in another creative product of said author (in addition to the author’s web presence, that is) see that as a separate endeavor from responding to the author’s e-self? More specifically, when an author makes fun of readers publicly and then proceeds to argue with or delete objecting comments, is it then unfair of me to eschew her books? At some point it seems I’m putting more effort into distinguishing book from author than said author is, and that strikes me as sadly ironic.

Another way to ask that question: how many truly impressive authors — those whose books I just can’t live without or that enrich me in some way — indulge in that kind of public behavior? I haven’t given this a lot of thought, but I do have to say that I’m getting kind of burned out on the idea that I owe an author any more respect than I owe anyone else — that Romance authors are any more or less “special” than any reader. When authors put themselves out there to be associated with their books, how much do I owe them to distinguish their books from their online behavior, especially when that behavior is intentionally aimed at readers? Hmm, gotta think about that one more, I guess.

But setting one up to spam people isn’t any better than doing one and never going back to ‘friend’ people. And I am sorry unless you are there to do what myspace is meant to do… get to know people, make ‘friends’, become apart of the community… all a person is doing is spam. Sending out ‘newsletters’ to your bullet list or whatever, friending people with hope they will come back and check you out – is no better than blog hoping and saying My book got X amount of stars on RT and adding nothing to the romanceland.

But for people who are there to be apart of it… just seems like a time suck to me. But hey… I am sure blogs are for people as well. so whatever floats your boat

I’m not sure how a MySpace goes dead? I have mail, comments, new friend requests, bulletins, etc., daily. I don’t post my blog there simply because I rarely blog anymore, but many authors use it for their regular blog, or post in both places. It’s always active because it’s a community, even if it’s just a handful of communications a day.

I was thinking it might make more sense to open a myspace account and repeatedly post on it how much I don't like myspace

You don’t post on your own account. You can’t. (On your MySpace blog, yes, if you have one, but not on your page.) MySpace doesn’t work like a blog. If someone leaves you a comment, you go to their site to respond. When they get new visitors, those people will see your comment and often times click to your page. I know that happens because it’s what *I* do when I’m there, and it’s how I’ve found a lot of reader friends.

Three different animals, sites, blogs, and MySpace.

So there are a bunch of people who already *have* blogs and websites and social networking stuff set up somewhere else who are being told that no, that’s not good enough any more, and they have to use MySpace because it’s the only way to promo. And even those who are willing to try it find that the interface sucks galaxies through a straw, and it’s not somewhere they enjoy being.

I don’t mind putting up something with a pointer to where I actually am. But the people whose blogs I want to read are mostly somewhere else, and have been since before MySpace started. And I blog primarily to yack to my friends, not to pimp my books.

There’s another issue — MySpace insists on being given various bits of personal information which it then displays to all and sundry, with no opt-out. I do not want to declare my gender, age and star sign, thanks very much, and some of my friends have resisted getting a MySpace account for the same reason. LiveJournal doesn’t make me do that, nor does Yahoo or Amazon. I wasted several days I could have spent writing on removing the most obnoxious features from my profile display. My whole experience with MySpace so far has just been “eeuw”, and that’s before getting the creepy “wanna fuck?” messages some of my friends have described. I’m trying to remember that a lot of this is the problem of unfamiliar interfaces always suck at first, but I really do think it’s more than unfamiliarity in this case.