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On Bloggers, Reviewers, and Readers. #Ivegotyourback

Jane — Sat, 05 Mar 2011 15:00:11 +0000

I’ve been reading some posts about this YAMafia theory running around the internet. Regular readers of Dear Author should be very familiar with this given the past history in romance. It’s almost a relief to see the “be nice” mantra being preached outside of romance. Huzzah, all fandoms are dysfunctional.

Essentially the theory is that there are a group of YA authors who are banding together to prevent or impair the publication efforts of those who give “negative” reviews on goodreads, Amazon, blogs or other review sites. I use the scare quotes around the word negative because in my interaction with authors and from reading these posts about negative reviews, negative generally means anything less than fulsome praise. I wrote a post about “what is wrong with a C review” and received multiple emails from authors about how horrible a C review was. We’ve even heard that authors have been upset by B and B+ reviews here on DA.

The thing that is missing in all these “helpful” posts by authors about reviewing is the reader. All of these admonitions to bloggers, reviewers, and other authors such “be nice” and “be careful” and “think about your future” inadvertently exclude the reader. Because that is what reviews are for. They are for readers. They are conversation starters for readers. They might help a reader decide how to allocate their book funds. They are entertainment for readers. They are not for authors. And any limitations authors place on what reviews can be put out there by certain classes of reviewers impairs the marketplace of ideas where readers gather.

Here’s my counterpoint. To those reviewers, bloggers, readers who write open, honest, critical reviews. I’ve got your back. You want to engage readers about the books you’ve read, even if you didn’t like the book. I’ve got your back. You want to be part of the reading community by participating in conversation about books. I’ve got your back.

I, and thousands of other readers, appreciate your efforts. We appreciate your candor, your consistency. We’ve got your back.

Yes, you may not be able to sit in the back seat of a town car with an editor without feeling uncomfortable or maybe if you go to a writer’s conference, you’ll be snubbed, shunned or talked about in low whispers. But remember, we readers have your back.

You might be called names, kicked out of organizations, blackballed by other authors. But the readers with whom you’ve developed relationships, we’ve got your back.

Bloggers and reviewers who are aspiring authors, here is my advice. Concentrate on writing the best damn book you can. Damn good writing will trump your “negative reviews.” But writing negative reviews (which can be anything less than fulsome praise) will hurt feelings. It may be that some authors and friends of authors you have criticized will NOT want to be your friend. Don’t blog or review with a critical eye if you want to be friends with every one in the industry because that is pure foolishness. Your reviews aren’t for authors anyway. The book is done. It’s written. It’s published. It can’t be changed, no matter how brilliant your critique. But we, the reader, appreciate your efforts. We’ve got your back.

No actions are without consequence. Clearly in this environment and with some attitudes out there, writing critical reviews can hurt you. Some authors won’t want to sit next to you in a signing, they won’t want to eat with you, they won’t want to give you a blurb, or help you find an agent. I’m not sure we should expect that of them but the fact is that there are some who just won’t be able to get past your three star review on goodreads that said “I just couldn’t get into this book.” Accept this as a truism and move on because we’ve got your back.

But what are you a blogger for anyway? Are you blogging to make friends with everyone else? Get free books? Be lauded at conferences by fawning authors? Are you trying to engage other readers? Are you honest and transparent and consistent? I think the latter two are more important to strive for than the former because there will also be those in the genre mafia who want to take you down. We’ve seen it before and it will happen again. But remember, in your attempts to be part of the community of readers, we value you. We’ve got your back.

Clearly, I’d like to see more community support for readers and their right to honest, consistent reviews and I think if we bloggers and reviewers stand up for that right, the community attitudes will change. The reason I say this is because back in the mid 90s to early 2000s, there were few openly critical review sites on the internet for romance. The Romance Reader and All About Romance were real trailblazers and I remember Laurie Gold taking a lot of heat over the reviews and conversation that took place at AAR. But these two sites and bloggers like Rosario, SuperWendy, Keishon, and the like empowered other readers, like me, to start to blog about our opinions regarding books. And other bloggers have arisen like The Bookpushers and The Book Smugglers, Book Binge, Literary Sluts who all share their honest, consistent, reader oriented reviews. They’ve supported us at Dear Author and they’ll support you.

And the attitudes in romance have changed for the better. There are more authors who openly speak out for the right of reviewers and readers to get honest, consistent reviews. There are even editors who have spoken up and repeated the truism that reviews are for readers. These people have your back too.

The more that we support each other, the “be nice” mantra will become an outlier as opposed to the “be honest and consistent” mantra. Understanding what you do for the reader can impair your relationships with authors and accepting that? I view that as the high road. A rewarding high road. You are not alone. We’ve got your back.

Becca Fitzpatrick’s Be Nice

Whether you believe in karma, the Golden Rule, or the old saying, "What goes around comes around," all have stood the test of time. If you want agents, editors and authors to respect you, take the first step. Extend kind words. Talk up books you love. Be polite and respectful at conferences. Attend author book signings. All of these things will go along way.

Ally Carter on “Cliques and Cabals”

I’m not proposing censorship, and this is certainly not a warning–not a threat–just a general FYI. You never know who you’re going to be squeezed into a car with at BEA. You just don’t. If you’re an aspiring author, then towncars and BEA might seem lightyears away, but trust me, a year from right now you might be the one shoved into that backseat.

Dia Reeves “YA Mafia”

In Holly's post, in the comments, the bloggers who are worried about this seem to want to have the freedom to write whatever reviews they want, negative or otherwise, but still be welcomed with open arms by the author/authors' friends/agents/whoever whose feelings they've hurt. That's what I think is naive.

Stacia Kane has a whole series on watching what you say.

As I've said several times now, sure it's very possible nobody will care what you said. They may not know. Or it may become a huge thing. Or they might know what you said about them and decide not to help you one little bit. They might tell all the writers they know that you're a fucking bitch and should be avoided. They might tell their agent and/or editor about you.

Monday Midday Links: Mass market sales continue to plummet

Jane — Mon, 18 Oct 2010 17:00:34 +0000

Diana Gabaldon disclosed to a reading group in Charleston that her eighth novel in the Jamie/Claire saga won’t be released for a couple of years. It sounds like the book is yet unwritten. Lord John and the Scottish Prisoner should be released in 2011.

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Heather Osborn, formerly an editor with Tor, has been announced as the new Editorial Director for Samhain. Heather will begin at Samhain on November 1, 2010. Congratulations Heather! and Samhain!

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Sarah Wendell is the romance columnist for the newly launched Kirkus reviews. What a great gig for Sarah and what a great boon for romance readers. Both Publishers’ Weekly (Rose Fox, if you are wondering) and now Kirkus have two readers and lovers of the genre writing about the genre for the benefit of industry and library folks.

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August Book Sales according to the American Association of Publishers. Book sales are up 6.9% year to date.

Hardcover Children's/YA: down 8.0 percent, $77.8 million sales. YTD sales down 14.6 percent.
Children's/YA Paperback: down 15.1 percent, $58.9 million sales. YTD sales dow 7.6 percent.
Adult Hardcover: down 24.4 percent, $83.8 million. YTD sales up 5.2 percent.
Adult Paperback: down 18.3 percent, $124.9 million sales. YTD up 4.1 percent.
Adult Mass Market: down 21.9 percent, $54.9 million sales. YTD down 14.3.
Downloaded Audio Books: Up 4.6 percent, $6.3 million sales. YTD up 28.8 percent.
Physical Audio Book: Down 23.4 percent, $9.9 million sales. YTD down 6.0 percent.
Year To Date E-Book Sales Comprise 9.0% of Trade Book Sales

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Craig Morgan Teicher blogs about the poor state of ebooks, particularly those that are outside the norm of narrative fiction. He pointed out that Allen Ginsberg’s Collected Poems looks especially bad. JOshua Tallent, ebook coding expert, replied that hand coding is going to be the only way that ebooks will look as good as their paper counterparts. Teicher concludes that perhaps Blio will solve these problems. Unfortunately unless Blio will just show a graphical representation of the physical copy (thus no reflow, search, bookmarking, etc) the books on Blio must be coded similarly.

Ebooks priced as high as paper books but without the same quality? Yes, that is a problem.

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Apparently an unnamed publisher is paying bloggers and others $20 per blog post according to RRR Jessica. Jessica is one of those bloggers who will be writing for the publisher site that is going live in November. In the comments at Jessica’s site, there is some discussion about the ethical nature of bloggers/readers becoming paid to promote a publisher website. Jessica is an ethicist and it is interesting to read her point of view, particularly as Jessica has, in the past, been uncomfortable with some aspects of the ARC to blogger transaction.

Given that it is at the publisher’s own site I don’t think this is a problem (although under the FTC rules, there probably needs to be some disclosure). And just in case you were wondering, I am not writing blog posts for pay for any publisher.

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Harlequin/Mills & Boon is looking for new young writers and is promoting its efforts with a weeklong “So You Think You Can Write” event. Mills & Boon is still giving away 11 free digital books which you can download at http://www.everyonesreading.com/. Silhouette is being axed or, at least, folded into the Harlequin brand.

In an effort to strengthen the Harlequin brand, all Silhouette lines will remain intact but will now be known by the new names of Harlequin Desire, Harlequin Romantic Suspense and Harlequin Special Edition.

And in other Harlequin related news, Carina Press will be offering some of its romantic suspense and mystery titles in print through the Harlequin Direct to Customer (DTC) program. According to the Carina Press blog:

Reader Service, as it known to customers, sends a monthly shipment of 3-4 books to readers who have signed up for the service. As a result certain Carina Press titles will be printed by the DTC team and included in a monthly 2011 shipment. Those titles are:

February 2011: In Plain View by J. Wachowski (edited by Melissa Johnson)
April 2011: Presumed Dead by Shirley Wells (edited by Deborah Nemeth)
July 2011: Fatal Affair by Marie Force (edited by Jessica Schulte)

This will begin in February 2011.

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All About Romance is hosting its top 100 romance poll. You can enter your list here. Thanks to Cindy at Nocturnal Wonderings as I noticed this at her blog.

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In another example of the need for intellectual property reform, HyperMac will cease making external batteries for Apple products due to legal threats from Apple over the use of the cord attachment. Yes, the cord attachment. Stock up now, if you like the HyperMac external battery sources. Via Engadget.

Wednesday Midday News Roundup: historical fact v. entertainment

Jane — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 19:11:56 +0000

Generation Y women like social networking and sharing their thoughts on the products that they buy. This is, apparently, news. It is not something that ebook manufacturers have caught on yet, though. The current ebook reader enthusiast is a 47-year-old married man with a household income in excess of 6 figures. But! researchers believe that the ebook market won’t take off until the women get a hold of it. Frankly I think the current ebook reader is the 47 year old male because that is whom the product was initially marketed toward. Ironically, as the article sent to me by Leah notes, women and romance fiction is pushing the ebook market forward.

But to go truly mass-market, e-books will have to appeal to women, who tend to be warier of new technology and more price-conscious, Epps says.

Harlequin, purveyor of those lusty supermarket bodice-rippers, has dipped into the market with an e-book subscription service for some series, like Silhouette Desire, “delivering the provocative passion you crave.” And no one can see you put it in your shopping cart!

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GalleyCat asks the question of whether an author needs an agent in the future. Meriam Goderich responds that any serious author needs a good agent. I see agenting in the future as more of a business management position that will include hooking the author up with a good editor (maybe a contract editor) and providing publicity vehicles for authors. Speaking of publicity, this Miami Herald article looks at all the publicity an author needs to do particularly if you are self published.

As the Miami Book Fair International gets underway, more than 400 authors have discovered they must be there to push their books, either by nailing a spot on a panel, hosting a session, or shaking as many hands as possible to get noticed. Of course, there’s the social media component, too. They must write on blogs, reach fans through Twitter, even make online and the usual in-person book club appearances.

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Macleans discusses historical fiction and whether it needs to be faithful to historical fact by looking at the Booker prize winning novelist’s work which is very faithful against the Governor’s General Award nominee Kate Pullinger. Pullinger says “Surely it is the role of all novelists to uncover the untold stories, the undocumented lives; surely this is a legitimate way to demonstrate and elucidate "historical truth’ (a concept that is itself notoriously unreliable).” Hilary Mantel, the Booker winner, has a different view, “"I stick with the facts until the facts run out. I don’t try to improve on them.” It’s a fascinating difference, no?

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Kristie J has found another new romance blogger: Jessica at Book Bound.

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Did you know that Hachette sells digital books straight from its website? Me neither but this article in PW suggests that it does. I went over there and clicked around and saw no ability to purchase ebooks on the site. What am I missing?

Midweek News Links: Free Wifi at BN, Bloggers, and Writing

Jane — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 16:34:42 +0000

Barnes and Noble will offer free ATT wifi access in all its retail stores. Once on the wifi access, you’ll be able to get access to instore promotions and the ability to buy your ebooks.

Wendy, the SuperLibrarian, wonders if bloggers can actually make a book. Wendy says that publicists can’t expect this of a reader and reader bloggers shouldn’t play into that mentality (hear, hear).

My response to this was that if Avon was waiting for the day when a blogger was going to be solely responsible for “making” a book, they’d be waiting a long time. Listen, I’m a librarian. I can tell you in no uncertain terms that there are two ways to “make” a book. 1) The publisher’s PR department puts in a lot of long hours and 2) Oprah picks it for her book club.

…

The minute reader bloggers begin losing sight of what their purpose is, and why they got into the game to begin with, is when they start feeding a corporate machine. Most of us started blogging for one reason, and one reason only. We wanted to connect with other readers who loved the romance genre as much as we do.

Even Jeff Bezos thinks that there are things on sale at Amazon that aren’t worth buying. Gawker takes a look at Jeff’s Amazon reviews and uncovers a one star review.

Sorry if this seems harsh, but I just don’t want anyone to buy it unknowingly.

Publishing is notorious for its lack of market research. Bowker’s is trying to fill in this gap by offering it’s first Consumer Focused Research Report for the Book Industry. The report costs $1,000 but the press release in the previous link includes some data points:

– 57% of book buyers are women yet women purchase 65% of the books sold
in the U.S.
– Mystery books are the most popular genre for book club sales, with 17%
of all purchases of mystery books coming directly from book clubs
– Generation X consumers buy more books online than any other
demographic group, with 30% of them buying their books through the Internet
– 21% of book buyers said they became aware of a book through some sort
of online promotion or ad
– Women made the majority of the purchases in the paperback, hardcover
and audio-book segments, but men accounted for 55% of e-book purchases

Book Depository has opened its US store front online at http://bookdepository.com/. Book Depository has free shipping (no need for Amazon Prime membership) and the prices are very competitive.

Christina Dodd tweeted a link to a post about writing that she called “the best article about writing [she had] ever seen”. The blogger writes that authors are not vessels:

The most pernicious thing about this myth is it implies the author does not own what he or she creates. The muse did it. The author just took dictation. Authorial intent is all but dead in critical circles anyway. This effacing of the authorial self is bizarre and laughable on its face–of course the author did it. They planned it all out. Miss Eat, Pray, Love planned it all out, however she wants to talk about her vessel-ness. An author is not empty, they are not driven by embodied characters to write things they would not otherwise write. These are metaphors for brain processes–but talking about them as literal realities makes us all look a little flighty and a little crazy. And indirectly leads to the awesome I’m-an-artist-and-I-can-drink-all-day-and-fuck-whoever-I-like-because-I’m-an-artist-and-I-need-to-court-my-muse. Vomit.

Pimp My Novel was a link tweeted by Carolyn Jewel. Pimp My Novel is a blog run by a marketer at a major publisher. The blogger provides some fascinating insight into the business of selling books. This blog is so interesting that I added to my blogroll.

Once Upon a Desert Isle Keeper

Jane — Sat, 27 Sep 2008 04:59:59 +0000

Back in June or so, some bloggers formed a group blog called DIKladiesrule. It’s a fun place that features interviews with authors and alot of book chat about the bloggers’ favorite books. About late June, Dear Author started a feature called “If You Like” based upon the shelftalkers at bookstores. It came to my attention last week that Laurie Gold was unhappy about the use of both phrases because we did not give proper attribution to her site, All About Romance. But, really, I thought nothing of it. It did not seem like a big deal to me.

On Thursday, Laurie put up a post on her personal blog frustrated that she and AAR were not getting the proper attribution for the term DIK. If You Like was left out. Feeling like she hadn’t gotten enough responses, she then posted at the AAR board. She did not gain universal support there either. Not leaving enough alone, she is now asking for a web campaign to drive other bloggers and sites to dun the DIK ladies into . . . something. This is my response, since Laurie feels like this issue is important.

***

“Ohhhh!” Mary let out a cry of frustration and tossed the book she had been reading across the room.

“What’s wrong?” Her flatmate said, peeking her head up over the sofa. “Another wallbanger (tm unknown)?”

“Yes! How many TSTL (tm AAR discussion lists) heroines does it take to change a lightbulb (tm Edison)?”

“Five, if they are sisters,” Greta joked. “What about the hero, though, isn’t he alpha (tm unknown) enough? I saw the clinch cover (tm Fabio) and there was plenty of mantitty (tm Smart Bitches).”

Before Mary could respond, a knock sounded at the door. Greta hauled herself off the sofa and walked over to open the door. Another knock sounded before Greta could reach the door. “Hold your horses (tm unknown),” Greta shouted through the wood and steel.

Another knock sounded and a muffled voice stated “Attribution police. Let us in.”

“The attribution police!” Greta gasped with such violence that her bodice ripped (tm Non-Romance Reading Public). “But…sir…we haven’t done anything…(tm Barbara Cartland) I swear!”

“Open in the name of the law!”

Mary stepped around their towering TBR pile (tm romancelandia (tm unknown)). “Let them in, Greta,” she said. “We have nothing to fear.”

Greta held back another gasp as she opened the door and six feet four inches of lean, hard muscle (tm Romance Authors) strode into their flat, followed by a second male, whose rippling six pack (tm Budweiser) was apparent even through his uniform shirt. “What is the problem, officers?”

The second officer’s piercing blue eyes reminded Mary of a vengeful Italian billionaire's (tm Harlequin) she'd once known. Unfortunately, she hadn't gotten her HEA (tm Cinderella) and Care Bear (tm American Greetings) epilogue (tm Mrs. Giggles) full of precious babies named after their grandmothers (tm Stephanie Meyer). She just hadn't been enough of a Mary Sue (tm Star Trek (tm Paramount) fanzine (tm unknown) readers), she often thought. If she had been, everyone would have loved her, and as a bonus, she'd have had purple eyes (tm Elizabeth Taylor).

"We've received a complaint, miss," he said. "A complaint about how you've named your flat."

"Oh." Greta relaxed. "You mean the name we've put over the door. We've read so many romance novels, talked about so many of them, naming our "estate' in a way that demonstrates our love for the genre seemed like a fantastic idea."

The gorgeous officer smiled condescendingly. "But you've named it "DIK Court.'"

"So? It's about the romances we like best. A DIK is a keeper (tm unknown) book, the kind you'd want with you if you were stuck on a desert island (tm unknown) — you know that classic question? So, they're desert isle keepers, get it? It's a word that is all around the Internet (tm Al Gore), or at least in romancelandia. Just like TSTL, HEA, OMGWTFBBQ, LOL, and TBR. It's shorthand that anyone familiar with the community knows."

"Yes, but do you know where it originated?"

Greta shrugged. "I just saw it used around blogs (tm unknown) and message boards. I asked what it meant, and someone told me that it was one of those books that you just can't bear to part with."

The officer turned to Mary, his gaze stroking her from head to toe. "And you?"

"Maybe the All About Romance (tm AAR) site, because I've seen that they call their A-rated books and favorite books Desert Isle Keepers (tm AAR), and for a long time they were one of two romance-centric websites.” Mary said.

Greta interjected, ” Yes, but The Romance Reader was the first romance-centric website and it went by a three letter acronym too.”

Mary replied, “It might have started at AAR, though, and all of the people on the discussion boards just started using DIK to describe their keeper books."

"That's exactly right!" The officer gave Mary a cookie and another smoldering look (tm Rhett Butler). "Laurie Likes Books — LLB — first used the term in an At the Back Fence — ATBF — column in 1996. Yet you have been using it as the name of your house without permission or offering due credit to the history of the term. So LLB has issued a complaint, and has demanded that you either cease and desist in your use of DIK or inscribe a line into the front of your house that explains the term's origin and gives AAR proper credit."

Mary and Greta stared at him. Mary repeated, "Inscribe a line that says LLB coined the term and that it is historically "owned' by AAR?"

"Yes."

Greta began giggling (tm teenage girls). Seeing that her friend could not help, Mary challenged, "You're kidding me, right?"

The ruggedly handsome officer scowled, and got an erection that a cat couldn't scratch (tm Linda Howard.) "No."

"But you don't have to give attribution for words and phrases. Those aren’t copyrightable."

"No, but there’s still trademark law, ma’am."

"But, these words, they are so ubiquitous," Mary argued. "So…common."

"Are you calling me common?" The officer stalked closer to Mary, like a werewolf after his Mate (tm Paranormal Romance.) "Because I can tell you, miss, that I’m very unique. One of a kind, even."

"No, no!" Mary protested heatedly, and wondered if he could smell her arousal. "I’m saying the words that you are trying to enforce for attribution are so common. ”

“You could have put it in Google, found out the history, done the research.” The officer demanded. Mary sighed both over the issue and in frustration with the officer’s mullet (tm unknown) (How could an officer be so hot yet still have such a bad hair day (tm unknown)).

“But, Officer, we’re just fans, reading fans, and just trying to enjoy our books. Plus, Google? Srsly (tm Urban dictionary)?”

“My name is not Srsly and yes, Google. Google is now the affirmative source of all attribution. The first source that shows up on Google is the source who owns the term. That’s internet law.”

“Srsly is shorthand for . . . well, forget it. That’s not important. If you put DIK into Google, there are thousands of references to DIK from thousands of different sources. And, the reason that one blog post shows up before someone else’s blog post in Google Search results is dependent on so many things, including popularity. Can popularity equal ownership?”

The handsome officer scowled at her. “Don’t try to confuse the arguments with the facts. That’s not important here.”

“What is important then? It's not as if we're a journalistic site. We're just two fans of romance who love talking to people about the genre, inviting authors over to our place, and generally having fun.”

"It’s a morality issue, ma’am."

Mary placed her hand on her hips, arms akimbo. "Are you questioning my morals (tm God and/or gods)? Because I can promise you, big boy, that I have no morals." Mary paused, looking the officer up and down. She could bounce a quarter off that hard body (tm unknown), she realized. "Why don’t you come inside," she suggested throatily, "and tell me more about your…rules."

"Please don’t give me any backchat, ma’am, or I’ll be forced to restrain you (tm Marquis de Sade)."

Mary shuddered, “You promise?”

The officer's eyes narrowed dangerously. "You don’t seem to be taking this very seriously."

Mary unflinchingly met his dangerously narrowed eyes. "You would be right on the money then, because these words and phrases that you want certain people to be given credit for have become part of the everyday lexicon in romancelandia, and to parse out and give attribution for the use would make it nearly impossible to have discourse."

"Uh, but–"

"I'm not finished," Mary interrupted. "I think it’s great that someone coins a term and that term becomes commonly used that it is actually part of our everyday language, or raises a term out of print obscurity into online fame, but that person isn’t entitled to attribution for every use, not legally or ethically. At least, in my opinion."

The officer stared at the feisty wildcat, his sensuous mouth hanging open.

Mary cocked her hip and tossed her hair back over her shoulder. "Once you’ve gotten over that problem, handsome, why don’t you come up and see me some time (tm Mae West)?"

***

Btw (tm unknown), I checked and both DesertIsekeepers.com and desertislandkeepers.com were domains available for sale. And I bought them. These are now owned again by the internet as I refused to pay the renewal fees.

Chelsea Cain Interview at Keishon’s Blog

Jane — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 17:31:13 +0000

We talk alot about Keishon here at Dear Author because she is a dear friend to many of the Dear Author bloggers. She is also one of the primary influences on my reading (as well as others here) for outside the romance genre recommendations. She got me started reading PJ Tracy and Karin Slaughter (although I’m a little peeved about that one still). She has urged us to read Julia Spencer-Fleming whom Janine reviewed earlier this week.

Keishon’s latest love is Chelsea Cain (Wendy, the Superlibrarian, loves her too) and Keishon has an interview of Ms. Cain on her blog.

Would I Lie To You?

Janet — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 09:00:14 +0000

more animals

Do you remember the movie "Election," with Reese Witherspoon and Matthew Broderick? In the first scene Mr. McAllister asks his high school class about the difference between ethics and morals. Ironically, of course, the one student who eagerly attempts to answer the question is also the one who proceeds to make mincemeat of both ethics and morals during the course of the movie, her ambition a veritable engine for her imagination and willingness to do almost anything to secure her class presidency. Tracy Flick sees the future open before her, dependent on winning that race, completely indignant when someone dares run against her, amazingly unself-conscious about the levels to which she’ll "stoop to conquer.’

In fact, Tracy continues to see herself as a good person, earnestly praying before bedtime for her "Dear Lord Jesus" to "go that one last mile and make sure to put me in office where I belong so that I may carry out your will on earth as it is in heaven. Amen." In this Tracy exemplifies the difference between morals and ethics: morals relate to one’s personal value system, while ethics relate to one’s conduct within a community. Ethics concern the responsibilities people within a community have toward one another and toward a larger sense of "good living" or "correct conduct," while morals are more commonly associated with beliefs about what is right or wrong in a particular society. Ethics are particularly important in professional communities where there are certain standards that each member is expected to meet, especially when someone’s life or livelihood is one the line (doctors and lawyers, for example, even teachers).

It’s easy, of course, to mix these up, and people often do. In fact, I think we see the confusion over ethics and morals every time one of these author-conduct incidents rolls out. As soon as an author is called out over some particular conduct – plagiarism, gaming reviews, re-shelving books, whatever – a lot of backlash erupts around whether or not the author is being attacked. Which leads to a lot of mashing up about whether or not the bloggers who cover these stories are, for lack of a better description, mean girls who just like to stir shit up.

Since we’ve talked a lot about the difference between the author as a person and the author’s work and online conduct, I thought it might be interesting to talk a bit about blogger conduct, and more specifically about whether bloggers need a code of ethics similar to the one we seem to assume of authors. Do we need some community standards of reporting and reviewing, even though we’re largely amateurs in this online arena and not professionals earning a living?

I don’t have an absolute answer to this question, but before I offer my view and open it up for discussion, I want to put a few things on the table to chew over:

First, do bloggers constitute a community separate and apart from the online community more generally? Since many different types of people blog, is there a special category for blogs like Dear Author, Smart Bitches Trashy Books, Teach Me Tonight, All About Romance After Hours, and the like, that sets them apart? Is it the particular activity that defines the blog community or the role of the bloggers?

If bloggers are a community unto themselves, to what standards should we be held? Should we meet more general journalistic standards or editorial standards? Does it make a difference if we attempt impartiality in our reportage and commenting, or should we be required to provide honest opinions? Should we be required to believe everything we assert? Cyberjournalist.net created a proposed Bloggers’ Code of Ethics that emphasizes three main categories: Be Honest and Fair; Minimize Harm; and Be Accountable. Some of what they focus on – "never plagiarize," for example – is relevant to anyone writing publicly, but other things – "show good taste" and avoid "pandering to lurid curiosity" is obviously a HUGE matter of judgment, not to mention valuation of a blog’s worth. Do editorialists abide by these ethics? Do journalists, for that matter?

In the specific arena of Romance-related blogging, are reviewers a special sub-community within online blogging, and should there be a special code of conduct for reviewing, regardless of the general character of the blog? Author David Louis Edelman recently posted a list of things he wants from reviews, namely that they be honest, insightful, opinionated, detailed, original accurate, independent, not anonymous, and free of spoilers. Would the institution of something like this as a reviewer standard benefit reviews, which are, by nature, individual opinions? Why, for example, should reviewers always steer clear of spoilers if a spoiler is necessary in elucidating one of the detailed points Edelman wants in reviews? And how much detail is enough in a review? Under his standards, neither Romantic Times nor Publishers Weekly would qualify, I’m afraid, and yet they continue to serve as standard benchmarks for authors.

Should bloggers who make money blogging be held to a different standard? We often talk about how authors are professionals, how they are writing for money, and as such should accept a certain amount of straightjacketing in their online conduct. Should so-called professional bloggers have similar "professional expectations?" And what about amateur bloggers whose only capital is their reputation as bloggers, who are not making money, but who may gain a certain readership based on a positive reputation, whatever that may be based on (humor, reviews, honest dialogue, whatever).

As a blog reader – whether you are author, reader, fellow blogger, whatever – do you feel that there should be minimum ethical standards of conduct to which blogs should be held? What do you expect from the blogs you frequent, and do you give more validity to blogs that proclaim some ethical standard of their own, or are you simply looking for entertainment, ethical standards be damned?

My own view – not fully considered and open to reconsideration — is that the role of blogs is to provoke discussion, and that even more than authors, bloggers are individual voices that are not part of a professional group. So while anyone who writes has to be conscious of plagiarism and copyright concerns, in terms of some collective code of behavior bloggers are merely public citizens (and I use this in the most general way, not to imply national identity), and should be held to the same basic standards of any member of society. One important caveat, though: if someone is blogging in their capacity as a professional, then they may be held to different standards, depending on their professional context and their content

Most bloggers seem to be hobbyists, though, and not inclined toward professionalization in regard to blogging. One blogger or a thousand can all talk simultaneously without any of us being in contact or affiliation, in the same way that a thousand different conversations can proceed at once without any concept of them being linked. At a basic level, blog = voice(s), regardless of the actual people behind the blog. Authors, on the other hand, do not distill down to that same level. Book = voice, but an author functions on multiple levels, as individual, as professional, as contractor with a publisher, etc. I believe, therefore, that authors have responsibilities to one another that bloggers don’t. For example, if an author engages in reshelving books, s/he is violating the policies of bookstores and publishers, as well as engaging in an unfair practice relative to other authors. Whereas bloggers, especially not-for-profit bloggers, don’t have that same kind of mutual professional reliance because our role as a blogger is synonymous with the blog itself. Blogs are more like books, in my opinion, and do we hold books to a professional code of ethics? Do we accuse them of being mean and of lying?

Essentially, I believe that blogs function as sites of public discourse, and that their popularity, value, and reliability will be determined on the basis of individual blog (and the persona of the blogger) relative to the blog’s audience. And despite the belief that bloggers can and do basically say anything they want without thought, I actually think there is a dearth of really good, really challenging, really fearless public conversation online, and that it sometimes takes a very provocative, even polarizing and sensationalistic voice to get some of these discussions going.

Ethics in Blogging: Taking the Wild Out of the Wild West?

Jane — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 09:00:09 +0000

moar humorous pics

In the past few weeks, we here at Dear Author have talked about author ethics and it occurred to me that we haven’t talked alot about blogging ethics.

While I do think that ethics is a community issue, I am not trying to force my ethics on anyone else in the blogging community. What I am trying to do in this post and subsequent posts on this issue is to explore the idea of blogging ethics and what that means.

The internet has been referred to as the Wild West. It’s ungovernable but vibrant. Alive with colorful personalities and outspoken individuals. The idea of placing limits on anyone on the internet is a bit of anethema.

But I have always been an advocate of criticism. I feel like one cannot grow without criticism or self examination. I can see, when I look over the posts of the past two years, that I have grown as a person and as a blogger. That my opinions and stances and voice has changed in response to my connection to those who have come to share in the community here and when I have gone out to other communities to participate.

There are posts, in my past, that I would not post today. The one that I can think of is the post regarding Rosina Lippi. What I said in the post is perfectly true but it was unnecessary and petty. For me to go back and delete the post would be to engage in revisionist history which I personally don’t like. I prefer my asshole-ishness to be out there for everyone to see.

The one post for which I think I took the most heat, both publicly and privately, was the one in which I took Adele Ashworth to task for her statements at AAR. It is not a post that I regret today, even in retrospect. I don’t know that I would change even the tenor. Will I look back in two years at that and wish I had gone a different route? I don’t know.

But what I am willing to do is engage in conversation with those in this community and the greater romance community about change that they think should occur for the betterment of the community.

I cannot promise that change will occur. But I can say that I look and read the comments and I do think about what is being said, particularly those opinions whose are contrary to my own. Because becoming a better person, a more competent blogger, a better contributor to the community occurs by listening, absorbing, and filtering the messages and attitudes of the community.

But the meat of this is to discuss the author response to bloggers. Some of the responses I received are directed toward review policies. Here are some of the requests I have received and my take on each one. I would love to hear from others on these topics:

1. Bloggers who request an ARC should review it.

My response: Yes, absolutely. I know that authors get very few ARCs. Some authors might only get two or three. Some might get 40. Some authors are willing to make e-arcs and some are not. But making an e-arc takes time and if an author is willing to send you a book for review AT YOUR REQUEST, I think you owe the author a review. I also think that if a reviewer asks for a book but doesn’t get one, she shouldn’t complain about it publicly. I think the author and publishers have the right to determine who gets what, even if it seems (and may very well be) short sighted.

2. Bloggers who request participation from an author should refrain from bashing/trashing the author around that same time.

I have a little problem with this because I’m not quite sure what “bashing” is. For example, we have the First Sale series here at Dear Author. I invite authors to submit the blog post near the on sale date of their books. This often coincides with a review of a book that we have done. The book review might be a less enthusiastic review. Is that considered bashing? Or is that considered unethical? Should we refrain from posting the first sale letter if we are not going to give a positive review? Should we refrain from posting a negative review of a contributing author for a period of time? I.e., a week or more?

3. Bloggers should not read/review an author’s book whose writing they dislike or alternatively, should not read/review an author’s book who they personally dislike.

This one is a tough one. First, I have taken heat for this so I might not have the most impartial view. I reviewed a book after being told in comments previously that it was not a romance. I was criticized for reading this book because I was told I would not like it but the fact is I bought (yes, I paid for this book) the book because I was curious to see how it was “romantic” but not a romance. The book didn’t work for me but not because it wasn’t a romance but because I felt that the telling of the story was flat. This book, however, worked on every level for my blogging partner, Janine, and despite the fact that I personally had issues with the way that the author and her friends treated me post the review, I felt it important to put up Janine’s review and every subsequent review Janine has done for this authorÊ¼s work. Janine is a big fan of this authorÊ¼s writing and does not hesitate to recommend her work to everyone. Should I not have read/reviewed the authorÊ¼s book when I was told I would not like it?

Second, I have read/reviewed books for authors I personally dislike because I try hard to separate the personality from the work and sometimes I am successful with it. For example, I am not a big fan of a particular author of vampire romances but I have stated on more than one occasion that I love one of her books and I have given two books in the series differing grades: a B and a C. Robin reviewed and gave a B+ grade to a book by an author who called Robin a non-fan.

This is a tough call for me. I think one way you can resolve this is by being transparent. I.e., maybe in a prefatory paragraph a blogger can state their position on said author. I.e., I was told by the author/friend of the author/random commenter that I was not going to like this book and they were right. Or I have had my issues in the past with author A and perhaps that has colored my view of her writing. I will say that recently I decided that we would not review the author of the vampire series on this blog any more because I think I had lost any sense of impartiality.

4. Should there be differing standards for reviews depending on whether the blogger bought the book or received it for free?

I think that there should not be a different standard, but I do know that as a blogger, I feel more free to be negative on a book that I bought than one I got for free even if I didn’t ask for the book. Having said that, I think I have been plenty negative about books I have received for free.

5. Should a blogger refrain from being entertaining in penning a negative review.

I think point 4 relates in large part to this question. Does a blogger “deserve” a free book if it is going to serve as a “trash/bash” session for the blogger’s own entertainment. Said another way, isn’t the blogger having fun at the author’s expense. While I understand the concept of this, I have a hard time buying that a blogger is unethical because so long as the book itself is being mocked and not the author.

6. Should a blogger make fun of or mock an author’s response to a review?

This one goes to the idea of whether authors should suffer in silence or whether they have the right to speak out in response to a mocking post. My opinion is that an author has the right to do whatever she wants but she must be mindful that her online persona is one of her marketing tools. It is an unfair standard and the question is in an ethical blogging environment, should it be?

7. Do bloggers treat some authors preferentially, both in reviews or in parsing out their online statements?

I try not to treat authors differently in reviews but I do think I treat them differently when reading their online statements/posts. If I have a relationship with an author and I find something distasteful on their blog or website, I will email them. If I do not have a relationship, I won’t but I might bring it up openly on the blog. My own hot buttons have to deal with the treatment of readers and the reputation of the romance industry. If I feel that readers are being unfairly attacked or if I feel like the romance genre is, I will most likely make a public post. One reason I would do this is because if I don’t know the author from random why would I believe that author would be interested in my opinion? But, should the first response always be to make a private appeal?

8. Should bloggers police other bloggers?

This one I have a real problem with. For one, I don’t think that I should be responsible for anyone else’s actions. I can only monitor and control my own posts and comments. I don’t even know how I would begin to address this. If someone brought something to my attention, I might comment on it, but it’s not reasonable to believe that one blogger or even a community of bloggers would know what others are saying.

9. Should bloggers be more respectful of authors? And if so, how is this respect shown?

An author does not automatically gain respect from me merely by being published. What I do try to do is make sure that a review is about the book and that my comments about a blog post or public statement of an author is about the public stance and nothing else. I would be interested in hearing other positions on this.

I know that these are a lot of issues to discuss and there are actually more that I received in emails when I asked for feedback on the subject. I am of a mind to post weekly polls in the sidebar to gauge the temperature in this community.

Bloggers Good Predictor for Sales

Ned — Sun, 10 Feb 2008 03:43:09 +0000

A new study indicates that bloggers and social networks could have a direct impact on album sales. The research indicated that there was a direct correlation between the amount of “chatter” prior to the release of an album and its eventual sales. The more chatter, the better the album sold.

Based on the volume of books Dear Author receives on a weekly basis it seems publishers are also trying to utilize these non-traditional advertising channels.

Via ars technica