When I first started reading blogs, it struck me as strange that people would put their entire lives out there on a totally public web page, for the entire world to see, because the way the world works, if there’s someone you don’t want to read what you write in your blog, that will be the person reading it.

One of the funniest cases of careless blogging I’ve come across was when I got a particularly bad review of my book. To be honest, I expected a bad review from this review site – and I *wanted* it (figured I could make it work from a promotional standpoint). Unfortunately, the reviewer screwed up my plan because she was a careless blogger.

Rather than the reviewer saying “I just didn’t like this book” or the writing, or my voice, or the characters (things she could say and no one could refute – something I could have stood behind because I know not every reader will like what I write), she picked apart my research and some really bizarre things about my characters. For example, in the original review, she implied I knew nothing about the Irish, because my hero (half Irish) had dark hair and tanned skin, and she knew for a fact that ALL Irish are fair and have freckles (I’m Irish, and I tan like a surfer chick – Catherine Zeta Jones is half Irish – Pierce Brosnan(?) is Irish, and so on). The owner of the site edited that bit out of the review when I pointed out that there are “dark Irish” and a couple of other very glaring mistakes in the reviewer’s comments about the research – though I only suspect she did so because they were things most readers would have caught as mistakes.

The reviewer claimed to know everything about Ireland because she was born and raised there. Even though in the review she admitted this was the first book set in Ireland she’d ever read (because with all the literary giants hailing from Eire, an “avid reader” like herself had never read a single book by an Irish author?)

Anyway, the owner of this review site, which prides itself on being “real” and “honest” in its reviews, published said review.

I was NOT unhappy with my terrible grade, but with the sheer amount of garbage this reviewer spouted about the research because it was beyond misleading to the reader.

I noticed a few readers commenting on the review, and how lucky they were that the book had been reviewed by someone who knew so much about Ireland so they wouldn’t have to suffer through a poorly researched historical.

In the worst way I wanted to respond – but I knew that would only make me look like a whining author who couldn’t take criticism.

Long story short, I reviewed the review, countering every false statement by the reviewer about the research with fact (and links to said facts) and just as I was ready to link to it from my home page, something made me do a search for the reviewer’s email address on the web.

Guess what? Said reviewer had a blog (along with several other reviewers from the review site in question). On the review site she claimed to be born and raised in Ireland and now living somewhere else in Europe with her baby and her husband, with a wonderful job and life. In reality, this chick lived in Vermont, worked at a campground (and hated her job), just broke up with her live-in boyfriend (no mention of a child), and was in therapy and on depression medication.

I made a copy of the most damning of her blog posts, and contemplated my next move for a few days, and decided against a confrontation.

I guess I could have used her own blog to call her onto the carpet in a very public way, and published my review of her review to prove she didn’t know jack about historical Ireland, and show the review for the hatchet job it was, and maybe even blow the concept of the “honest” reviews the site does out of the water.

But I decided against it – the woman obviously had problems, and what would I really gain by humiliating her? The guilt of maybe pushing her over the proverbial edge?

I chalked it up to experience, and never said a word about the review on the boards, and took the review site’s name and reviewer’s name off the review of the review and unlinked the web page it was on from my website.

Bottom line, the book sold out of its first printing within the first month and went back for a second printing. That was my best revenge:)

But I learned a couple of lessons – yes, there are hatchet job reviewers out there (fortunately, not many of them), and never put anything in your blog (whether you’re an author, reader or reviewer) that you wouldn’t be willing to tell a perfect stranger you meet on the street, or that you don’t want the entire world to know!

Oh, and though I’ve never faced a book out, I admit I do occasionally give away gimmicky prizes in contests – like chocolate . But I also usually accompany the gimmick with online bookstore gift certificates:)

I would hope if I forgot to send something out, that that contest winner email me and ask. We’re all human, and beleive I’m forgetful more than most.

As for marketing, I am mostly suspicious of all marketing techniques, and am especially wary when big name authors are being heavily marketed. I know it’s opposite to how I think things should happen, but I’d prefer more marketing energy and resources directed at relatively new or lesser-known authors — you know, those authors who might actually come to my attention if they were more aggressively marketed. I already know who the big name author is, and when I see more resources poured into those authors, my cynical side emerges more strongly and I’m more likely to ignore the marketing and the books. Cover quotes mean nothing to me, as I rarely pay attention to them, and I’m probably most superficially swayed by an especially bad or good cover. In fact, one of the benefits of shopping at Amazon or BN.com for me is the fact that the covers are so small I don’t pay attention to them, which is often a really good thing.

Sure, some personal stuff, in a general and hopefully entertaining way, to give potential readers a little touch of who I am off page. Unless I targeted the blog to other writers, I’d be unlikely to blog about writing in any technical sense.

I’ve read almost all the author blogs Jane cited, and never found them boring or uncomfortably intimate. Rather, I’ve found them interesting and entertaining enough to revisit them when I have the time. And I would also say that each one of these I’ve read strikes me as unique to the blogger.

But yes, certainly, posts about dirty laundry–entertainly written–wouldn’t be off the mark for me. But neither would I take the time to read a laundry list of the blogger’s personal day, again and again. And I just don’t want the intimate details of Susie Author’s life.

It’s very different for me to read AngieW’s blog. Even if she blogged about something intensely sexual about her and Josh, I don’t think I would mind because I am not reading her words in a fictional story. When an author blogs about personal things, those items start to creep into her work, if I have read enough of the blog to the extent that I can no longer suspend disbelief. It’s her voice I begin to hear in the story and not the characters, ruining the escapism for me.

If an author truly means to use the blog as a promotional tool, the author must blog with the broadest appeal in mind. Do you want to gain readers or lose readers? Is the loss of the reader by offending them less important than the potential gain? Those are the questions that an author has to ask for EACH post which is why the blog can be dangerous. What is the real purpose of the blog? It can’t be just because you want to blog because an author is a public figure and therefore what they say can affect sales. Reader blogs or general blogs by private (legal connotation) individuals are not affected in that manner.

Also, I don’t think blogs are very representative of how good of a writer that you are. How many edits/revisions/etc. go into a book v. a blog post? Are readers really getting a sampling of what your books will be like with your blog posts? How can they, if you are not putting the same time and effort into the blog post? And an author can’t put in the time and effort into a blog post as they do with a book else there would be no book.

Author blogs I read with regularity

Jorrie Spencer
HelenKay Dimon
Meljean Brook (it was MB’s blog which made me interested in her books in the first place because she was so funny but having read her book, I don’t see the voice of the blog in the book because the book is dark and edgy and MB doesn’t really come off as dark and edgy on the blog)
Paperbackwriter (I tend to skim this blog because its very writing related but some of the posts are pretty interesting)
Sherry Thomas (I can’t remember why I added her to my RSS feed, but I think her posts are pretty interesting. oh wait, now I remember, Kristin Nelson used her as an example of a great query letter).
Kate Rothwell
Argh Ink
Alison Kent

I’ve got a few others (including Lipstick Chronicles) that I have on the Feeder but I don’t read. I guess I keep them on in hopes of reading something interesting someday. Even though some blogs “break the rules”, I don’t find it particularly interesting as a reader. Of all the books I have bought because of blogs: 1 – Jorrie Spencer’s Haven.

And a “well behaved” blog, as a rule, will put most readers right to sleep. Then again, as always, one should know the rules in order to find ways to effectively break them.

Truthfully, if I felt that way about authors’ blogs, it would be a bit hypocritical of me since I keep a blog about…everything. I wouldn’t know what the heck to blog about if I didn’t let my personal life slip in there. Maybe most people don’t care to read about an editor’s two year old but, well, I figure it’s my blog and as long as I’m not detailing how abusive I am to her *snort* it’s not hurting anyone if I blog about what I want.

And I’ll look forward to a drink with you at RT to discuss serial killer editors. But just to put you at ease, I won’t drink chianti ;)

That is kind of a “Do as I say” ideal that is nearly impossible to maintain. In the Path to Publishing Journals I wrote about almost everything in my life that had an impact on my writing and with a few edits by RT it was fit to print and somewhat entertaining to read. So. Kids and dirty laundry (if handled properly) are not off limit topics for an Author’s blog IMHO. Even rants get a green light in my book as long as they serve a useful purpose and “harm none”. I have two solid rules on my blog.

1. Don’t say anything on it that I would not say in person and in public. (So. We will be discussing serial killer editors over drinks in Houston this Spring at RT without a doubt).

2. Don’t deliberately set out to be as boring as humanly possible when whipping out a blog post for the day.

I know very little about the publishing world in NY, but if an editor can wear shocking pink Crocs on stage in a MaryJane skirt then I seriously doubt it’s as uptight as that article makes it seem. We are not business majors working on Wall Street. I could no more constrict my writing to a tailored suit than wear one.

The truly subversive thing about that article is that it suggests an author “conform” in an industry where conformity is death. If you don’t stand out in someway (preferably a positive way) then you will probably fade into the woodwork. On the plus side, if writers all start to heed that advice … less competition for the rest of us.