I am a Blogger, and I am pissed #3

I've written two posts on this topic previously, and both of them have been received just as I had hoped for. I've had most authors agree, and I hope accept some of these 'mistakes' they make while interacting with bloggers. Both the previous posts resulted in a lot of comments and discussions here on the blog, as well as on a number of Facebook author groups. I was actually surprised to see how receptive these posts have been. Don't get me wrong, I did get a few reactions I had expected in the beginning. A few authors argued that I had no right to point these out, or that bloggers were worse or at least just as guilty. I had a couple of authors post counter arguments to my points in the previous two posts, and I loved that. They were gracious and did not try to bash me. Each post was extremely respectful. For all of this, I am extremely grateful.

If you'd like to take a look at the previous two posts, head over to check out post number one and post number two. And to read the author reactions to my posts, check out the replies by author Natalie Star to post one and author Tara Chevrestt to post two. With that out of the way, let's get to the third and final post in the series.

11. Twitter: There are tons of authors and bloggers on twitter. But, there is a dearth of authors (and bloggers) who treat twitter for what it is, a NETWORKING tool. Most just consider it a marketing platform. This makes them do things which get on my nerves sometimes! All I see is links, links and more links! And then there are other things. First, I will not check DMs on twitter as I mostly get spam there. And don’t even get me started on auto-DMs! If I do somehow stumble onto your DM and I see a link requesting me to check out your book on Amazon, subscribe to your blog, or ‘Like’ your author page on Facebook, I will delete it without doing any of those things. I might even unfollow you and, if you still don’t get the message, I might just go ahead and block you. Using the @mention feature is just the same, so doing that does not get you off the hook. Want me to consider your book or your links? Want me to do an interview or feature you on my blog?  Then talk to me, get to know me better, interact with me, comment on my content, if you like something RT it. And, after you do all this, go read point number one again in post number one (Read the Review Policy).

“Thanks for the follow! I’d love if you could review my book or do an interview on your blog! :-)” This one was a DM I got right after I had followed the author back. What do you think happened?

“Thanks for the follow. If you have time check out my brand new Children's book!” Children’s book, really?

“Hi. I was wondering if you could review my book, The Secret To Attaining Wealth. Love to send you an electronic copy. Thanks let me know.” Do you even know who I am or what I do? I have done my MBA in Finance and have an inbuilt bullshit detector for all secrets to attaining wealth. I have a secret for you, but you can’t tell anyone! Work hard and love what you do for many years and you will attain wealth!

And these are just the latest three I have gotten. Another huge problem I have with twitter is the TueTwit validation service. Frankly, if you start with the assumption that I am a spammer, I have no interest in following you. Sorry, I’m out of here and say “Good riddance”!

Want to learn what to do to make twitter work for you? Check this post out; it has got some really good advice. “Lesson on social media etiquette folks: don't use those programs that automatically calls people out for unfollowing, not following back, etc. It makes you look like a tool.”

12. No means No: When a blogger says that he is not interested in a book and does not want to read it, do not take it as a challenge or a personal insult, just move on to the next blogger. Don't moan about it, or change tactic, or wait a few months and send a request again. I am sure my tastes will not have changed by then. I am actually amazed you can’t find a reviewer who reads in your genre. Or maybe you pissed off all the others too. Anyways, why would you want me to read a book which I do not think I will like? Do you really want to risk getting a One, Two or if I’m feeling generous, Three star review for your book? 

I have a blogger friend who prefers to read YA, romance or erotica only and says so on her blog. And, she gets requests for SF, autobiographies, non-fiction even. She had an author who wrote fantasy who kept pestering her with review requests, and she was always gracious and said no each time. This went on for months! Finally, she just had to stop replying to his emails. Wow!

13. Behaving on blog tours: Blog tours are one of the best ways to market books for Indie authors today. As bloggers, we tend to host a lot of authors for these tours, and so get to interact with all kinds of authors and blog tour management companies. And, believe me, after hosting a lot of these, I’ve come across the entire gamut of authors, from extremely professional to completely rude, uninterested and bashful. I’ve had authors sending me guest posts, which were shorter than their book blurbs and consisted mainly of self-promotion. I’ve had authors not send me anything at all! I’ve had to follow up with many authors to find out if they received their interview questions or if they actually saw the post on the allotted date. How do you think a blogger feels like, when he has to remind authors time and again to stop by the post and reply to comments?

And don’t even get me started on badly behaving authors! Just because they pay a company to run their tour, they expect to get glowing reviews for their books. I remember when one author got into a debate with a number of bloggers on a tour because he received 3-star reviews for his book. He went to the extent that he demanded that one of the reviews be removed completely and not be posted to Amazon. And he pestered and threatened the blog tour company to remove said blog from the tour. Final outcome? The blog in question was removed, but I ended up deleting his interview on my blog as I did not want to interview such a petty author. Oh, and the review ended up on Amazon anyways. All we ask is that authors be considerate and professional. How hard is that?

14. Commenting on blogs: We bloggers love to host authors for guest posts, interviews, cover reveals, book trailer reveals, launch parties, and what not. This is not because of our altruistic nature. We benefit from these as well of course. Guest posts are huge traffic pullers on the blogs I’ve managed. Interviews are an awesome way to get to interact with authors and learn a bit more about them. But, authors have to hold up their end of the bargain, which is to not only get these back to us on time. Once the post is up, the only thing we ask of them is that they stop by the post and reply to the comments that people leave behind after reading it. Tell me, who does this benefit? The authors are getting a ready and interested audience to talk to, and to get them interested in whatever book they have. Is it so hard to take some time out during the day (or night) and stop by to reply to these comments? I can do it for them, but that is not what the readers want!

15. Replying to ‘bad’ reviews: And finally, to end this series with a bang, let me talk about the biggest and the worst mistake that pisses me off the most. I’ve seen authors giving and being given the advice that replying to bad reviews is a terrible idea. But they just don’t get it, do they? Correcting reviewers about how they interpreted the story wrongly, how they misunderstood the characters, or how they just did not get the story is a TERRIBLE IDEA. Just don’t so it. Walk away. Sulk in the privacy of your home. Talk to someone who would understand your pain, but do it privately. Replying to reviews will not work out, and it will make you seem like a cry-baby. I’ve seen so many tactics being used here, but each and every one of these pisses me off. My review is my interpretation of your book. If I got it wrong or misunderstood it, tough luck. It is your mistake for not writing clearly and not getting your point across. I had one author leave a comment on a review explaining how the main premise of my review was wrong. You know what? I wanted to tell him to make it clear … in the book, not in comments to reviews.

I know how authors are going to react to this. What about all those malicious reviews which some reviewers like to leave which amount to nothing more than “I hate this, this is rubbish” or “This author does not know how to write, he should have stuck to his old profession”? Here also, I have one advice only. Walk away. Turn around and leave. If a person is going to leave such a review, what do you think will happen if you comment? He and his troll friends will only prey on you more. You know that terrible website called “Stop the GR Bullies”? It would never have happened if authors ignored such reviews. Getting into discussions with such idiots makes you look like a bigger fool, and readers who see it will be turned off from your writing. This is definitely not what you want!

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So this brings us to the end of this series. I really hope this has been somewhat helpful, and not many feelings have been hurt. I have enjoyed writing this series immensely and I hope authors take something positive away from this. As always, I'd love to hear your comments about what I am saying. Please be brutally honest!

So AUTHORS, what do you think? Do you think this is too harsh? Do you believe avoiding these 'pitfalls' would help you in getting a better 'hit rate' with bloggers?

And BLOGGERS, tell me if you've had similar experiences. Also, what is your biggest pet peeve regarding how authors approach you with review requests? Leave a comment below, and I could add it to my ever expanding list. Of course I'll give you due credit to bringing it to my attention and will add a link to your blog to the posts.

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