Welcome to Book Blogging 101, a weekly feature on Parajunkee’s View that answers your questions and strives to share great book blogging tips and some helpful hints to help you on your way.
Hi! I, like quite a few others, use WordPress. I’ve seen Google’s blog post about cutting non-Blogger sites access to GFC in March.
Do you have any suggestions or ideas? – Amanda
With Google Friend Connect’s shady history and spotty workability, can we blame them for shutting down the function? They are saying that they are limiting it to non-Google sites, but the way it is worded they are acting like it is a non-producing product. Here is the quote via Google’s blog:
Friend Connect allows webmasters to add social features to their sites by embedding a few snippets of code. We’re retiring the service for all non-Blogger sites on March 1, 2012. We encourage affected sites to create a Google+ page and place a Google+ badge on their site so they can bring their community of followers to Google+ and use new features like Circles and Hangouts to keep in touch.
Let’s face it, the GFC gadget has not been what it used to be after the Google update. Half the time it doesn’t work. It is lovely to have that nice follower count up there, but really, you might want to look at the facts, do all those followers really come to your blog or read your posts in Reader? So, think of it as your chance to take a stand and an active roll in getting new followers, in new ways.
What does this mean? Now it is time to transition off of GFC! This is also helpful advice for Blogger users too, because maybe you want your followers to visit you in different ways, expanding your network instead of just relying on the GFC reader.
Step 1: Sign into google.com/friendconnect and go to your blog. You can send a newsletter to all your followers. Utilize this before the shut down and send out a newsletter to all of your followers, urging them to add your RSS directly to their readers. Include your RSS link in the newsletter and explain to your readers that the GFC gadget will not be working.
Step 2: Set up a subscription service on your blog, use Feedburner or a plugin via WordPress or your other CMS program site that you are using, this way they can have it delivered to them directly in their inbox. You can even include the HTML of the subscribe gadget in the GFC Newsletter that you are going to send.
Step 3: Throw up a blog post, maybe a “CHECK IT OUT” gadget and point it towards your subscribe form.
And as a follow up —
Hi Rachel,
I was really annoyed this week about the news of GFC being discontinued in March 2012.
I use Blogger, so I’m not *directly* effected, persay, but I do wonder what kind of flow-on effect this will have, not just for the book blogging community, but the blogging community on a wider scale. Basically, GFC has become a blogging standard. It’s a really easy way to collect info on your followers, and keep track.
I know it’s not practical to keep something in service that’s only being used by a minority of people, but I can’t help but feel this is just an effort to push people onto the Google+ platform–something I’ve deliberately held out on. I DO NOT NEED another social network in my life.
Anyhow, long story short: this will effect Blogger users, too, in the long run. We’ll have to accomodate for the shift in the best/’standard’ way to handle followers.
Cutting out GFC doesn’t seem practical, but I hate the idea of having two follower widgets on my site.
So, my actual question: Do you have any ideas on how you will be handling this shift, and how bloggers, both on Blogger and other platforms (I suppose non-blogger platforms ESPECIALLY) should handle this change, and what the repercussions are?
I’m so sorry for the long-winded question. Please feel free to edit me down, ignore, whatevs 
– Sarah
The repercussions will be that someone might come up with a better product! And don’t feel sorry for the long-winded question. I think GFC is something we just got used to and maybe need to look into other more realistic ways of delivery, like email subscriptions mentioned above. That is how I’ll handle it. Since my shift to WordPress my blog has gone down in numbers and comments. I expected that, I guess when GFC goes away it will happen again. But as long as I keep up my twitter presence, Facebook and maybe even Google + – I’ll get the word out about the blog. Not to mention the crazy SEO
How will it effect Blogger people? Well, what if Google decides to cut it for everyone? It is not a widely used product, it is just used for personal blogs. How does Google profit from this product? It’s been really wonky lately, half the time not working, that doesn’t bode well to me. It is one of the reasons I transitioned to WordPress. I have a feeling Google + has something up it’s sleeve as far as blog followers and things like that, change is in the air. Maybe it wouldn’t be such a bad idea to implement email subscriptions.
I would suggest pushing people to subscribe via email instead of GFC. IF you have a contest you can check if their name is on your email registry much easier then you can check on GFC 
Why do some blogs not accept self published books? I’ve just got a request and I was wondering the reason behind it. Thanks! – Molly @ Reading is my cup of tea
Stereotyping. Self-published novels tend to have a lot of issues, spelling, grammar and non-flushed out plot. Self-published authors tend to take too much interest in their reviews and get upset over negative reviews. Is this all self-published books? No. But unfortunatly with the ease of self-publishing there was a lot of really bad work mucking up the gems and at a point you get tired of wading through the crap.
The climate is changing, though, self-pubs are getting a better rep, so you should make up your own mind before you say yah or nah to self-published acceptance.
I can’t speak for everyone, but I’ll tell you why I wasn’t accepting self-published.
I had no qualms about accepting self-published when I started. In fact, I thought it was awesome that people self-published. Then I wrote my first negative review about a self-published novel. The author got mean, REALLY mean and called into question my morality in a public forum. Then she had her “fans” which all sounded like the same person attack me also. All within comments. It was fun, *sarcasm* but I defended myself, because they accused me of attacking the author personally and even back then I never went that route. Just because I wrote the book was terrible didn’t mean I said the author was a hag…
I blew it off, one crazy author. It was very badly written, she didn’t proof the novel at all, it was full of spelling errors (really spell check, right?) and grammatical problems and run on sentences. I read a few more self-pubs and started noticing the difference between an edited book and a non-edited book. But, I gave self-pubs some credit, we can’t all have a 6 figure editor on staff. Then another negative review went in for a self-pub and I got a very nasty email, saying I ruined them. That is so unfair! I felt terrible and in the same instance pissed off. My review. My opinion. If you wanted someone to write marketing copy and promo your book pay for ad space! By the time I accepted my next self-pub I was jittery. What if I don’t like it? Will the author get mad? Maybe I should fluff up my review a bit to not make it sound so terrible?
Nope. Nope. Nope. I wrote it, I didn’t hold any punches and then the PUBLIC comment went through. Delete and turn off comments and I went to my review policy and put up there that I don’t accept self-published novels. My conclusion, self-published authors took too much of an interest in my review and therefor got angry with a negative review, instead of published authors who had the security of being affirmed with an agent and publishing house (no matter how small). It makes the author insecure and thus quicker to attack. Was I stereotyping? Yes. Was I proud of it? No. But, three out of three negative reviews with bad feedback, along with witnessing the debacle that is Jacqueline Howett (BTW I think it is hilarious how BigAl stuck all those advertisement throughout his review LMAO – talk about profiteering! Jackie probably was the best exposure he’s ever had for his blog.) pushed me away from accepting self-published.
Now this was two years ago. This was before Amanda Hockings, this was before a bunch of indie presses began popping up and offering editors for hire and freelance editors began popping up left and right, specializing in this and that. This is before self-publishers began thinking that maybe this is a way to get your novel published and keep your money instead of paying it forward to a big House.
Tides have changed and my self-published stereotype might not be that grounded anymore. Do I accept self-published authors now? Nope. I don’t accept any authors request currently. I find it a lot easier to deal with publishers because they don’t have a personal interest and I have too many books on my shelf to guarantee a review. It happens, right?
I suggest reading the synopsis, if it looks good consider it. Maybe check out the author’s website and see if she has an excerpt. Accept a copy but direct her to a review policy that states acceptance does not guarantee a review (if it is not on there, you might want to add it).
Hi Prim! How’s Katniss doing? Ok, sorry. A unique visitor is a kind of silly term. They are a fan of your site. They come back for more, they are uniquely yours. They are actually measured by their unique IP address and even though they come back for more over and over again, they are only counted once. So — say you are being stalk by Sally with IP address 1.123.123.12, she visits 5 times daily and 25 times a week. Her hit counts as 1.
Webopedia describes it as:
And for today’s needs a Prozac winner…
Well, Anonymous, if you don’t think I know what I’m talking about, do the research yourself and see what they say about Bounce Rates. I’m just regurgitating what other people have to say about it, not like I work for Google or anything. But, ask yourself this – if they are not clicking a link (hence the bounce rate) that means they aren’t commenting. How many comments do you get on your posts? That might be an indication right there.
My suggestion would be, instead of writing people grumpy emails, work on that bounce rate. Because a Bounce Rate of 85% is bad for a blog.
Happy Turkey Day folks!
I can’t get to all the questions, but please ask your BB101 Questions here…bring it on.
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I just did a post about this, directing our followers towards other subscription methods. I much prefer RSS over GFC anyway.
Thanks for the tip about the newsletters, I totally didn’t know you could do that!
Lisa – share the link so readers can get an example please! I would appreciate it. I like GFC because people can understand it easier than RSS, but that’s why we have to educate them, right?
No problem: http://baffledbooks.tumblr.com/post/13252362607/for-our-followers
What is this news about GFC being discontinued? Does that mean that you won’t get anymore followers they way we have been getting them?
Yes. I won’t get GFC followers anymore. No big deal, I’ll just push towards my email subscription. At least I know results with that way. Did you know I can see how many people opened the email and then clicked through with my Feedburner. It’s very handy.
I guess I’m so very use to GFC that it scares me that is will gone. I’m one of those people who hates change. Like I always have a fit when they have a new facebook look. LOL
Hopefully everything will be okay though.
Guess I’ll be getting a little cozier with Feedburner LOL!
The Bawdy Book Blog
Feedburner is crazy useful! Use it.
Huh, your self-pub experience was that bad? Yuch. Of course, this was a while ago, and these things have been changing a lot lately, but anyways…If I would have been you, I think I would have done the same.
I think something like 70% of the reviews I’ve done have been of self-pub authors, but that isn’t saying much since I’ve done under 100 so far; some of them hired editors, I knew that for sure, of some I suspected it, and in one case the book was crap grammar of the worst most annoying kind. I mean, English is not my first language, I’ve learned it since 1st grade that’s true, but still…even for me that grammar was worse the horrific horror, lol. I said so, well in a more diplomatic way, but I did speak my mind, and didn’t get any weird replies or emails or anything. The one time I disliked a book, self-pub, and got a comment about my call was with a book of which I didn’t like the plot at all, and maybe I sounded harsh in expressing my dislike, but the comment was just one, and it wasn’t mean to me, it just expressed a different opinion.
But my blog is a tiny little voice in a hum of voices from the background, so authors don’t really see the review as a substantial marketing tool for them, whereas a solid, popular, cool blog like yours reviewing their book must seem like this awesome chance to shine and gain a gazillion readers and fans and sell like crazy, and somehow that translates into bashing the blogger if it didn’t work out quite as they wished. Some people skipped the growing part I think.
Anyways, loved the Q&A’s
And sorry for ranting!!
I think it is amazing that you are writing your reviews in English as your second language. I wish I had a grasp of another language so well. I took French from Kindergarten but can barely say Parlez-vous… gah. I’m so angry with these negative reviews that go bad – and in fact because of the discussion someone brought it to my attention where the author bashed me in another forum. I don’t know what to do. I feel like a rant post LOL.
Thanks for sharing your story of why you don’t accept self-pubbed books. I haven’t had any bad responses to my negative reviews of self-pubbed books, but like you, I found the majority to be unedited and lacking in quality, and I decided that I didn’t want to deal with sorting though all that just to find a hidden gem. I don’t think it’s fair to all the wonderful authors out there who self publish, but one of these days, maybe I’ll try it again.
Also: Thanks for the laugh, Anonymous, thanks for the laugh.
Thank you! I do think they are getting better with the freelance editors out there. I know my friend Sherry hired an editor for her book and even decided to go self-pub after she had an offer from a publisher. So, there are good self-pubs out there, just the crappy and grumpy authors give the good ones a bad name.
Ok wait. I’m confused. Blogs will still show up in the Google Reader, right? This will just be for new sign ups?
If the GFC is removed, the feed you get through it sadly goes away with it. :/
Google Reader and Google Friend Connect are not the same thing. I don’t use GFC, but I still have my Reader because I follow via RSS. As long as your reader is filled via RSS and not GFC, you should still be fine. Right?
As someone who started and is still at wordpress.com, I have never had GFC. It is not necessary and people can still follow you through their blogger dashboard (the site is just added manually). Blogger.com/home represents a good chunk of my referrals.
However, as a user of Feedburner, I have to say that I don’t and will continue not to push people to subscribe by email. How is that any different from upping your follower count by requiring people to follow through GFC? Everyone follows a different way, and at least 75% of my subscribers do so through Google reader. I don’t subscribe to blogs by email because I don’t want to be overloaded with emails every day, and I prefer to give people the option of following in the way that works best for them.
I know that there is a big importance placed on follower count, but not having GFC has allowed me to focus on what originally got me book blogging: talking about books. I’d rather see a high comment count than a high subscriber count. For me, it comes back to the question of do I want followers or do I want readers? And I want readers who participate. My follower numbers do not reflect my reader numbers, but I actively strive to create community through replying to comments on my blog in addition to commenting on other blogs. It is slow going and it is hard work, but it is far more rewarding in the end for me.
Re: self-published authors. I think the response to negative reviews is better than what you experienced, but authors are too closely tied into their work, and I do believe they still continue to take offense at negative reviews, or even a 3 star mostly positive review. I once had an author tell me that everyone else who had read the book loved it and while the author knew that not everyone would like the book, it was still disappointing that I had not liked it as much as others. How am I supposed to respond to that? Tell the author that I’m sorry that I am not everyone else? It is far easier to simply not accept books directly from the author.
Fully agree with Amanda’s point on email subscriptions. I hate email subscription with a passion and will not do it. I have the option on my blog because I know a few people like the option but I’ll never push it because I know how much it bugs me. I’ll go back to pushing feedburner personally.
Amanda – it is just asking people to follow you and the subscription is another way. You don’t have to push at all, it’s all a matter of opinion. If someone wants to require a follow via a contest they can do that if they want. It’s just how some people choose to run their blog. If the blog is someone I want to keep my eye on daily, I subscribe – end of story. I’ve had a lot of my followers complain when I took my email subscription off my page, so I guess others wanted that.
I think the GFC follower count marks goals and achievements for some blogs and even for publishers (BEA requires 1000 followers to be considered a media outlet for free entry right?) it’s like marks of passage. 100, 200, 300 — 1,000 etc. It works for some, I’m glad you’ve found away to work around it.
I don’t know how you should respond to what the author said, I’ve had similar statements made, especially about mediocre reviews. I’ve even had authors try to argue their point when I said I didn’t like a particular point. Like this is why they did it. And I completely understand that you have a reasoning behind why you did it – I just particularly didn’t like it. Like if you added cumin to your ham – 70% of the dinner party might like it, but the people that don’t like cumin – well they are out of luck
It is much simpler to just accept books from publishers. Isn’t that terrible?
I’m sorry if my comment came off negatively. That wasn’t my intention. And you are right, it really is up to the blogger to do what is best for their blog.
As an aside and just a general observation, not being able to have GFC has really made me question the value of it. It is quite easy to be a GFC follower without ever reading the blog. This makes me wonder if GFC counts are an inflated estimation of a blogger’s true reach. Not that I think tracking followers through feedburner subscriptions is really any better, but GFC has been such a standard for so long that I think people have begun to rely too much on it. I would be more interested to look at a comment to follower ratio. For example: if one blogger gets an average of 10 comments per post with only 50 subscribers whereas another blogger gets an average of 50 comments per post with 1,000 subscribers, the smaller blog actually has a larger percentage of its followers participating in discussions. I mean, obviously, it can be argued that the blog with 1,000 will always reach more people, but I don’t know that reaching people and influencing them are the same.
I have to agree with Amanda as well. I offer the option to follow via email subscription, but it’s not the only one. There’s Facebook, Twitter and RSS feeds just to name a few and they are so not as obnoxious. You’re not getting blasted with emails daily or weekly or whenever, but you’re still able to get your posts to your readers.
I also would rather have readers than followers. Readers participate in discussions and can also introduce me to new books and I love that.
And for today’s needs a Prozac winner
LMAO! I love that….just because you do web design, do your research and such…you don’t know anything P! Some people…I swear should not be able to type.
Anyway….on to the subject of self pubbed. I agree with you on that. I have accepted those before and at times I still will. BUT…in my review policy I state ONLY if I have reviewed for you in the past. Otherwise, I am closed to them as well. Does that stop them from sending the requests in…NOPE. I don’t think they even read my review policy and if they don’t, what makes them think I am going to take the time to read their book? hmmm….
I think some read the review policy but they try anyway.
Personally, I had Feedburner from the very beginning on my blog and email subscription before I knew I could use the GFC widget on a WordPress blog. When I thought I couldn’t use GFC, I just made sure I had plenty of methods for people to follow my blog (Facebook and Networked Blogs were included too) to provide choice. So as much as it might be a pain, I suppose it won’t affect me too much. I’m thinking I might create a ‘Follow my blog!’ button to make the RSS feedburner subscription both easier to find and just generally in the hope that it’ll stand out a little more.
As for self-pubbed authors, I have a policy that I require an excerpt and a blurb and a Goodreads link before I will say yes. That way I can see if the premise intrigues me, I get a taste of the writing style beforehand and if I don’t like it then I won’t accept, and I can check out a few reviews. By doing that I’ve found it much easier to ween the good from the bad and the authors that are okay with all of that have really been great to talk to. I say if you have the space in your reading pile, say yes to indie but be strict and if you find yourself unable to finish, tell them it’s not your thing. There may be a few drama queens out there but the majority are pretty awesome.
I think the more ways to follow the better! Everyone has different proffered methods, so let them have their choices, right?
I think the excerpt is a good route to go, it’ll give you an idea of the writing style and editing. Good advice!
How did I miss the news on GFC? I have to tell you, that really makes me anxious. I am on Blogger, but it’s easy to see the tide turning. I love blogging, writing about books, and looking at picture of sexy men. All the technical stuff is intimidating for me. The idea of having to rebuild an audience from scratch in a new format…. ugh.
It was only last week, don’t worry about it! I’m sure the tide will turn nicely, look at how many things have changed and we just go with it, right?? You won’t have to rebuild your audience from scratch!
Thanks for this post. I was stressing and pissed off about the GFC thing yesterday. But, now that I’ve had time to accept it, I’m much better with it. I’m just trying to figure out the best way around it. This helped a lot! Thanks!
I think it won’t be that hard to find a new way. We might lose some of the status of having — say 3000 followers to show on your sidebar, but maybe it might be nice not to have that pressure.
Great post, I bow down to your expertise. I found out about this via email subscription from Bex’s blog, Kindle Fever and I’ve been fudging around with mine all day pretty much. I was upset at first, but I think GFC is really a numbers game and this will ultimately provide a more holistic view of our readers, since there are still many other ways to follow.
My post has already gone up, I just need to compose an email to my subscribers now. Good times!
Jennifer @ The Bawdy Book Blog
Thanks for answering my question! When I wrote it I was sleep-deprived, but I know the question is kind of on everyone’s minds now anyway. LOL
I also wrote a blog post about ways to follow me yesterday. I’ve added Networked Blogs, but most people seem to be going with email or RSS as a way to follow me. I haven’t sent out a newsletter yet through GFC, I figure I’ll do that sometime after the holiday weekend. Give everyone a few days to get over their turkey coma.
Thanks for the suggestions! I think in the long run it’ll be better to get away from GFC, it’s such a finicky product like you said.
Amanda
I don’t know what to think about Networked Blogs, I signed up for it, but I don’t utilize it that much. Who knows right. I guess I have to get started trying to figure those things out.
If you check this out, leave the link for your blog post so we can check out what you told your readers…
Thanks for answering my (vveeeerrrrrryyy loooooooonnng) question!
I swear I love your BB101 like I love chocolate and caffiene… Mmm–caffeinated chocolate!
Hope you had a very happy turkey day. I’m jealous of Thanksgiving. We have Australia Day, which equals EPIC BBQs and BLISTERING HEAT which, being a vegetarian who likes to ski, ain’t quite my thing. I want pumpkin pie and roast vegetables and to watch Martha Stewart making ridiculous ‘Fall Themed’ decorations in the teeeeveeeeee.
Uh, sorry, it seems it’s still too early in the morning for rational thought, apparently. Thanks again!
Not that Australia Day isn’t awesome. It’s all the day of our biggest music festival=awesomes XD
Awe you so sweet, chocolate and caffeine that is awesome. Best compliment ever!!! Australia Day sounds great. Love me some BBQ (but can see how a vegetarian wouldn’t be down for it
)- I need to go to Australia, it’s on my Bucket List. My husband was stationed in Perth for a bit so he’s got it scratched off his list. Maybe I’ll go by myself. 
And you forgot mac and cheese, stuff Mirliton casserole!
Oooh, MAC AND CHEESE = YES!
If hubby’s been to Perth, you still need to come to Sydney, so he could still take you! It’s a HUGE country XD
I hadn’t heard of this, thank you so much for posting. I will add an email subscription to my blog. I use blogger but definitely want to make it easiest for followers.
As a Blogger user, I won’t be directly affected, of course. But I still don’t think that getting rid of the GFC widget is a good idea.
First of all, a lot of people are too busy to keep up with email subscriptions. If I had to keep up with all the blogs I follow through such subscriptions, I wouldn’t have any time left for posting on my blog! I happen to have two jobs — my day job schedule is 8:30 AM to 5:00 PM, Monday to Friday, while my night schedule is 7:00 to 9:30 PM, Monday to Thursday. I know I’m lucky to have two jobs in this economy, but the problem is that I HATE both of them, and have felt trapped for YEARS, because I can’t leave either job. Now that I’ve been blogging for over a year, blogging has become my passion, and I am really upset that I can’t spen more time on it! Imagine if I had to go through all of those emails!!
Second, let’s face it, bloggers are judged by other bloggers according to how many followers they have. I’m not saying that ALL bloggers do this, but a lot of them do. (I’m not one of them — I judge a blog according to content and design. There are lots of terrific blogs out there that do not have a gazillion followers, that still blow my mind!) They would rather comment on and/or follow a blog with tons of followers than a blog that has fewer ones. Hey, this is the reality. As the saying goes nowadays, “It is what it is.” So, the GFC widget is very useful in attracting more followers and comments, because it’s visible proof of a blog’s popularity or lack thereof. Actually, this might be a good thing, for those blogs that have fewer followers. They might then get judged on quality, instead of amount of followers. But then again, they might not. People might think, “Hm. No GFC anywhere to be seen…this blog probably has very few followers. I’m moving on.”
So I’m glad I’m on a Blogger platform, but I do feel bad for those who aren’t. I think it’s unfair of Google to do this, and agree with the commenter who wrote that this is most likely Google’s way of forcing people to get a Google account.
I think we should all start inundating the Google inbox (if anyone knows their email address, please post it here!) to let them know we don’t like this change at all, and that we don’t like being manipulated by large corporations.
There. I’m gettng off the soapbox now. Lol. Hope everybody had a GREAT Thanksgiving! And oh, yes, I HAVE to go back to work tomorrow….
Wow, this is the first I’m hearing about the GFC widget being disconnected and while I won’t be directly affected, I can see how it might lead to the downfall of the book blogging world as we know it.
I’ve had trouble with GFC from the get go, it’s rather clunky and I’d love for someone to invent a universal blog widget that offers much better stats than simply clicking follow on a blog one time to enter a competition and never visiting again. I’d love to know things like that, which blogs I visit the most and who posts the best content, etc. I’m thinking along the lines of klout.
Oh and I’ve also had trouble with self-pub authors. They really do seem to take reviews way too seriously and I’ve can recall a particular author hitting back at me for the negative comments I made which I feel were all extremely valid. It’s safe to say, I now avoid them at all costs.
Great Post
Now a word about self-published authors. I didn’t comment on that yesterday so as not to make my comment longer than it already was. Lol.
I haven’t had any problems, so far, really, but then, I haven’t had that many such authors contact me, either. The problem I see with these authors is that, since there is personal contact between the blogger and the author, the blogger might hesitate to hurt their feelings by posting an honest review. That was the case with one author I dealt with. I won the book in a giveaway, after which the author and I exchanged some friendly emails. Initially, I did enjoy the book, but as I got further into it, I noticed some similarities to other highly popular books (I won’t say which) that have been published in recent years. The plot wasn’t as believable as it had first appeared, either. Also, I found some of the dialogue to be pretty stilted. To make matters worse, there were numerous spelling, grammatical, and syntax errors. At the most, I would have given the book three stars. I decided to let the author know about these problems before writing a review. I also mentioned the rating I was thinking of giving the book. The author was very gracious, but, of course, firmly defended their work. Since this was a debut novel, I really felt bad about giving it only three stars. Again, that’s because of the personal contact I had with the author, whom I genuinely liked. I therefore chose not to review the book. Perhaps that was a cop-out, but I felt too uncorfortable about the whole thing… I have had no problem giving other books I’ve read three stars, but that’s because I had no personal contact with the author.
Ironically, I recently reviewed another book, the author of which emailed me to request a review. This book, too, was from a self-published author. I sternly told myself that I couldn’t chicken out again — I had to express my honest opinion. But I think I was able to go through with this review because I didn’t have as much personal contact with this author as I did with the one mentioned above. I don’t know if this writer has read my review. They have certainly not contacted me again.
My first review of a self-published book was a glowing one — I gave the book five stars, which I honestly thought were well-deserved. The author did not contact me directly, but a friend of theirs posted a request for reviews on Book Blogs. Neither the author nor their friend had the courtesy to comment on my review, however, which irked me quite a bit.
I dont’ think I’ll add a note to my review policy, to the effect that accepting a book from an author does not guarantee a review. However, I think I might put in something about accepting a limited amount of self-published books a year.
Some authors take the “don’t read reviews” stance so they aren’t impacted. That could be it? Or maybe they feel that they need to not comment. It might not be that you are being ignored, just because some don’t know what the etiquette is, because basically there is no etiquette.
Sorry I took so long to reply… Anyway, I don’t know what the situation was with this author whose book I gave five stars to. You could be right — maybe they don’t read reviews. I think the situation is a little strange. Why would the friend make (apparently the author couldn’t do that themselves, for some undisclosed reason) if the author was not going to comment on a favorable review — through that very same friend? I don’t know. I can see an author not replying to a negative review — what could they possibly say, after all? But a positive one? Heck, my review was a glowing one! And I really felt that the book deserved it. I don’t like to give positive reviews unless I do feel they’re deserved.
Well, I guess that’s how things go in the blogging world….
Got interrupted…part ot the above comment is supposed to read ” Why would the friend make a review request…”
I’d like to take this opportunity to thank you for this blogging feature on your blog!! It’s immensely helpful! : )
And yes, I AM at work today! But I’ve briefly gotten on the Internet on the sly…hee, hee!
I absolutely love reading your BB101 posts. I hadn’t heard about GFC going away. I’m curious how it will stack up against Plus and what the pros/cons will be for both bloggers and followers.
And I’m so glad you referenced the Jacqueline Howett epic!fail. Self pub isn’t a dirty word (some books are good, just too niche for mainstream markets), but wackadoos like Jacqueline give self-pubbed authors a bad name.
Smiles!
Lori
Actually with self-pub authors thanks to kindle samples you can really see if you’d like the book judging the 20% of it in the sample. That way I just refuse those authors who I think I won’t like. As a lot of people said there are plenty of awful writers, but when you find one awesome self-pub author, it’s really satisfying
like winning the lottery.
Thanks so much for taking the time to answer my question. Katniss is doing fine. She’s with Peeta.
And I love your blog and so impressed that you’re not afraid to take a stand against a self published writer.
I missed the news on GFC too. It’s all I’ve used since I started blogging, so this news really worries me. How do I go about setting up a Feedburner? I’m also wondering, will this affect my google reader any? I’ve been planning on updating it, but I guess there’s no point if all the feeds disappear. I’m very confused.
Regards for composing “Google Friend Connect Discontiues?
What does that mean for Book Bloggers? | Parajunkee’s View”. I personallywill definitely wind up being back again for a lot more browsing and writing comments shortly. Many thanks, Yasmin