Book Blogging 101: Six Ways You Can Ruin Your Blogging Career
Over the few years that I have been blogging there has been a handful of scandals which usually led to the blog in question disappearing or having to “reinvent” themselves. Plagiarism of course is the biggest one we’ve been faced with in the recents months — but there are a few more things out there that can ruin a blogger’s career. Here are six examples that I’ve personally witnessed. You decide. Do you think stuff like this can ruin a blogger’s career?
One. Plagiarism
Want to get shunned faster then you can say, “Copy & Paste”? Well, take someone else’s work and then see how that plays out. This is considered a “common” mistake in the blogging world, but personally I think there is nothing common about it. Theft is wrong and plagiarism is not easily forgivable. If you don’t have a cemented presence in the blogging world you can kiss your blog goodbye. I think a lot of people realize this, but in the end don’t believe that they will ever get discovered, or that they the General Population will Forgive and Forget. Majority opinion does not sit well with plagiarizers though.Two. Selfishness and Jealousy
It is all about me, me, me!!!!!!! Tweet nothing but your stuff. Post personal pieces about this and that, but always about how it revolves around you. Complain about things that are directly impacting you, a lot. Your jealous and selfish behavior is showing big time and it can ruin your blog. It can ruin your blog when you start trying to “one up” everyone around you. When you start crediting everything as “just yours.” Other bloggers will start pulling away from you and distancing themselves, especially when the jealousy leads to erratic behavior. Which it doesThree. Greed
There are two types of greed in the blogging world: greed for money and greed for products. Some, bloggers are on a quest to “Get Rich Quick” and slap Adsense banners all over their blogs and offer “services” for their target niche. Some have even tried to charge for their reviews. If your primary focus is to make money, you are wasting your time. In blogging your primary focus should be to deliver quality content to your readers. Any money you make should be a “added benefit.” Those bloggers that started charging for reviews, or this and that service…or have affiliate links ALL over the place just don’t make it very long. Especially when they realize, how hard blogging is in comparison to how much money you make.Four. Stupid Is…
“The Internet is Forever” is like the warning of choice for this day and age. One stupid mistake can follow you forever! All you have to do is ONE thing. Get drunk and tweet something offensive. Do a vlog where you appear high on a day known for “drug use” {This happened at the start of my blogging career, it was a YA blogger, who was underage. The negative feedback she got was terrible.}. Speak out negatively about someone without any proof…the list goes on and on. But, stupidity tolerance is very low in the blogging community and sometimes doing something that offends the majority will have you “privatizing” your blog quicker then you can say “I’m sorry, that was stupid.”Five. Faking It
The bloggers that claim they read ten books a week, have a review everyday, on top of a “real” job and five kids…sometimes it is hard to believe what they are posting is for real. Can they really write that many reviews? Can they really read that many books? Some can, I’ll give them that. Oh Yee Super Women! But, some are faking it. They are basing their reviews off of other people’s reviews. Saying they read these books, but really only reading maybe the first chapter, or none at all. These are usually the hardest to spot. They don’t plagiarize the reviews, they just go and read what other people say about the books and then form their own opinions based on reviews not the actual book. The only way you can usually tell if a blogger is faking it — their reviews are shallow, they don’t go into details about the actual story. They don’t mention that many facts about the plot or turn of events and if they do, sometimes those facts are incorrect. It is a hard gamble to spot. But, I know of least on blogger that has confessed to doing this (no longer an active bloggers), so there is probably more out there.Six. Fraudulent
Wow! This blogger gives away a Kindle Fire every month! Holy cow, they must be rich! Nope. Who won those giveaways? Does anyone know? Is their any proof that these giveaways are actually real? I usually suspect those crazy tech sites that give away iPads all the time — this must be fake, right? But, we never suspect our fellow bloggers, that have a personal face behind the blog. Double standards, but it happens.What other things do you believe can ruin a bloggers career?
Reader Question of the Week:
Danielle, there are a few sites I can recommend that check it for you. One of those is Copyscape. But, to be effective you have to put the URL of each of your blog posts into it. This sometimes has less then desirable effects, so I always recommend just utilizing Google. Grab a key phrase or sentence that is completely unique to your review and search it within quotes. See what results turn up. Good luck!
Book Blogging News:
Authors Behaving Badly. Again! Author Mike Kearby won’t let things go! Book Blogger Lizzy Lessard was updating her blog and decided to list her DNFs. One of which was by author Mike Kearby. She has his book for review via a Blog Tour she participated in. On goodreads.com Kearby took offense to a statement that Lizzy included in her review. Lizzy had no problem removing the statement and was actually very conciliatory to the irate author. Did it end the conflict? Nope. Kearby went on to comment on the review over and over again. Insultingly of course. Then he posted about it! Three times. Oh yeah, he tweeted too. Just kept at it. Lizzy after the third post had had enough. She retaliated in a post. But, Kearby is of course, still at it. Good luck Lizzy, we hope someone can talk some sense into this author. Source.
Book to Movies! They have begun casting for the Vampire Academy: Blood Sisters (2013), the movie based off Richelle Mead’s popular Young Adult series! Firstly, Mark Waters (Mean Girls) will direct and then the three leads will be held by Lucy Fry (H2O) will play Lissa, Danila Kozlovsky (Raspoutine) is Dimitri and Zoey Deutch (Beautiful Creatures) as Rose. Source.
Blogger Confessionals: Megan of Book Brats did something that we don’t see all the time, she was ridiculously honest about Jealousy. I cited erratic behavior in my number two article above…and she talks about in her piece, what Jealousy made her do. I thought it took a lot of courage to lay things out like she did. She also talks about how she combatted these feelings. It is something good to read, she isn’t alone with these issues. Everyone get jealous now and again. Source.
Shameless promotion: In a joint effort with Zombie Queen, The Bookish Brunette, Parajunkee’s View will host a completely social media Book Blogger Conference. Anyone can attend, free admittance and even an awards ceremony. The Con will be hosted the first week of April at a Twitter Hashtag near you. Search #BBTC for more details. Source.
Happy Thursday. Talk Less. Read More. Blog with Integrity.
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I once had someone tell me they didn’t read the book just reviews to do their review. They got the book from the pub and didn’t have to read it but wanted to make a good impression. Ever since then though whenever I see they review a book I always wonder did they actually review it? Its sad what people will do just to get noticed.
I think you covered all the big points. I just wish people would blog for the joy of blogging.
It’s a shame that stuff like this happens
I can imagine being plagiarized is awful! This is a really good post 
.
Funny you mentioned jealousy, I actually am discussing this today on my blog. I think you need to add one point to your list and that is being to negative.
I remember when I first started blogging coming across a blog that was literally filled with 1&2 star reviews. I mean they found fault with every book to a point I wondered if they enjoyed anything.
A person should be honest but you can’t always focus on the bad of a story, it really isolates your viewership when your miss negativity all the time. Least, I think so.
I agree with you Amber. These are all really good points. I know I feel like I’m not reading fast enough sometimes or over commit myself for reviews and get stressed. But if someone is solely “reviewing” with other peoples reviews, what’s the point. Is it to get free books? Seriously…I would hope not. Then that opens up even more issues.
These are all great points I would add negativity. Peace, Love and Books is my motto. Why blog about books if you aren’t reading them, aren’t writing the review and are competing with the Jones?!?
I agree – what the heck is the benefit of writing a review of a book you haven’t even read…other than they think it makes them look good? heck I wouldn’t WANT to write that many reviews a week haha. I agree negativity…personally I’m not into all the drama that happens in the blogophere..I try to avoid it. I just want to make friends that enjoy good books and put my two cents in.
Doing some of these things never would have occurred to me. Pretending to read books you haven’t? What is the POINT? I blog because I love reading…
This post was an eye opener! I couldn’t imagine holding a contest and having no winner. I can’t imagine saying you’ve read a book and then not have read it. Sometimes it’s good that I’m a slow reader b/c then everyone knows that I *do* read the books I review. Plus it’s why I blog, to talk about books…why try to talk about a book you haven’t read?
As always great post. I think the theft, fake, fraud can all fit under the larger umbrella of honesty. If you blog with honesty then it’s pretty much covered.
Being dishonest just takes up so much more time and energy than honesty. I don’t know how anyone can do it day after day. Pretending to like something they don’t. Pretending to like someone they don’t. Altering their style and voice to fit someone else’s idea of what works.
I am no saint. Not even close. But I can’t imagine doing this blogging thing if it is all a falsehood. If I’m not reading the books. If I’m cheating people out of giveaway prizes. If I’m creating some fake version of myself that I have to pretend to be day after day.
IMO it would be so much easier just to not blog.
Of course my reviews sound a lot like the description of a non-reader’s reviews…. But it’s a style choice I make, to simply tease the plot, to talk about overall feelings about the book. I don’t like to give anything away. But I suppose to some it could appear as if I hadn’t read it…. Oh well. I know that I have. I don’t think I could sleep at night if I posted something that wasn’t mine. I don’t do well with guilt.
Thanks for sharing Megan’s post. It was refreshingly honest and I can totally understand where she’s coming from. It’s hard to be in this environment and keep all those feelings at bay. It’s something I’m sure we all struggle with at various points and various levels. I know I’m not immune.
And I love the addition of the Book Blogging News. Without it I would probably be totally clueless!
Oh my gosh! It would have never even crossed my mind that someone would review a book they DIDNT read and review it as a READ book! That’s so crazy!
And now I’m wondering how much detail I actually go into in my reviews and if I SHOULD be adding more information about the plot (I’m always afraid to spoil the story for those who haven’t read it).
The other behaviors are terrible, but not reading a book and pretending you did just really bothers me. Especially when I stress to meet deadlines and get a book read even if I’m not liking it!
Thank you for all of your awesome posts. You definitely help me be a better book blogger and keep me informed about the book blogging world!
Really? I guess I can just think like a scammer then…lol? No, really someone told me they did this. I guess they thought they would get a agreeing answer from me – and I just kind of remained silent.
I don’t think you need to add a lot, I think it is just the small details. Maybe using a characters name that isn’t mentioned in the synopsis that sort of thing, it makes things obvious.
Thank you for your well said comment. I appreciate it!!!
As always I loved this post!! You are so in touch with what is going on in the blogging community and always seem to know just what needs to be posted! You are like a blogging genie or bogging godmother!!!
Thank you for answering my question, but now that you have I am not sure I want to know! Part of me likes staying in my own little bubble.
I can’t believe anyone would fake their blog. I mean really what’s the point? You put in all this work to read other reviews and skim through the book just to make it sound like you read it. Why not just read it. It would probably take the same amount of time.
I don’t share a lot of plot details in my reviews either because I don’t like to give things away. I want people to go out and buy the book, but I hope mine don’t sound like I have never read them.
Thanks again Rachel!!
Thank you… but oh good lawd, I am not a godmother.
I think it is because I spend way too much time on twitter. No life per se… and I understand. I wouldn’t want to open myself up for any kind of drama either, which is what happens. But, it is good to check every now and again, just in case. Because, what if someone thinks they posted first???
I don’t know what the point is to faking. Maybe they made a promise for a blog tour, or to the publisher…maybe they want to sell advertising…who knows. I don’t do the plot thing either, I guess it is more about the little details that count. Who knows…
I read a lot, but I don’t review a lot. I try to post 3-4 reviews a week, since that gives me time to draft the reviews, edit the reviews and schedule them.
Also, to stop plagiarism I got a copy protect plugin. It is sad that I have to but…
It surprises what some people do sometimes, not sure I should be surprised, but I am.
I love these posts!
claps hand and total awesome post. I agree you can’t keep up with the Jones…and who would lie about having 5 kids and reading books…the horror. Why would someone lie about not reading a book …winks to reviewer on Amazon ( harriet) .
I agree that there many dishonest people who want the books and if they can fake it , then they will
Very nice post. I’ve had experience with bloggers who don’t follow through on giveaways or respond to emails for updates.
Thanks for this great post! I’ve always wondered how some people say they read so many books and write so many reviews when I struggle to work full time, study, blog, read and than socialise! I have seen a few plagiarism issues over the past year. One blogger seems to no longer have her page public and another it seems wasn’t really affected. So I guess it can depend on how you handle the situation?
Thanks again!
I love your thoughts on this post!! I think its important to remember these, and make sure we are being honest and sincere, especially in our reviews and comments to others.
+JMJ+
The bloggers who fake reviews baffle me in a big way. I think it would take almost as much work to craft a convincing lie than it would be to tell the truth. So why all that effort for the wrong project? Is it really all about image for some people? =(
I totally agree. This is actually why I don’t mind being a small book blog. I may have been blogging for 5 years but I’d rather just stay small and out of all the drama and stuff. It only takes one mistake and you’re crucified!
Theft. Not a problem with me.
Selfish & Jealousy. I learned a long time ago I’d never be one of the big guns. I made my peace with it. I’m still having fun.
Greed. I was blogging for a very long time before I ever got free books. I still review books I buy on a regular basis. I don’t take more than I can read.
Stupid. I hope I’m not stupid! I keep a low profile.
Fake. If I don’t have time for a review or content, then I just don’t. Which is why I’m not a big wig. I keep it at a level I can handle. I write my reviews immediately after I read the book though so when I need a review it will be there.
Fraud. I don’t do giveaway’s unless a publisher pays for it. OR I’ll do one on the rare occasion if I can afford it.
Wow. Fraud and Fakers are out there? I had no idea. Why bother? Great post again sugar.
Argh, this is a scary list. Is this really happening in our book blogging community? So sad. I’ve gotta go back through mu reviews now to check I don’t sound like I’ve not read the books!!!
I admit that not reading the book and just faking the review puzzles and bothers me the most. It just defies the purpose of book blogging as in talking about the books you’ve read and loved. Why do that?
)) I know that if I could do everything I wanted I would have been online no more than 2-3 times a week… Alas, for some people this is the only cheap way to escape the reality. Oh, I am getting depressed here.
As to reading a lot and writing too many reviews with full time job – I for example can only do that as much as I’m doing it now because there is literally no money to do anything else.
Last thing, I agree with Kimba absolutely – negativity and intolerance are the worst part of any community be that online or offline.
Thank you for a great topic as usual, Rachel!
Great post! You’ve covered all of the biggest issues I can think of. One that stood out to me a lot is the amount books that some bloggers seem to read on top of everything else. I can maybe get to 5 books a week if I’m lucky, but it’s usually 2-3 and I have all the time in the world. I don’t know how parents who work full time jobs can do it, but I’ve never thought of them as faking it. I’ll have to look closely from now on. The giveaways one really bothers me, but what bothers me the most is when I get an email telling me that I “won” a giveaway but I never receive my prize (upon contacting them after a few months, they tell me “soon”, they lost my address, or they just don’t reply). It just makes me wonder how many giveaways people are holding just to gain followers/views/whatever. Again, thanks for sharing your thoughts!
Smash’s week in review sent me over here to your attention-grabbing post. I sometimes feel jealous of uber-successful authors so it makes sense to me that anyone might feel jealous about something they spend a lot of time and energy creating (like a book blog). But faking reading books just to crank out reviews? Wow. And the plagiarism scandals have been quite sad. Sometimes it’s really hard to remember the internet is forever!
Thank you everyone for the great comments! I usually like to respond to everyone personally — but I’ve been a little overwhelmed lately! But, thanks so much and I think we can all agree that these things are crazy — and they do happen. I have read posts which each one of these was either confessed, or it’s obvious they subscribe to that sort of behavior.
As a new blogger I’ve found your blog to be so helpful over the past week that I’ve found it. Thank you for this post and thank you for all the other helpful post you’ve posted in the past. I really hope I never break any of these rules. After reading Megan’s post on Jealously, it seems that you can fall in the trap of doing whatever it takes you get those followers.
Thank you for the comment and the tweet! I appreciate it. You can fall into traps very easily — if not it wouldn’t happen all the time.
I’ve actually suffered from someone who has done the sixth big no no in blogging. We agreed to swap books and when I sent my books, I never got theirs. on top of that, when we did an interview on their blog, the blogger promised on the interview that was published that we each are being gifted a book for doing the interview.. yea never got that. Also, we participated in an event for the blogger and a book was promised (we found out the blogger is giving a book to the volunteers after we volunteered).. but yet again, we got nothing. For a FULL YEAR, the blogger kept on making up excuses ‘credit card not with me…. I am on vacation.. I am out of town… Im in school right now..” then the blogger completely blocked us. We were SO shocked and now i still don’t understand what happened….
That is absolutely terrible Juhina! Look, one of my worst blogger moments was when I shipped SIGNED Sherrilyn Kenyon books to Canada and they NEVER got there. I don’t know what happened, but I didn’t pay the extra $40 for tracking, because frankly, I didn’t realize shipping to CA would be that expensive. I was a new blogger to giveaways. And I couldn’t replace the signed books, because I had gotten them at a signing and didn’t know when SK would come back. It was a terrible moment. I would have handled it differently if it happened now, but back then I was freaking out. So I totally understand when things like that happen. I’ve also had it where the author or the publisher flakes — and the blogger never gets the book or ARC promised them. That is tons of fun, because then you feel like you are harassing your contact.
But that — that happened that many times… geez?? WTH, right? And then they blocked you…that just sounds malicious. Boo bad bloggers!!!
Great, GREAT advice, and honestly, I can’t believe there are people out there that do those kinds of things!
I have often wondered about the same – Beats Me!
Wow…I had no idea that people were only reading part of books and then reviewing them!!! Wow! There is no good reasons for this! If you don’t enjoy reading, then why thy heck are you blogging about it? If you really want to blog, blog about something you love! If you don’t enjoy the book, then write about why you didn’t. I am just speechless! It makes the whole blogging community look lazy and without integrity!
As always Rachel, great post!!!
Great advice. I am really speechless, you had cover every aspect of blogging in general (not just book blogging). For me blogging is for fun, to share your thought with others, and to make new friends that have the same interest. But when it becomes just a tool for making $ and every review is the same (no deep thought on it or I dont see your “voice” in the review or just a sum up on the synopsis) then really it’s sad.
And for anyone who posts review everyday, really wow who is going to buy that seriously? it’s kind of realistic to do so in my opinion.
I’m new to the blogging world and I feel very naïve when I read this article. Fake reading and reviewing, unbelievable. Surely the point is the books and showing your passion for books through your blog.
Great points, hoping to avoid them all!
I’ve been following you for awhile and this just popped up on my Twitter feed. My reviews aren’t necessarily very detail oriented because I try to avoid spoilers. But I couldn’t imagine FAKING the reading&reviewing of a book! Seriously, what’s the point? It’s all about prioritizing and making time for the books you love to read! I admit I have time crunch issues, but faking it just seems so low to me. As a dedicated reader just couldn’t do it. EVER. Thanks for the great post.
I have seen a blog where they have an entire post be an advertisement. I don’t mind the ads on the blog as long as they aren’t pop up, but to have a whole blog post is to much. I don’t visit their site anymore.
Definitely some good advice here, and well worth the read. I have to admit that I’d love to get rich from blogging, but given that over the 3 years I’ve been doing book reviews, I’ve made a whole $12 from Amazon referrals and about $50 from AdSense, that’s not happening any time soon. :p
One thing that kind of weirds me out when it comes to blogs is when a blog has a specific niche (say, book reviews), and then blammo, there’s suddenly a product review in there for some furniture company or online printing company or other such things. Product reviews and giveaways are great, but when they come out of nowhere on a blog that’s typically dedicated to something else, it rubs me the wrong way. It’s not something that will make me unfollow a blog, unless they start doing it a lot, but it certainly makes me look sideways at it a little.
I’m not an actual book blogger, but I post occasional reviews of what I read. I always wondered how some of the bigger book bloggers read so many books. Maybe they don’t! Especially the ones where half the review come from the Amazon or Goodreads blurb.
The sad thing is that as true as all of these statements are (wait – someone seriously got high and made a vlog?), it doesn’t always lead to shunning in the community. It occasionally even leads to copycat behavior. I’ve seen this a few times. Especially with the generic, 100 reviews a month.
I’m always dumbfounded by the blogs that have over 100 posts per month. Now if you’re blog is a BIG BLOG with multiple reviewers and an arsenal of posters, I get it. But people who have on Goodreads that they read 425+ books a year and reviewed them all while working full time and taking night classes? Come on. For reals?
Great post!