This is a post that I very oddly started forever ago when an author annoyed me by basically saying you shouldn’t review books you know you won’t like. That is such a head meet desk comment to me. How do you know you will like it or not and do you seriously write off a genre cuz you are hard to please? Does your opinion suddenly NOT count?

I bore easlily and got sidetracked. Oh and the author in question I still adore and am VERY much looking forward to reading her next book which I strongly think is going to fucking rock socks. So why did I dust this off and finish it up? I know it is wild, you can not agree and still the world will spin on axis.

I am gonna tell you a secret. I didn’t like Sleeping with Ward Clever. NO REALLY. I know… you and you and you and you loved it yes? Awesome! Me not so much. And I had a bitch of a time trying to find someone to review it. The first person I finally just forced it on (thinking she would love it) begged to not have to finish it. I am evol but not THAT evol. The second reader who took it on was Laura D – this is her story. ::shrug:: Sometimes I get it wrong. Sometimes books I think people will love they don’t or books I think they will hate they adore.

YES I CAN BE WRONG. Not often mind you… but you know

oddly enough I STILL don’t like the book and find the author annoying… BUT I do love Dorchester and think the editor rocks socks so do not take this as a omg do not read Dorchester. I could careless if you read the author,  I think you should try it and for fuck sakes REVIEW it. NO MATTER WHAT cuz 3 bad reviews? period? Smells like apathy to me

so with out farther ado…

When was the last time you sat down with a book and thought gleefully “I am so going to enjoy the next three or four hours hating these characters”. Or “this author sucks rocks, I think I will kill an evening reading her tripe, so I can then kill another hour or two writing up a review”.

Every book I open, I do so wanting to love it. I want it to be THAT book that I stop and tell strangers about in bookstores. I also open the book prepared to honestly give my opinion of the book, no matter if it is for a review, a contest, a test read or just an author asking for a quick opinion.

Is that odd? I just assume all readers do that otherwise why bother reading?

At the same time I am not one to blow sunshine up anyone’s arse. There are other blogs that stick to a only happy happy, joy joy view of books. This isn’t one of them. There are other blogs you can pay to be told what you want to hear. This isn’t one of them.

And that is ok, it is a big playground and we can all find a sandbox we like. But I do wonder how many authors read a review thinking, well there was no way she was going to like my book anyway or well she just doesn’t like me. And why they think such a thing, do authors often read books wanting to hate the competition so they expect the same of everyone else?

There are a few reason I read a book but they all must first fall under the first rule of reading for sybil.

I wanted to read the book. I know that sounds like very simple logic but it is true: could be it is apart of a series I love, maybe the summary interested me, it could be the first book in a new subgenre, maybe the excerpt caught my eye, the author is a favorite of mine and I have been interested in books simply because the editor has worked on many a favorite.

The next reason I read a book is something I decide before I open it and that goes back to the blog.

1.  Is this a book I am considering for a guest day? If it is and I find myself hating the book beyond reason or even just bored there is a good chance I won’t finish the book. Guest author days are only set up for books I would recommend and I am happy to read books that are recommended for guest days they have to fall under the first rule of reading for sybil.

2.  Is this a book for review? If it is, I finish it. Period. There was a short period of time where I looked at publishers as a ‘we really need to get x amount done this month’ or this is a book we really should cover and if someone else couldn’t do it, my first thought was I would. Instead I decided on guest reviewers. I suppose there is the fear of if everyone wanted to read the books they will get nothing but good reviews, as I haven’t found that to be an issue I stopped worrying about it.

3.  Is the ever popular impulse buy. This could end up reviewed. It could end up a guest day or a guest post. It could also end up not finished. The main point is I open the book WANTING to love it. And a series I am following I want to love that much more. I think it is an issue of expectation more than it is an issue of loyalty, maybe even reader attachment. And I don’t know if authors can really bitch about reader attachment. Isn’t that the reason our cup runneth over with series books and there are few single titles to be found?

A writer can create any world they want but it if isn’t a marketable one, they will be writing for a small group of people. At the same time, no one wants a series created ‘for the market’, which is such a catch 22. The author has to balance creativity, originality and voice with what readers will accept, purchase and lust after. Guess what THAT means… writing is hard work. For serious. Go Team You!

Personally I never would have read Sookie Stackhouse if I had known of the authors love of flexing her godlyness over her world by killing off characters. If I had known going in I would have been happy to skip the series, would have saved time and money. And woot for me. But there are at least two or three other reviewers JUST on this blog who lurve the series. Still to this day, YAY for them. And for me that I don’t have to read it anymore. We are both right. And I so don’t think Harrison gives a fuck about my opinion. They are her characters to do with what she will. She will rock on with her badself and you guys love it. ::shrug::

review = opinion = you don’t have to agree with me and I don’t have to agree with you…

k?

K!

Or you know feel free to disagree with me oddly enough we do allow that here.  Because I say so and well I make the rules so woot!

TGTBTU is a reader blog.  We are for readers by readers and everything I do – event, news or feature wise – is for readers just like us. 

TGTBTU is very author friendly or at least I think we are.  If you are an author that doesn’t like to see honest opinions, thinks there should be no such thing as bad reviews, think Average (a.k.a. a “C” grade) is a bad thing or only want sunshine blown up your arse, then this isn’t a good blog for you to hang at. 

So I can’t decide:

Is Deborah Macgillivray, stupid or clueless?  Or is it just me who thinks it is seriously stoopid and nervy for her to show up on a reader blog?  At this point do you think an endorsement from her helps an author or hurts them?  Is it like a cover quote you just ignore, or would you put the book down?  Honestly, I feel bad for Kathryne Kennedy.  

Until told otherwise I am gonna play Pollyanna and believe she doesn’t know that Mac is no reader’s friend, at least not to one who thinks she/he can like or dislike whatever the fuck he/she want.

I think Deborah should add this to her retaliation list: only ‘highly recommend‘ books you really don’t want people to buy.  Sort of like another way to harm the bitches that dare to speak against her work.

I like Dorchester and I happen enjoy a hella lot of their books, but it would be nice to see her dropped. It should be a rule: stalk a reader, lose a contract.  Of course I also think there is no excuse for an author to have reviews removed because it is bad or a low grade.  When I hear an author does it, I don’t buy them again much less endorse their work. For anyone playing the home game, I DO NOT Recommend paying for anything written by Deborah Magcillivray due to her long-term abuse of the Amazon rating system, due to her abuse of her status as a reviewer on Amazon, and due to her harassment of readers who dislike her books.

Maybe that is just me…

Much like this photo, this little bit of NPR just amused the hell out of me, click on the LISTEN NOW link once you’re at this site:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=18236421

I am on very few yahoo groups. I think there are six: three author lists, two historical reader lists and a trade group. Oh and there is the brotherhood list but it is no mail because there is no way in hell I could keep up with it, but I do go check it out once in a blue moon.

The rest are author only, newsletter or update type lists. LOVE those… really every author should have one. Even if you don’t pay for a professional newsletter or have the puter skills to do one, a simple text post is grand. And if you don’t have a website, this lil reader thinks this is a must. Linda Howard I am looking at you! LOL not that you see it but it is the thought that counts *g*.

So I am not ‘up’ on the common rules of these things, at least in romanceland.

But if out of a 25 post digest, there are seven posts from you and your significant other talking about your lust and/or love for one another in addition to another six posts from other members talking about your lust and/or love for one another, you need to shut up about it.

Or is it just me that finds that crap annoying, boring and stupid. If you need an audience to talk to the lurve of your life, I think one or all of three things.

A. you are a sock and playing both the love and the lovee
B. things aren’t really all that at home
C. you are both attention whores

GET. A. ROOM. Crazy thing… but people might be looking for book info, excerpts and things to do with the writing. I know I should just unsub and now recall why I generally delete the digest without even opening them.

This is prolly common on old lists where people are friends and have known members forever and ever. But yahoo groups are free! Go create one just for your group or something. Or make the personal chatty posts but don’t carry it… and on… and on… where it hits over four digests (that is over 100 posts at 25 a digest).

Am I just being a bitch and not understanding the ‘fun’. The group’s description does list ‘everything under the sun’ as allowable posts. But long ass conversations about your lurve seem above and beyond. And the list isn’t a fan list or a discussion list but THE AUTHOR list. As this is not the first time I have seen this type of thing on list I am changing my membership to Special Notices – Receive only important email notices from the group moderator. And will just visit via web when I want to look for info. LOL after all that my question is:

Is this is common and acceptable on many author lists?

And for the love of god, cut the text in the posts when you are replying. Really I think that is what pushed me over the edge, not the 15 out of 25 posts in the last four digests but the one to two sentence replies on top of 10 other replies for one post.

In case you don’t know this… that makes scrolling through the digest a pain and even with the cool new set up yahoo is using for digest form it makes understanding where posts end and a new one begin difficult. If it causes the digest to be long enough, gmail doesn’t display the whole thing. So you have to click a link and wait for it to load to read the full digest. I hate to think how long this takes for people with dial up.

So please try to trim your posts when you reply and leave only what you are replying too! LOL sez I.