If you have been on Twitter, read blogs – basically just been online in general, I’m sure you’ve heard of the author we won’t speak of, who stalked a blogger who gave a bad review of her book (read here or here if you need info). Stalked as in – showed up at her house and called her at work among other things. This author has not shown any remorse (she wrote a freaking article all about it that was published in The Guardian) and has actually been praised by some people.
This is not right.
The blogging community and romance author community has come together (once again!) to say, no – we will not stand for this. The general sentiment expressed on twitter and blogs and what we agree with here at Smexy Books – readers should be allowed to express any and all opinions on a book just as an author should be allowed to write any and all books they choose. This is not a complicated concept.
I’ve been on several panels at the Romantic Times convention in the past years, and most have to do with reviewing and presence on social media, since I review a lot and I’m addicted to twitter. Whenever we start talking about the reviewing process – and the importance of writing an honest review and writing negative reviews – is when I get the most questions and feedback. This is what I always stress.
When a publisher, author or publicist offers you a book, and you accept it for review, your relationship with them and that particular book is complete. You then have a couple of options:
A – read the book, realize you don’t like it, and decide to DNF or just not write a review.
B – read the book, realize you love/hate/it’s just okay, and decide to review
C – decide not to read the book and not write a review
When you publish that review, whether it’s on your blog, Goodreads, Amazon etc.. you owe the READERS of that review honesty. That’s it. You don’t owe the author who wrote the book an explanation for why you liked it or not. You don’t owe the publisher a reason for why you read the book or you didn’t read the book. You owe your readers your honest thoughts. And as a writer, you can express yourself how you like. You can gush, you can be snarky, you can use gifs, you can write 5,000 words. You can yell frustration in capital letters. You can swear. It’s your review.
I received a toy catalog in the mail yesterday and saw some things that I wanted to get my kids for Christmas. But you know what I did first? I looked up each item on Amazon to see what kind of reviews it had. I didn’t want to buy something that was poorly received or maybe not in the appropriate age range. People use reviews of products all the time. Books are the same way. Why do you think Goodreads is so popular? Because opinions matter. Good opinions and negative opinions. Funny opinions and ranty opinions. Five sentence opinions and 100 sentence opinions. If a person passionately dislikes a book, she is allowed to say that without the threat of harassment, stalking, or any kind of harm. Period.
It’s absolutely ridiculous and horrifying that someone is celebrating the fact that they looked into the window of a blogger who gave her a bad review.
Some blogs are participating in a blogger blackout, not posting reviews this week or next week. Some blogs are choosing to talk about why they got into romance reading and blogging and the older books they fell in love with. Some have taken to Twitter to do an #AuthorYes campaign, highlighting the authors that are genuine and have contributed so much to this romance community.
At Smexy Books, we will continue to share our love of romance books and sometimes our frustrations with them too. I just started a book, due out in early November and I’m bursting to talk about it with people – but I’m only 50 pages in and I don’t want to gush too early (something I’m so guilty of!) We want to celebrate the feeling when you sit down and you can’t stand how good the books is. We want to celebrate texting your best reading friends quotes and texts in capital letters when a book surprises you or makes you angry. We want to celebrate the authors who give us all the good words and feelings. I took to Twitter yesterday morning to say how many amazing books are coming out in the next to weeks. We have Jessica Clare, Darynda Jones and Sarah Mayberry all coming to Smexy to talk. We have an “A” review of a debut author planned. We have a review of one of the dirtiest heroes I’ve read in a long while coming in two weeks.
And in between all that, we will have some stinker reviews too. Because that’s what happens when you read a lot of books. It’s all good.
So let’s not dwell on this horrible, negative event that has cast a black cloud on romance land this week.
Let’s talk about books. What are you reading? What are you really excited for in the next two weeks? Have you had any good or bad reading surprises recently?
I’m so glad you’re not giving this ridiculous author the attention she so does not deserve. I come here to read reviews by you ladies. I come here to read your snark and to enjoy your senses of humor. I will continue to do that. I’m reading Jill Shalvis’ latest, One in a Million. I love that woman. If she published her grocery list or a to-do list, I’d buy it, read it and gush about it. :)
And I’m excited to see what you’ve got coming up! Sounds fun!
Oh I need to read that one. I’ve heard good things about it.
Thanks Mandi! I agree – let’s focus on the positives and why we love doing what we do. I have been running the #authoryes campaign on Twitter, and I’m also going to start a #readeryes one after that. I feel it’s my way to be positive. I am not going to take part in a blackout because it’s not fair to the authors that aren’t behaving badly – plus, like you, we have so many books we want to talk about!
Currently, I am loving Archangel’s Shadows by Nalini Singh. The Guild Hunter series keeps creeping up higher and higher on my all-time favorite list. I’m planning to start the next Charley Davidson book today (7th Grave), which I hope bounces back from what I felt was a disappointing 6th book. I also have been getting into audiobooks, and I consumed the Mercy Thompson series. That is until I hit the most recent book, Night Broken. After the opening scenes I was so mad, I had to stop listening. I had lengthy Twitter conversations with Spaz, Tori, and others, and I’ve decided to put that one away for now b/c I’m not in the mood to be that angry.
This is what I love to do – talk about books. I plan to continue to do just that. Will I be a bit more cautious on new-to-me authors and such? Yes. Will I take extra precautions on giving out my information? Yes. But I don’t plan to stop. *hugs*
I love how you are tweeting #authoryes and focusing on all the good authors out there, because I think most are great. Let’s quit giving bad publicity (because any publicity is good publicity) to this bad author. Let’s focus and give publicity to the ones who interact the way they should.
Great post, Mandi.
Thanks for keeping moral up, Jen.
Jen, great response. Isn’t that how we’ve all found our way here or at goodreads or wherever? We like books. We like to talk about them. I like living in my fantasy world with my many fictional boyfriends. I don’t want that taken away from me. :)
Cautious is good for sure. We all need to maybe take a step back and do a quick reevaluation of our procedures and such.
I’ve listened to the first two Charley Davidson books on audio, and loved. Audio books take me forever to get through though so I’m behind!
Well said, Mandi! We sure have our right to express what we think about the books we’re reading. Period. And speaking of it, I recently read The Hook Up and loved it, and that is a big deal to me, because I usually don’t like NA, but Drew was just that wonderful… I fell in love with him so fast, I didn’t even know what hit me.I can’t wait to read Gray’s book! Another one the gave all the good feels was Indecent Proposal by Molly O’Keefe, I highly recommend it. I love a marriage of convenience, and the author did it brilliantly!
The Hook up was soooo good, it surprised me too. My other new favorite NA author (and I rarely read NA) is Sarina Bowen.
Tori loves Molly O’Keefe – I’ve bought all her recent books but need to read them!
I just started “Riding Dirty” by Jill Sorenson! I’ve followed her forever on Twitter but this is my first book of hers after you guys rec’d it!
I am super excited for “Prisoner”, “A Bollywood Affair” and “Burn For Me”!
My favorites this year have been some New Adult titles which has shocked the shot out of me! “The Understatement of the Year” by Sarina Bowen, “The Hook Up” by Kristen Callihan and “Truly “by Ruthie Knox.
My TOP 2 for the year are “Murder Of Crow”s, the 2nd The Others book by Anne Bishop, and “Magic Breaks”, the SEVENTH Kate Daniels book by Ilona Andrews. These series are cream of the freaking crop!!!!!!!!! Phenomenal heroines who are not diminished by the alpha hero, and the hero stands by them NO MATTER WHAT.
I need to read Truly. I love Ruthie Knox, but I don’t know why I’m afraid to read that one. I am also very excited to read A Bollywood Affair and Dirty Rowdy Thing. Twitter is all about those books recently. =)
OMG you need to read Truly! I promise, there’s nothing to be afraid of :)
Haha! I find your comments fitting after our twitter conversation last night!
I’ll add to the list The Kraken King by Meljean Brook as one of the best in 2014!
I gave a side eye to Adam Hauptman in my comment, but I somehow cut them off when I posted the comment! LMAO
Truly is SO good.
Pamela – You have a ton of good books coming next week!! All of those you mentioned are my favorites too.
Larissa Ione’s Revenant is awesome like most of her work. And she is an author that is ##AuthorYes 100%.
Yes yes :)
I can’t tell you how much I respect and enjoy my reviewers and bloggers! I rarely buy a book anymore that I haven’t gone to a bloggers website and read their reviews. Thanks for all y’all do for us readers! We depend on you!!
Thanks Vicki – we have a blast doing it :)
Ilona Andrews, Nalini Singh, KJ Charles, and Sonali Dev all have books I want to read coming out next week. Not sure who to start with first.
The publishers are super evil with their release schedule next week ;)
I still can’t believe The Guardian published that article, and that so many of the commenters told her what a great job she did and jumped all over every person who expressed the opposite opinion. She even called it stalking herself, and was unapologetic about it. How could any of them truly think that her actions were okay? It was blood chilling.
I strive for honesty when writing reviews, but sometimes I do tone it down a bit, partly because of stories like that one. (Chuck Wendig’s post about responding to reader reviews is awesome, by the way. If you haven’t seen it yet, check it out. http://terribleminds.com/ramble/blog/)
Moving on…
I’m reading Ready to Burn by Tracey Alvarez, and am loving it so far (21% in). I just listened to books 2 and 4 of Tessa Bailey’s Line of Duty series (4 before 2, because why would I read any series books in order? Actually, I think I read book 5 first, come to think of it–but hey, now I’m done with the series, so yay, me!)–the narrator was just so-so, but the stories were awesome. I’ve just started Katie McGarry’s Take Me On (love the dual narrators in this series) and it’s early yet but I have high hopes.
On the flip side, Deconstructing Lila by Shannon Leigh was just okay–it was hard to feel invested in the characters; even they didn’t seem to care all that much. Though the drama went on for 300+ pages, their obstacles practically melted into nothing in the last five pages–were they ever really there in the first place? (I still don’t get the meaning of the title either–but that could be because accounting homework has fried my brain.)
Thank you so much for writing this, Mandi!
Another thing is, if that author were a man, this would be a very different story, don’t you think? If a man showed up and did the things this woman did? I don’t think anyone would be patting him on the back.
100% true. It’s too bad some people don’t recognize stalking for what it is.
Thanks for the link to Wendig’s article :)
I’m new to Tracey Alvarez but I think she has a nice voice. I’ve read two stories by her.
I can’t imagine listening to all that dirty talk in a Bailey book. LOL. Too bad the narrator was just okay. That could have been really fun ;)
Love your response and you’re absolutely right. Reviews are our opinions, no one else.
I’m also of the firm opinion that negative reviews can generate just as many sales as a positive review. So one person didn’t love a particular element and DNF’d a book. Another person may love that type of element and pick it up because of that. One person’s stink bomb may be another person’s goldmine.
It doesn’t matter what the person’s opinion is because they’re all important.
Yes for sure!
I just discovered Lucienne Diver’s Latter-Day Olympians series and really enjoyed the first book, BAD BLOOD, so much so that I immediately started the second one, CRAZY IN THE BLOOD.
It’s been awhile since I’ve found a fun read involving those fabulous mythological gods.
The fourth book just came out in September, but I have it on good authority that Samhain is going to be offering it as a deal in November.
I’ve never heard of that series…need to check it out!
I’m listening to Poison Promise by Jennifer Estep and reading The Gifted Dead by Jenna Black. Both of which are great authors who have interacted with me on Twitter and/or Facebook in a very professional and good way.
Yes! I’ve not worked a lot with Jenna Black but Jennifer Estep is a joy :)
Thank you for speaking out about something that’s so important, Mandi.
I am not a blogger, I love to read books and the way I chose which ones to buy is in big part determined by review blogs like Smexy…but it’s not the only one.
Hence, one thing that bothered me as a reader is the fact that KH wrote that this particular reviewer was dead on to ruin her career. BY GIVING HER BOOK ONE STAR. I am sure i am not the only one, but when I look for reviews of a book I am thinking of purchasing, I look for that one review that’s actually saying to me something about book; has something substantial written about it- one star and crude word really isn’t the good enough of a reason. In another words, review that made KH so hurt really isn’t a review that would mean anything to me as potential buyer and reader of her work. Really, thinking about readers as simpletons who 1) made their purchasing decisions solely on that fact and 2)can’t recognize what she called was “organized attack on her” if there in fact was one, is driving me crazy.
Bloggers have a lot of influence, but this influence is based on trust readers who visit their blog have in their opinion. What KH wrote (in all her manipulating, twisting the facts glory) is that this reviewer abused this trust…for no particular reason except to ruin her career. I kind of doubt any serious reviewer would do that, simply because readers who visit her/his blog would after certain time think: hey, I don’t want to visit this blog anymore, this blogger doesn’t say anything about the book. :|
Sorry for hijacking your post, but I followed this story on various places and everything is pretty much said in length about it, and I just wanted to say something that bothered me as a reader.
Now, me being horrified by her actions….that’s me speaking as a human being.
The book I read and liked last was actually the book I saw reviewed here and thought it sounds interesting: Scorched by Erica Hayes. UF with superheroes and villains. I had so much fun reading it…
I also had an opportunity to read early copy of Archangel’s Shadows and I fell in love with Naasir.
The one I am crazy excited about is new Ilona Andrews. They can’t write anything less than great! :)
This is SO well said. Thank you so much for writing this. Not everyone has the same tastes and we all come to learn which people share our tastes. And even still, we won’t always like the same books. One ranty one-star review isn’t going to sway me. I think this author has much bigger problems than one one-star review. :/
Naasir – did he not steal the show, or what??? Great character :)
This whole thing has been crazy to me, and there have been a few people who’s supportive comments for this author both surprised and pissed me off.
Moving on…. I’ve had a few badass reads lately. Blamed by Edie Harris (loved, loved, loved), Burn For Me by Ilona Andrews (just as awesome as Kate Daniels), Black Widow by Jennifer Estep (book 12, but one of the best in the series so far) and The Understatement of the Year (one of my fave books of 2014 so far).
Just started Master of Crows by Grace Draven this morning… So far so good. I’ve heard great things about this one.
Someone JUST told me to read Master of Crows – I bought it yesterday.
And Blamed was so, so good. Dying for book two :)
I think Master of Crows is wonderful! I hope you enjoy it! :) Grace Draven’s serial, “Radiance,” (featured on her blog) is really interesting too.
I’m doing my “Snoopy” dance in anticipation of the new Ilona Andrews series. I’m also starting to get excited about the next Guild Hunter book. I just finished reading “Somewhere in France” by Jennifer Robson, which was a sweet WWI romance. I’m loving this WWI romance trend right now.
Here’s the point for me on the whole negative review thing: I’ve bought and loved books that were given bad reviews from bloggers I trust. I bought these books because the blogger gave enough detail about the story and about what didn’t work for her that I knew these were books I should enjoy. Bad reviews can equal sales. Meh reviews where the reviewer is unable to react or connect to a book at all are what kill my purchase urge.
Also, I rarely pay attention to 1or 2 star reviews on Amazon or Goodreads. The most informative reviews tend to be those that give a book 3, maybe 4, stars. SB Sarah has a great post on this phenomenon (http://smartbitchestrashybooks.com/blog/commentary-on-reviews-i-like-when-the-averages-are-flipping-me-off). Books are rarely truly perfect, so a mixed review actually gives me a better window into what a book is about than a gushing 5, OMG, stars or a ranty 1, WTF, star.
I get why some authors find negative and scathing reviews so very hard to take. They’ve worked hard to put something out there for us to enjoy (and writing is REALLY hard work) and then someone essentially trashes “their baby.” I’d be hurt too; however, I would hope that someone would also remind me that my book is not me and that it’s not really about me. Most authors will tell you that they are not their characters, which is why we should not psychoanalyze an author based on their fiction. For example, Shakespeare is not indecisive, but Hamlet is.
The new Ilona Andrews is pure awesome. Don’t be surprised if you see lots of gushing reviews. ;)
Well, that’s Ilona Andrews and to be expected. They’re an auto-buy anyway, so no reviews are needed. :)
Very well said :) I love to read 3 star reviews just to see why the reviewer didn’t like it – sometimes they say they aren’t into reading romance and it was too romancy – which is a great fit for me! But I like to know what bothered some to see if it wouldn’t bother me.
Snoopy on!
Yes let’s talk about books :)
I started Wildest Dreams (Fantasyland #1) by Kristen Ashley cos Marcela over at Bookaholiccat told me I have to! She is afraid I will snark about it (cos that is fun) but I got so caught up in it that I forgot to wake the kids after naptime
Kristen Ashley will do that to you…she sucks you in and you can’t find your way out!
Book #2 ‘The Golden Dynasty’ (Basically a Game of Thrones arc) is the best in this series. Oh Dax Lahn. Vintage KA ;).
I enjoy your reviews. I’ve bought books you’ve loved and ones you didn’t love that sounded like they’d still appeal to me. I continue to follow and check out your recommended books even though you weren’t able to get into one of mine because I’ve learned that some love what I do and some don’t. It’s possible you might enjoy something else I write someday, but if not, that’s okay, too. Though I have to admit that I do sort look at that as a challenge because you are the one responsible for talking me into continuing the Ty/Zane books and I’m forever grateful about that. (They’re my favorite re-read books!) I should give a fun story back. ;)
If we all liked the same books, there wouldn’t be so many fun choices out there.
Rinda
Can you believe Ty and Zane are ending?? *hold me*
I’d love to try something else by you :)
You’ll have to hold me back. I’ve loved most of those books like crazy.
I’ll be announcing a sexy romance sale pretty soon and who knows?
I DNF’d a book that was written by a friend of a friend of a friend. It was a fairly boring read and then suddenly there were really offensive things that I’m amazed the publisher let pass. So I need something good. Really good.
Wow. That stinks.
What genres do you like? I recently loved The Hook Up by Kristen Callihan. Riding Dirty by Jill Sorenson (motorcycle club). Darling Beasts by Elizabeth Hoyt (historical)
Wow! That was so not okay! I can not imagine an author would show up and my house angry about a book review! How utterly cray-zay.
I am big on giving honest reviews. Mainly because I rely on reviews sooooo heavily when I want to purchase almost anything! So I totally know the value of a honest review!
This whole incident kind of reminds me of road rage. Unnecessary, sad, and tragic.
Books!! Thanks to you smexy ladies, if B&N doesn’t get at least one nook book purchase from me a day they call to make sure I’m alright.
Hold On Tight by Serena Bell was an excellent read. Worth The Fall by Claudia Connor also great.
I’m saving Understatement Of The Year until I’m in the right mood and the last Blood and Roses book because I can’t stand to see the end of Zeth and Sloan’s story! Same goes for Kim Harrison’s final Rachel Morgan book.
There have been some great NA books lately, which I normally don’t read. Loved The Hook Up. Loved it.
And I loved Cut & Run so I need to catch up on the rest of that series.
I’m reading Chelle Bliss’ Men of Ink series and totally enjoying the hotness.
I still can’t believe Cut & Run is coming to a close. *sadness forever*
I am sooo grateful that I discovered Smexy Books and that you give good, honest reviews. I have read so many books through your recommendations that I would never have found otherwise and characters that I love and now can’t imagine not having met – Ty and Zane, Barrons, The Black Dagger Brotherhood, The Archangel Raphael, Dallas & Lex and the gang from Sector 4 and more … That being said, I don’t like every book that Smexy Books likes nor hate every book they hate. We all have different tastes and opinions, and so we should, otherwise the world would be a very boring place. We do, however, as Mandi says rely on reviews on a variety of different things in life to give us a basis on whether or not we want to read/watch/purchase the item – and people should not be afraid to give those reviews.
I have recently read books 4-7 in KMM’s Highlander series and although I was completely fed up with the basically identikit heroines by the last book (one more mention of ‘high full breasts’ and I was going to throw my Kindle!) they did set the scene for the beginning of the ‘Fever’ stories well so maybe I should have read them before. Onto Iced now as its finally available on Kindle UK.
As a complete contrast I have also just finished the 3rd book in N R Walker’s Red Dirt Heart series, a contemporary M/M romance set in the Australian Outback which I am loving. This is the thing about books and the characters within them. Variety is the spice of life :).
I haven’t read the Highlander book in forever. I hope you like Iced – Dani really surprised me in it.
So now I’m off to check out NR Walker! Never heard of this author or series!