**Steps on my soapbox**
Today I want to talk about reviewers of all sorts: professional reviewers, amateur reviewers, Amazon specific reviewers, bloggers, or casual readers that are inspired to write the occasional review. Whatever it is that you or someone you know can identify with.
Since January of 2012, I have witnessed the
rise of a website dedicated to slam bloggers and readers who dare to post critical reviews, threats to bloggers safety, multiple self-published and traditionally published authors that broke down over critical reviews,
doxxing of reviewers, vulgar statements made about reviewers,
down-voting campaigns against reviewers on their Amazon reviews, powerful authors with huge fan bases who don't have a problem linking to small-scale bloggers and
then sits back and gloats when their fans attack outnumbered bloggers, and much more nasty things floating around the wonderful, worldwide web. There are so many incidents like the ones mentioned above, I can't even list them all. I would be here all week.
Certainly, all of these things that have taken place within the past year and a half have always happened, but it's become apparent to me that there is a large power struggle taking place between many people involved in the publishing industry. And certainly, not all bloggers/reviewers/readers are innocent. Death threats have been made to authors, attempted doxxing of authors, and other craziness has occurred. Altogether, it's been one giant pain in the ass for everyone involved and it seems like as soon as one incident fades into the background, another even larger incident occurs. It's pure madness.
Before the internet and before the rise of social media, blogs, and personal websites, there were only so many options an author had to tempt readers to purchase their stories. They could rely on their publishing houses to do all of their marketing. They could do a tour around the country, usually at their own expense. They could rely soley on word of mouth, cross their fingers and hope for the best. They had libraries at their disposal and wonderful librarians who pushed the books they believed in. They had amazing teachers who instilled a love of reading into children in hopes that the passion for books stuck around into adulthood. Of course, they also had places like Publisher's Weekly and the New York Times with their professional, paid book critics.
Authors still have these resources, but times have changed dramatically since the internet was bestowed upon the world and social media became something even the smallest of developing countries are starting to use. In essence, anyone can be a critic, a reviewer, a blogger, and more. In the last couple of years, the major publishing houses have noticed this shift and have taken full advantage of it. They are able to recognize the value of a regular person's opinion. I can't tell you how many times I've woken up and checked my email to find it full of review request offers from major publishing houses and even smaller press. There isn't enough time in the day for me to read all of the books that are generously offered to me and my mailman receives gifts from me on holidays now for having to lug so many packages to my front door. In the last couple of years, bloggers are now welcomed guests at publishing conventions like Book Expo America and ALA, once reserved for booksellers, librarians, media press, and others with close ties in the book industry. I'm able to have interviews with authors that are world-wide bestsellers. I'm invited to publishing events with editors, authors, and publicists, some of which I hold their personal telephone numbers. We are able to be active participants in book tours, can skype with our favorite authors, and so much more. This industry knows our value and we appreciate being able to experience all that it has to offer.
Most authors have welcomed this change; others have not been as welcoming. Throw in the rise of self-publishing and everything becomes much more convoluted. Incidents occurred last year that forced me to amend my review policy for my own safety and some bloggers have shut down their sites for good. Some of us are still stalked and harassed on a weekly, sometimes daily, basis. We are told to shut up. We are told we can't create, so we criticize. We are told if we don't have anything nice to say about a book we read, that we shouldn't review said book. On the other hand, we have amazing authors who truly value what we do. It's an odd phenomenon that I don't think I will ever be able to understand. It's a polarizing and robust subject of discussion, to say the least.
On a personal level, I don't know of any reviewer or book blogger that owns a site just so he or she can trash every book they read. All of the bloggers I know give fair, honest book reviews. Even when I don't like a book, I always try to find something positive to say and I think most bloggers do the same. Needless to say, there are people who take things way too far and make everyone else look bad. We might not have all of the traditional credentials paid critics have earned, but we have a lot of passion. Some of us are students. Some of us want to be writers. Some of us are stay at home moms who just love to read. Some of us are retired or out of work. We are human. We have feelings. We aren't blood-sucking critics out to ruin an author's reputation and destroy their livelihoods.
Which brings me to my next point. Badly behaving authors tend to do all of the ruining and destroying themselves. They lash out at the people they perceive as their enemies and they do it online, where things never go away for good. When people push back because they are appalled by their behavior, some of these authors (most, actually) play the victim card and refuse to see the error of their ways. We are told we are
waging a war on authors, when in reality, these authors just want us to go away and shut our mouths and step away from our keyboards. Both authors and critics have to have a thick skin, for sure. If you don't, you're not going to last very long.
In any other industry, when a person or company does something a customer perceives as wrong or produces a product that is inadequate, it is expected that word will get around in one way or another. One incident that recently comes to mind is
a bakery in Portland that refused to serve a same-sex couple on their wedding day. Another bakery had
owners so horrible, even Gordon Ramsay refused to help them regain business.
Are authors somehow exempt from the criticism? Should they be just because they are creative people? I personally do not think so. What is the point of having reviews if they all have to be glowing, 5-star ratings? Why is it when a critic of any kind writes a negative review, so many people suddenly forget all of the good things we do for authors, publishers, and our readers? We are loved when we have something good to say and hated when we don't.
Just some food for thought. I
welcome emails to continue discussion. Comments will be closed on this post
due to past, disrespectful visitors.
**Steps off my soapbox**
