Please welcome Vice President of Stigma Fighters and Literary Editor Allie Burke as she shares on her experience of being both an author and blogger and what that has meant for her career. For my take on the issue, please read Us vs. Them: Authors vs. Readers.
I was very lucky to have been approached in 2012, just one year after I published my debut novel, by the creator and editor of Geeks Unleashed, an online geek-culture magazine in London, to apply my love for reading.
Well, somewhat.
I have been confronted by countless authors—some friends, some not—who accuse me of being a bad author because I rated their book not-five-stars. Someone once told me I had railroaded her for a public conversation I had with another blogger about her book (which I did rate and review five stars). I’m probably going to get hate mail for this, but there is, undoubtedly, an unwritten rule between authors that books should be reviewed highly or not reviewed at all. A commonly misinterpreted fact about my position as an author is that I am not a blogger who reviews books honestly. But I am. I am very passionate about literature and as much as I will share my positive opinions about a piece of literature, I will share the same opinions that may be less than desirable to the author because I pride myself on that honesty. Between this fact, and the innumerable amount of times that bloggers have been spammed by authors’ links to their books, or the events that have led to one blogger having to quit blogging and basically disappear from the Internet entirely because an author physically stalked her, I can see how authors are on one side and the bloggers on the other. I’m not accusing all authors of behaving inappropriately or disrespectfully, but there are authors out there that do, and if there are more authors behaving in an inappropriate manner than there are bloggers, hairs are bound to be split.
I feel that I am in a unique position as both an author and a blogger who writes honest reviews (obviously—check my Goodreads) that has put me somewhere in the middle, but regardless if you review books on a regular basis or not, I think bridging the gap between authors and readers is pretty simple. Review bloggers just want to talk about books in a genuine capacity. It really is that simple. Rachel Thompson, Bestselling Author of Broken Pieces, talks about this very thing in her award-winning article, Authors are A**Holes. She teaches authors how to sell books for a living, through her marketing geniusbrain that says, simply, make connections. You really don’t make connections with someone by, as Rachel notes, talking about yourself all the time. You have to give back, and giving back includes putting yourself in someone else’s shoes—ie, a review blogger—to understand the fact that bloggers are here because they love books, not because they want to be spammed by a thousand authors who don’t really read.
That is the answer that any successful author will give you. Make connections. I did it, and my bestseller status was basically instantaneous.
About Allie Burke:
An American novelist, book critic, and magazine editor from Burbank, California, Allie Burke writes books she can’t find in the bookstore. Having been recognized as writing a “kickass book that defies the genre it’s in”, Allie writes with a prose that has been labeled poetic and ethereal.
Her life is a beautiful disaster, flowered with the harrowing existence of inherited eccentricity, a murderous family history, a faithful literature addiction, and the intricate darkness of true love. These are the enchanting experiences that inspire Allie’s fairytales.
From some coffee shop in Los Angeles, she is working on her next novel.
Visit Allie at wordsbyallieburke.com.
You can purchase Allie’s latest book, Paper Souls, on Amazon.
This is a timely post for me. Thank you for taking a stand.
When I finally started my novel, I stopped writing starred reviews. I am new to the craft and those starred reviews are so crucial to the psyches, if not the sales of writers, that I didn’t feel qualified to have that kind of impact on fellow writers’ lives. But as a reader, I am dependent on the reviews of others and believe experienced writers contribute much to the curation of the vast amount of material we now have to wade through.
Also, for me, a five-star book must not only be nearly perfect, it must be memorable – and so many aren’t, even when they are entertaining. If I write honest reviews of books I enjoy, most of them will be four-stars at best. And in this grade-inflated world, writers think four-stars damn them with faint praise – because everybody is above average.
But, I am trying to blog in response to the books I read – no stars, and no formal recaps of plot, etc. I do say whether I recommend them or not and to what kind of reader. I also then link to that book’s review pages on Amazon and/or Goodreads.
I want the freedom to zero in on things that interest me – positive or negative – in my blog. I want to compare books, look at technique, discuss what I think worked or failed.
However, I’ve only recently become aware of this warfare you describe and now find myself feeling like I can’t say anything that might sound critical lest I hurt the feelings of a writer I otherwise respect. I’ve been worrying that if I don’t love someone’s book 100%, I might lose the chance to build relationships with writers along the way.
I am not normally hindered by this sort of concern and so I am encouraged by your courage to carry on. I realize that most of the books I read are by established writers and therefore they are not likely to be concerned about what I say on some obscure blog. I have no interest in writing formal reviews on my blog or starred reviews on Amazon or Goodreads. I want to dig deep and examine what interests me and to have the freedom to respond and observe with complete integrity.
So, all that to say, “Hear! Hear!” and thank you for just what I needed.
Hi Lausanne, thank you for sharing your story with us! Allie is very brave to take a stand and I admire her for it. As someone who works in publishing and also reviews books I too stopped using star ratings on my website but I do use them for Amazon and Goodreads. Honesty is very important to me so although it can be scary sometimes to think one day I may incur wrath for an honest review, I still push on.
Thank you for your thoughtful comment, Lausanne. I think this is probably something a lot of writers struggle with. Personally, I couldn’t imagine not being able to share my thoughts on the books I love, but I don’t feel that I could do that if I don’t also share thoughts on the books I don’t love. Like Kate, I don’t do star reviews on my website, but I do transfer them to Goodreads and to Amazon, where the result is starred.
I too, would never want to hurt the feelings of anyone, especially writers (I know how it is), but reviews of a book are not meant to attack an author in any way. I realize that books are our “babies”, but a published book is a product, and as such, it should be reviewed in an honest capacity in an effort to help those find their next favorite read. Like books, reviews are for the readers. If I wasn’t a reader I wouldn’t be an author, and I of course can’t be a good author if I don’t read. Writing a review is never personal, and I think it would be beneficial to us all — readers and authors — to keep that in mind.
Thank you again for your comment and for sharing your story. I’m glad to hear you got something from the post.