What do you think about author/reviewer relationships?
Are author/reviewer relationships a good thing or a bad thing?
I’ve been thinking a lot about this lately, honestly I’ve thought about it for a while, but I think my addictions to Twitter and Facebook that have brought it to my attention once again. All the reviewer/author interaction... makes me wonder.
I really only have one author that I have personal correspondence with, and yes that author contacted me to review their novel. And I can honestly say that our personal “friendship” had no influence over my review. Mostly because I liked the book, but had I not liked it, would I have felt comfortable saying something negative about something my friend did? Author or not, do you like saying something negative toward your friend.
Thankfully this author was also very adamant about me being honest with my review, they wouldn’t have had a problem if I had written a negative review, but does everyone feel that way?
Personally, I think it’s great that authors want to have a relationship with bloggers. Professional or personal. Authors are like celebrities to me... I honestly can’t believe they’d even want to have regular correspondence with me, let alone get to know me as a person! And I’d love to “talk” with more authors regularly, but I’m the type of person that doesn’t want to be overbearing... “Oh! You want me to review your novel! Let’s be BFF’s!!” That’s not me, even though I feel like that sometimes, I’d never have the guts to pursue it.
On the flip-side do these relationships have an influence over how a reviewer feels about a book? I’d like to say that it never happens, but I’m sure it does. Even if it’s not purposely, subconsciously, do we want to like the books written by authors, we’ve come to know and enjoy personally?
And I often wonder about the author’s opinion on the matter. Do you want to be “friends” with your fans?