There has been an increasing amount of talk lately about book blogs in general. Ranging from our credibility, do we even have any? To our unfavorable book reviews ruining any chances of becoming published writers, for those bloggers that have those aspirations. And then there is the argument or wether we are a viable marketing source.
A variety of opinions have been voiced. Some that I agree with, some not so much. But one thing that I do agree with is this:
It's never going to be better for both parties if it isn't discussed.
We can be mad... but what will that solve? So that is why I found myself engaged in a candid conversation with Author X. I may not agree with everything Author X had to say, but there are some valid points made.
(Author X is the author of about a dozen books under a coupe different names. They decided to go anonymous, simply because they didn't want this to seem like a mere act of promotion.)
Me: As an author, what qualities do you look for in a blogger?
AUTHOR X: First of all, the number of followers is about the last thing I look at. There are plenty of people with a thousand or so, but 992 of them just subscribed to be in a contest. What I like best are the ones who are articulate and clearly like to talk about books, not just participate in memes and host giveaways. Talking about books is what they're for, after all! It always surprises me how many bloggers don't really seem to like doing that in the first place.
Not to say that they all don't - there are some that I read and can't believe they're only fourteen or fifteen. Authors complain about the blog scene as a whole a LOT when we get together (believe me), but we also all know some bloggers who exceptionally good and not getting mixed up with the stuff that makes the others so frustrating.
Me: Absolutely agree there, there are some extremely talented bloggers!
AUTHOR X: But then there are those that don't really talk about books at all, they just hold giveaways and stuff. Granted, those probably drive a lot more traffic than reviews, which is probably one of the biggest problems. It's hard to see where the real motivation for great content is.
Besides simply the love of talking about books, that is.
Me: What advice to you have for bloggers approaching authors for interviews, arcs, etc.
AUTHOR X: The best advice is to be friendly and don't assume the author has stacks and stacks of stuff to give out. Don't say you love the excerpt if you haven't really read it. Personally, the best way to win me over to ask a question about the book that shows you've read up on it and know what kind of book it is - that way, I know that you're likely to write something intelligent about it if I can get you an arc (which I can always at least ask my publicist to send, though I don't really get much sway there). I get a lot of requests from people who seem like they're just sending the same request to every single author with anything coming out!
I've had people say they love the excerpt, then only read one chapter of the arc before trashing it. This stuff doesn't help anyone - it doesn't help me, and it doesn't help people's perception of the blog world at large.
Oh, and please refrain from suggesting that if I donate swag (anything from an arc to amazon gift card - people more popular than me have stories that are just outrageous) - it'll pay for itself with all the books I’ll sell due to the giveaway. When you're immersed in the blog world, it's very easy to get the idea that blogs sell a ton of books. Even the most popular ones don't affect sales much - they're not great promotional tools. They're a means of talking about books.
But it's the same as just about any publicity. I can print up swag, make trailers, make videos, put up a downloadable soundtrack, etc, but these things are really just for fun. Only about .01% of people in a book store are going to know anything about it.
Me: I’m going to have to disagree there. Blogs are a great promotional tool! How can you say they are not? Or I guess I should say... SOME CAN be a great tool.
AUTHOR X: They’re a great way to promote, except that they don’t really affect the market much. I’d say that if a blog sells 5 copies of a book, that’s a very successful blog post.
Me: But I see that tide changing.
AUTHOR X: It could always change, though. Everything in the business is changing all the time. But as of now, having lots of buzz in the blog world isn’t necessarily going to translate to interest in stores.
Me: Well, I don't think there is any one thing that is going to sell a book. but I do think that there are blogs that get it done. I wouldn't completely write them off.
AUTHOR X: No, I wouldn't write them off. I still do interviews with bloggers all the time - pretty much any time someone asks. But it's mostly for fun. What's going to move copies is store visibility and marketing on the publisher's part (springing for table space, displays, and stuff). With my last book google ads drove about 100 times as much traffic as all the blogs put together.
But I can see it going both ways. I know publicists who say "be available, connect with the bloggers" and others who say "stay away from that whole mess - it's not worth the drama!"
My own experience is somewhere in between - I have a lot of fun with blog interviews and stuff. But I've gotten roped into my share of drama, too!
Me: Yeah... but with the popularity of online buying and ebook popularity... those table displays will only get you so far.
Teens are online. People are online.
Random Buzzers, Book Divas... Goodreads! 4 million people on Goodreads can't be wrong.
AUTHOR X: People are definitely online, especially teenagers, but they’re still a lot more likely to hear about a book from, say an article in EW than a book blog. Ebooks are taking off, but it's not as big a thing as we think yet. Amazon is saying that they're outselling traditional books, but most people I know look at their royalty statements and find ebooks make up about 1% of sales. (LIterally - about 1%. Less, sometimes). It’s sort of like how half the people I know only buy records on vinyl anymore, and there’s a new article every day about the resurgence of vinyl, but it still amounts to a blip in overall sales.
I'd look for that to go up very soon, though.
Me: Yeah, I don't really see it myself yet either, but people love gadgets... they like the quick and fast access to have the book the second they want it.
AUTHOR X: Oh, I like my e-reader, too. Don't get me wrong. I have one and I use it all the time.
But this is sort of illustrative of the larger issue: online reader communities aren't necessarily representative of the market at large.
It's like when people on yalitchat say "well, I've bought a book based on the write-up in Kirkus or from a trailer." Well, sure! I have, too! But we're the kind of people who go to yalitchat! Most people at a book store are probably only vaguely aware of what Kirkus even is, and when I’m hiring people to be in trailers, I always, always have to explain what a book trailer is in the first place.
Me: I highly doubt that the regular reader consults Kirkus. I didn't even know about it until I'd been blogging for a few years
Librarians... yes. the average reader, no
I just think that bloggers can be a good resource for authors wanting to reach readers on a new plane. not every blogger, but there are some!And I'm not just saying that because I'm a blogger.
AUTHOR X: There are a handful who can be good for spreading the word to the gatekeepers (these are the buyers for the stores, the librarians, etc). I'm not sure HOW good - I've had people get all excited that (blogger x) raved about one of my books, but the link only ever got me, say, 10 hits. But these things certainly don't HURT.
Me: If only there was a better way to measure these things.
AUTHOR X: Yeah, short of exit polls outside of book stores, there's no real way to tell.
About the closest we can come is web analytics.
Honestly, what got me the MOST hits with my last one was snarky forums posting my cover and making fun of what they imagined the book would be like. Those were pretty unpleasant to read, but they generated LOTS of traffic - sites like reddit, stumbleupon, etc.
Me: It seems that drama and meanness always get the most hits. But those aren’t the kind of posts that make a lasting readership. (Who wants to read about someone complaining and ranting everyday? Not me.)
AUTHOR X: Yes - and therein lies what I think is the biggest obstacle to making the blog scene better for bloggers and all other parties: the best content isn't always what drives the most traffic.
Me: Absolutely.
AUTHOR X: I think a lot of kids are in it more to be a part of the scene than to talk about books. You see the same thing in any scene, really. Local music, sports, whatever.
You know what? If we had blogs when I was a teenager, I totally would have had one. But I wonder how many of these kids will look back on them in five years and say "Oh my god, I can't believe I wrote that" like we all do with our diaries.
Me: I'll be the first to tell you that there are people that do it for the free books, and it doesn't take long to figure out who those bloggers are.
I look back at my life five years ago and think "oh god I can't believe I did that!" of course it's going to happen with your blog if you keep it up long enough! But you shouldn’t let something like that hold you back from taking a chance with something you enjoy.
AUTHOR X: Oh, that leads me to another issue: you also run across a lot of bloggers who seem to be using the blog to get their foot into the door of the publishing world. In reality, it can probably hurt you about as much as it helps you.
The way to make it work is really to be a GOOD one. People do notice when a blogger seems to be a really good writer. I don’t think many people in publishing would think than a blog with a lot of followers translates to a built-in audience, though.
Me: I see that too. but I think that if you are a good writer, it won't matter if you were/are a blogger. Or at least I would hope.
AUTHOR X: Up to a point. But if you were a really negative blogger that had bashed all of an agents clients, that agent is probably going to be warier of you than he or she would be if they'd never heard of you. It's hard to talk about this stuff without sounding like I'm discouraging bloggers from being honest, but if you're planning to be an author…well, you never know who you'll end up on a panel with!
Me: I can see that as well. That being said, I know some very "outspoken" bloggers who are not afraid to be negative and have gotten jobs in publishing because of that.
I don't have a lot of negative reviews, but I enjoy most genres and can usually find something I like, even if it's just one thing. But that's my own personal choice to blog that way, I prefer honesty.
AUTHOR X: Sure, if they're articulate about it. What bugs people isn't usually the negative reviews so much as the unintelligent ones - you get a lot of those. And a lot of reviews that sort of come off like a vegetarian reviewing one of those Brazilian steakhouses where they just bring you plate after plate of meat.
This is one of the problems of goodreads - and the internet in general. There were always people who said awful things about books simply because they weren't their kind of book. But the authors didn't get google alerts about it before! I know a lot of authors who won’t go on goodreads for anything, and even a few (many who are MUCH better known than I am) who won’t even read their blog reviews.
And, unfortunately, the GOOD and articulate bloggers can get drowned out by that stuff (here we are again, back at the lament that the best blogs aren't necessarily the most popular ones).
One thing I can certainly see is that it's easier to write a negative review than a good one - with a book you like, it can be hard to say much beyond "Go read it" besides just giving away the plot. With negative stuff, you can just go nuts.
Me: I don't think anyone would say that the most popular blog is necessarily the best one.
As far as negative reviews, I know for me personally it’s easy to recognize why I don’t like something or why I something didn’t work for me, but when I like something... I just do!
AUTHOR X: And, similarly, when people tell me they'd rather I send them swag than do an interview because they can never think of questions, I understand. I'm a lousy interviewer myself. I've only had to do it a few times, but I'm not great at it. But if it's hard for someone to think of things to say about books, I have to question why they got into book blogging in the first place.
Me: Well I can’t speak for everyone but I wanted to talk about books in my personal life, but didn’t have anyone to do that with. I do find it hard to think of things to say at times, but I don’t think that should detour me from wanting to blog about books.
I’m sure writers have a hard time writing certain scenes or writing at all, that doesn’t necessarily mean they should have never started writing.
AUTHOR X: If I have any parting advice, it’s that the blogs I like best tend to be the ones that seem like they JUST want to talk about books, and don’t care one bit what the other bloggers think of them or how many comments they get. One thing that every author I know has seen is that if one popular blogger says “this book is funny, but the characters are flat,” you’ll probably spend a week seeing five others that say the same thing. Then another blogger will say “the characters are great, but it’s totally unfunny,” and then another five that say THAT same thing. There’s an underlying theme of “what will people think of me if I say I like this” that you see in review after review. I’ve had people love my book and do a great interview with me, then decide not to post it because some other blogger didn’t like it. It’s this kind of thing that has publicists telling me things like “just, don’t worry about the blogs; the only people who read book blogs are other book bloggers.” Focus on good, articulate content vs. drama and all that noise, and we can make this scene better for everybody.