Comments on: Publishers and bloggers

By: Taschima Cullen

Taschima Cullen — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 04:14:18 +0000

>Hmm when I do write to publishers I always like give them my blog url, tell them by reasons, talk about my blog and followers, and also tell them my follower count.

By: kristin cashore

kristin cashore — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 21:20:07 +0000

>Just wanted to point out that in response to this conversation and similar conversations on Chasing Ray, Sarah Miller has blogged Three Suggestions for Bloggers and Publishers. Check it out, if you like.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 05:05:14 +0000

>Kristin's comment made me recall that once when reading the ARC of a book I found a glaring inaccuracy. Part of me thought, "Well, of course, someone has caught it by now," and part of me thought, "No one would thank me for pointing it out." But then I thought if I were I, then I would want to know in case there were time to fix it. So I got up in the middle of the night, found her website and emailed her. She did write back promptly, somewhat surprised, clearly not as knowledgeable as I had thought since she had not realized her error, but basically said it was too late to fix and she'd mention it on her blog. I would have at least fixed it for the paperback but no, she did not. I think the error is partly because publishers economize on fact checkers and proofreaders these days, and many of the editors I used to work with were not very well informed themselves (and/or were so overworked they did not have time to read anything but the manuscripts due in production). I wondered if Shannon would have made the change if there had been time or simply ignored it.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 04:55:14 +0000

>Publishers have different goals in mind with their ARCs – perhaps generating buzz by sending some to bloggers – but the goal in sending an ARC to PW or to Kirkus is to get a quote early enough that it can be used in sales material to the trade (possibly to the consumer although that is less likely because both PW and Kirkus are not so well known to bookstore buyers; as a publisher we use those quotes only if we don't have something more commercial). Although I personally enjoy Horn Book, those reviews do not usually come sufficiently before publication to help us sell in to bookstores although it will help with library sales after publication. Still, it does not help us much in projecting the print run…

By: Roger Sutton

Roger Sutton — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 14:40:00 +0000

>Why would we ask bloggers to sign on to a code of ethics when we don't ask print reviewers to do the same? Publishers have in the past stopped sending review copies to journals they thought were being unfair, but that is rare, not to mention ineffective. I can probably count the number of times a publisher has complained about a review (to my face) on two hands but have more frequently heard complaint (or curiosity) about why a given book was not reviewed in the Magazine.

I don't think the problem with blog reviews is the lack of a defined ethical code, it's instead a surfeit of blogs with no apparent scope or mission. I can see where a publisher might feel like it's throwing books down a well.

By: Liz B

Liz B — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 14:13:10 +0000

>If bloggers are to have a "code of ethics" (& I have big questions about that, btw) then publishers would also have to have a code for treating bloggers: not dictating terms of review, for instance.

By: Amy

Amy — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 03:21:53 +0000

>Regarding a code of ethics, it is something that has been discussed many times, but a little hard to pin down. Maybe the kidlitosphere will come up with one, but generally new blogs start everyday and other ones cease to be. That's why each blog having a policy of their own is a good idea.

I've had an author email me about something I said in a review and while they were polite I was a little annoyed b/c they suggested I check out a section of the book they thought would make my point irrelevant but I had actually mentioned that very section in my review.

By: Rosanne Parry

Rosanne Parry — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 01:45:32 +0000

>Kristin, I'm with you on your concern that an ARC could be confused with the final product. In mine all the Spanish words that had a tilde were misspelled–a quirk of the computer code apparently. They were correct in the manuscript and correct in the book. I would hate for an Spanish speaking child to read my ARC and think I didn't care about her native language enough to spell it right.

I'm also hoping there will soon be a somewhat formalized code of blogger ethics to guide not just bloggers but authors and other publishing professionals in working together in a productive way. I believe there will be a kidlitosphere bloggers conference this fall. I'm hoping something like that could be developed in the near future. I'd be very interested to see what develops.

By: Elizabeth

Elizabeth — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 01:06:52 +0000

>Years ago, when the internet existed but blogs did not, I saw a West End musical that closed in 2 weeks after some excoriating reviews. There were a bunch of posts from people who had seen the show or were curious about it on a theater bulletin board. Since I had seen the show and I thought it had been unfairly vilified in the press, I posted a very favorable few paragraphs on my impressions of the show. But I did call to task some cliches and awkwardness in a few lyrics that were bad enough that I still remembered them well enough to quote.

The show's producer then posted and invited me to listen to the recording and hear the "cliches" as "lingo of the times" or some such and I thought "Sheesh, this guy can't see a single thing that was wrong with the show. What kind of a producer is he if he has no objectivity?"

I remember resenting that. I had gone to the trouble to say a lot of nice things and the producer couldn't hear a single criticism. I can only imagine how obnoxious publishers would sound if we start doing that kind of commenting on blogs.

By: kristin cashore

kristin cashore — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 00:55:42 +0000

>Elizabeth, good question! I, for one, generally feel that the author is the last person on earth qualified to argue the merits of her book objectively -- and I also tend to fall into the camp of, the book needs to make its own arguments (the author can't stand outside the book explaining or defending the book). Personally, I don't even think I'd want to correct someone if their review of my book contained factually incorrect information (though I've never encountered that, so maybe I'll find myself changing my tune someday when it happens). I like to leave ALL that stuff to other people. But, that's just my personal philosophy. And I've seen other writers do it tactfully. (Unfortunately, I've also seen other writers do it untactfully.)

I wonder if if might be unfair to the bloggers, though? If a blogger reads a book and writes a thoughtful but somewhat negative review, and suddenly the Author Actual or the Publisher Actual is commenting on his/her blog in response, that could be a real power shift on the blog, couldn't it? Suddenly, the blogger needs to defend his/her position in opposition to the actual author. I don't know. Something about that doesn't seem fair to the blogger power-wise.

(Of course, I'm depicting it as being very conflict-ridden. I suppose it could also be quite civil.)