Mary Ann Rodman’s JIMMY’S STARS was named to the National
Assoc. of Social Studies Teachers Best Trade Books list, as well as
Booklist’s 10 Best Historical Fiction books of 2008, and a Bank
Street College Best Book. Both SURPRISE SOUP (Viking) and A
TREE FOR EMMY (Peachtree) were published this spring…each
got starred reviews. And the paperback version of YANKEE GIRL
(Squarefish, December 2008) has made the 2009 spring Indie list.

I’m happy to read this because I loved Jimmy’s Stars and think Mary Ann Rodman is a great writer. I want more readers to find her.

Alan’s new middle grade book, The Brooklyn Nine, is out, by the way. I’ve not read it yet, but I’m going to. I can’t imagine the guy ever writing a loser of a book. And isn’t that a great cover!

That’s the thing about blogs. They are interactive, they encourage community, and they get added value when readers pipe in with added thought. I often read newspaper articles online but spend more time in the comments section than on the original article. News is now delivered as a conversation. This is a good thing. This helps us to think things through instead of just accepting one person’s view.

When an author enters the discussion on a book blog it makes it interesting for everyone. Why is that wrong? Who makes up the rules that bind us? I think authors should view blogs as a community of readers. We aren’t a bunch of paid reviewers. We blog for free because we love to read and discuss books. Read and DISCUSS. To not comment, I think, is to lose out on a chance to shake the readers’ hands and give them a reason to like you and remember your name.  

If you, dear Author, comment on my blog you won’t cast a shadow on my credibility. I’m just spouting my opinion on books I’ve read and if my readers think I”m logical and thoughtful, they’ll come back. My regular readers know whether I’m honest or not. I’m quite sure of that.

When I read blogs I don’t care if the blogger got the book for free. I don’t care if the author takes the blogger to dinner after she reviews the book. All I care about is if I share her taste in books. Are her reviews and interviews interesting? Does she have a sense of humor? Is she thoughtful? Does she discuss whether the book has anything to say about society or morals or life or death or anything that matters? Those are the things I care about.

So I think author comments add value to the blog. I like the discussion.

This is new territory. Old rules don’t apply.

One rule will always apply–if you aren’t honest people are going to stop reading you and your blog will be worthless. You’ll just be talking to yourself. 

But I think all other rules should be open for discussion.

What about guest blogging? When you actually open not just your comment section to an author, you give her an entire blog post from which to speak? Do people object to that, too?

In it she says:

I’m not usually comfortable responding directly to reviewers; the etiquette rules are fuzzy on this, I think. As far as I know, it is rarely if ever considered appropriate for authors to respond to print reviews, but some authors do seem to feel okay about responding to online reviews. I still feel odd about that, though…

I had never thought about this before. I have been used to seeing authors thanking bloggers for reviews and interviews and I had not idea that this was considered by some to be problematic.

In the comments section of the post, Michelle says:

Part of it is concern about impacting a reviewer’s objectivity (or even just creating the perception of that happening). It just seems like interaction between the reviewer and the reviewee would complicate the whole system, somehow.

I have to admit, it’s harder for me to add in the negatives when someone has been hanging out at my blog than it is if I’ve never had any contact with someone. It’s even harder still for me to make negative comments when I’ve met the author in person at conferences.

But what are we going to do in this world where we are so connected? I’ve either met or I’m likely to meet almost every author I’ve reviewed. Don’t paid print reviewers meet authors are BEA and ALA parties just like blogger reviewers do? Does that compromise the reviews? Are reviewers never to go to wine and cheese meet and greets paid for by publishers?

Here’s what I think about reviews, whether the reviewer is paid or an amateur or a bookstore clerk hand-selling a book to customers who come into the store: We all have reputations at stake. We can’t lie for an author no matter how much we  like him. We need our readers/customers to trust us. We are working for the reader, not the author.

If I have a really good friend who has written a book I don’t like, I won’t review the book at all. But for every book I do review, I look for positives and negatives that I can tell my readers about.

If authors don’t want me scouring the books looking for negatives to talk about, they shouldn’t send their books to me. I have had authors write unhappy emails to me because they didn’t get the kind of review they wanted. I have had authors send me gifts thanking me for the wonderful reviews I gave. None of that is going to change my next review.

But what do you think? Have you heard that authors shouldn’t thank reviewers for reviews and interviews and promotion efforts? Do you think that if an author thanks a reviewer in the comments section of a blog it looks bad? Do you blogger reviewers have a “no gift” policy? If an author asks for your address because they want to send you a signed copy of their book or a signed cover art print, do you explain that you don’t accept gratuities?

I’m willing to be educated on this.  I had never even considered that it might be a problem.

Mary Ann Rodman, author of Jimmy’s Stars, is now blogging at TeachingAuthors.com. Teaching Authors has six authors, who also teach writing. What a wealth of information they have. Check them out.

And I also noticed last week that Kathryn Fitzmaurice, author of  The Year the Swallows Came Early,  is the Author of the Month at Embracing the Child.

This fellow has done everything right from a marketing standpoint. His book trailer is great–long book trailers aren’t effective, I’ve heard. (I don’t like them, so I believed that when I read it.) Meier’s trailer is short and provocative. I love the picture of Charles Bridge.

And then he also is giving away a free Kindle. Umm…that’s a great way to garner some attention.

Looking at his product, he’s done some things right. He’s got a great cover. His premise is also, I think, hugely interesting. He’s got the “look inside” thing going at Amazon so he can tempt you with the first few pages.

I read the first few pages at Amazon and I find I don’t like his writing style–spare and graphic. (How odd that you can have both at the same time.) But there again he contacts a young man to read and review the book. And young men are more likely to be able to handle spare and graphic than old women. And even I was ripping through the pages. They were pretty compelling.

The thing I think might kill him is the pages to price ratio. the paperback is $12.99. The book is 108 pages. I’m not sure if the first few pages are good enough to convince young men to plunk down $12.99 ($9.99 for the Kindle version). Time will tell.

What I do know is this, if you want to sell a book, it can’t hurt to give away a Kindle. A couple of hours ago, I had never heard of Stephen Meier or his book. Now I’ve seen an interview, read a review, watched the trailer, and read the first several pages on Amazon. Pretty effective.

Thanks to Becky at Becky’s Book Reviews, for turning me on to this contest.

If I had a book to hawk, I’d try to go for both kinds of blog tours. A blast where everyone talks at once about the book to get some buzz going and then a tour that went from blog to blog over the course of a month to keep some momentum going.

I can rest easy now that he’s finally finished it.

Check out the rest of them.

(Hat tip to Pete Peterson, posting on the Rabbit Room. )

At the bottom of that post are links to related posts. This one: Virtual Book Tours: An Interview with Steve Weber has some great ideas for bloggers. How can we spice up our blog content? What can we offer our readers? I like the way Noel and her sisters and cousins have discussed some of the books we’ve toured.

Here’s a bit of the interview:

FPP:  Do you see any new trends emerging in the use of virtual book tours?

Steve:  I think a lot of people are catching on to this method of marketing, in the book industry and in other areas. Consumers just don’t pay much attention to traditional advertising anymore.  You’ve got to show up at the places where they are already discussing something that matters to them, like blogs.  It’s getting a lot easier to put audio and video content on blogs, so this will undoubtedly be a trend to watch.  Virtual book tours in the future will go beyond plain text, and into spoken-word interviews, book readings, and visual performances.

What about it? Any of you bloggers planning on doing podcasts or vimeo clips?

heh heh Too bad they didn’t have a cover shot. I’m sure whoever gave all those books to the bloggers was spitting mad that the cover didn’t show up on Technorati.

We spent about 24 hours in number two slot, and another day shuffling between two and three. Today we’re still showing on the page in the twelfth spot.

Doesn’t Groovy just look like she’s on top of the world in that shot? Who cares that she wasn’t number one. Groovy knows the recognition will come when the time is right just as the swallows always come when the time is right.

But what I liked best about this tour was the amount of energy so many of you had. We had some great three-day posters, and even the one-day bloggers seemed to really like the book instead of just posting because they had to.

I’m glad because this book was lovingly crafted and it delivers on its promises.

I’m happy to see at Amazon that it’s picking up a lot of positive reviews. If any of you want to copy and paste your reviews over at Amazon, btw, that’s a good way to help authors you like and it’s also a good way to attract people to your blog. You can set up a profile where you give your web page address. Then when people like your reviews they can click on you to find more of your stuff.

So here’s the wrap up for a little, but gratifying, tour:

We had 34 posts over three days which included:

fourteen reviews 

Reading is My Superpower

A Christian Worldview of Fiction

All About Children’s Books

Becky’s Book Reviews

Booking Mama

Cafe of Dreams

Dolce Bellezza

Fireside Musing 

Homeschool Buzz

Hyperbole

Maw Books

Never Jam Today

Novel Teen

Through the Looking Glass Reviews

five interviews:

Becky’s Book Reviews

Dolce Bellezza

Fireside Musings part one  and part two

Maw Books

Through the Looking Glass Reviews

two discussions on theme:

A Christian Worldview of Fiction

An Observation of Mercy

and two discussions on openings:

A Christian Worldview of Fiction

All About Children’s Books

I thoroughly enjoyed this tour. Thanks for all your enthusiasm!

Tune in tomorrow for your chance to vote on which three-day blogger gets the Amazon gift certificate.