Remembering Why We do this

I have been pondering on this subject for quite a while. I had decided to let it be and not to make a big deal over it. However when a friend/author was contacted today multiple times. I decided I need to speak my mind.

Back when I first started book blogging. It was a whole different world than it is now. Maybe, I got lucky, because when I started I had someone that was already deep in the book community more less take me under their wings and teach me how to fly, or blog, however you want to look at it!

BUT HERE IS A FEW THINGS I HAVE LEARNED THROUGH THE YEARS OF BEING IN THE BOOK COMMUNITY AND MY OPINIONS ONLY
I have a lot on my mind here, so I understand completely if I Loose your attention, but I’ll try not to.

If you are a blogger and you are in this only for FREE stuff, then do us all a favor and stop. you should be blogging for the love of books, not just to get your socks off with free crap. Cause someone has to pay for that so called free stuff you want. Blogging should be about so much more.

I was taught, to cherish every review I did, and to respect the authors who willingly gave up arcs for reviews. Not like that came hard to me. I loved reading, I still do. That’s what brought me into this community in the first place. I left positive reviews, and if I wasn’t able to to give that book a good rating, I’d let the author know my honest opinion, and the reasoning why. Not just leave a ONE STAR review and say this book was horrible. DNF. How can you honestly leave a true book review if you don’t finish the book? A book review should be over the entire book, not just the first two chapters you didn’t enjoy. How do you know that book didn’t get better, the character development grew, the plot thickened? If it is a DNF I believe in quietly disregarding that book and move on to the next. I know others people may leave 1 and 2 star reviews, me however I won’t do it. For many reasons. What may be one persons favorite book, others will not be able to finish it. I do not agree with leaving a ONE star and saying I hated this book. Instead. Let’s stay positive. I put that book aside, just like I didn’t read it and move on. Who am I to decide what other people should NOT read based on only my opinion. I have read PLENTY of books that people told me they loved, and I just had to read it, or read all the  5 star reviews raving about the book, and I just did not enjoy the story. It happens. There are literally hundreds of THOUSANDS of books to read. I don’t have time to dwell on the one book that I didn’t enjoy. Why spend more time on it than I already did.

I ALWAYS and yes I mean ALWAYS purchase the books I review. Yes I read the arc and reviewed the book before it was released. But on Release day, I would go to Amazon and Buy that book. If there was a pre-order option, I would pre-order. Authors bust their A$$ES for those books. Hard work, sweat, hours lost with their family. Just so we, the reader can get enjoyment out of their book. I believe they deserve to be compensated for their hard work. We get so much enjoyment out of reading their work, shouldn’t we show authors our gratitude for sharing those little characters  with us that parade around in their heads?

Don’t expect “FREE” just because you are a blogger. That is why you are here and chose to do what you are doing. Because you LOVE the authors you read and you want to share your love of reading those books with others. Just because you received and ARC does not mean that entitles you to anything, other than leaving that review. DON’T message and author and say I read your book and signed up for your tour, will you donate a free signed paperback to my reading collection? JUST NO. I don’t know what you were taught BUT JUST DON’T. DO, message the author and let them know you loved their book. If you want a signed paperback, then ask the author if they sell them, so you can BUY that book to add to your paperback collection of your favorite books. If you loved that story so much you want to have a paper copy of that, then don’t you think you should support that author and their hard work? Encourage them to keep writing and sharing those stories with us?

I know not everyone can afford to go out and buy those paperback copies, but save your pennies, instead of that 5 dollar coffee, use 2 of those coffees, and get that book you want. Do you realize, that book they print costs them money? That author probably paid around $7.00 each to print. Let’s say they give out 4 books a month for a whole year. Do you realize that is $336.00 out of that authors pocket. Out of their groceries, for what? to make you happy and have that book on your shelf? Ebooks – Say the author sells the book at 2.99, they might make 70% of royalties off that from Amazon, this doesn’t include if there are agents and publishers involved. If that’s the case an author gets even less. that is TWO DOLLARS off of One book sold. Although I know they put in more than 40 hours of work on one book. lets say an author did 40 Hours for one book (that’s what we work in one week). You just paid them 2 dollars for 40 hours worth of work. Do you realize to make up a full weeks check. They would have to sell well over 200 books per week. When most authors may only sell 200 books in a year, if that. When an author puts a book on sale at .99 cents because readers decided they won’t pay anything for quality any more, do you realize the author is lucky if they make .30¢ off of one sale. I don’t know about you, but I couldn’t feed myself off of .30¢ let alone children. Do you think it is fair we ask them for so much free stuff, when they have families to support just as we do? Someone has to pay for all of the free stuff you are getting, that chap stick, key chains, bookmarks, paperbacks, it all comes out of the authors pocket. Just because the author wants to share their amazing story with us and market their book.

So NO it is not okay to tell the author, “I signed up for your book tour or I gave your book a 4 star review, give me a free book now”.

We are all in the same community. The book world is nothing as it used to be. It has grown tremendously. Readers become bloggers, bloggers become authors, and that is okay. We should all support each other. Don’t you as a new author want to be treated with the same respect you showed authors when you were a blogger? Don’t you as bloggers want to treat others the way you were treated as a reader, and what made you decide to blog in the first place. We are all here for the same reasons. We should really start to act like it.

| BE KIND | BE COURTEOUS | RESPECT ONE ANOTHER |

If we all started taking authors for granted chances are, they would stop writing. Nobody likes to feel used and cheated. That is what is happening to authors now days. They are getting ripped off, taken advantage of, and used. Can you imagine, if they all quit writing? What would you do to spend your days getting lost with those imaginary characters we fall in love with? You wouldn’t have any new stories to read, and I don’t know about you but without my books I’d be lost. I love loosing my time in each book and feeling like I can relate to the characters in the fairy-tale I’m currently reading. I can’t imagine a time without a new story to read. With that said appreciate the authors, let them know how much you cherish their work, and are grateful for them spending their time to make us happy. I would gladly, happily spend the 2.99 on an ebook and 10 dollars on a paperback for a book I loved. I think that is a very SMALL price to pay for something I love.

THANK YOU to all you hard working authors out there that spend your days, sweat, tears, and so much more providing for us readers so we can have an escape at the end of the day. Don’t stop doing what you Love!!!

Thank you for taking the time to read this long article! Enjoy your day!