Book Blogger Confessions: Spoilers

Book Blogger Confessions is a new(ish) meme run by Tiger at All-Consuming Media and Karen at For What It's Worth. Every first and third Monday they post a new question to open up discussion about common frustrations to book bloggers. Link up your post on either blog and hop around to listen to and learn from your fellow bloggers!

This week's question is:

Spoilers in reviews: Do you read them, do you include them? How do you describe (or avoid describing) spoilery parts of a book?
I generally do not care about reading spoilers, but I am super sensitive to people who vigilantly avoid them. It's because I don't have much personal animosity toward spoilers that I'm always paranoid I'm going to accidentally let one slip.

Sometimes it's difficult for me to perceive what is a true spoiler. If it's something revealed by reading a cover jacket, I'm not sure that's a spoiler, but some reviewers hide sequel summary descriptions for fear that someone may happen across a spoiler. I don't go that far. Most regular readers of this blog know the books I'm discussing, or at least know if it's a part of a big series that they want to avoid for fear of spoilers.

That said, I'm also not out to ruin anyone's fun. If people want to be surprised, they should be surprised, regardless of my thoughts on the matter. That's why I don't post spoilers - simple common courtesy. It may mean cutting short a review or dancing around an issue, but I always know at least one or two other bloggers who have read the same book, so I'll take to Twitter or email if I really need to discuss a spoilery issue.

What do you do about spoilers in your reviews?

Book Blogger Confessions: Social Networking with Authors

Book Blogger Confessions is a new(ish) meme run by Tiger at All-Consuming Media and Karen at For What It's Worth. Every first and third Monday they post a new question to open up discussion about common frustrations to book bloggers. Link up your post on either blog and hop around to listen to and learn from your fellow bloggers!

This week's question is:

Social networking with authors: Do you interact on Twitter/Facebook/etc. with authors? Does it affect how you review their work or do you look at their books differently because you're on friendly terms with them?
I do interact with authors on Twitter, but considering I'm such a rare tweeter anyway, it's not anything that happens super frequently. The authors I interact with the most are those whose books I've read and adored (like @LisaTBergren), or authors who just happen to tweet a lot in general (like @LiaHabel and @TaherehMafi).

The big caveat here is that when I say I interact with these authors, I mean we've had a conversation or two. Which may have only consisted of a couple of tweets. With the exception of Lisa, I don't think any of the authors I have interacted with via Twitter really know or remember me. And I consider that a good thing.

As a reviewer, who also happens to be a writer, I try to keep myself at a professional distance. I don't go out of my way to contact authors. I don't tweet at them when I post reviews, with the possible exception of major fangirl 5 star lovey ones. I prefer to stay under the radar, happily occupying my little blog space with warm bookish thoughts until one day (hopefully) this domain can be used to publicize my own work. I'm also incredibly shy, and feel like if I start tweeting at authors I'll just annoy them. (I should mention that I'm focusing on Twitter because I don't use Facebook for blog-related things.)

As for how it impacts my reviews, I think that in general I'm always worried about loving an author, but hating their book. For the most part, I limit my interactions to authors until after I've read their book. If I wasn't a big fan of their book, I usually just quietly unfollow them. If I am a fan, I'll keep following, and if the mood strikes, I'll start up a conversation. I'm a cheerleader at heart, so when I read books that I love, I want to pump up their authors. I want to sing their praises to the world, and thank them for writing such amazing stories.

And I love that social networking allows us to do that.

Book Blogger Confessions - Deadlines

Book Blogger Confessions is a new(ish) meme run by Tiger at All-Consuming Media and Karen at For What It's Worth. Every first and third Monday they post a new question to open up discussion about common frustrations to book bloggers. Link up your post on either blog and hop around to listen to and learn from your fellow bloggers!

This week's question is:

Deadlines for reviewing and blogging. Do you set them? How do you keep them? What do you do if you can't meet a deadline?
I typically operate with soft deadlines, meaning when I accept a book for review, I calendar a date by which I want the review posted. I also enter it in a spreadsheet that tracks all of my pending review books, and prioritize the list based on the release date. Books with closer release dates get read first, as those are the dates around which I schedule my reviews.

These dates are not set in stone, however. The longer I blog, the more lee-way I give myself to push those deadlines back as needed. When I first started, I was incredibly rigid about my deadlines, but this led to me reading a lot of review books and very few pleasure books. This is a big reason (if not the reason) that I have stopped accepting review copies. I make an exception for NetGalley, because I have more self-control where those books are concerned, and I've made a conscious effort to only request books I know I want to read.

If I'm coming up on a deadline and I haven't gotten around to reading the book, I push the review posting date back to a time when I think I'll read the book. For a lot of my review copies, this has happened with embarrassing regularity, and it's reached the point where I may have to contact the authors and tell them I can't review their books.

Finding the balance between a blog made up entirely of review deadlines and one with a structure so loose that nobody cares to read it anymore is harder than I first thought. I thought deadlines would give me structure and allow me to plan my blog out to well-oiled machinery perfection, but what I ended up with was a joyless blog that consisted of lots of reviews and memes with little room for spontaneity. I have more demands on my time than ever, and blogging has taken a back seat. I still have a long list of books to read and review, but my posting schedule has more room on it now for interesting discussion topics that may come up or new memes I want to try without having to schedule them three months in advance.

Deadlines give me structure, but I can get a little crazy with them. I've found that without them, however, I tend to push everything off my plate and get nothing done. I'm still looking for that happy medium.