In Which I Have Grievances To Air

As I was hanging out on the twitters biding my time until VACATION (2 hours as of right this very minute), Amanda at Dead White Guys tweeted a link to her Airing Of Grievances which is a Seinfeld festivus tradition. If you don’t know what that means, google it. SO then I was like, well I love a good rant and have grievances, why not air them. AND I KNOW YOU GUYS, I always air them on twitter, but maybe I should air them on ye olde blogge as well.

1. Goodreads Event Invites

Look, I get that you are excited about your blog hop or your interview, but as someone who has NEVER interacted with you except to accept your friend request, I could care less about your blog hop or contest. So can you please stop inviting me because that spam is filling up my inbox?

2. The Copy Paste Commentor

Here is some shit I really hate. I take the time to visit X amount of people’s mailboxes and Top Ten Tuesdays and leave genuine, unique comments. I will be damned if you come to my blog with a ‘Great IMM visit mine here xoxo’ and then see the same comment on 55 other blogs. Instead that just shows me that you are not worth my time, my traffic, or my friendship. And no I am not afraid to call you out. And don’t hide behind this shit of ‘I’m promoting my contest don’t people want a free book’ – true story someone said that to me when I called them on it. I can point out various linkys and other places where it is appropriate to advertise that. I can point out plenty of bloggers with BETTER contests who don’t do that. My blog is not the place to advertise your contest. And I don’t mind if you leave me a link to your IMM, just as long as the comment that preceeds it is real.

3. “I hate drama!”

Yo, if you hate drama so much then WHY do you continue to participate in it. Now, this isn’t towards any specific person, just an amalgam of what I see on twitters. The people who will tweet something dramatic or get outraged about the last EVENT/drama but then turn around and tweet about hating drama. Um, what? Why you participating? Why you getting involved? Confession: I LOVE drama. It is why I watch reality tv. It is why I am glued to twitter when the last kerfluffle happens. Drama and opinions and claws get me through an otherwise boring day.

4. Series

I am pretty sure 2011 was the year of the series. Pretty much every single book that came out was the first in a series. And yes  I am completely over-exaggerating, but I am so sick of starting what I think will be a complete story only to get a cliff hanger. Can we please stop stretching what would be an awesome standalone into several mediocre books? Now I realize that some stories take more than one book to tell, but does every paranormal story need more than one book to be told? Every fantasy? Really? Really?

5. “Over entitled Bloggers”

Bitch, please. Remember when that whole story broke about the William Morrow letter and people were upset about it, and then people got upset over people being upset and called them over entitled? (Is your head spinning yet?) Look, a free book is not enough to order me around. I am not overentitled. I work my ass off on my blog. Seriously check my page rank (using my main URL), it’s a 5 mother fucker. You don’t get to 5 without HARD work and networking. And for someone to call me over entitled because I want more than a month to read and review a book is fucked up. And yes, dude I realize I don’t have to accept ARCs and I already don’t for WM, but I don’t like that idea that someone I don’t work for can dictate terms for me and use MY audience for so cheap. You want to take advantage of my audience, pay for an ad. Don’t dictate my reviews. And I’m just not for the whole ass kissing that goes on over this for free books. Sorry but if ALL the time spent reading and reviewing one book is a job to you (and you aren’t paid free lance just the free book) you are making less than minimum wage. It makes me thinkg of this xkcd comic:

You're working for less than minimum wage

You're working for less than minimum wage

Glad to get all that off my chest. Anything you want to get off your chest?

 

*please note I don’t hate everyone but I also don’t feel the need to hold back either. I pay for this corner of the internets what with domain and hosting and such.

**Also I am happy, nay, THRILLED about a lot of things, but I’m saving that for an end of the year wrap up.

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April is in her 30s and created Good Books And Good Wine. She works for a non-profit. April always has a book on hand. In her free time she can be found binge watching The Office with her husband and toddler, spending way too much time on Pinterest or exploring her neighborhood.
About April (Books&Wine)

April is in her 30s and created Good Books And Good Wine. She works for a non-profit. April always has a book on hand. In her free time she can be found binge watching The Office with her husband and toddler, spending way too much time on Pinterest or exploring her neighborhood.

Comments

  1. I love this post, but my favorite points you make are the first two. Goodreads can get so annoying sometimes!

  2. I love you April.

  3. I hate the Goodreads Event Invites too, you can change the settings on GR so that you don’t get email notifications when you get them 🙂

  4. So true! Fantastic post.

  5. Could not agree more about Goodreads. I unfriend people who do that unless I’ve established a relationship with them previously. It’s really not helping their cause in the slightest.

    Let’s make 2012 the year of the standalone!

  6. Couldn’t agree with you more on the GoodReads thing. Yeah, yeah – I know everyone is probably going to agree with that. I changed the notifications, but they still pile up in my messages area of the site. So my new rule is if I get too many, I sever the connection.

  7. Thanks for the grievances, no. 1 in particular and 3 & 4 and thanks to the commenter with the tip about GR notifications!

    Fi *off to change her GR settings, may strangle someone if she gets another RP group invite*

  8. I had to google the William Morrow letter to see what that is about, and I found an interesting article about it on the LA Times. (I’m not on the WM preferred blogger list obviously lol) Totally agree with you that blogging is hard work and a labor of love.

    Regarding all the series books- I think that’s why I’m starting to lean toward contemporary books lately. And many of the series trilogies have such disappointing middle books anyway. There is some room for streamlining there.

    GR is better when you turn off the email notifications, though I notice I’m not on there as much as I used to be nowadays.

  9. I agree with so many of these, particularly goodreads and series.

  10. I agree. I’m over the series game.

    You make an interesting note within your justified rant – I sincerely hope the publisher rules don’t snowball into anything crazy oppressive. The door has been opened… let us see where it goes!

    I love nerdrage. And also you.

  11. Looooove this post! And love Seinfeld. You said it!

    1. I hate Goodreads Invites! I swear to you I get 3 event invites everyday from a certain person. I block them, and the invites STILL come! What the heck?! This person is like a virus that I can’t get rid of. I finally had to adjust the email settings. Now, Goodreads is quiet in my inbox. Sigh of relief.

    2. If people think I can’t tell they are saying the same thing in my comments to everyone else, they are wrong. I know. Go somewhere else if you aren’t going to be genuine.

    3. I tiptoe around the blogging community because of all the drama.

    4. I AM SO SICK OF SERIES BOOKS! I was just having this convo with a friend yesterday! SO sick of all the cliffhangers and the waiting! I’m done with it.

    5. Hard work does demand respect. Nuff said.

    Love this post! You said it perfectly!!

  12. Agreed!
    I like doing interviews and reviews of authors I’ve read before but the minute someone starts getting bossy I get pissed. I read to relax, not to be stressed out and controlled in every part of my life.

    I too am over the series. Especially the 4+ books series. Usually by book 3 it’s going seriously downhill but you’re invested…it’s less like reading and more like a crack habit and that never ends well.

    I love a good scandal and that usually involves drama so I’m with you on that one too. I’m glad all this ranting has made you feel better. 🙂

    • See, I rarely do interviews but I have been incredibly lucky that the authors I have worked with for that have been so kind and gracious.

      Word, some books do feel like a crack habit.

      And I feel like one of those little old ladies at the salon because I love a good scandal as well.

  13. The copy/paste comments are the WORST. I mean, honestly, you can’t even take two seconds to look at the book title or something and just briefly mention it in your comment? I mean, that’s still not the best, but at least you’ve gone to a BIT of effort.

    April X is a saviour for that info about not getting emails for event invites on goodreads. Yay! I have already changed my settings. Because YES, those are so irritating.

    I like how you’re always willing to say what you feel/think. I would so much rather see honest posts, whether I agree with them or not, than deal with people who are fake and kissing people’s butts.

    • Thanks Ashley! <3 I agree. I love honesty whether I agree or not.

      And goodness, it is really not that challenging to look at the book title and say something about it!

      April X is super awesome 😀

  14. Copy and paste commenters are my personal irritation. Dude, make an effort. We ALL see what you did there.

    I also hope there are more stand-alones in 2012. Series just for series sake are annoying.

  15. THIS. THIS. ALL OF THIS.

    Also, self pub authors who send copy/paste emails. xD I’m making a video about that soon.

  16. Oh dude, I think also people who want you to review their book and then get pissed off when you can’t give them a favourable review. It’s like they assume that by agreeing to review the book, you are automatically granting them something positive. Erm, no. Also, the “copy paste” spam. Ughhhhh. It makes the twitch in my eye worse. I wonder if there is any way you can just turn off the GRs invites button. Oh yes, series. (I remember Eve and cringe.) Cliffhangers are such a cheap way to ensure the sequel has readers. Okay, this comment makes me sound like I have ADD (and I’m not saying I don’t, I might) but I just want to say that splendid post is splendid.

    • Right, TOTAL eye twitch there. And I posted a negative review of an audiobook in June and still get comments on it from people who just don’t understand how I could give it a negative review? I must not have been smart enough to understand it, blah blah blah. Yeah, I hate how cliffhangers cheapen a book!

  17. Wait.. there was drama over the WM email? I guess I’m blissfully out of the drama loops since I tend to stop reading blogs or following people who get involved. I didn’t see drama or a thing. I thought “huh, look at this, a publisher actually trying to organize and logically send our ARCs”. Though I did think there were some slight issues to it (the time line) I can see how it’s set up to weed out the bloggers who are in it only for the free books and never follow through with reviews, etc.

    That being said. I didn’t know there was a thing! 😉

    GR book recs, events and group invites drive me batty. I give a person one chance, but if I get more than one request from them they are deleted from my list of friends. Who aren’t really friends, just people whose book habits I like to stalk.

    Word.

  18. I want to drop-kick every person who sends me a Goodreads invite. And YES! to the series thing. I do love a good series, but now I’ve gotten to the point where I won’t even start one until at least 2 books are out in it. I have a horrible memory so when the next book comes out I’m pretty much screwed unless I want to re-read.

  19. Great post and I agree with pretty much everything in it, actually everything. The goodreads invites drive me fucking nuts! I hate that shit, everytime I get on and see my notifications thing is nothing but fucking invites. Why do these people feel the need to invite people on goodreads to every damn post and giveaway they have, it’s annoying. HATE IT!!! GRRRR!! And the series thing, so true!! And it looks like 2012 is going to be another one full of firsts in a series. Every paranormal I read this year was part of a series, I’m not saying I didn’t love the books because I did, some of them, some were pretty freaking awful I couldn’t even finish them but yes, I’m tired of the cliffhanger endings and love triangles. Ugh!!!

  20. Thank you! Pretty much every other email I get is a GR invite for the same Giveaway/hop/interview as I got invited too, like, a day ago. And what IS with all the series?! I have read 2 paranormal standalones this year. And they were better than most of the trilogies I started. I have neither the time or the money to keep up with them, or the patience ’cause a lot of them are not all that great. Gosh, I love ranting.

  21. I agree with you SO much about Goodreads event invites (figured out how to not get emails for these, YAY) and everything being a series. YA needs more standalones, please!

  22. OK, everything you said was so true but I completely agree with you on #4. I am getting so tired of books ending without an ending. If you’re going to write a series, write a series, but write a damn ending!

  23. YES TO ALL! Air those grievances, baybee. Part of the reason I read you–because you tell it like it is, don’t hold back and don’t let people dictate what you do with your blog. Nice.

  24. I have a serious issue with the goodreads event invites. WTF. STOP INVITING ME!! I DON’T EVEN KNOW YOU, HAVE NEVER BEEN TO YOUR BLOG, GO AWAY! grrrrrr.

    P.S. Love your face for this post <3

  25. Okay, I’m back!! :0)

    GR invites.. they are annoying. Yay April X for letting us all know we can change the settings on that.. There is just something about that name of ours that makes us the shit. I’ll be changing that soon, because if I get one more email telling me that joe shmoe is inviting me to read a fucking stupid qoute by him, I will scream. It’s not even like he invites me to win free shit.. If I cared enough to remember his name, I would remove him from my friends.

    Ugh, and the comments. PO… lease people. I can’t stand it.. I don’t get to many comments as it is.. but when I do, I don’t to read just.. Great Haul, look at mine.. I don’t comment on everyone’s blog all the time. I try, but I”m busy I have to set time aside. I comment on yours alot because I get an email every morning. lol. But when I do comment, and you know.. I read the post first, and have something to say besides come look at my page. I personally would rather get one real comment a week over hundreds of brainless ones everyday. it’s a waste of time. I mean why post a comment like that, so they can come back and say the same thing? really do they want comments like that? I don’t get it. lol

    Drama, I don’t hate it, if its not mine. I admit, I like to watch some drama unfold. I have a ton of drama in my family though, thank goodness they all moved away or I would have no hair left. So I prefer to just observe. with popcorn if its readily available.

    Series.. I love/hate them. Some are great, but they are really getting old. I seriously can’t keep up. I’m all about buying books, I love to buy books, but there are about 10 new ones a month I want. and then they all have sequels, and triples, and some keep going on after that. *sigh*

    The last bit, I don’t have much experience with.. and I’m glad, I’ll keep it that way!

    As for your twitter remark, I can’t speak for anyone else, but I certainly don’t hate you after this post. I love that you tell it like it is. lol

  26. Omg, that comment was so long. sorry. lol

  27. The William Morrow thing didn’t bother me and I didn’t know about the shenanigans until it was over and was kind of WTF? that people were getting pissy about it. To the publisher this is a business and generating ARCs cost a lot of money.

    Personally I think the publisher is entitled to put terms and conditions to their review requests in order to keep people from taking books and then not reviewing them in a timely manner, if at all. If you really want an advanced copy of a particular book, I don’t think it’s too much to ask to have it reviewed in a particular time frame. If that’s too much, then wait until it releases and review it on your own time. I don’t think it’s kissing ass to adhere to those kinds of standards. Hell, if all the publishers I get ARCs from gave me deadlines, I’d be a hell of a lot better at reviewing them in a more timely manner than what I am now (although I have improved greatly on NetGalley).

    If you want to take more than that set amount of time to review a book, that’s your prerogative, but it’s the publisher that has to utilize its budget wisely. Putting up a review of a book three months after pub date probably does far less than one that’s posted within 30 days lead-up or following. Yes, it’s your site and your money and whatnot but you need to think from the other side of the coin as opposed to just STOP USING ME!!! I don’t think anyone’s being used. I think the pub just got tired of the free-for-all and wanted to reign it in a bit. Bleeding money on ARCs that don’t get reviewed or reviewed so late that it completely misses the marketing push they intended doesn’t help them. YOU may be better and more timely with ARCs but, apparently, most are not. They were forced to make a business decision. Yes, we are definitely allowed to do as we please on our own blogs, but we’re not just working with ourselves. We need to be mindful of the businesses we work with (not for, but with). We help them help us help them. We want to have our review policies and guidelines respected by them. I don’t think it’s too much to ask for us to do the same.

    • I do see your point and I am willing to concede to a few bits of it. I realize ARCs are a marketing tool and thus should be used as such and reviewed within a timely manner. I realize that the point of ARCs is to get early reviews. I get that and don’t mind.

      I think I may have missed getting across my main point or worded it wrong. What I am trying to say is that most publishers give me more than a month to read and review a book. It’s why Netgalley and Galleygrab upload books MONTHS ahead of release. I have ARCs for books to be published in August and July 2012. And I think what I was trying to get across is that I would rather have the few month lead in time to read a book and review it, rather than have to read it within one month of the publisher sending the book. That’s really my main point — just send the book earlier so there’s a larger time frame to read/review the book.

      And yes, I am timely with ARCs, but mainly because I make lists and piles by month and mark things on my calendar placing solicited copies (not very many) at the top. I realize not everyone is on their A Game with that.

      However, I am still not comfortable with the terms being dictated to me. I don’t really know how to get this across the best way. But I don’t blog for publishers. I blog for readers and myself. I just feel like having those terms will open up a can of worms. And hey, I could be pulling a chicken little with the sky is falling and paranoia, but I just worry that if we accept this sort of dictation, what next.

      Anyways, I wanted to respectfully thank you for your opinion. And truly I hope my tone doesn’t come across as a condescending asshole, I really do genuinely appreciate you taking the time to leave a comment even though it doesn’t match my own views. Because I can see the other side, I really can. I am not so hard-lined as I seem in the post that I won’t even consider another opinion or contrary idea, because I will.

      • I get what you’re saying. From a business side, it’s a trial and error thing. I see it in insurance now (as that’s where I work). Most people are doing it this way but this one guy wants to try something different. If it fails, they’ll probably revert because it ends up being contradictory to their original intentions. They’re taking a chance. It might work, it might not. That’s on them to find out. But the rest of the publishers are watching. They’re waiting to see if this model succeeds or fails. Basically, someone’s gotta go first because the reality is, once those ARCs are released, they can’t control them. They’re working on good faith and for some, that isn’t working out so well. So they’re the guinea pigs for this more restrictive reviewing process. I don’t think it’s a can of worms per se but I do think it’s more of a step in the direction of the publishers trying to retake some control of their review copies. Somewhat constraining for those that play by the rules but a slap on the wrist for everyone else that takes advantage of the current system.

        And the fact that we can have an intelligent discussion with differing opinions makes me warm in my cockle area.

        • I guess I’d rather see publishers stop sending out random unrequested books if they want to prevent ARCs being wasted (I say what genres I review, I still get random books I’d never ask for and have zero interest in reading, I feel bad about it and try to give them to other bloggers), instead of only sending the book out one month before the on sale date. Not long ago I got a random book I hadn’t asked for that was like the 8th or 9th or 10th in a series (something like that, it was a reallllly long series). I haven’t read any of the other books nor did I care to go out and buy 7-9 books so I could fairly read and review this one. Assuming I even enjoyed the early books in the series, it would be well past the on sale date before I could even get to trying to read the newest book.

    • I like the idea of picking which ARCs you want and having to request them. I’ve often gotten random unrequested books I have no interest in and then have to try to find someone else to pass them on to, and hope that maybe that person will review it. Macmillan started doing this with their MG & YA titles and I love it – but they send them far in advance, they just sent me the ones I requested that publish Summer 2012. I don’t get books from Morrow anyway (I think they are an adult imprint?) but for some reason got the mass email. I would have no objection to only requesting the books I want, I just don’t like the time limit – I prefer the book be sent to me further in advance so that I can definitely read and review it for the on-sale date.

  28. I could just hug everyone on here…I know too too wimpy but I love this post and every comment…

    I hate those invitations…I hate those pasted comments…I hate Mailbox Monday’s and Wordless Wednesday’s and all memes…is that even a real word?

  29. So everyone else have already said the things I was going to say but this post was awesome and I agree with most of what you said (especially the bit about commenters – agree with that so much, particularly when someone goes and searches out old reviews of mine or Julie’s just so they can link their own review in the comments).

  30. `Happy Festivus, April!

    I totally agree with everything you said. My policy about events is, if it’s not an actual event, why are you sending it? I get so many even invites that are like, “Buy my book!!! It’s 99 cents on whateverthef&ck site.” Umm that’s not an EVENT! Quit sending it! I don’t mind the blog hops too much because I participate in them once in a blue moon, but the thing that irritates me the most is the group invites. I get more of those than anything. And if I say no once, that should be enough. Stop inviting me or you are deleted. And I have no qualms about telling someone why. My new year’s resolution for 2012 is to not hold back to spare a person’s feelings. I realize sometimes it’s a good thing, but I do it every. single. time something like this happens. I have a right to express MY opinion. About books, authors, politics, publishing, religion (or lack thereof)..so that’s what I’m working on in 2012. And thanks for this blog. As usual you have made for some good reading. In the comments, too!

  31. This post is SO SO TRUE. I hate GoodReads event invites. I hate it especially if it comes from someone who I just added, who I do not know, and who are sending me invites for giveaways on their blog. SO ANNOYING.

    Also, I am quite tired of all the series. I don’t want to start a series especially since some of them are not done well at all. Lots of development in which nothing happens. LAME.

  32. I agree with everything you said. I actually didn’t know of the William Morrow thing until some time ago. The series thing is true too and its getting annoying, especially when all the books have the same plot outline and never really go anywhere. I haven’t really been in any drama but I always hear about it all.

  33. I heart you! I agree with each and every one of these points. I am annoyed by them all too! Great post!

  34. Discussions are fun.

    The goodreads things are a bit annoying. I don’t think I’ve ever read one or cared about one or anything, which is almost mean. And I’m not a mean person by nature. But I already know about it if I follow your blog, and if I don’t, then I probably don’t need/want to know about it, ya know?

    Also, I’m allergic to drama. It’s true. I have a drama epi-pen. 🙂

    Oh, the commenters: commenting is such a sore subject with me anyway, I fear I’d take up too much room on this blog post. I wish memes weren’t the main base for comments – I’d like people to spend time on my reviews more. But alas. True, my blog is small. But the copy/paste comments are just a bit insulting to me, because it means my stuff hasn’t been read probably. And I spend time on that crap, ya know? But comments…ugh. I just wish that people would be more interactive for all of the tons of views I get. But that’s another story for another time.

    Love your grievances, April. You should do this more. Like, monthly or something. Monthly festivus? I think you can start a movement. Do ittttt.

  35. I agree with most of your list but right now my major pet peeve is the Goodreads invites. I have a hard enough time keeping up with my inbox without having those stupid invites for giveaways, blog hops, etc. ugh.

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