Thumbs Up, Thumbs Down is feature on my blog to promote discussion and the sharing of opinions because I’m curious what other readers/bloggers think about the topics relevant to the book/blogging world  Every other week I will give a topic to be discussed. You can give your vote on whether or not it is a thumbs up or a thumbs down for you and then explain why. The topics will cover anything related to reading, blogging, the book industry, etc. etc. Basically whatever is on my mind! This feature is NOT intended to be a place to bash anybody or start a nasty fight or controversy. It is a platform for a mature discussion and sharing of opinions. It is also NOT a feature in order to TELL you how you should blog or act or think. Just a discussion of ideas.



For this edition of  Thumbs Up, Thumbs Down I want to talk about celebs and their book deals. I feel like every other week I see another celebrity who has gotten a book deal of some sort whether it is a memoir or an actual novel. Hilary Duff, Lauren Conrad and Snooki from Jersey Shore are just have the few celebs recently to have penned a novel and there are a slew of others who have books coming out– from serious memoirs about their live like Unbearable Lightness: A Story of Loss and Gain by Portia De Rossi to the absurd — The Rules According to JWOWW: Shore-Tested Secrets on Landing a Mint Guy, Staying Fresh to Death, and Kicking the Competition to the Curbor Here’s the Situation: A Guide to Creeping on Chicks, Avoiding Grenades, and Getting in Your GTL on the Jersey Shore. Don’t get me wrong..I’m not hating on the Jersey Shore (Confession: It’s totally one of my guilty pleasures…along with eating peanut butter from the jar and throwing chocolate chips or Reese’s Pieces in there) but really..I just think they are quite ridiculous. 

What I want to know:  Do you like reading celeb novels or do you just pass over them? Which ones have been good/bad? Are you more likely to read a memoir by a celeb? A novel? Or do you dislike both? Do you think it’s fair for a person to get a book deal (fiction) just because they ARE a celebrity? Do you think most of the celeb book deals are just publicity stunts to help the persons “brand” or do you think some of them actually have talent/passion for writing. 

Vote:

My Opinion: I honestly haven’t read too many celebrity written books. I believe I’ve read some memoirs somewhere along the line of people that I really respect. I’d have a hard time reading a “how to guide” from a celeb like the one from “The Situation” as mentioned above. I’ve heard good things about Lauren Conrad’s books but haven’t had any really urge to pick them up…same goes for the Duffster. Thinking of her just makes me think of Lizzie McGuire. I digress. But I’ve gotten so irked lately with the number of celeb books coming out. I think there are some out there that really have quite a story to tell (Portia De Rossi) but I just find some of them so pointless. And it makes me sad for authors who have real talent….can you imagine having your book rejected for Snooki’s novel (which I’ve heard was HORRIBLE)? Now don’t get me wrong, I think everyone has the right to write a book and if they get a deal…well then good for them…I just find it to be more of a publicity stunt in SOME cases…just an extension of the brand. There are few celebrity written books that I’d probably read. I have a handful of them that I actually WANT to read. 

Thumbs Up, Thumbs Down is feature on my blog to promote discussion and the sharing of opinions because I’m curious what other readers/bloggers think about the topics relevant to the book/blogging world  Every other week I will give a topic to be discussed. You can give your vote on whether or not it is a thumbs up or a thumbs down for you and then explain why. The topics will cover anything related to reading, blogging, the book industry, etc. etc. Basically whatever is on my mind! This feature is NOT intended to be a place to bash anybody or start a nasty fight or controversy. It is a platform for a mature discussion and sharing of opinions. It is also NOT a feature in order to TELL you how you should blog or act or think. Just a discussion of ideas.

I originally had another topic scheduled today but there was something on my mind recently so I decided to switch topics. Ok, so what I want to talk about today is author interviews on blogs. I did my first author interview with the wonderful Kimberly Derting the other day and I was all excited for it because I felt like I asked some engaging questions and Kimberly gave me something interesting answers… so I thought it would create some fun discussion at least with the last question. Nope, it was like pulling teeth to get anyone to comment on it. I was a little discouraged for it being my very first interview. It took a lot of time and effort and I wonder…is it worth doing them? I want to help the author out any way I am able to if they are genuinely helpful to them. And I realized I’m not alone in this..I’ve heard from multiple people that their interview don’t get much comment-wise and I’ve seen so many people asking for people comment for the author’s sake. All this makes me wonder..why are they so popular? Do people actually like them? Do people actually read them? Why are they not getting comments–does it have to do with the subject matter, the variety of questions, etc.  I’m hoping that this discussion will help answer these questions so that bloggers, like myself, can better gauge why their author interviews might not be generating interest.

So here’s what I want to know: As a blogger, do you like doing author interviews and do you like reading them on other people’s sites? Do your interviews tend to get comments? As a non-blogger, do you enjoy reading author interviews? As an author, do you like participating in them on blogs? Do you find them helpful in promoting your books or are they not worth the time you put into them? 


Rock that vote:

My Opinion: I gave it a thumbs up. I do like author interview BUT if I’m honest..I skip over them a lot. I only really read/comment on ones that feature authors that I’ve read or am really interested in reading at some point and I’ll comment if something in the interview struck a chord with me or made me laugh or anything. I’m already there and reading it..I might as well say something. Sometimes I don’t read them if they are too lengthy or about a topic I don’t really care about. For me, I might not read an interview about tips to being a published author because I don’t have a desire to become one personally. So, for me, I guess it depends on how engaging it is and who the author is.

PAST THUMBS UP, THUMBS DOWN 

Thumbs Up, Thumbs Down is feature on my blog to promote discussion and the sharing of opinions because I’m curious what other readers/bloggers think about the topics I bring up.  Every other week I will give a topic to be discussed. You can give your vote on whether or not it is a thumbs up or a thumbs down for you and then explain why. The topics will cover anything related to reading, blogging, the book industry, etc. etc. Basically whatever is on my mind! This feature is NOT intended to be a place to bash anybody or start a nasty fight or controversy. It is a platform for a mature discussion and sharing of opinions. It is also NOT a feature in order to TELL you how you should blog or act or think. Just a discussion of ideas.

After observing something that happened recently in the blogging world (an author getting quite nasty on some comments and attacking a blogger who didn’t like the book) I started thinking about author interactions and how social media has really changed the dynamic in which authors and readers interact. Before blogs and Twitter it seems as the interactions were less personal (maybe at a signing or an event or by email) and there was this space that wasn’t breached where readers and authors just didn’t converse (about their books and other things) to the extent that they do now. If you didn’t like a book, you might have thrown a hissy fit and vented about what a pile of doody it was to a friend or sat down over coffee with a fellow reader and discussed the merits of the book and what you didn’t like about. Either way, you didn’t have to worry about the author walking up, mid rant, tapping you on the shoulder and trying to debate your opinion of their book with you. Conversely, social media has made authors and readers come together in a positive way where authors can become our friends and we can get excited with them about their books and share feedback. 

What I want to know: That being said– what I want to talk about is how you feel about authors commenting on your review of their book (or Goodreads/LibraryThing review). Do you feel comfortable with this? Do you enjoy when an author gives feedback about your review (good or bad) or do you think an author should just email you privately to talk about it? What experiences have you had with authors interacting with your review? As an additional question, what do you think about interaction with authors in general? Do you feel pressure if you become friends with an author and then review their book? Authors–do you like interacting on reviews of your books? Publishers– do you encourage your authors to interact or stay away? Let’s discuss!

So..take it to a vote!

My Opinion:

I’ve only really had one or two experiences with an author interacting and they have been all positive. I do interact with quite a few authors and sometimes I do feel the pressure when I review their book. I’m honest. I have to be because I don’t want to falsely advertise something just because I didn’t want an author to yell at me. I think that social media CAN make these situations sticky because it makes everything so accessible and feelings can get hurt. These situations get sticky when authors get overly emotional about it and decide to fight back and these types seem to be few and far between (the same goes for bloggers who write really nasty reviews making fun of authors and petty stuff..not a lot of them around). But I’m going to say thumbs up for this–despite the complications. I’ve seen so many instances where authors and readers can have a really great dialogue even if a reader didn’t LOVE their book. I think most authors understand that a book can’t be everything to all people. I think the positive has far outweighed the good, in my experience, as I love when I get a nice comment from an author about a book I truly enjoyed, but I think authors do need to walk away from a negative reviews if it’s going to be disrespectful of a blogger’s opinion when they took the time to engage with the text and form the opinion.

* For past Thumbs Up, Thumbs Down click here.

Thumbs Up, Thumbs Down is a newish feature on my blog. If you are a loyal follower of my blog, you know that I put a big emphasis on interaction and discussion and my favorite posts are the ones with a lot of interaction. I also like a good healthy debate where opinions are shared and respected. You may also know that I like talking about random bookish things. Put all of that together and you get my inspiration for this new feature. Every other week I will give a topic to be discussed. You can give your vote on whether or not it is a thumbs up or a thumbs down for you and then explain why. The topics will cover anything related to reading, blogging, the book industry, etc. etc. Basically whatever is on my mind! This feature is NOT intended to be a place to bash anybody or start a nasty fight or controversy. It is a platform for a mature discussion and sharing of opinions. It is also NOT a feature in order to TELL you how you should blog or act or think. Just a discussion of ideas.

This week I want to talk about memes. Memes have become an integral aspect of many online communities — especially in the book blogging world. A meme, by definition, a “virally-transmitted cultural symbol or social idea” with the idea that it is replicated by others. In the book blogging world we have many memes and it seems as though there are new ones popping up all the time. Most who have been immersed in the book blogging world have come across popular memes like In My Mailbox, Book Blogger Hop, Waiting on Wednesday and more. Memes can be weekly or monthly or yearly–such as the Best of 2010 survey I created this year.

What I want to know: Do you participate in memes? Why or why not? If you do, which ones?  How many memes are too many? Do you skip over memes in your Google Reader? Do you think memes are useful in the blogging community? Do you like seeing non-bookish memes on book blogs?


Rock that vote:

My Opinion:

It’s hard to give a definitive thumbs up or thumbs down for this one. I see the good and I see the “bad.” The only meme I participate in regularly is Top Ten Tuesday (hosted at my other blog) because I find it to be of substance and I learn a lot about the other participants from their bookish lists AND it’s always a good discussion starter. I participate in In My Mailbox from time to time. I’ve discovered some of my favorite blogs through seeing similar interests on lists. When I first started out blogging in June, I did participate in the Blog Hop. I find memes to be fun and useful but I also find them mildly irritating from time to time. I think memes are useful when you are new as they really help you to find other bloggers and ease your way in to the bookish community. I think memes are a casual way to get to know others and I think they do provide a little content for when you don’t have a book review. I personally just don’t like going to a blog and seeing meme after meme. They are fun but I’m looking for some substance in a book blog. That’s just me though. I typically skip over some memes in my Google Reader if I’m just not that interested. It doesn’t annoy me. I just skip over them. The blogs I follow all have great content so if they have a meme or two a week, I’m cool with that. Sometimes I will comment on the meme if I glance over it and see something interesting brought up. I think memes can be a great uniting force in making the book blogging community come together but I DO get overwhelmed by how many memes are out there. A lot of them are great but I’ve just chosen to not participate.

Click here to see past Thumbs Up, Thumbs Down topic.

 Thumbs Up, Thumbs Down is a newish feature on my blog. If you are a loyal follower of my blog, you know that I put a big emphasis on interaction and discussion and my favorite posts are the ones with a lot of interaction. I also like a good healthy debate where opinions are shared and respected. You may also know that I like talking about random bookish things. Put all of that together and you get my inspiration for this new feature. Every other week I will give a topic to be discussed. You can give your vote on whether or not it is a thumbs up or a thumbs down for you and then explain why. The topics will cover anything related to reading, blogging, the book industry, etc. etc. Basically whatever is on my mind! This feature is NOT intended to be a place to bash anybody or start a nasty fight or controversy. It is a platform for a mature discussion and sharing of opinions

Many bloggers have developed a rating system by which they give a numerical value (or letter grade) to each book. Many bloggers get really creative and create their own systems and spell out what a certain star/grade means to them if they designate a book with that rating. I’ve also seen some bloggers not have any star/grade ratings and just let their reviews speak for themselves and talk about who they’d recommend them for.


What I Want to Know: Bloggers, do you utilize some sort of rating systems? Why do you like them? What do they look like? Do you ever find any limitations with them? Non-bloggers, do you find rating systems helpful?

Are you a fan of rating systems/do you use one? Vote thumbs up or thumbs down. 

My Opinion:

I’m a thumbs up because I do utilize a star rating system–just a simple 1-5 stars because that was what I saw on the majority of blogs when I started in June. I’m on the fence though. Sometimes I have such a hard time being consistent with my star ratings. I feel conflicted that a book that might be a guilty pleasure, non-thinking sort of reading might be a 5 star as far as pure enjoyment and fun but then also give a 5 star to some book that was just a beautiful piece of work that shook me to my core and made me think about a lot of things. I’ve seen some bloggers have a breakdown of things like (plot, characters, overall experience, writing, etc.) and that seems like a good route but I wonder if I’m too lazy to do that. Also, another limitation with rating systems, is sometimes I feel like it’s not as simple as giving it a number. There are certain books that just don’t fit underneath the constraints of my rating system. That’s why I’ve been trying to have a “final thought” at the end where I sum up my thoughts and give my recommendations. A 5 star book from me doesn’t necessarily mean I would recommend it to EVERYONE given the variety of what I read which reflects my readers. I loved certain YA books that I wouldn’t hand to readers of only adult fiction.

Past Thumbs Up, Thumbs Down:

Extra Entries On Giveaways
Requiring A Follow for a Giveaway
ARC Tours
Self-Published Books
Re-reading