I have went through a few titles for this post. It was originally titled “What A Reader Wants” but then I realized my wants are fairly simple. It’s what I don’t want that took over the post. I’m not talking about book content, I’m talking about what happens before and after I get the book in my hands.
I want to be able to go to an author site to find the blurb and reading order. Anything else on the site is a bonus but those things are musts for me. If I don’t know what the book is about then I don’t care that 15 reviewers are quoted as saying it’s awesome. I need the blurb! (And please do not make things pop out or sing to me. I don’t like it and I will run away before I ever get to the blurb.)
Now I have found a blurb, I’ve bought the book, enjoyed it, and I follow the author on twitter or “like” her on Facebook. Sometimes this turns out great, other times…not so much. This is social networking, folks. If you don’t plan on being social, don’t do it.
Examples:
A friend mentions on twitter that Author A is giving away a book to her followers. This is a new-to-me author and I like free books so I follow. I don’t win the giveaway but Author A’s tweets are entertaining. I ask a question, Author A answers. We engage in conversation and she’s friendly. I realize that if Author A can entertain me in 140 characters, then I should spend the money to try her books. Author A is now an auto-buy and I review her books here quite a bit and I tell everyone about how great they are.
Then there is Author B. I read a book by Author B, start following her on Twitter and suddenly the tweet stream is filled with nothing but links on where to buy her book. No responses to questions, no chit chat about every day life. Just those links. Over and over. Watch me run away.
Now we are getting to my biggest pet peeve.
No, not the emails telling you that you can have a bigger penis or that an unknown relative has left you 2.8 million dollars. Author spam. I get a lot of it (and I’m guessing I’m not alone) but it has been argued that it’s simply “promo” not spam. I disagree. If it’s unsolicited, it’s spam.
Examples:
If you recommend your own book to me on Goodreads, it’s SPAM.
If I do a review and you leave a comment saying “if you liked this book, you should read my book *insert title here*”, that is SPAM.
If you send me a friend request on Facebook, then post about your book on my wall, it’s SPAM.
Then there are newsletters. I like author newsletters. They give me sneak peeks into future books and remind me of release dates so they are a total win for me but I only like the ones I subscribed to. Every month, I get at least 10 newsletters that I did not subscribe to. This is what tipped the scales on me writing this post. I received an unsolicited author newsletter last week. I went through the usual process of unsubscribing (bitching the whole time) then I got an automated response telling me that since I unsubscribed, I am now on her “blacklist.” Seriously? WTF? Is this suppose to scare me and make me beg to be back on a list I never wanted to be on in the first place? Is the poor little reader suppose to be intimidated? Whatever the intention was, it failed. All it did was piss me off and guarantee that I would never spend a dime on that author.
If you’ve made it this far, you are probably wondering what the point of this rant is. No point, really. I’m just hoping that an aspiring author may be reading this and when she gets that book deal, she’ll stop and think. When she was just a reader, what made her buy a book? Was it other readers and bloggers talking about how good a book was or was it that author that wasted her time with spamming.
I couldn’t agree more! Now go buy my book! *smirk*
Nope. You must first add me to your newsletter on at least 3 different occasions and then spam my FB wall before I know that you really, REALLY want me to buy your book. How else would I know to buy it? 😉
Lillie, agree with your points. Can I add as an author I’m STILL a reader, so I follow people I want to talk with, and know what’s happening in their writers world. Not in every single one of their writer buddies world as well in the form of retweets. A couple? Hell, yeah.
A stream of ten RT in a row? Sheesh.
And Jacquelyn, you made me snort tea out my nose. (because I was going to say the same thing. :P)
Ah yes. The always lovely crap-ton of RTs.
SERIOUSLY! You’re on her FRICKING BLACKLIST! O-M-G That’s like the most asinine thing I’ve ever heard. I don’t even think I have a goodbye notice if a reader leaves my group. If they leave they’ve got a reason.
My pet peeve is when authors add ME to their mailing list just because we communicated about a business topic. That SOOO ticks me off. I would never do that to another colleague. And what am I supposed to do, politely asked to be removed??? yeah right. So NOT going to do that again!
You’ve every right to be mad, and like Jackie says…now go buy HER book. LOL
Totally agree! Blurbs, series reading order, back list and coming soon are so important and should be easily accessible. I don’t need bells and whistles – just info about the books that I want to buy.
Spamming is a good way to make me avoid an author’s books.
A blacklist? Wow…that kind of blows my mind. Makes me want to ask the author: “Really?” *head shake* I have to agree Lillie. I kept getting so many promo-motivated friend requests on Goodreads, I finally put a note in my profile asking people to stop.
As one more aspirant, I’ve already made vows to NEVER bombard people with self-serving, spammy promo and your post just reinforces those intentions.
Okay, my number one peeve is recommending your own books – I’ve already figured out you like it and think I should read it thankyouverymuch.
I agree: series order and also, if you write more than one series – I need to know which books go with which series!!
Blacklist? Does that mean you’re not allowed to buy her books?
When I still had my GR account, I had the security question “Are you an author that plans to recommend your books to me?” After I added that, I had a lot less spamming.
OMG YES! I once followed an author on twitter that not only spammed about his upcoming book but also DM’d me several times to ask me to spam for him. Seriously. Not once did this person tweet anything non-book related. I think it is bad PR to spam potential readers. Some people don’t have a clue.
Spamming through DM takes it from irritating to sleazy. Yuck.
Holy shit ~ black list? Are you kidding me??
Yeah, that would make me buy her books, lol.
And I totally agree about the website ~ I want to know about your BOOKS ~ reading order, blurb, are they connected, etc……………not so much about everything else.
I would looove to be kidding.
Blessed be. You posted exactly what I’ve thought at least a hundred times. And the blacklist thing? It’s a joke by the author, right? Right? Please tell me it’s a joke, because if not that’s pure idiocy.
I have found out that “blacklist” is a tech term used for a list of people that will not be emailed. So I don’t think that author intended to come across as such a goob but still, just a bad idea.
ugh, I just got a newsletter yesterday and have never heard of the author before and don’t remember signing up for her newsletter… there was no unsubscribe button, though *sigh* And, I was too lazy to e-mail her. I definitely won’t be checking out her books.
If you enter contest especially at The Romance Studio or Writerspace you will be added to mailing lists even for authors you do not recognize. Sometimes I go and unsubcribe but the delete button works as well.
I agree that websites should be updated, have a booklist with series/reading order and blurb. I do not want to go to the publisher website unless I have clicked on the buy now link. And also I hate when each link opens a new window. I will forgive a window to open a blog but if the contact page and the bio page open in new windows I am not going to visit very often.