Inspired by Snark Week on the Discovery Channel- Parajunkee.com is hosting Snark Week! Snark Week will run from Aug 11 – Aug 15th.
Today's Snark Week Book Blogger Challenge:
Snark Bite! Be creative – your own snarktastic topic
Today's snarky topic is going to be about authors not bothering to read review policies while finding reviewers for their books. This is something that I truly find annoying! I have a review policy posted in the tabs, right under my header, stating which books I will or will not accept for review. I find it particularly frustrating when it states directly in my policy which genres I won't read and then a request for a book in one of these particular genres will show up in my inbox.
I understand that these authors are just trying to grow an audience for their books, but this blogger doesn't like having my time wasted by reading these unwanted requests. I will not even bother sending a message back to the author explaining why I won't be reading their book. After all, they didn't want to take a moment to find out if their book would be something I would be interested in.
If something isn't stated clearly on my review policy and the author asked me a question like, 'you mentioned that you enjoy mythology, but you never said how you feel about novella's, would you be interested in ____?' I'm completely okay with that. When in doubt, ask a question because sometimes there are those little loopholes.
I guess my point is that I took the time to write a review policy so that it could be clear which books I would willingly accept as a review request, and which books I will not. I think that someone requesting something from me should take the time and read it. Time is of the essence people, why waste it doing unnecessary things.
Anyone else feel the same?
Don't for get to check out all of the other snarky topics.
I'm totally with you there! The worst is when they're like, "I know you don't like mystery, but this isn't -really- mystery." And then you go check goodreads and the number one tag is "mystery." Like, are you fishing for bad reviews? Ugh. I love this challenge! I wish I'd gotten in on it!
ReplyDeleteTracy @ Cornerfolds
Yup that has happened to me too. It's actually been happening more since I put up my review policy then before I added it =/.
DeleteAmen! I get a ton of those and also a lot of other bloggers (outside of book blogs and authors) requesting to post a Guest Post on my site, about dating, about dieting etc. And I want to respond - "did you read my blog?" But, I just treat them like spam - and delete. You can't reply to those type of people - all they are -- spammers.
ReplyDeleteThat's exactly how I treat them Rachel. Like the spammers they are.
DeleteI agree with you completely! I haven't had that happen to me before, or well not exactly. I have a notice with my review policy that states I won't read books with cheating in them and I had an author recently send me a book to review, and I asked her if cheating was in it and she said yes. So I turned her down. It was a little frustrating at the time though.
ReplyDeleteSnark Week: My Snark Week Post
Whitney@Shooting Stars Reviews
I would think that authors wouldnt like wasting both of our time and research a little before sending out a request. The smart ones do but oh well, we can't all be intelligent I guess.
Delete