about author etiquette
February 1st, 2010One of the most intriguing parts of being a new author is that I’m often confronted with unfamiliar situations that require an ethical response, or at least a polite response. Such as:
If someone reviews my book, should I comment? I don’t mean bad reviews here, thank God. What I mean is if someone writes something friendly and nice on her blog about The Fiction Class, should I respond? The obvious answer is yes, but it’s not so simple. For example, recently I read a blog that had a very nice discussion of TFC. Then I, all enthusiasm, posted a friendly comment. Immediately the discussion stopped and everyone went away. I could see the problem. It’s like discussing sex with your friends in front of your mother. No matter what you say you’re in trouble. On the other hand, doesn’t one want to acknowledge people who say nice things about you? I’ve resolved this by using a fifty fifty rule. Half the time I respond and half the time I don’t.
Another conundrum: Should you give yourself five stars on good reads? If you haven’t been to www.goodreads.com, you should go because it’s wonderful. Readers review books and give them a ranking from one to five. Mine was 3.45, as of this writing, which caused me a tremendous amount of depression until I happened to be looking at Anna Karenina and saw that was at 3.9. Taste varies. However if I gave myself a 5, I could bump my ranking up a little. But would that be right? I decided no, though I could be persuaded otherwise. (And I did ask my brother to give me a 5.)
A corollary of this is, do you have to give your friends good reviews? That’s a tough one. I’ve met a lot of people who’ve written books and I like most of them. The problem is that if I give five stars to everything, then I’m devaluing my critical reputation, such as it is. Which is more important: friendship or integrity? I resolved this by not reviewing books by friends, for the most part, but then you get people mad by not posting reviews. I plan to resolve this issue by becoming more friendly with people who don’t write books.
Here’s another one: If you are at a book signing with another author, and her friends come along to buy her book, is it okay to look pitiful so they will buy yours as well. That’s a no-brainer. Of course.
Finally, if you talk to someone who mentions they belong to a book club, should you immediately mention your own book? And a corollary would be, if you are leading a book club, should you recommend your own book? In this case I didn’t but only because I knew that everyone in the book club had already bought it. And at the moment I’m only leading one book club.
Such are the issues that preoccupy me. What do you think? What would you do?
