Play Book Tag discussion

So on Tuesday I innocently opened my e-mail, saw I had a Goodreads message from Jan Harvey, wondered who the heck Jan Harvey was... and then freaked out a bit.

Turns out she’s the author of a book I read a few months ago, written in English but set in France, so in which some French was used. I’m a francophone translator/editor, and I noticed a lot of mistakes in the French parts, and said so in my review. And then the author wrote to me to thank me, say that I’d help point out a problem in publication, and offer me a pre-publication read of her next novel due out next year because she’d love my feedback on it! Cue me excitedly telling the story to my parents, my friends, my coworkers... the Internet...

So, have any of you ever been contacted on GR by an author? Do you change how you write your reviews if you know the author will be reading them?

The author always reads the reviews we write, which has me shaping them differently. About to review two giveaway books, where the intention is to help the author create buzz.

I always consider the fact that most authors probably trawl through the reviews of their books when I write my reviews, and I try to be respectful when I dislike something I've read.

I was contacted by an author who noticed I had read several novels about WW2 and suggested I read her book. I thought that was taking self promotion a little too far. What do you think? It was a major turn off for me.

Karan Mahajan, the author of The Association of Small Bombs, liked my review of his book. I was walking on air for a couple days!

Susie wrote: "I always consider the fact that most authors probably trawl through the reviews of their books when I write my reviews, and I try to be respectful when I dislike something I've read.

I was contac..."

That I don't like.

I'm one of the mods for historical fictionistas.....a pretty large GR group for fans of historical fiction. I do get contacted by authors who want their books as our group reads or just want us mods to promote them. I generally ignore because we have clear rules about author interaction in the group.

I also get a lot of author friend requests. In general, if I don't accept. Just like I don't accept anyone that has more friends than books read.

I often get contacted by authors who want me to read their book and then review it. Though more often than not, they want me to review it only if I can praise it.
This has been so for several years, because I have a book blog (in Italian). I used to accept sometimes, but not anymore, because I have way too many books on my shelves and Kindle waiting for me to read them.
I think only once I've been contacted by an author after writing a review on Goodreads, and he was all hurt because I gave his book 3 stars! I tried in vain to explain that that is a good rating for me (as I also wrote in my bio).
From my experience, I believe authors are easily annoyed. Which is understandable in a way, if you think how much effort they put into writing their book, though at the same time I think they can't honestly expect all readers to love/adore their book!

I don't get contacted too much on Goodreads but do through my blog and twitter. My favorite author response was to my review of The Many by Wyl Menmuir. I had made some comment about wanted to either chat with the author about his book or go for drinks with him and he responded with "I can multitask and do both at the same time." We had lovely back and forth about his book.

I was also contacted by Madeleine Thien about my review and she later followed me on twitter which made me dance around the room. Salmon Rushdie also retweeted my review about his book with a thank you and made my day.

Most though I get lots of emails and request by Indie authors and don't have enough time to read extra books. I don't write reviews with authors in mind although I try not to be rude and when I don't like books I review for the blog o like to highlight what others might like

Jen wrote: "I don't get contacted too much on Goodreads but do through my blog and twitter. My favorite author response was to my review of The Many by Wyl Menmuir. I had made some comment about wanted to eith..."
OMG!!! Rushdie!?! Fan girl here had palpitations!

Wow! This thread is fascinating. I have never been contacted by an author on Goodreads (or anywhere else for that matter) other than a few totally unknown, pesky ones that are trying to promote their book. And even then, it wasn't a personal contact.

I think it would be pretty awesome though!

I don't think I've had an author like or comment on any of my reviews either. As a result, I certainly don't write mine with authors in mind, lol.

I had an author contact me here once to ask if I would review their book. They would send an ebook. I actually said sure, but I never heard back from them after that. Oh, well.

I also recently had an author retweet my review of their book, which I though was kind of cool! It's a Canadian author, though not overly well-known (I don't think), within Canada, she is probably somewhat known (or at least that book is), as the book was part of Canada Reads a few years back and here, those tend to sell pretty well.

A few years I did a real concentrated reading series on Greece before heading there for vacation. One of the books I read was Aegean Dream about an American couple who sold everything and pursued a dream, which turned into a nightmare, of opening a soap factory with a retail storefront in Greece. In my review I made the following statement, "But, I have to admit that I smiled a little when Dario, who at the beginning of the book didn't have many good things to say about the U.S. began holding it up as the model for doing business. I didn't hold it against him though because this is a really good example of how ideology and practicality are often unable to be reconciled. That's true rather you are a conservative or a liberal. He seemed to accept that."

He responded with " Regina, thanks so much for taking the time to review Aegean Dream, and I'm delighted that you enjoyed it. Your closing sentences had me chuckling...because you're dead right! ;-) "

I felt a bit sheepish. I had no idea authors read the reviews. I was fairly new to GR. We had a great conversation following that remark. He was delightful.

Same here! I've been fairly active in the fanfic community for a while, and there we know authors read our comments, but here I thought they wouldn't have time to waste reading what we thought of their books! I wrote my reviews more for other readers than for the authors.

Although a few years ago I did a diploma in publishing, and we learned to write letters to authors as publishers/editors. We were taught the "hamburger" method - start with good things, put bad things in the middle, and finish with ways to fix whatever problems there are. So maybe subconsciously I'm still adhering to that method, even though what I read now is published and normally past the point of being fixed? I do know that when I comment on fanfics I always try to start with a good thing and end with en encouragement, even when the overall review is negative.

And in the fanfic world, it's considered impolite to go around and ask people to read your fanfic, so I would also frown upon "real" authors doing the same. Except if, for example, a reader has read a lot of the author's books and the author points him to something else he's written that the reader might like. It's still touchy, but maybe less so?

Ellie wrote: "Same here! I've been fairly active in the fanfic community for a while, and there we know authors read our comments, but here I thought they wouldn't have time to waste reading what we thought of t..."

The hamburger method--this is what they did at my son's first concerto competition (he really didn't have much of a shot since he plays trumpet and was competing along with lots of string players, but he needs lots of experience.)

However, he still focused only on the middle of that hamburger, despite an enormous improvement on a very important part of his trumpet playing in the outer edges!

I've been contacted by authors asking if I'd like to preview a book (early review buzz). I've become friends with one, despite not giving that author's book a high rating. When we met for drinks, the first words the author said were: "You are a tough rater! Do you ever give 5 stars?!" I answered: "To Kill a Mockingbird" Author, said: "Okay then ... I see why you say 3.5* is a good book."

Recently I was contacted via private message by an author who had noticed some of the books I've read. This author wanted to know if I'd read the first chapter of a new book being worked on. I responded I'd be honored but might not get it done immediately. Within the day I'd received the first chapter by email. After I read it I provided some feedback. The author seemed very appreciative and we had several back-and-forth emails about certain aspects of the setting and characters.

As for changing my reviews ... never. I write my reviews mostly for myself, and other readers. If there was something that affected my reaction to the book I'm going to mention it ... good or bad.

The only time I've ever been contracted by an author is after reading through Netgalley- so ARCs. Which I think makes sense since that is the whole premise of Netgalley. I used to be super gungho on Netgalley, but haven't event read anything from it in the past year. Too many other books on the TBR list.

It's pretty crazy to think that an author actually reads a review that I've written of their book. I definitely write them for myself, partly for friends (and mom- the only reason she has a goodreads account is to read my reviews...), and for here on PBT.