Terminalcoffee discussion

Hasn't happened to me so far.

I have friends who have had that happen. It doesn't set off too many alarm bells for me.

I guess they just want somebody to give a good review, so I wouldn't be nervous about it.

I have never been offered a free book by an author, except by Jonathan.

That was a gift when we met, Janine, which is a little different.

I had an author ask to be my friend, based on one of my reviews. He then explained that the book I'd reviewed reminded him of his novel and would I mind reviewing his novel on Goodreads? I bought it and did not get very far. I have to be very much in the mood for "gritty and sad" to get any further.

Yes. I helped a new author in the librarian group and she immediately left me her phone number (in a public post) and asked me to call her and sent me a message asking if she could email me her book. I hate to be mean, but I'm ignoring her...although I did suggest she join the author's program here, which would help her much more. Authors can do giveaways for their books which is a better, easier way to get publicity than randomly soliciting individual members.

It's probably happened before that too and I've just forgotten about it.

It's much better for her (and most other new authors) if I just ignore them. If I get their book, and review it, it's probably not going to be pretty.

Oh, and I have a GR friend who is an author and he offered to send me a copy of his book. Completely serendipitously, I had just gotten it from the library and started reading it, so I reviewed it for him. He ended up winning a $100,000 prize for it earlier this year.

Jonathan wrote: "That was a gift when we met, Janine, which is a little different."

And I still really appreciate it, I might not have read it otherwise.

Lobstergirl wrote: "Yes. I helped a new author in the librarian group and she immediately left me her phone number (in a public post) and asked me to call her and sent me a message asking if she could email me her bo..."

LG: Which book won the $100,000 prize?? That is a nice chunk of change.

If someone wants to give me books for an honest review, I'll take it. I do not go easy on FirstReads reviews, so I'd be honest if the book was a gift directly from the author.

LG: Which book won the $100,000 prize?? That is a nice chunk of change.

The Jump Artist.

I received a friend request from an author after giving his book 3 stars. I didn't even write a review. He's a nice guy who writes books on sports and politics. In fact he was the ghost writer for Jose Canseco's tell-all book on steroids. I immediately felt terrible for not giving it 4 stars (which my wife told me to do). We're GR friends now.

I recently read a terrible self-published book by a GR author that was a kindle download gift. I refrained from giving it the one star it deserved because I was afraid the author would immediately contact me..... no doubt to tell me that she knows where my kids catch the school bus.

I had a guy try to friend me earlier this week who had just joined and his "about me" profile stuff was all about a contest to win a guest spot as a character in a book he was writing. He already had over 300 friends, so he must just be friending left and right to sell his crappy Dracula-wannabe schlock. He wasn't listed as a goodreads author though.

I had this happen once, I think because I am mod for another group. He probably thought I would suggest it to other members.

I think whether you accept or not depends on what strings are attached; personally I don't like the idea of feeling obligated to give something a higher rating simply because it was a freebie (you know what I mean... it is difficult to be totally honest in some cases). No doubt some people have the fortitude to be brutally honest, but most of us are squeamish about potentially hurting someone's feelings.

Just came to mind, when a friend gets a new, awful, haircut. I'd rather say nothing than lie.