Grimlock ♥ Ultra Magnus

How to help authors blog.

Another one, yeah.   But it's not my job to post in any particular place - major retailers, she suggests, read it in public, or anything.    If I, for some reason, don't want anyone to know what I'm reading, no, I won't read your book in public.  

And if I pass word to my friend about your books, it won't be for you or to help you.  It'll be to help my friend find something they like.   

Maybe I'm just being bitchy because someone's already tried to emotionally manipulate me into seeing Age of Ultron on opening day which I do not want to do.   (And I told my sister I'd see it with her, so we're going to wait a week or two.)   This may mean that I'm not as open to being begged for publicity, or for you making it all about you, author.   

And it irks me that it's expected that a fan will go where the author wants them to go.   So I'll tell you what I told my friend: I can't do Age of Ultron with you.   Although perhaps tweaking it to say I'm still not going onto B&N and Amazon and those sites and posting.  I post here.   End of story.   

But, great, once again, I have two choices: go see the movie/post on sites I don't want to go on, or feel like a bitch.   Using phrases like this:

"While out-of-the-gate performance is important, authors’ careers are dependent upon continued sales and steady growth in readership."

It places the author's career on the reader.   And then it goes on to give you tips on how you can further the author's career.   Uh-huh.   Because it's not enough for us to just buy the book, is it?   Nope.   Because now your career is in my hands, and if I don't post in particular places, or flaunt your book, you've already told me that I am putting your career in danger.  

Or this: "Plug the book to anyone and everyone—friends, family, your followers on social media."

This sounds like marketing.   Why am I doing your marketing for you for free?   And if I am doing it for free, don't I get to choose who I market to?   But, nope, we're supposed to be free labor yet again for them.   Or we have the emotional blackmail of the author's career.

It's not even that I disagree with her on principle.   Look, if I like a book, I'm going to talk about it.   But don't put your career on my shoulders.  I bought your book; I paid money and got a product.   My responsibility to you?   Met.   I have no further responsibility.   You certainly don't get to tell me how, where, and why I should talk about the book.   You get to dictate nothing to me after that unless I make comments about you that aren't legal.   (I do try to keep things about the book, unless speaking about author behavior.   And I'm much more f-bomb laden and snarky in my speech when writing about books.)

So, how do you feel about this?  Are you okay with this post?   (So far, 100% of her comments are positive, and about wanting to be told how to help authors.)  Feel free to tell me I'm overreacting; I might be, and if so, I'm open to honest dialogue about this case. 

ETA: The author posted back to me, and was very, very nice about it.   Which means that I wasn't going to look into her books at all before now, but I will now.   No guarantee of a sale, but I'll sample it if it looks like a plot I like.