In 2005, when I started blogging, Christian Publishers didn’t have a clue how to interact with bloggers. They didn’t understand blogging. Some seemed to think of it as a passing phase or a narcissistic fetish that would soon, like many online trends, cease to exist. But then they’re non-Christian counterparts started taking bloggers seriously. Popular bloggers got book deals. Online influencers started helping publishers promote their new books. Eventually, probably after much prayer, Christian publishers (most of them anyway) decided they needed to figure out a way to work with bloggers. And though they were late to the game, many of the large faith-based publishing houses now work alongside bloggers in hopes that it will help bring their books and authors some notoriety. Some publishers do it better than others, but for the most part, the equation is the same: Christian publishers work with bloggers to do book giveaways, book reviews, blog tours, author interviews, etc.
And that brings me to the actual message. As an author and blogger, I’ve been privy to both sides of this blogger/publisher relationship. I’ve experienced both sides firsthand. And too I hear bloggers talk. And I hear publishers talk.
And while a relationship between bloggers and Christian publishers has been strong now for a few years, many bloggers are becoming weary and starting to feel a bit used and under appreciated by Christian publishers. And trust me, I get it. So, in hopes of clearing the air without naming names, I offer to Christian publishers a message: 7 things that Christian bloggers want you to know but are likely too nice to tell you.
1) Thanks for sending us books. Seriously, we love books. We read books. But please stop sending us books! We have no place to put all the books that people send us. And plus, we have lives. We don’t have time to sit around read every single book that you send us. Sending us one book every couple months is fine. But read our blogs before choosing which books to send us! Some of us hate Christian fiction. Some of us love it. Some of us love Joel Osteen. Some of us hate Joel Osteen’s books. (PS: I’ve tried reselling some of your crappiest books to used bookstores… and FYI, they don’t like them either.)
2) We don’t read your form letters/emails. We are not Christianity Today. Nor do we want to be treated like we’re Christianity Today. And just because you start your form letters/emails with one personal line about us, that does not trick us into reading the email or thinking you like us or read our blogs. We’re not stupid. At least, most of us aren’t stupid. (PS: The folks at Christianity Today likely do not read your form letters/emails.)
3) We don’t want to be a part of another blog book tour, well unless the author is a close friend who we generally love and appreciate (and their book doesn’t suck). But in most cases, we’d rather be subject to waterboarding or the Book of Numbers than to be invited on another book tour.
4) When you ask, “Hey, can I send you Francis Chan’s new book?” and we say, “Sure! Here’s my address…”–THAT MEANS ONLY THAT. That you can send us a book. It doesn’t mean that we will review the book or heck, even read the book. The truth is, we might not even open the package. But by all means, send it! Because we might open the package, read the book (and if we like it) write something about it on our blogs. (PS: Please do not send me Francis Chan’s new book.)
5) Some of us make really good money blogging. Some of us don’t make a dime. Either way, unless the title you’re pitching is a book that we’ve been excited to read or is written by an author that we love, a “free book” is not compensation, especially when it means we’re going to be pestered via email about the book, told (via email) when we must have a review about the book posted, given (via email) 6 hyperlinks that must be included in our posts, and then thoroughly (via email) encouraged (over and over again) to add our review to Amazon.com. Hello? We don’t work for you. Please remember that. And all of that right there that you’re expecting from us is WORK. Lots of work. And it’s worth a whole hell of a lot more than a free book. So please, stop acting like a FREE BOOK is a huge deal. It’s not. (PS: For $350, we can make a few guarantees.)
6) Listen, we like working with you. Some of us want to work with you. Heck, some of us are signing book deals with you and contractually obligated to work with you. But we want to have a healthy working relationship with you. And since most of you aren’t paying us a dime to review your books, we think it’s only fair that we’re treated with some respect–you know, this isn’t North Korea. (You can’t make us do sh*t.) But if you’re nice to us and don’t make lofty assumptions about us, we may indeed give your book coverage on our blog.
7) For some of us, blogging is a business–as in our livelihoods depend on it. For most of us, blogging is something we do for fun. If it stops being fun, we’ll likely stop doing it. So keep that in mind when you’re pitching us ideas! Make it fun and creative and personable. Because if it’s fun and creative and personable, we might actually be interested in helping get the word out about your book.
(PS: Love Wins: For Teens? Uh… no. No. No. No.)
Thanks for listening.
Sincerely, MPT
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