[LET’S CHAT] Do We Put Too Much Stock Into Authors?

Obviously, we, as book bloggers, love books.

We devour them and love them and hate them and review them and recommend them and fangirl over them. But, an important component in the whole “book” process is the author. If authors didn’t exist, books wouldn’t exist. So, obviously, they’re pretty damn important.

So, I thought I’d dedicate a Let’s Chat to talking all about authors because there’s A LOT to talk about and dissect, not even mentioning all the scandals and drama surrounding authors after all these years. So, let’s get into it!

So, now that we live in a world that thrives off of technology, we’ve been introduced to social media. Whereas back when I was born (which was back in 2000) most people read a book and that was it, we now live in an age where we can love a book and then go and tell the author that. Obviously, that has its positives and its negatives.

It’s definitely nice to interact with authors online. As someone who’s socially anxious, I know it’s much easier to tell an author I love their books online over in real life (even though I also don’t mind that). And it’s a fantastic way to get to know the writer behind the book, especially since, when you really think about it, we don’t really know much about an author past their book. So it’s nice to see what they love, what they hate, their author friends, what books they’d recommend, what they do when they’re not writing, etc.

Obviously, that comes easier to some over others. I know I only follow probably three authors on Twitter, and that’s basically it. I’ve seen people who are buddy-buddy with authors on a friendship level, which makes me totally jealous because I’d never be able to do that AND keep it professional. TELL ME YOUR SECRETS.

There’s also this huge debacle over sharing reviews and tagging authors. I know I’ve seen lots of Tweets that pop up once a month or so about how you shouldn’t tag authors in negative reviews of their books, which you’d think would be common sense, but apparently isn’t. I’ve also seen some people say that you shouldn’t tag authors in positive reviews because reviews aren’t for authors, which I get, but at the same time, if I gave five stars to their book and want to tell them, I’ll go ahead and do it because I know it might make their day. Personally, I used to tag authors in my positive reviews, but now I just don’t do it anymore because it gives me too much anxiety, and I just don’t want to.

We also have a sort of problem of author interpretation and such. Obviously, we, as readers, might see something that we consider canon or not canon, and the author thinks the opposite, which can elicit not-so-nice conversations. Unfortunately, this leads to…

I feel like we really need to DEFINE “bad behavior” before we class it. Obviously, people have different takes on what author bad behavior is, but for me, it’s when an author actually does something threatening. For instance, Kathleen Hale and the whole stalking incident years ago. That’s author bad behavior. Or that one indie romance author who told her Facebook followers to flag a three-star review of her book on Goodreads. That’s author bad behavior.

It might be a controversial opinion, but if an author says something that I don’t agree with, that’s not bad behavior to me. Like, if an author tweeted, “I think God is a jerk,” I don’t agree with that…but I’m not going to blacklist them forever just because they don’t agree with me. I just don’t believe in a world where we ALL have to agree on something. Obviously, there’s a difference between “I think God is a jerk,” and “All Christians are stupid and weird” – THEN, I’d probably stay away from their books – but if they said they didn’t believe in global warming, then that’s not “bad behavior” to me.

I personally tend to separate the author from the work. I don’t think because an author might have said some dumb things that I don’t agree with, I can’t enjoy what they’ve written ever again. There are some authors that I don’t like on social media because they just seem aggressive in my eyes, but it doesn’t make me NOT want to read their book if I’m interested in it. Separating the author from the work can lead to…

It’s actually really funny how much stock we put into authors. We never really talk about it, though, but it’s true that if we see an author we love or don’t love or disappointed us or we have meh feelings for, we’re more likely to add or not add that book to our TBR pile.

I feel like there are three categories we, as bookworms, put authors in after reading a couple of their books:

Auto-Buy Authors:

These are the ones you have clearly dedicated your soul to, the ones you might have met at a signing, the ones whose books you love, the ones you follow on all their social medias, etc. When you see this author’s name, you immediately put it on your TBR and will venture to get an ARC for it no matter what. You basically love these authors to death and expect nothing less from them.

Middle-Of-The-Road Authors: 

You’ve read five of their books or three of their series, and you feel pretty “meh” about them. They’re household names, so you recognize them easily, but your feelings regarding three of their books are positive, but the other two were terrible; or one of their series was AMAZING, and the other two were duds. When you see this author’s name, you decide to read some reviews from those you trust to see if it’s worth checking out.

Authors You Avoid:

You’ve read their series or you’ve read all their books and you just. Don’t. Like them. Since you’ve been so disappointed by them or you hate their characters or the writing is average or some other reason, you vow never to read one of their books ever again. When you see this author’s name, you run in the other direction.

I’m sure that even as you simply READ those descriptions, you probably already started thinking about which authors fit in which category for you. Personally, I really wish we stopped judging books by certain vendettas against authors and just READ THEM if it sounds mildly interesting to you.

I definitely have noticed that I give different second chances based off what I’m reading. Regarding YA, I realized I’m way less likely to give a second chance to an author, whereas concerning adult thrillers, even if I didn’t like the author’s previous book, I’ll still get hyped for it and read it anyway. I think this is just for the fact that I can never give up an awesome thriller premise no matter what. It’s my weakness.

And those are all my feelings about authors!

Obviously, we all have different opinions on authors, whether it comes to social media interaction, author bad behavior, and giving second chances, which is totally fine! It’s what makes us all unique and individual. But it’s definitely good to talk about controversial author topics, and the good and bad that can come of it.

Any specific feelings or opinions on these topics? Feel free to comment about it!

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