Author reciprocity can be a touchy subject. If Writer A shares Writer B’s blog post, hits “going” to her online event, “likes” her Facebook page, clicks “follow” on Tumblr or Twitter, it is only natural that Writer A want Writer B to do the same for her, yes? In a perfect world, everyone would turn around and immediately repay the favors other people did for them, but this is not a perfect world, we are not perfect people.
You scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours—or not.
I go to a decent number of online events for different authors, review lots of books (or did before I started school), follow lots of author social media feeds, occasionally make graphic edits for books I liked, and recommend books on Goodreads and Amazon, but do I expect all those authors to do the same for me and my titles? Well, I’ll admit it would be nice, but no, I do not.
The truth is, it seems unreasonable to me to expect everyone to repay every “favor.” There are a number of people who left glowy reviews for my books, but I haven’t read theirs for whatever reason. I don’t always return blog comments and I’m horrible about sharing links to anything and while there are a few authors with which I have established strong relationships, I do not expect every author I’ve reviewed to return the favor.
In all fairness…
For one thing, they may not have the time. The author community is comprised of parents, students, and full time workers, people with day jobs, cats, and other time-consuming things in their non-literary lives. When they manage to find a spare moments between all of that and writing to read/review, who am I to say they should read my book instead of that one they’ve been wanting for over a year?
The slippery slope.
Then what if they don’t like it? That is their right, after all. Do I get angry because I left an awesome review for theirs and demand they lie to spare my ego?
The idea of author reciprocity is one of those things that is great in theory and can be great in practice, but can also get icky very fast. What do you do if you review the other person’s book and it turns out to be full of flaws? That’s even worse than the other way around. What if they get angry?
In general, I just do my thing and if other authors reciprocate, awesome, if not, I may still download their entire series and preorder their upcoming releases if I liked them. The way I see it, posting reviews keeps my blog alive and even if the authors themselves don’t check out my books as a result, maybe other readers checking out my reviews will.
And let’s not forget why we got into this business to start with.
Perhaps most importantly, I don’t think I should let the prospect of another person reading/not reading my work influence my enjoyment of their work. That’s why I started writing—because stories make me happy. I read stories I enjoy, I write stories I enjoy, and I try not to worry about what other writers are doing.
Inkspelled Faery 
..I agree 100% with the sentiment… I am present on many aspects of the internet’s writers/bloggers ‘reciprocity’ universe, and enjoy that interaction immensely… however, I veer away from the ‘if you do a review for me, I’ll do one for you’ syndrome, precisely because I believe a review should be HONEST… and I prefer that I’M the one CHOOSING which books I read and review… I try to download one book each week, usually by new indie authors as part of my way of ‘paying it forward;’ and indeed, ‘paying it back’, but I only publish the review if the book merits my opinion of a 4- or 5-star review.. if my review standard would give less than 4- star, I do NOT publish it… I want to retain that independence and HONESTY, … great post:) cheers
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I know! It is EVERYWHERE. Thanks for dropping by!
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Reblogged this on Seumas Gallacher and commented:
…thoughtful post from Inkspelled Faery about the sensitive area of writers’ ‘reciprocity’… great post …
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..re-blogged 🙂
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Reblogged this on Poetry by Pamela.
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Great post–and yes all the way!
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*bows* Thank you kindly! 🙂
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I don’t write reviews…but I blog, and I’ve stuck to a policy of not “liking” posts unless I actually read and like them. I do, however, favor posts of authors who have interacted with me even if I suspect the likes they put on my page were click bait rather than considered opinion. I don’t follow a blog until I see several posts from it that I really like and even then I’ve got my own agenda: I don’t want to miss fun posts. I do, despite that, of course, but a guy can dream.
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I do tend to have a preference for authors I have interacted with before, but I understand what you mean. One still wants to enjoy the Internet!
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Very healthy attitude Elisabeth. I also try and keep in mind people I know or whose work I’m familiar with, but as I review for other blogs sometimes even the reduced time I have for reading is not fully mine, and sometimes we can’t help but really having to read something…Not enough hours in the day, even with the best will in the world.
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Caffeine-rich black tea is my patron beverage. 😉
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I don’t review books. I do however re-tweet posts, comment on them and re-blog them sometimes. This takes up a good deal of my day because I follow a lot of different logs. I don’t expect full reciprocity for all the reasons you gave but what does go a long way with me is an acknowledgment, a thank you sometimes.
As communities go, the author one is quite a close and helpful one but sometimes we breed the occasional newbie who thinks their novel is a world beater and therefore everything is their due. It isn’t, Whatever they get is a portion of someone else’s life and a little gratitude for a helping hand doesn’t go amiss.
xxx Huge Hugs xxx
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I spend most of my non-school and non-chores time reading/writing, which unfortunately means much less leftover for other things. Thank you’s are appreciated and like I said I do try, but sometimes it gets lost in the swamp of my to-do list.
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I agree. I post reviews as well and try to connect with lots of blogs and such, but I don’t expect everyone to follow me back just because I started following their blog or reviewed their book. It’s a great ideal, but not a very realistic one. I agree that so long as we’re happy what we’re doing, then there’s no need to worry!
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Right! It doesn’t have to be like in Japanese culture where everyone stresses over returning favors of the exact perceived value and so on and so forth.
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I think that if you can reciprocate, you should. If an author reblogs your post announcing that your book is officially on sale, then if they post a similar post you can reblog it just to give it that extra boost. Again, some people don’t have time for that, and I’m never upset if I help someone out and they don’t return the favor, but for me personally, knowing that someone did something like that I do try to do something nice in return however I can.
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I do return the favor of announcements on my Twitter, Facebook, and Pinterest accounts, but my blog is a bit more self-centered (pun intended). All the same, I do end up feeling bad a lot of times if I can’t return every such favor for whatever reason (like my shoddy internet connection).
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YESSSSSSSSS
Agreed 100%!
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*bows* Thank you, ma’am.
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So right! I couldn’t agree more. My policy is…be genuine. I “like” what I truly like and expect no “paybacks.” In fact, if there were more hours in a day, I’d use them to read more indie books and do more reviews…just because it’s fun to read lots of different types of stories–not as a marketing tool. A very wise person once said …it is better to give than receive. 😊
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Very true! I’ve been wracked with guilt over my lack of reviews since I started school. Between writing and college, I just don’t have the time to review like I did last year. 😦
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Oops, just realized I should have signed my previous comment since my co-author is on WordPress with me. 😊
J.L. Bond
PS. Congrats on finishing the new book Elisabeth!!
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It is hard to do all the things I would like to do with the ‘short’ days. LOL There is just not enough time. But I do try to let bloggers and authors know from time to time that I haven’t forgotten them. 🙂 I would love if people stopped in every post, every day, but that is not realistic for any of us and I am happy to see them visit whenever they can. I don’t want it to be a job for me or them. 🙂
sherry @ fundinmental
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And you do a great job! 🙂
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Genuineness should always win over obligation.
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I agree, which is why, as you saw, I have the whole “no read-to-review” policy. 😉
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I like your attitude, because expectations can lead to disappointment and we don’t know what another juggles to make us happy. I like to think everyone does the best they can. 🙂
Anna from Shout with Emaginette
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The flip side of this is that I can be shy when it comes time to ask favors. Ugh…balance in all things, I suppose.
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You can always ask me. I’m open to cover reveals, excerpts, giveaways, guest posts, etc. I don’t reviews. 🙂
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Careful, I might just take you up on that sometime. 😉
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