WARNING: Disrespectful Author Ahead! Maintain Minimum Safe Distance!
I wasn't planning to be up before seven a.m. on a holiday, but my tweetstream's all 'splodey with news of the latest kerfuffle in m/m-land, starring - of course - the owner of a certain review blog. (Who shall remain nameless, because I don't want to give this person any more attention. I'm sure most of you already know who I mean.)
(I'll be keeping my comments brief, since LA Witt, Amelia C. Gormley, Aleks Voinov, Heidi Cullinan, Heidi Belleau and Theo Fenraven have all expressed what I'm feeling more eloquently than I ever could.)
Just to be clear, I wholeheartedly support any reviewer's right to review whatever they want. However, this is where the reviewer in question loses me:
"Why are M/M readers treated so disdainfully? Are we not on par with het romance readers? M/M romance has been around for a decade, so why can’t our authors get it right? Clearly we are not respected because if we were this wouldn’t happen, and so often. Would authors insert graphic gay sex scenes in het romances? Not f*****g likely, unless the book is a ménage or a bi romance, and do you know why?"
Uh, where are all these m/m romances with m/f scenes in them? Aside from one book I originally published back in 2009 (which was actually a m/f romance with a m/m scene towards the end), I can't think of any. Granted, I don't keep up with everything that's out there, but if there'd been a sudden Attack of the Raging Cunts (aside from this particular reviewer) in m/m fiction lately, I'm sure I would've heard about it.
But setting aside that question . . . disrespectful? Really? Because I choose to write about bi and trans* characters? (Ironically, this particular reviewer walked up to a trans* acquaintance of mine at the last GRL and called him "Missy." How's that for disrespect?)
Okay, fine. I'll wear my "Disrespectful Author" badge with pride.
But dear, sweet, sensitive (*koff*) reviewer, let me serve you up a hard truth: I don't think of you - or frankly, readers in general - when I write. I'm thinking of what's best for my characters and their story. I'm putting forth every effort to write the best book I can. Of course not everyone's going to like it (and I've racked up enough one-star reviews to prove it), but them's the breaks.
The majority of comments on this particular reviewer's rant pretty much amount to a giant "Fuck you!" which is encouraging to see. Times are changing, and attitudes like this reviewer's need to change along with it. Otherwise, she and others of the strict "cis-gendered men only" camp will soon find themselves with very little to read or review.
Edited to add: Looks like the reviewer in question has removed the offensive post from her site.
(I'll be keeping my comments brief, since LA Witt, Amelia C. Gormley, Aleks Voinov, Heidi Cullinan, Heidi Belleau and Theo Fenraven have all expressed what I'm feeling more eloquently than I ever could.)
Just to be clear, I wholeheartedly support any reviewer's right to review whatever they want. However, this is where the reviewer in question loses me:
"Why are M/M readers treated so disdainfully? Are we not on par with het romance readers? M/M romance has been around for a decade, so why can’t our authors get it right? Clearly we are not respected because if we were this wouldn’t happen, and so often. Would authors insert graphic gay sex scenes in het romances? Not f*****g likely, unless the book is a ménage or a bi romance, and do you know why?"
Uh, where are all these m/m romances with m/f scenes in them? Aside from one book I originally published back in 2009 (which was actually a m/f romance with a m/m scene towards the end), I can't think of any. Granted, I don't keep up with everything that's out there, but if there'd been a sudden Attack of the Raging Cunts (aside from this particular reviewer) in m/m fiction lately, I'm sure I would've heard about it.
But setting aside that question . . . disrespectful? Really? Because I choose to write about bi and trans* characters? (Ironically, this particular reviewer walked up to a trans* acquaintance of mine at the last GRL and called him "Missy." How's that for disrespect?)
Okay, fine. I'll wear my "Disrespectful Author" badge with pride.
But dear, sweet, sensitive (*koff*) reviewer, let me serve you up a hard truth: I don't think of you - or frankly, readers in general - when I write. I'm thinking of what's best for my characters and their story. I'm putting forth every effort to write the best book I can. Of course not everyone's going to like it (and I've racked up enough one-star reviews to prove it), but them's the breaks.
The majority of comments on this particular reviewer's rant pretty much amount to a giant "Fuck you!" which is encouraging to see. Times are changing, and attitudes like this reviewer's need to change along with it. Otherwise, she and others of the strict "cis-gendered men only" camp will soon find themselves with very little to read or review.
Edited to add: Looks like the reviewer in question has removed the offensive post from her site.
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(last edited Jul 04, 2013 05:19PM)
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Jul 04, 2013 11:01AM
Yeah, I saw. If she goes, another blog will take her place. Hopefully one more open-minded and less prone to drama queeny-ness.
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Like the review coordinators have got the time to cater to the whims of every flipping review site out there. If a site has strict criteria about what they review then checking the books they get fit that criteria is their problem, not someone else's.I've also failed to find vast numbers of marauding vaginas stampeding through the m/m romance books I've read recently.
"Marauding vaginas"! LOL! Sounds like a lesbian punk band!Here's hoping this is the final death knell for her. Our genre doesn't need to be poisoned by her bigotry.
Jen wrote: "She later (lamely) tried to clarify that it wasn't the writers she was calling disrespectful, but rather the review coordinators or whoever sent her "mislabeled" books to review. Which is even more..."We should be so lucky.
Yeah, I saw that cross my feed this morning via it being reported by others and thought WTF. Saw lots of great replies that did a better job than I could have (without invoking lots of F-you ranty language like I would have). Not the first post of that kind I've seen from that site, hence why I don't follow it directly.
Tymber wrote: "Yeah, I saw that cross my feed this morning via it being reported by others and thought WTF. Saw lots of great replies that did a better job than I could have (without invoking lots of F-you ranty ..."I don't follow her blog either, except when she goes off on another stupid rant. Looks like she's really shot herself in the foot this time.
It will be interesting to see how the publishers are going to react to that rant, since she not only called out writers but them as well. It's already noticeable that some publishers refuse to submit books to her and if more publishers stop doing so, especially for the free give-aways, she and her other reviewers will only be able to review books they bought themselves.
I always found it strange that with so many people doing reviews the blog still had such a narrow review-focus. It lacked diversity, and I'm talking about diversity in reading material here. I'd started skipping the reviews a long time ago, and only came back for some of the more interesting blog-post, but now I've kicked it off my reading-list completely.
I'm not interested in reading a blog that shows such a distinct lack of respect for its readers.
I recall her posting another rant a few months ago about how boring the latest crop of m/m books were. Well, yeah, if you're only interested in reading a very narrow range of pairings and subject matter, of course you're gonna get bored. Times are changing. The tide has turned on LGBT rights here in America, and it's not going back. People who insist on digging in their heels are free to do so, at the risk of making themselves irrelevant.
She really lost her shit this time, i read that post couple of days ago when some1 was complaining about it on twitter. My question is if she dose not like sort of book WTF she reads them???? We all have a rant about a book sometime but that was a direct attack and not nice at all. I know for sure one m/m author posted a review on her blog or maybe even more, i haven't checked but wot do you guys think about that?
