Message From the Soap Box: When is it Okay to Tell a Friend there’s a Problem with Their Book?

When is it not okay to contact an author that is your friend when you come across quite noticeable errors in their works?

Apparently the answer is never. As weird as that sounds when it comes to doing blog tours, some organizers place a “no contact” clause in their rules even when it comes to people you converse with on a daily basis if you opt to review said friend’s book for a tour. The reasoning is sound in some aspects since I know I wouldn’t want a bunch of strangers messaging me if they found things wrong with my book, but when it comes to friends should this rule still be valid? I personally don’t think so. I would rather my friends come to me and say “Cu.. I found something really wrong with your book and I thought you should know about it” then to have to sit there wondering why my friend told me they were going to review it or I saw their name signed up for a review on a tour and then there’s no review on their stop. I’d most definitely contact them and ask them why the review is missing. But under this rule they would be unable to tell me why less they risk being thrown off the group. Quite the conundrum isn’t it?

I bring this up since I was removed from a group that shall remain nameless for breaking this rule. The group will remain nameless since honestly they don’t need the headache of the results of their actions and I don’t need the headache either. We are still on speaking terms and honestly the removal hurts them more than it does me.

I bought a copy of a friend’s book. It’s an older book, her first publication I believe. Then I signed up for the tour. Since I had the book why not review it for the tour. However, there were certain very noticeable things wrong with it. So as I always do when I come across things that could potentially ruin the sales AND rating of a friend’s book, I told them. But like always before I contact a friend, I contact the tour organizer as well to let them know 1) I’ll be withholding the review and 2) that since the author is a friend I contacted them to find out if they were aware of them.

My inability to lie is what got me removed, and honestly I’m fine with that. I would rather be removed for caring too much about my friends, then to lose the friend over a low rated review in the long run because they didn’t know about the errors in the book or why I was posting the review when they were working on a corrected version.

I claim my reviews to be 100% honest.. and they are.. and there’s not a person alive that will force my hand into giving a dishonest review friend or not. If people would rather I not make sure that the information in my review is accurate so I can uphold my 100% honest claim, then they don’t need me to host for them. It’s really that simple. Like I said all being removed from a group does to me is anger my author friends who know I was supposed to review for their tours, and lighten my review pile.. It affects the group and the authors a lot more.

Okay I’m done “explaining” myself to the masses now lol ^.^<