You might or might not remember that month last year when I quit blogging, worried that sharing honest, often critical, sometimes negative thoughts about books, would make it difficult for me to get an agent. A book deal. Be published.
I now have an agent and because of that I feel like I should address some blog-related stuff here. Like, um, how this will affect my blogging and especially my reviewing. My agent, thankfully, has no problem with my continued blogging/reviewing. He even gave me the go-ahead to review a book by one of his other clients (Tara Altebrando's newest, The Best Night of Your (Pathetic) Life). So in that way -- with him -- things regarding blogging are fine.
But maybe there'll be a book or an author I don't feel comfortable reviewing because of whatever publishing-type things are going on with me, whatever contacts I have. Maybe there'll be a point where it becomes too much of a conflict of interest to review -- either altogether or a certain author/book. That might happen and I'm fine with that; I'll make these decisions as they come up. Really, I feel the need to assure you, the blog reader, that me being a bit further along in my publishing journey isn't going to change my honesty. My integrity.
I feel good about this blog. Confident. I stand by my opinions and the things I say; I review books and share my opinions on book- and publishing-related things with integrity and honesty always foremost in mind. I always attempt to think before I post. If I don't like a book, I'm not going to lie about that fact: I'm either going to write an honest review or no review at all.
I've heard again and again that you can't be both a writer and a reader -- at least not publicly. That might be true. Or it might not. In any case, I'm going to try and if the time comes when I have to choose between being disingenuous or keeping my mouth shut, I'll choose to shut up.
I like that you write posts like this. Open posts about your honesty and integrity, and why those things are important to you and to your blog. I think this kind of post can raise the bar for openness, honesty, and integrity across blogs. Not that other bloggers don't have these qualities (I think the majority does) but I think sometimes we assume as bloggers or assume as blog readers that there is some "blog way" and people follow it naturally.
ReplyDeleteI've said it a few times, but I'll say it again: congratulations on your agent!