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Operation Auction begins today: What I’ve Bid on So Far

Mar 27 2011 Published by Jessica under Blogs and blogging

Operation Auction is an EBay auction of books (many signed by the author), ARCs, critiques (query, pitch, first three chapters, etc.), adspace, lunches, a $50 GF to Amazon, a Kindle 3 and many other interesting items donated by the romance community. All proceeds will benefit Fatin, a longtime romance community member who recently lost her husband and is now raising four children on her own. The following is cut and pasted from the Operation Auction blog:

Operation Auction will be going live on Sunday, March 27th at 12:01 am PDT. We will have all items in the Operation Auction ebay store.

http://stores.ebay.com/operationauction2011

None of the items will show up until the auction is live and not all items are going up at the same time. We have divided the items as equally as possible into three batches.

Batch One will be up March 27th at 12:01 am PDT, ending March 30th at 12:01am

Batch Two will be up March 28th at 12:01 am PDT, ending March 31st at 12:01am

Batch Three will be up March 29th at 12:01 am PDT, ending April 1st at 12:01am

All listings will run for three days. The only exception is the breakfast at RT with Angela James, Jane Litte, and Sarah Wendell. Because that event is approaching very soon, it will be in batch one and be a one-day auction only.

We are going to try our best to get lists up of what items are in which batch, but with new donations still coming in I’m not sure everything will be included. There will be categories in the store to help you find the items you want.

Shipping details will be in the description of each item. Please read those carefully before you bid to see if it is US only or international.

I have already made two bids:

A digital ARC of Yours By Design, by Shannon Stacey
3 signed books by Erica Orloff. I have no idea who she is, but figured this is a good chance to give a new author a try.

2 responses so far

Thoughts on Net Galley

Mar 24 2011 Published by Jessica under Blogs and blogging

A guest post by @sonomalass of Sonomalass’s Blog.

Recent conversations, on Twitter and elsewhere, have gotten me thinking about NetGalley. As you probably know, NetGalley is a service that helps publishers put electronic ARCs (advance reader copies) into the hands of readers likely to review books and talk them up before their release. Let me say right up front that I think this is a fabulous idea, and I’m glad that it’s starting to catch on with more publishers, large and small. The increasing number of blogs, and the widespread use of reader review functions at Goodreads, Amazon and other sites, have changed the definition of “reviewer” quite a bit. The desire of publishers to use that, and NetGalley’s willingness to facilitate it, are good things. But I think that some of the growing pains are worth taking a look at, albeit from my purely subjective perspective.

When I first joined NetGalley, it was because a number of people told me, “Oh, you don’t have to have a blog. They are looking for people who review on Goodreads and Amazon, too.” And that was true, for many of the publishers participating; they wanted to get buzz for certain books, so they made those books more widely available for advance review by using NetGalley. I read some good books a little early, tried some things I probably wouldn’t have paid for, and Did Not Finish several books. I also let some files expire (most eARCs are temporary files) because I just didn’t get to them within the time frame allowed. Books I finished, I reviewed on Goodreads and in my own monthly reading summary. All in all, it was a pretty good system. Now, NetGalley says it is for “professional readers,” and I’m just not sure if that’s me.

67 responses so far

Help! How do you get out of a blogging slump?

Jan 26 2011 Published by Jessica under Blogs and blogging, Navel gazing

Real life is going great, but I am having a hard time getting back into the swing of blogging.

I’ve been reading, but the energy to write a review? Not there. And who needs a another review of a book a zillion people have already reviewed anyway?

There’s that post I’ve been writing: “Why Zadist is the heroine of Lover Awakened”. But I can’t seem to finish it, and who cares about a book people read years ago anyway?

I could do a “this and that” post, a kind which seem REALLY popular this month (and which I enjoy reading). But I get tired just thinking about it.

There are links. I’ve been reading blog posts. Other people are writing GREAT blog posts. But the energy to link to them is gone.

I just feel really estranged from the whole enterprise. Like … sort of mystified as to how I could have written so many posts, and that I couldn’t write a blog post worth reading if I tried.

I know it doesn’t matter because this is just a hobby. And it doesn’t, in the scheme of things. But I am slightly worried that if I don’t force myself to write something soon, the thought of returning to this blog, like the thought of returning to the gym after a long hiatus, will never appeal again. Hence this uninspiring post.

It’s a bit of a struggle to hit “Publish” on this, actually, for obvious reasons.

But maybe posting this but of fluff will be like a baby step to a better post?

So, here’s a question: what do you do when your get up and go has got up and went? Any advice?

42 responses so far

Finding Balance in Blogging

Dec 30 2010 Published by Jessica under Blogs and blogging

This post is dedicated to Geraldine Doyle

I’ve really been enjoying the end of year posts, be they Top 10s or New Year’s Resolutions or whatever. This is my version of an end of the year “reflective” post. If you hate philosophy, skip down to the list below.

Some ethical theories are based on rules or principles. For example, W.D. Ross has his famous list of 7 duties, including fidelity, reparation and gratitude. Aristotle was a bit different. You can read everything Aristotle had to say about ethics and find very few principles.

Aristotle’s idea was to consider what human beings are like, and then think about what the best kind of life for our kind of beings is. Rather than listing rules to follow, he thought about which character traits — he called them “virtues” — would lead to the best human life. He thought that any kind of thing or activity could have characteristic virtues (and if you’ve taken my ethical theory class you may have heard way too much about pruning tools. SORRY!). You just had to start with a conception of a thing’s function, then think about what it would mean to do that function with excellence.

A virtue is a good trait that leads to (and is constitutive of ) a thing’s excellence. Aristotle thought that virtues had a unique kind of structure, which has come to be known as the “doctrine of the mean.” Each virtue had two characteristic vices, a vice of deficiency and a vice of excess. So, for example, if courage is a virtue, the vice of excess would be foolhardiness, and the vice of deficiency would be cowardice.

So how do we know when we’ve found the mean? It wouldn’t be right to say that Aristotle thought we should “aim for moderation” in everything. For one thing, there is no moderate amount of murder or spite. Instead, we have to have in mind our goals or vision of the good, we must use our practical reason, and hopefully we have in mind a kind of exemplar — someone who is really good at the activity in question — to refer to.

I sometimes think about blogging in these terms, although I readily admit the fit is not perfect. The good I am aiming for in the blog is to provide a contributing, sometimes unique, voice in the conversation about (mainly) romance novels. I also definitely have my blogging exemplars.

I don’t have any specific resolutions or goals for the blog for 2011. But here are a some extremes I am going to try to avoid:

Balance between 100% focus on quantity versus 100% focus on quality of posts
Balance between caring too much versus caring too little about what others think
Balance between writing new content for this blog, and enjoying others’ content (as well as Twitter and other social media)
Balance between reading what everyone else is reading and reading what nobody else is reading
Balance between a fast loading clutter free blog versus having a slow loading blog with lots of user friendly features
Balance between having no schedule and having too rigid of a schedule
Balance between feeling free to say what I think, even when it is unpopular, versus making unwise comments that are not worth the grief they may cause me (i.e. picking my battles)
Balance between putting marginally written content out there versus obsessing over it with frequent edits and rereads
Balance between ignoring the fact that there is a whole blogopshere out there versus running myself ragged all over the blogosphere
Balance between being afraid to take up another blogger’s post here versus taking every issue here and not engaging with the original blogger on her turf
Balance between never bothering to do anything to make my posts stand out versus doing things specifically to catch attention
Balance between reviewing well known or major press authors versus debut or small press authors
Balance between reading books that are comfortable versus reading books that stretch my boundaries
Balance between my preference for text-only posts versus most other people’s preferences for images
Balance between wordiness versus morse code brevity
Balance between responding to every single comment, email and tweet versus rarely, if ever, responding
Balance between never noticing cool things on other blogs or learning from other bloggers versus comparing my blog in an unhealthy way to other blogs
Balance between content rich, complete posts versus crowd-sourced posts that invite reader participation

Like most people, I lean more heavily on one of another side of each of the above pairs. Aristotle says that if you know that about yourself, you should try extra hard to lean the other way.

Obviously, this will be a special challenge for #15!

14 responses so far

Monday Morning Stepback: Rigged contests, Guided reading, Harlequin’s Enhanced Online Reputation

Dec 20 2010 Published by Jessica under Blogs and blogging, Monday Morning Stepback

The Weekly Links, Opinion and Personal Updates Post

Annoyed with bloggers who do constant giveaways to increase readership? Feel sure these contests are rigged? Their time may be at hand, if this angry person or this one has anything to say about it. A third post, Are Bloggers Conducting Illegal Lotteries? also raises interesting questions about how blog contests should be regulated. (via @myfriendamy):

Go right on ahead then honey because when the feds intervene, when state law governing sweepstakes intervene, I will be sure to grab some popcorn. Because I spoke about this issue once, about whether the sweep was a sham, and I was right then, I am right now. Bloggers are rigging their giveaways for winners based on whom THEY want to win, not by chance. Which technically if you as a blogger are conducting yourself in such a manner you are violating federal and state sweepstakes laws by crossing into lottery territory.

[Edited to add: Author and attorney Courtney Milan blogged about this a year ago. The post is called, "How to run a blog contest without going to jail."]

*****

Have you ever read in a genre, noticed a trend, and thought, “I find this really weird, but since no one else is mentioning it, I’ll just keep my mouth shut.”? Well, that’s what I’ve always thought about the “bra suck” in romance. Luckily, SuperWendy has proven once again that the truth shall set us free, with her post on The Soggy Bra Epidemic, followed up by a somber and thoughtful discussion of this very important issue with her man. This is a matter of public health and sexual education, people. Go forth and read.

*****

Library Journals’ 10 Must Read m/m romances (via @katiebabs). Was happy to see Sean Kennedy and Alex Beecroft there. Many of the others are unknown to me.

*****

What We Talk About When We Talk About Rape, by Jaclyn Friedman, in The American Prospect on the Assange charges and the media’s coverage of them (via @moirarogers(bree))

Here’s how it works: As soon as a rape accusation makes it into the news cycle (most often because the accused is famous), it’s instantly held up against our collective subconscious idea about what Real Rape (or, as Whoopi Goldberg odiously called it, “rape-rape”) looks like. Here’s a quick primer on that ideal: The rapist is a scary stranger, with a weapon, even better if he’s a poor man of color. The victim is a young, white, conventionally pretty, sober, innocent virgin. Also, there are witnesses and/or incontrovertible physical evidence, and the victim goes running to the authorities as soon as the assault is over.

But let’s face it, actual rapes almost never match up to this ideal. Most rape victims know their attacker (estimates range from 75 percent to 89 percent), most rapists use alcohol or drugs to facilitate the assault (More than 80 percent, according to researcher David Lisak), not weapons, and most of the famous men whose accusers receive media attention aren’t poor men of color. But once the accusation hits the news cycle, whatever pundit gets there first uses the non-ideal details of the alleged assault to argue that surely, we shouldn’t take this seriously, and other pundits nod their head in agreement.

*****

At Novel Readings, Rohan Maitzen weighs in on the debate over Oprah’s choice of Dickens for her book club. The literati are worried that the common folk won’t understand the book, apparently.

Maitzen rejects the idea that Oprah readers are too unsophisticated to “get” Dickens, noting that Dickens was once a “popular” author. Yet, as an English professor, she believes that guidance can enhance the reading experience. I especially appreciated her point that:

novels that don’t immediately gratify your taste may be revealing some of your own limits, not just theirs. Sometimes, you’re asking the wrong questions, for instance. Here’s where ‘real guidance’ might come in handy, at least in training you as a reader to stop and think about why the book is as it is, what purposes its aesthetic and formal choices serve, what ideas shape it. You might not like it any better, but you would understand a lot more about it.

Opinion

Mrs. Giggles is bored with the internets:

I decided to look for new titles to buy using online hype when I got home. I hit up the Web and… sigh. Is it just me or have all the major romance blogs are now collaborating to hype up the same 5 authors over and over again? I mean, come on. I’ve read those 5 authors already. I want to see the spotlight on someone new. Someone who isn’t published with Harlequin, please. Seriously, have Harlequin bought over the blogs when I wasn’t watching? It used to be that we laugh at the titles of their Presents books. Now, it seems like everyone is reading Harlequin category romances like they are serious business.

I have four things to say about her post (too annoying to try to comment over there. HATE LiveJournal):

1. It’s true that this is a small community and we like to read what our peers are reading, in order to have shared experiences to talk about on Twitter and our blogs, and so some books get overexposed. But this is not just an issue with genre fiction. Anybody notice a little book by Jonathan Frantzen this year? And how that was the only book anyone in the literature/general fiction universe talked about for a month straight? Plus, if a book is good, of course we are going to rave about it, and increased chatter will be the result. And if a book is good and does something NEW in the genre? You do the math.

2. Luckily it is very easy to fix that sense of sameness: start reading other blogs. It is really quite simple to cut out of your life a blog that bothers you. I wonder why more people who complain do not try this? Alternatively, ask your readers to help you find new and unique books. You can see this last strategy at work in Mrs. Giggles’ own thread. (But see point 4 below). Or just surf or shop randomly, picking out what interests you.

3. I have only been on line a few years and even I have noticed the increased respect given to Harlequin, much of it driven by things other than the quality of its books, such as its marketing savvy, its embrace of digital, and its responsiveness to the online community (Blogger Bundles, etc.). But, unlike Mrs. Giggles, I think this is mostly a natural and good thing. Some Harlequin books are great, some not so great. To lump an entire publisher or line together is to do the same thing on a smaller scale that non romance readers do to the entire genre. Harlequin is our major genre publisher. Does it make sense to turn our noses up at it?

4. It’s kind of interesting how many commenters on that thread say they don’t read romance, and do not recommend any romance in their responses. I don’t know why, but I always find it kind of surprising how many people in the romance community don’t seem to read or even much like romance.

Personal

Hanukkah and both birthday parties are over. At his birthday party on Saturday, my 11 year old received a copy of Suzanne Collins’ The Hunger Games from a friend, and to my shock, it turned out half the boys had read it.

I have a bit of grading to finish today, and then it’s break until January 10. We aren’t traveling, but we might toss some beach sand on our new kitchen floor, don sunglasses, and play some Jimmy Buffet.* (*actually, I hate Jimmy Buffet. Sorry Parrotheads.)

No idea what I will be blogging. Hope everyone who celebrates has a wonderful Christmas holiday!

I leave you with this very amusing Andy Samberg video, lyrics NSFW:

49 responses so far

Can Blog Commenting Survive the Twitter and Tumblr Assault?

Dec 10 2010 Published by Jessica under Blogs and blogging

I write to you today floating on a wave of delight that my teaching year has just ended. Since I am NOT ready to launch into grading, here’s a short blog post, that somehow still manages to be rambling (it’s a gift):

A year ago, I wondered if Twitter would cause people to blog less. I am not sure whether it has. Although I can certainly name some bloggers who seem more productive on Twitter than on their own blogs, there are new blogs springing up all the time.

Today, I wonder whether the main effect of twitter has been on blog comments.

Paranormal romance author Isabel Roman blogged today about the lack of comments on some of her posts, despite getting a lot of hits. She writes:

The thing I notice is that people come. They read. They do not comment. I wonder why that is. Curious. My post on reviews and why you do them, where you post them, and if you comment on others gets hits, but no comments. Hmmm…

Even my guests get hits, especially after the fact, and yet very few comments. Example: Friday Guest: Wendi Zwaduk with 120 page views but only a measly 6 comments. 120 vs. 6…my math seems skewed.

Not too long ago, Tumperkin of Isn’t It Romance? was thinking about shutting down her blog, and named lack of comments as one possible reason (she’s still blogging. Thank God).

I have been emailing a bit with author Shannon Stacey, my next featured author for the Behind the Lines segment. I felt nervous about how many comments she might get, since Shiloh Walker’s Behind the Lines had so few (despite getting lots of hits), but Shannon replied that, in her mind, any place people are talking about a post is all good, be it Twitter or Facebook, or wherever. So look for her post Tuesday.

Here’s an interesting comparion from Mediaite about Tumblr:

A year ago, in preparation for another piece about Tumblr, [founder] Karp told me that the average Tumblr post had five interactions – likes, reblogs, answers – as compared to an average 1.5 comments on the average WordPress post.

I have a Tumblr account, mostly because I didn’t want someone else to take the name*, but I do not know what to do with it.

(*yeah, because someone is really going to steal what is possibly one of the worst blog names on the planet!)

Looking at some of the big blogs, you see lots of RTs but few or no comments. This effect is really extreme at a site like www.mashable.com. But even here, I’ve had posts get more RTs than comments.

I’ve noticed that this blog has grown steadily in subscribers and daily visitors, but comments have not grown proportionately. Some folks like to lurk, and some read this blog, but only discuss it on Twitter.

Or maybe it’s just fatigue. At this point, in order to do my Monday Morning Stepback posts, I subscribe to over 300 blogs. It can be overwhelming to try to comment on everything I find interesting. Adding that to Twitter, etc. makes for a packed online schedule.

I don’t have an opinion, actually, on whether this is a good thing or not (if it even IS a “thing”.). Occasionally I do feel let down by lack of comments. The absolute lowest was a post on trends in paranormal romance I spent weeks preparing, even interviewing some very big name authors, and got like two comments. But usually I just go with the flow.

I know exactly what to post if I want a lot of comments (something about sex, something funny, snarky reviews, criticism of other blogs), but I would never force myself to write what I don’t feel like writing.

I recognize the irony in asking for comments on a blog post about comments. And it would serve me right if I get none. But I’ll try it anyway:

I’m curious, do you feel like you get as many comments these days as in the past?
Do you think Twitter or Tumbrl or even Facebook has affected blog commenting?
Do you care whether you get a lot of comments?

And even if you don’t feel like commenting? Thanks for reading!

49 responses so far

It Takes A Village to Redo A Blog … some thank yous and an update

Sep 26 2010 Published by Jessica under Blogs and blogging, Navel gazing

Several changes have been made to improve the reading experience since the new layout went live last week. I hope readers experience a clean look and easy interface which puts written content and user friendliness first. And if not, you can just suck it stick to the comfort of your feed reader.

Thanks to Shelley Kay of Webcrafters for the new logo and blog layout. Until I started the process, I did not realize how hard it would be to find an image of a woman reading a book that was neither “librarian sexy”, nor “Bambi sexy”, nor “frumpy/unsexy”.

Thanks to Kenda of Lurv a la Mode and Carolyn Crane –whose second book, Double Cross is coming out this week — for advice on the blog (and logo) before it went live. I never noticed fonts until you guys came into my life.

Thanks to Kristen of Fantasy Cafe and her partner in crime for revising the blog layout this weekend, when they could have been relaxing or doing whatever newlyweds do (the dishes, I think).

Thanks to Ann Somerville and @mcvane who have offered help and advice along the way.

Thanks to all the readers who took the time to make helpful suggestions in this thread.

Thanks to Tess Gerritsen whose blog filled the large hole where my imagination, originality, and creativity should be.

Enjoy your Sunday!

5 responses so far