{REAL TALK} Playing Favorites Is SO Third Grade.

I don’t really rant on the blog, I tend to save that for my lengthy diatribes on Facebook. However, I’ve noticed an upsetting trend lately, and I’m NOT the only one, so I wanted to take a few minutes and say something.

 

Authors: I love you. You know that I do. From deep within my black little heart. I love the characters you bring us, the worlds you create, those hours of escape your words offer me.

 

HOWEVER.

It’s not all sunshine and unicorns. When we, as bloggers, participate in a blog tour, and read, review, and post on time, only to have an author share SOME posts on the tour, and not others, it’s not cool. Not even a little bit. In fact, it’s fucking hurtful sometimes.

It’s happened to me; it’s happened to friends of mine. And it doesn’t feel good.

I understand that in this community, there are different levels of bloggers, and some have more clout than others. But you know what? On a blog tour, bloggers with a smaller following do the same fucking thing that the big dogs do. Read the book? CHECK. Review said book? CHECK. Post on their tour date and share that post far and wide? CHECK and CHECK.

We’re all doing the same thing for the same cause. Hell, if I’m being honest, oftentimes bloggers with a smaller readership are doing MORE work, as they are still trying to get a foothold and establish a reader base.

I understand that getting a review from a “big-time” blogger is exciting for an author. Sometimes, as an author, you’ll have a closer personal or professional relationship with some bloggers. I get it, I really do. But when those posts get shared, and the less-well-known bloggers posts are all but ignored, it makes those passed over feel really unappreciated.

And those slights are not forgotten.

Remember, people, everyone was low man on totem pole at some point or another.

Even you.

 

**Feature Photo Credit: MartinaK15 on Flickr. Used under Creative Commons license