"What say you, Mari? For you are a young lady of deep reflection, I know, and read great books and make extracts." -Jane Austen-ish.
@Snark_Squad
|
@BookNetFest
From Julia Quinn, who famously sat next to Beverly Jenkins on a panel and said she doesn't write Black characters because she wanted to write characters having happy endings, a cash grab featuring a Black character!
Prepare yourselves for the love story that shook the monarchy. Behold the cover for
#QueenCharlotte
, a new novel inspired by the upcoming series. Available in the U.S. on May 9th. Pre-order:
When we talk about Colleen Hoover and her publisher both romanticizing abusive relationships and trying to convince us her books are romance, actually, something like CREATING A COLORING BOOK only proves the point.
me on ellen
ellen: so I heard you love Pride and Prejudice
me: I love it so much
*suddenly, a lake appears and I can see the top of Colin Firth’s head*
me: omg ellen you didn’t
Let’s all come together and accept the very distinct possibility that Sarah J Maas and Colleen Hoover, two of the worst authors currently writing, will win Goodreads Choice Awards. A pre-mourn if you will.
This is why conversations about "color conscious casting" in adaptations of white stories need to happen because the big question at the heart of it will always be: who is profiting our stories?
Piper CJ rundown. She self-published a book which she admittedly wrote in a week and didn’t have the resources to get professionally edited all because “she didn’t think anyone would read it.”
There is a corner of BookTok that has a side hobby of basically catcalling and sexually harassing any conventionally attractive man they come across because he reminds them of a fictional conventionally attractive man they’ve read about.
I think Felicia Wennberg is an amazing woman and I hope you guys take some time to read what she has to say and reflect on how some of the things you say publicly make actual people feel
Remember when Colleen Hoover was going to launch a coloring book themed after her book about a woman in an abusive relationship? And everyone was like wtf, and she was like 😭 oopsie, sorry? Now look at this:
Some people in the book community need to hear that choosing to publicly love Harry Potter, Sarah J. Maas, From Blood and Ash and Colleen Hoover doesn't count as a marginalization. I swear, it feels like these girlies want to be oppressed so bad.
Over consumption and hustle culture got y’all thinking that reading 200 books in one year is better than reading 3-5 books slowly and sitting with the information or the story
Voting for the only major book awards chosen by readers has finally begun. That’s right, the 15th annual Goodreads Choice Awards are here! Vote during the Opening Round for the books you want to see make it to the Final Round!
Darcy: Conversation does not come easily to me.
Lizzie: Because you do not practice.
*Mr. Darcy shows up to talk to Lizzie the very next day*
Lizzie: NOT ON ME.
I'm not just "I liked Missandei" mad. I'm "Dany's entire storyline has been built on the backs of people of color and we didn't need the murder of the one black woman on the show to solidify her ~loss~" mad.
#GameofThrones
#gameofsnark
Can someone please help me understand why certain fandoms talk about themselves like an oppressed group? I was talking about publishing bad reworked fic lmao
Not this booktoker trying to claim saying “Reylos must be stopped” is a hate crime. 🤦🏻♀️
@mynameismarines
watch out the reylos are coming for you girl 😂
#booktwt
#booktok
It's really interesting to me how many aspiring authors and self-published authors are saying in my comments that actually, reviews are for authors and are a way for them to improve their craft.
Authors, you don’t have to like negative reviews but you need to stay out of them. Your friends need to stay out of them. Your family needs to stay out of them. REVIEWS ARE NOT FOR AUTHORS.
Because BookTok is a newer community, there aren’t well defined lines between readers and authors. There are a few ways that we see this having an effect on BookTok. 1/
I made a video about Fourth Wing coming from the SJM School of Fantasy Writing and the typical pale white woman/vaguely described and fetishized man of color pairing. And man, I crack myself up.
Kierra Lewis has made multiple videos now where she takes 0 accountability for her content, calls Weeran a "delusional bitch," and seems to think sexual harassment is okay if it's "a joke." This is Weeran's Instagram comments rn.
There is a corner of BookTok that has a side hobby of basically catcalling and sexually harassing any conventionally attractive man they come across because he reminds them of a fictional conventionally attractive man they’ve read about.
It's never that you aren't allowed to dislike books from non-white authors, but that as reviewers-- especially ones who, you know, care-- it's your responsibility to unpack the language you use to review and the biases you bring to a work.
Look at the time, author comes for reviewer o’clock.
Sarah Stusek received her first four star review of her upcoming book Three Rivers. She made a TikTok with a screenshot of the review and the reviewer’s identity visible, calling the reviewer a bitch for giving her 4 stars.
A little pro-editing tip from me, a pro, to you, a YA writer: if you have a line that disparages girls for wearing make-up, even if indirectly by praising your main character for not "needing" make-up, go back, delete it, try again.
I kept hearing from Tillie Cole defenders that the book didn’t romanticize the Kl*n and was being misrepresented, so I read it.
It was even worse than I thought it would be.
This cancel culture in the bookish community NEEDS to stop. the fact that y'all are going after Tillie Cole over ignorance and hate is ridiculous. Seek an understanding and what is in a book before placing judgment on it.
This is what I get for opening Instagram, “you can’t hold authors accountable or decide how to spend your money, because then we’ll have nothing left to read.” 🤡
I have so many thoughts on this piece and especially about the genre of reporting on BookTok that is essentially "person enters a community for a few hours, thinks they have it all figured out."
For aspiring authors, if you cannot handle negative feelings about your work, if you don’t understand the role of critique and criticism and review, is publishing the job for you?
As the boycott against St. Martin's Press rolls on, and we see white women consistently undermining and breaking the boycott in order to prioritize their own comfort and pleasure, I want to highlight some videos and ideas I think are so incredibly important.
Wait until all the folks who love reading so much they write articles about how other people are doing it wrong find out I sometimes listen to my audiobooks on 3 speed.
I always find it so hilarious when a character in a book catches their reflection in something so they can describe themselves to us. It’s definitely on my unofficial reading drinking game.
Two strong female characters can exist and be strong in different ways. We are not going to take this opportunity to talk shit on Sansa who is not a fighter but who made sure all those soldiers and refugees? Had food and shelter in HER home.
Before Fourth Wing, Yarros was writing military romances, a sub-genre that, arguably, can come with a whole host of pro-military propaganda. Reading Fourth Wing did not give me any confidence in her ability to criticize a military complex. And here is her latest release:
"You will experience this phenomenal novel’s most iconic scenes and settings. Favorite quotes come alive with charming illustrations that will make you want to frame them on your wall."
This is a book about domestic abuse.
@hankgreen
I work for a company that works on demand-side energy efficiency programs to help decarbonize the grid and the change in outlook is just incredible.
Are we talking about the worst parts of Harry Potter? Because "House elves love being slaves!!!! Stop fighting for their freedom!!!" is up there for me.
the current era of booktube is a mood reader's nightmare. everyone is out here like "I read 87 books I had little to no interest in for this video" and I'm like wow, I can't even make myself read the books I think I'm interested in because I have too many emotions, cool.
My job started pressuring me to come back into the office to work for no discernible reason other than “we pay rent here, dammit” so I am very happy to announce I’ve been hired to a better, higher paying permanently remote role. 🥰
There is always some sentiment of “readers read this and missed it!!” whenever we are talking about racist books, but I’m more concerned with every single publishing professional who read it and missed it. From the agent on down: OOOF.
cw: violence
What’s it like being a content creator?
Today, I woke up to a hateful and violent message because someone didn’t like one of my book reviews.
A few hours later, I received an out of the blue email from a viewer just to say they appreciated my content.
🙃🫠
Not some lady with a “0 stars for making me feel bad about racism” review of Babel, meaning you lightly have to cross a picket line to defend it?? It’s too early for this.
I think it’s past time to distance ourselves from the language of “good representation” and “bad representation” in media, to stop feeding into the idea that there is a right way to be any identity and instead focus on what that media says or perpetuates.
It’s all “fiction teaches us” when people are relying on fiction to facilitate all the unlearning of racism and bigotry they need to do but then it’s “it’s just fiction” when fiction is being challenged for harmful messages and misrepresentations. 😬
I keep coming back to how lots of anti-BookTok sentiment is rooted in faux-concern for HOW people read. English room classrooms and gatekeeping rooted in white supremacy and ableism really got y'all thinking you need to be suffering while reading.
I just want to add that this is why I don’t accept ARCs for review. And a great way to get many others to stop accepting ARCs is to tell hobby reviewers that not doing some unpaid labor is theft lol.
I saw some SJM and Fourth Wing girlies coming HARD for a book by an Afro-Latine author, so I'm reading that book now, of course, and that is an example of why I'm never reading what I'm supposed to be reading. TBR WHOMST.🤪
We can talk about the impact Twilight had on the industry without demanding that those who are speaking out against it respect it. Do you get how responding "but you have to respect it" to "it's racist and misogynistic" is a PROBLEM?
I truly do not have to respect it.
It's really interesting to me that the "turn my brain off, read, and have fun" girlies are always yelling about their right to read and have fun with like... racism. Misogyny. Transphobia. Why are you yelling about how much you just want to have fun with bigotry, wtf?
we really are in an era of “the world is burning, real feminism is when i turn off my brain and have fun and anyone else who refuses to do so is hateful and miserable” and it’s so bad
This whole situation is quite wild. I think we can all agree that no one should be harassed or receive threatening DMs. I also think that the Cait Corrain situation has emboldened some authors to get all up in reviewers' business.
the reviewers of To Gaze Upon Wicked Gods have been continually harassed by the author and friends for posting their book reviews on Goodreads, this is their statement from Instagram that I’m reposting here.
A couple of weeks ago, I was lucky enough to get to work with a brand I was genuinely thrilled about for a sponsored post I am super proud of. They’ve been promoting that post to a wide audience on TikTok and it has been a genuine nightmare.
Absolutely wild to see so many people on my timeline saying they are going to be watching the Beautiful Disaster movie, RTING THE TRAILER, and somehow saying in the same breath that they don’t support the author. What is y’all doing…
Content warnings are certainly appreciated. They are useful tools that are easy to ignore if you don't need them. Content warnings don't mean that the people affected won't read the content!!! It just allows those people to be prepared should they choose to proceed.
Tillie Cole’s fans have found me and a hilarious thing they’re doing now that I’ve read the book is moving the goal post. I’ve gotten “we’ll have you read the whole series?” and “did you talk to the author?” These people are truly unhinged.
I kept hearing from Tillie Cole defenders that the book didn’t romanticize the Kl*n and was being misrepresented, so I read it.
It was even worse than I thought it would be.
Jesus, be the end of this take. She was a child. He was her teacher. It was an abuse of power. He GROOMED her. And idk didn’t he like stalk her and spy on her for a while? Mostly, I HATE IT.
authors: rating systems are broken and I DEMAND this incredibly subjective thing be objective!! It’s not fair!!!! it’s so biased!!!
also authors: *rate their own book 5 stars*
Yarros' fans tried to come for me for talking about her pro-military stances and the way she's consistently portrayed Black and Brown people in her work. Her politics are all up in her work, so no, I'm not surprised by her both-sidesing genocide.
Before Fourth Wing, Yarros was writing military romances, a sub-genre that, arguably, can come with a whole host of pro-military propaganda. Reading Fourth Wing did not give me any confidence in her ability to criticize a military complex. And here is her latest release:
When we talk about not supporting “problematic” authors, there’s an assumption that only means spending money. If you have a platform, it is MORE than that. Reading and talking about them is giving them your platform. It says something to your audience about your priorities.
I'm pretty tired of people using the speaking points of book banners and evangelical purity culture to criticize romance. The cartoon style of children's books is often quite different from the cartoon style of romance books.
Are book communities ready to talk about how much of a problem it is that these 18+ romances have covers that make them look as if they are marketed to children? (Cartoon characters that look very unassuming) and so they’re more accessible to children?
How are you honoring Black voices while ignoring the women of color leading the call for you to treat influencers and authors of color with respect and equity? How are you honoring Black voices when you can’t address the systemic racism in your own house?
#speakupSMP
This
#BlackHistoryMonth
, join us as we honor the impactful contributions of the Black community. Follow along as we amplify the voices, viewpoints, and narratives of Black creators throughout the month and all year long.
Learn more here:
@OneLiteraryFox
There's a chance she's mostly tied to it because it's her property. But she's also mainly profiting from it, because it's her property...
When something happens in the book community, when someone messes up, we are generally quick to acknowledge that it's a conversation we should have, but then rarely get around to having said conversation.
People get so defensive when you talk about Hoover romanticizing abuse, but LOOK AT THIS. Cutesy names and product theming referencing a book purposefully marketed as a romance when it’s actually about domestic abuse. And you can own it all for $95 AMERICAN DOLLARS.
BookTok at its highest level is very white and straight, but that’s probably true about every bookish space. Takes like this often just end up undermining and dismissing the BIPOC readers doing the work on BookTok, the ones you’d find if you look even one level deeper.
Okay book Twitter! Add an f-bomb to a book like:
"I might as well inquire," replied she, "why with so evident a desire of offending and insulting me, you chose to tell me that you liked me against your will, against your reason, and even against your fucking character?
GO!
How do
@StMartinsPress
and
@WednesdayBooks
recover at this point? Reviewers of color asked about how they can ensure equitable practices after finding out a recently promoted marketing manager was spewing racist rhetoric online and they’ve just STAYED SILENT.
I wish before people came on here to post their half-baked or blanket ass takes about how much other people read, they’d sit with that take and ask themselves why, whether it’s someone reading 300 romances or someone reading 100 self-help books, it bothers them.
Us: We have questions about the equity of your program and how to safely work with people who have been outwardly racist. Wait, did you just send sex toys to people without permission?
SMP: Dear liars, we have investigated ourselves and found you are liars. Hope this helps.
Regardless, however, of if authors or writers can find use in reviews, it doesn't change my mind on the fact that reviews aren't FOR authors. A review is a conversation between readers, not between a reader and the work's author.
In case it isn’t clear, there is no call to action in this thread and no one should be heading off to bully or insult anyone in my or Rachel’s name. Reviewers just want to be able to review work IN PEACE.
@readswithrachel
published a video review that goes into detail not only about the writing but about the plagiarism, misogyny and problematic representation. It’s snarky but also detailed and fair.
She knew people would read it. She also made several TikToks “joking” about not sending her books out to agents and not accepting critical feedback because she wasn’t in a space to accept rejection or criticism. She wanted an audience but not one that would look too closely.
Apart from the ridiculousness of publishing something for public consumption because no one would consume it, CJ was marketing that book to her audience of hundreds of thousands. In a now deleted video, she shared that she asked for 10 ARC readers and got well over 550 requests.
Please read The Spear Cuts Through Water. Masterfully told in shifting points of view and perspectives, an ode to storytelling and oral tradition, an exploration of power and living on the margins, and “a love-story to its blade-dented bone.”
COME BE UNWELL WITH ME.