There is no such thing. Period!
By now most of you must have heard of the sheer madness that took place on GoodRead for the past 5 days. I won’t mention names or go into details, because I think we were all there to watch the horrific train wreck. What I will say is this: it never should have happened.
Now, I’m not here to take sides. I don’t care if it was the author who started it or the bloggers in question. I personally don’t care. What I care about is the giant rift left in the wake of this colossal disaster between authors (traditional, indie or self-pub) vs. bloggers.
I have friends who are authors and I have friends who are bloggers. I adore both dearly. Some of the first people to add me on Twitter/Facebook were bloggers. They were the ones to first support me when Touching Smoke first began taking shape. They have been my rock, my light, supporting and guiding me and my hatchling of a novel into this vast world of publishing. Some of them have become friends that I wouldn’t know what to do without and in return would do just about anything for.
But after what happened, I began to wonder; how will this now affect bloggers of the world?
Self-Published authors — some of my dear, close friends are self-published and write the most amazing stories! — have a hard enough time getting bloggers to take notice of their work, what with all the traditional novel with their pretty covers and huge power houses behind them. I was heartbroken when I saw bloggers say things like this experience has completely jaded them against self-pub authors and that they will never again bother with them. It was sad to watch as a single person singlehandedly ruined the chances of hundreds of authors, of thousands of books to appease his own vendetta, especially since there is no such thing as Authors Vs. Bloggers.
No
Such
THING!
Authors need bloggers like you need stepping stones across a lake (a vast, terrifying and tumultuous lake infested by sea creatures, sharks and in-laws). And without authors, what would people read? Bloggers would cease to exist. It’s a hand-in-hand collaboration.
But, am I worried?
Do I think that this fiasco has forever damaged the bridge authors and bloggers have built for years?
Oh
Hellz
No!
Bloggers and authors are a stubborn bunch of people. We know what we like. We know what we want. I think it would take more than one person’s quarrel to break that bond. I just felt like this was something that needed to be addressed. Now that I have…
Back to writing, read and making new friends!