Thursday, July 19, 2012

Bloggers Behaving Badly

 What is up with the book blogging world lately? Just this week, we have:

1. Stop the Goodreads Bullies. I post that link with a conflicted heart, because I honestly don't want to give those people any web traffic. They appear to have decided that the proper response to ad hominem Goodreads reviews is to post personal, identifying information about the offending reviewers. This is just the latest kerfuffle in the middle school cafeteria that is the current YA book blogging world*. 

2. ChickLitGirls Threaten Author With Ridiculous Lawsuit.  To summarize: ChickLitGirls charges authors for their (exclusively positive) reviews. An author mentions this on Twitter. ChickLitGirls makes absurd legal threats.

And that's not even touching the subject of the bloggers/linebackers on the ALA exhibits floor who shove people out of the way in order to grab stacks of the latest mermaid dystopia titles.

You guys. I love the relative peace of the children's lit world. I love the fact that it's a safe space, where I can write critical reviews without worrying that Jack Gantos is going to appear on my doorstep and threaten to rub my face in the dirt.

If this kind of malarkey ever creeps into our little haven of civility, I will personally call down the ghost of Peter Sieruta to give us all a stern-yet-gentle talking-to.

(And if any of you are artistically inclined, please please please create a "Ghost of Peter Sieruta" image that we can use when discussions start to become uncivil. Many of you knew him better than I did, but I think he would have liked that?)

*Of course I'm not talking about excellent blogs like Bookshelves of Doom, which has been around long enough to hate Shadowmancer as much as I do. There are plenty of YA bloggers who don't engage in this nonsense, and I'm sorry that they have to be associated with it.

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