Advice on a blogging issue....

S

sallybr

Well-known member
Ok, this will be a bit convoluted - many food bloggers do reviews on cookbooks and products "on demand" - they accept a complimentary copy of the book, or a package of such and such product, then compose a post about it. Of course, the review is supposed to be honest, and reflect the true opinions of the blogger.

For many reasons that are irrelevant right now, I do not do that. I only review stuff I want to review, be it a cookbook, a product, a gadget. In five years of blogging I have never written a sponsored post, and in fact I pay a fee to Wordpress to keep my site 100% ad-free

having said all that, if I like a cookbook enough to post a review, I will contact the author and ask permission to publish ONE recipe from the book.

Most authors are delighted and fantastic to work with. Some never answer my request, which is ok.

Now recently I was faced with a slightly different situation - the author has been a bit of a pain to deal with. Instead of not answering me or saying a straightforward NO, not interested, this person behaves as if she is Julia Child and I am a nobody bothering Her Highness.

so the thing is, she granted me permission to publish one recipe from her book, but has made the whole thing so unpleasant that I have no real desire to go through the effort to actually do it. WHen I write a cookbook review, I try to do a very thorough job, and it takes me quite a bit of work,

My question then is.... what would you do? Would you just do a post about it without putting too much effort into it? Or write back to the author saying - you know, let's forget about it all, maybe it was not such a good idea to start with?

What I would love to do would be to write her and say - you know what? your snotty attitude just ruined it for me. Good luck with your book, and have a nice life smileys/wink.gif

 
Sally, your last sentence says it all. Why should you waste your time and effort on her? I've read

your blog from the time you started and love it. I know how busy you are. Why waste time on her? Saying that, any hints to who she is? smileys/smile.gif Seriously, follow your heart and do what is best for you.

 
I'd say it a little "up"--sorry you didn't see my inquiry as a

desire to tell people how good your book is. So sorry. BYE.

 
I's likely do one of two things....

1) If I like the cookbook and think the work is worthy of a good review, I'd just do it. Not everyone in this world falls in the category of nice person, but if the work was good and I liked it well enough. I'd stick to a review of the book with recipe and ignore the "personality challenged" part.

2) "...write her and say - you know what? (I'm a busy working woman and) your snotty attitude just ruined it for me. Good luck with your book."

I'd lean toward the latter unless the book was exceptional, far be it for me to take a life lesson away from someone who needs it...

(((but sit on it for a day or two and go with your heart)))

PS
If I felt really cranky I might put my #2 response in a form letter much like the linked one from Robert Heinlein. Where you could also add nice things -- that you don't check. It would both snub and be dismissive all at the same time, but then again I can be evil like that sometimes, lol

http://www.lettersofnote.com/2009/12/just-personal-enough.html

 
I'd like to hear more about what she said. Most authors are incredibly gracious but you do

come across ones that are a gigantic pain sometimes. (I will rant until the cows come home about Mark Bittman--such a jerk!). Do you have a substantial following of other food bloggers? I wonder if you could address the issue in some way that isn't wholly offensive to the author but also gives a heads up to other bloggers? Perhaps quote something she said?

Also, are you on the food blogger chat forum on FB? I find addressing these issues there very helpful. https://www.facebook.com/groups/239696939468981/

 
hopefully you are too angry to be disappointed

I suggest publishing the recipe if you still want to blog about it but otherwise put none of your valuable time into the project, including further communication with the author.

 
Thanks, everybody....

..,. your comments were all very helpful, in fact I've been struggling with this for more than a month, and it helped to talk about it.

Agree, Bittman is a PAIN - so glad I'm not the only one who thinks so. smileys/wink.gif Enough said

Dorie Greenspan - adorable, I am working on a review of her new book, Baking Chez Moi. Every single one of the cookbook reviews I have in my blog already were a complete pleasure to do thanks to the attitude of the authors. Anne Burrell was a delight too

anyway, I decided to go ahead and review the book because I like it, BUT I won't do a detailed, chapter by chapter bit. It will be a compromise - I will honor my part of the deal, as I showed interest in reviewing it, but won't break my back doing it.

It won't be in the blog for quite some time still.

 
Now, on the OTHER side of the spectrum.....

.. here is something that gave me a warm feeling this morning

My most recent post was about cookies made by Helen Fletcher, and in fact I learned about her blog here in this forum, months ago

anyway, I wrote a post about her and her blog, since I think she is OUTSTANDING -

she sent me an amazing email this morning, thanking me and letting me know that the subscriptions to her blog more than doubled after my article - made me feel sooooo good!

BTW if you missed the praise for her site here a while ago, make sure to stop by now - she has a gorgeous Chocolate Cranberry tart on her front page

http://pastrieslikeapro.com/

 
While I am not a blogger, nor have I had any experience like you described, I do feel

you should follow your heart. Just the little bit I know about you, you seem very professional, fair, compassionate, and smart. Rise above her bad behavior, and it sounds like you have chosen just that path. Do what is healthy for you and your ethics, it will be good for your heart. smileys/wink.gif

 
Thank you SO MUCH!

I think following my heart and intuition is really the way to go.

I won't let this bother me.

so good that I posted!

 
It is wonderful.....

She's been "twisting my arm" so to speak.... to make the chocolate cranberry tart

I think I'll go for it - in December.

 
This reminds me of so many situations in business when people get their own heads so

inflated or place so many nit-picky demands on progress, that the entire deal falls apart and no one wins. Really, I have been involved in so, so many, that it makes for a sad statement about how tiny little people focus on the little-minded issues or get caught up in greed without seeing through the whole picture through to a win-win. And I am talking about deals involving many, many millions.

In fact, I've been pondering this a lot lately. I can't even begin to tell you what these people have cost me in my life. We just don't seem to learn.

Perhaps if you stay focussed on your mission, the decision will make itself.

I'm with Maria on the first count. For me it would be an integrity issue. If it is something that you want to do and feel that the book is worthy .... that's the whole issue ... it's what you do. You don't do it because you 'like' the author. But it needs to be worthy of your time and perhaps aggravation. It's what you do; do you do it with caveats involved? People just aren't perfect to deal with. You just look beyond that.

And having said that, I also need to recognize that people sometimes have reasons that are beyond our scope. So generally, I just try to remain neutral about it. It's all a matter of what feels comfortable for YOU.

Could she benefit from a good review from you? Possibly. But that's only if the book is worthy.

 
Good advice all around...

I would leave it as well and say, no thanks.

I was asked to review a book once (actually I've been asked to review many books). But this book was a pompous opinionated gutter swamp passing itself as learn-ed facts and erudition. I gagged myself through the book since I said I'd read the comp copy, and then I was being pressed for my review which I was putting off since I didn't have anything nice to say about the book.

So, instead of just not bothering, I finally did the review, which went over like the proverbial lead balloon. How dare I!

So, the end of this long winded response is, some people are not looking for honesty; if you give it to them, they will not be pleased. So better off leaving them in suspense.

 
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