If You Liked THIS Book.... You'll LOVE My Book! aka #BookDeath

So. A wee #RantyAnna moment this lovely Saturday. 

I got another blog request tonight that basically went like this...

You liked THAT author's book so I think you'll LOVE this other author I'm pimping at you right now!

Word from the Herd-- Trying again after a dud...

Okay so today's Word from the Herd isn't so much a rant but just a rambling. 

I'm reading a book tonight by one of my favorite authors. I've had the book for like 3 months now and I've been avoiding it. Which is silly. I love her books. I have for years. 

But the last one I read was a massive dud for me.

Word from the Herd: who the hell are you? *unfollow*

*wipes forehead* So! I had a wee little breakdown. It went a little like this...

*logs into Twitter*

*sees yet another idiotic post*

Word from the Herd: Why I'm NOT visiting a Blog

There are thousands of blogs out there. Thousands. It's crazy overwhelming. One of the huge things in the community is socializing but there's just no way to get to everyone. So today I thought I'd share a few reasons why I'm not coming by and visiting.

Word from the Herd: Time and Place, People! Yall need to pull up them drawers!

Filthy nekkid play time! They did NOT mean that literally!

Dude. Yall. Seriously.

Times you should NOT drop trou and go at it like monkeys...

---

Word from the Herd: Why isn't it a 5 star read? Well...because it isn't.

A couple weeks back someone read one of my reviews on Goodreads and then messaged me...

I can't see anything in your review that would, given the rest of it, cost a star. Why 4 instead of 5? 

Word from the Herd-- Acceptable Violence: Heroine's who strike their heroes...

Something I've noticed lately has really started to bother me and I wanted to talk about it today.

I think we'd all pretty much agree that if a hero hit/slapped/physically struck a woman he would no longer be considered a hero. That's just not acceptable, right?

But a heroine slapping/physically striking or trying to knee a hero in the balls while arguing? Totally okay. No one bats an eye. Some would cheer her on because he totally deserved it for <insert whatever excuse here>!

This has happened in 5 books I've read recently and it's a trend I'd started seeing in reads prior to that as well. And it's irked the ever fucking hell out of me.

I've pretty much got the expression of my meme cat right now.

Word from the Herd: Well that's Awkward-- Reader/Author Friendship and an Unfavorable Review

With social media and book conventions friendships between readers/bloggers and authors are pretty common these days. But sometimes. Whew. Sometimes...the awkward...it happens.

A not so favorable review happens.

It's bound to happen. Even with favorite authors.

Word from the Herd: Do Reviews Really Matter?

I saw a couple posts on FB recently and they made me a spot sad and, well, curious too.

One post was geared towards authors, one at readers.

And the question posed was...do you read reviews? Why or why not?

Word from the Herd: Authors! Come give Bloggers YOUR advice!

Soooo today we're having a DOUBLE feature!

In our community bloggers and authors are so connected. It can be an amazing thing but it can also lead to some frustrations since we all work hard but have such different jobs and talents. 

I thought it would be interesting to see what advice Bloggers and Authors would give each other.

Things they wish the other knew or would do, etc.

Either things they love when the other does or things that frustrate them.

Please mention two things only. And please keep things civil :)

For THIS page: Authors what would YOU like to say to Bloggers?

Word from the Herd: Bloggers! Come give Authors YOUR advice!

Soooo today we're having a DOUBLE feature!

In our community bloggers and authors are so connected. It can be an amazing thing but it can also lead to some frustrations since we all work hard but have such different jobs and talents. 

I thought it would be interesting to see what advice Bloggers and Authors would give each other.

Things they wish the other knew or would do, etc.

Either things they love when the other does or things that frustrate them.

Please mention two things only. And please keep things civil :)

For THIS page: Bloggers what would YOU like to say to Authors?

Word from the Herd--Authors shouldn't work for free...but Bloggers should...?

A little bit back and author's post went through my Facebook timeline.

She'd encountered a blogger that mentioned that she didn't charge for review but accepted donations. And the author was wanting people's opinions.

There were some pretty opinionated anti-blogger replies from both authors and reviewers because how dare a blogger ask for monetary...anything. Their "payment" should be the free book and the honor of reading it.

And it's something I wanted to talk about today because it's been bothering me a bit.

Yall, hear me out until the end, please. I'm kind of playing devil's advocate here on the topic ;)

Word from the Herd: Hatedoms (aka mean girl syndrome)

**Just a quick note first: Yall I'm crazy behind in blog visits. We had an internet outage in my area and now I'm working on the auction (and making 50+ graphics by Monday) now that I have the internet back. I promise I haven't forgotten yall. I'll be around as soon as I have them done.

Earlier this month I reviewed a book and got a nice front row seat of the phenom known as hatedoms. 

Ah, yes, it was "lovely". And yall are gonna get to hear about it. lol

'Hatedom: A Fandom that is dedicated to hating a work, idea, community or author, instead of loving it.

Word from the Herd--Everyone's a Best Seller! *glances around*

Everyone's a Best Selling Author!!

Okay. So I know that's not exactly true.

But some days it feels like every single author I pick up is a best seller of some sort.

What got me thinking about it was a blitz post about a box set I saw on a friend's blog. There were a crazy ton of authors in it (15-20is) and looking down the list pretty much every single one of them had a best selling author (of some sort) attached to their name. I'd not heard of a single one of them. That can totally happen but it got me wondering and looking around and thinking about the topic and if the label meant anything to me as a reader anymore.

Does it mean the same thing it used to mean?

For me not really.

Word from the Herd: Done. I am DONE!!! This book & Me?...OVER!

So this one was kind of a toss up between being a Word from the Herd or a Randomly Random but it landed here since I'm feeling more ranty than cheeky. One of my review books today had me feeling a bit...peeved. Actually a few books lately have. I've not had a good reading week and it got me wondering....

What makes you quit a book?

Not just things you'd rather not read but things that have you going...

'oh hell no! I quit this fucking bitch! Next!' type things.

Word from the Herd--Affiliate Links...the Good and the Ugly

Ahhh affiliate links. Something everyone--especially bloggers--should keep up with. They can be a huge help in paying for blog expenses and giveaways but they can also be used in a pretty underhanded way as well. They're fantastic when used right--on your own personal blog/pages, disclosed and in a straight forward way. But they can also be used in a rather slimy way that's actually against most TOS and can get bloggers, authors and tour companies in trouble. Which is where my problem comes in and the reason behind this post. 

Word from the Herd: Accepting books you wouldn't buy...

So. This week isn't really a typical Word from the Herd. There's no rant. No big issue. Just a curiosity on where people fall on this.

A few times lately I've had other bloggers or reviewers say things along the lines of the only reason they read/reviewed something was because they got it for review or it was on NG but they'd never consider buying it otherwise.

A lot of times this revolves around serial books. Not series but, you know, the books that are broken up and doled out a few chapters at a time. So being told by someone they don't like the serial trend but it was on NG so they'll read it since it's free.

And it got me curious.

#WordFromTheHerd: Stop. Panicking. Seriously. Stahp it! Yes, Authors & Bloggers. I'm talking at YOU!

So. I love the romance community. Awesome people, awesome reads, lots of very good hearts and generous people.

But Sweet Mary. We are a damn panicky bunch.

And it's driving me bat shit crazy.

You guys have got to calm the fuck down.

Every other week there seems to be an..."omg! Facebook is out to get us! If you don't do X by this day you'll never see an author/blogger page again!!!" or "Blogger is the devil! They're going to delete ALL THE BLOGS!!!" Share, share, share!!

Word from the Herd: #EnjoyTheClapAndGettingKnockedUp aka...unsafe sex in romance books

So. I've been having an issue with books this month and decided I needed to get a little off my chest. I don't know what it is but I've been slammed with book after book lately where the heroes and heroines throw all common sense out the window and...have unsafe sex.

Consequences be damned!

Because you guys!!!! it feels so good! who cares if they've only known each other for 2 days...aren't on the Pill...of course they can trust that the other is clean even though they don't really know each other.

They want to feel alive! And you know. The pull out method...totally valid.

Sweet. Mary. Let my eyes not roll right out my damn head.

Word from the Herd: 30? Girlfriend you're WAY too OLD for romance. Mmhm.

Okay so this post is way late coming--this is something I saw on a blog last year--but at the time I was just a little too grrr-argy to actually write the post. I decided though I still kind of wanted to put this out there. This was a guest post by a new romance author on things she'd learned while writing her first romance.