Comments on: Jesus, Look Who’s Representing Online Romance Peeps At RWA…

By: Janet W

Janet W — Sun, 24 May 2009 21:09:08 +0000

What’s sad about horrid MB’s LURV review site — authors I know/like/respect — when they show up there, it’s hard for me to understand why.

How do you filter that? Maybe their publishing houses are forcing them?

By: Anne C

Anne C — Thu, 21 May 2009 15:37:03 +0000

“An OT question here: is it just me, or does MB’s photo scare others? She’s definitely not a bad looking woman, just has the kind of eyes like from a painting in an old horror flick..the kind that follow you around the room even when the lights are off.”

OMG- I thought I was the only one who thought that-..lolol

By: AztecLady

AztecLady — Wed, 20 May 2009 18:18:32 +0000

I find it interesting that the blog post Sybil linked to is 28 months old and yet MB continues to refer to her readers as “viewers”. It’s a bit like that whole “working in the internet” vs hanging online thing she said in her presentation at Princeton; as if she has this idea of how things work (or perhaps, how things should work) and she goes on blithely on the assumption that reality will conform to it sooner or later.

Either way, that’s one workshop I’ll be skipping :shrug: I’m sure there are going to be plenty of interesting things going on at RWA that I can do.

(Like the panel on online marketing with Sarah Wendell and Ann Aguirre, among others, on Saturday jes’ sayin’)

[full disclosure: I beta read and do promo-type stuff for Ann]

By: Tuscan Capo

Tuscan Capo — Wed, 20 May 2009 17:35:47 +0000

An OT question here: is it just me, or does MB’s photo scare others? She’s definitely not a bad looking woman, just has the kind of eyes like from a painting in an old horror flick..the kind that follow you around the room even when the lights are off.

By: JulieLeto

JulieLeto — Wed, 20 May 2009 00:32:23 +0000

I’m an author and I don’t think all reviews should be positive. I *wish* that all negative reviews were thoughtful and without mockery and condescension, but I also wish for world peace. And I wish all positive reviews had pull quotes that an author CAN use for promotion, but again, that’s sometimes like wishing for no-calorie chocolate fudge sundaes. Best to just take what you can get, I think.

By: Mireya

Mireya — Tue, 19 May 2009 17:52:17 +0000

@Sarah T: Some authors do have that misperception (that reviews are supposed to be positive). This goes hand in hand with reviews as a promo tool. I’ve had my share of arguments on the subject… and this considering that in the little publication I co-own we seek second opinions when we get a bad review on a book from a member of our team, plus we hold the policy of “lessening the blow” as much as possible *shrug* I guess it doesn’t matter how PC you are when posting a bad review, you are damned if you do and damned if you don’t.

On a side note, I see that this person is essentially of the opinion that reviews should cater to authors and not readers. I guess that’s partially why the RWA thinks she is an “authority” on the subject. *snort*

By: Jane

Jane — Tue, 19 May 2009 15:50:02 +0000

The best statement about MB’s relevancy is that she has not been mentioned in one press article about the Princeton conference. Sarah has been favorably mentioned in each of them but MB? It’s like she didn’t exist.

By: katiebabs

katiebabs — Tue, 19 May 2009 13:19:05 +0000

RWA is going to be very, very interesting this year.

By: SarahT

SarahT — Tue, 19 May 2009 08:07:36 +0000

RWA probably kiss her ass because she kisses theirs.

I don’t understand the attitude that all reviews of romance novels have to be positive. Does any other genre expect this? Doesn’t it undermine romance authors’ attempts to be taken seriously?

By: Sybil

Sybil — Tue, 19 May 2009 04:12:41 +0000

http://www.romancingtheblog.com/blog/2006/12/28/nasty-is-the-new-naughty/

She has such high respect for bloggers – yes?

Maybe she became a media expert with her ‘viewers’ at lifetime.com it takes a great leader to lead people away but really the audience is authors she is always nice to them. Rule is if you have something mean to say you wait til the person leaves the room. You silly rabbit don’t you know nothing about nothing.