Book Blogger Appreciation Week Gets Political…
Oh don’t pretend any of you are surprised. It was bound to happen. When you have a thousand blogs nominated for this, that, and the other, there’s bound to be low rumblings amongst the masses. Unfortunately, one of these low rumblings turned into something akin to the Profumo Affair – erm, minus the affair I guess. Heh.
Anyway, this is the story:
BBAW was conceived by My Friend Amy last year, apparently it was a wonderful feel-good affair, which led to it growing exponentially this year. Blogs can either be nominated or they can nominate themselves. Once they are nominated, they needed to register via email, and present five posts that best represented them in the category that they were nominated in. Still with me? Good.
Something like a thousand blogs were nominated, and among these was a blog that charged for reviews. (Seriously $115 for a review? Who the eff would pay that money?) Anyway, there were criticisms from various corners, (people weren’t keen on a reviewer who charged for their reviews being included in BBAW) which led to a few blogs questioning whether they should remove themselves from the contest. Dear Author decided to not participate, and the SBs put a poll up or something questioning whether or not they too should remove themselves.
Anyhow, all this speculation apparently left My Friend Amy feeling like she’d been horse-whipped, seeing as for her, this was probably a labour of love, albeit one that seemed to have backfired somewhat.
I felt a bit sorry for Amy actually, because she’s probably feeling bruised from all the kickings that BBAW has taken in the past couple of days. It has been said that criticism of BBAW isn’t a necessarily criticism of her, but I suspect that that doesn’t make her feel a whole lot better.
If BBAW is to move on next year (which I’m assuming it will), I think Amy probably needs to decide what her main objectives are. Does she want the awards to be respected and considered worthwhile? Or does she just want to have fun and spread lots of love around?
Both are achievable, but there needs to be more work and thought put into the project, if she wants the awards to be taken seriously.
Personally, these types of popularity contests make me feel itchy. Thanks to whoever nominated KKB, but as per those memes and the likes that make their way round Blogland sometimes, all that happy-clappy shit is just not my thing.
Having said all of the above, I do think some people have been taking the whole thing far too seriously. It’s hardly the Oscars is it?
Posted by Karen Scott · 
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