Things you should NEVER do to a romance author

9/14/2020

I've seen some disturbing things on social media lately. Lots of BAD advice is being thrown about. Readers are doing things to authors that will NOT end well. The publishing business is really hard, and it's stuff like THIS that might throw a romance author over the edge and make them stop writing at all:

Tag them in bad reviews on social media

Don't get me wrong on this one. I'm not saying you can't leave bad reviews for books you didn't like. In fact, I totally think you SHOULD leave reviews for books you don't like, because reviews are for readers, not authors. And you should also feel free to talk about the bad book on social media. But what you shouldn't do is tag the author while you talk about how much you hated their work. It's rude and unnecessarily hurtful. There are a ton of authors who never read their reviews because the negative feedback hurts their soul. And that's OK. But by tagging them on social media, you're pretty much forcing them to read your negative review. You're rubbing their nose in it, delighting in their pain. What's the point of that? It'd be like if I sent out a tweet talking about how ugly your kid is and tagged you. (That was just an example by the way. I'm sure your kid is adorable.) Long-story-short: just don't do it.

In the name of full disclosure, I made this mistake once when I first started the blog. It was an accident, and I apologized, but I still feel bad about it to this day. So, if you've made this same mistake, don't stress out about it too much. What's done is done. Just don't do it again, yeah?

Email them all the reasons why you hate their book

I can't believe I even have to explain this one, but if you don't like a book, leave a bad review. Don't email the author and tell them how much you didn't like their work. What would you even hope to gain from that? Do you expect them to apologize? To change the way they write because one reader didn't care for something? Guarantee you they won't do either. It's rude--really no better than tagging an author in a bad review on social media--and it's a waste of your time. It's a lose-lose behavior and it must be stopped posthaste.

Pirate their work

Book thieves suck and there is no valid excuse for stealing someone's hard work. If you can't afford to buy books, go to the library, or sign up for BookBub and Netgalley and Booksprout and any of the other million sites that let you get free books from authors who have AGREED to give them away. I'm a firm believer that there is a special spot in hell for book thieves. Don't end up there.

Report errors to Amazon

The Kindle has a lovely new feature (and by "lovely" I mean "horrific") that allows you to report errors you find in books to Amazon. This is a bad idea and a slippery slope. Here's why:

1. Bad idea: If readers report enough of these errors, an author can have their book removed from Amazon altogether. Who would that serve? Trust me when I say that there are going to be errors in every book on the market. Why? Because they're edited by humans. Humans aren't infallible. Even the best, highest-paid editors miss a typo or two in a full-length novel. I get that it hurts a grammar nerd's heart to see errors. But if you can't make like Elsa and Let It Go, consider sending a nice, polite email to the author outlining the errors and let THEM, NOT AMAZON, make the determination if they want make corrections.

2. Slippery slope: Sometimes what a reader thinks is an error is actually a stylistic choice that the author made. If authors are forced to make every change that every reader suggests, we're going to end up with a bunch of stories that are written by committee. Disney tried that with The Rise of Skywalker and it pretty much ended in disaster (and LOTS of crappy reviews). Let us all learn from the errors of Disney and that stupid, misogynistic dumpster fire of a movie, shall we? (#BenSoloDeservedBetter, #ReySkywalkerIsALoadOfCrap, #EffYouJJAbrams, #WhereIsRose, #BringBackRianJohnson)

Long-story-short: Most readers aren't professional editors. Why do work you haven't been asked to do, or paid to do?

Accept ARC copies in exchange for review...then not review

Authors can't force you to leave reviews, even when they provide you with an ARC (advance reader copy) in the hopes that you'll leave a review. It's against Amazon's TOS (terms of service). BUT, come on...we all know that you're supposed to leave a review if you take the ARC. It's the whole point of an ARC in the first place!! Taking the free book and not doing that one, tiny little favor for the author is a dick move. Don't be a dick.

Ask them where to find their books for free or on sale

Again, can't believe I have to say this, but emailing an author and asking them where you might find a copy of their book on the cheap or free is...awful. Authors work months, sometimes years on their books, and you want them to also do the hard work of finding a cheap or free copy for you? That would make you an entitled jerk. Don't be an entitled jerk. Either pay the author the asking price for their book, get it from the library, ask Amazon to let you know when there's a sale, or read something else. Those are all acceptable alternatives to jackassery.

Same goes for emailing the author and just flat-out asking them to send you a free signed copy. Authors have to pay for those printed copies. The LEAST you can do is pay for the book you want them sign, and provide a postage-paid envelope for them to send it to you in.

Long-story-short: Authors deserve to be paid for their work. They deserve to be paid the price of their choosing. That is all.

Other tidbits

The info above pretty much applies to all authors. But there are a few specific-to-romance-author no-no's that I'd like to point out:

1. Upon hearing that someone writes romance, DON'T say, "Oh...you mean like Fifty Shades and Twilight?" There are other romance novels on the market, believe it or not. This question just announces your ignorance of the genre and will make most romance authors quietly seethe.

2. DON'T bring up Fabio. Yes, he was on a lot of covers. That was, like, 20 years ago. Let the poor man rest, for crap's sake.

3. DON'T say "bodice ripper" or "mommy porn" These are derogatory terms that, once again, announce your ignorance of the genre.

4. DON'T ask a romance author (with a nudge-nudge and a wink-wink) if they "research" their sex scenes with their significant other. This is intrusive and gross and frankly a little creepy.

5. DON'T say romance novels are "smut" or "porn". Having a sex scene doesn't make a book smutty porn. There are plenty of sex scenes in books in other genres, but only romance novels get these particular labels. Why is that? Is it because they're mostly written by women for women? Hmmm...that one stinks of misogyny, doesn't it? Think about it. I'll wait.

6. DON'T say you think romance novels don't need happy endings because you just love Nicholas Sparks, and his endings are sad sometimes. First of all, the only real rule in a romance novel is that there MUST be a HEA ending (or a Happy For Now ending). Second of all, Nicholas Sparks is NOT a romance novelist. His stories are love stories, not romance novels. There IS a difference. He even outlines that on his own website. But, the moral of the story here is NO HAPPY ENDING = NOT A ROMANCE NOVEL.

7. DON'T call romance novels your "guilty pleasure". There's nothing to feel guilty about. Be a proud romance reader! It's a billion dollar industry. You're in good company.

8. DON'T call the sex scenes in romance novels "the good parts." There's a lot more to romance novels than the sex scenes, and boiling an entire book down to a few sex scenes is insulting to the author.

I think that's about it for now. I'm sure more stuff will come up next week. But what about you? Do you see anything I left out? Let's discuss!

28 Comments

Annette

9/14/2020 07:24:03 pm

I was taught at school (decades ago) that porn is the visual of an act, smut is the verbal of the act and erotica is the sensation descriptive of the act.

Susan E Chambers and

9/15/2020 09:05:59 pm

Very well said & I agree 100% & I am proud to say I LOVE HISTORICAL ROMANCES. 😘😊📚📚💜🧡💛💚💗💟

Wendy Bayne

9/14/2020 07:38:35 pm

Excellent article and applicable to more genres than just romance.

Kristy Odom link

9/14/2020 09:24:44 pm

Thank you for this! I know I’ve been guilty of a couple of these, but I love the romance genre. I am on the older side of readers for bully or coming of age books. I definitely like the sexy times, and maybe it’s my age it’s not the first thing I want. I want the angst. I would never tear into an author, but I have seen it. It’s horrible. We all have feelings.

bookgirl

9/14/2020 10:01:52 pm

Love this list, but I have an issue with the point about reporting errors to Amazon.
As long as the author responds to emails from KDP (the author side of Amazon) when errors are reported and replies with "I will fix it" or "Not an error" and then follows through accordingly, a book will not be removed simply because of errors being reported. (Though I'm willing to chance my thoughts if someone has proof to the contrary)

I do agree that it's a pain for authors to make the changes, and reporting issues with stylistic choices is nonsense, but it's important to remember that not everyone has access to the same education and everyday language that the author might, and that sometimes, they just don't know. (And sometimes they're a di*k.)

Tina Hamaker

9/14/2020 11:27:21 pm

I agree with you. I'd hate to see an author have a book removed, but if it is so rife with typos and honest-to-goodness grammatical errors as to render it painful to read, shouldn't it be pulled and fixed? If I were an author, I would want to be proud of my work, and make sure it is the most professional and polished product I could present. Some of the novels I have read have never been touched by a proof reader, I'm sure of it. Amazon makes it easy for me to highlight the error and describe it. To " consider sending a nice, polite email to the author outlining the errors and let THEM, NOT AMAZON, make the determination if they want make corrections", is a lot of work, and I'm not being paid to be the proofreader or editor for the author.

Dani

9/15/2020 02:00:14 am

@Tina - yes, sending an email to an author might seem like a lot of work, but rather that than have their books removed from Amazon. You don’t have to highlight all the errors but just pop them a friendly email and say, “Hi, I picked up errors in (whatever the books name is), I just wanted to let you know.” The problem is, over the past month, authors have been receiving “reported errors” on things that weren’t errors. Also if a book has multiple errors throughout, it’s better to contact them than to report it. If you report a whole book of errors, you end up hurting the author as KDP will crucify them. So, taking 2 mins to email an author isn’t THAT much work in the long run since you’re already highlighting the errors. And no, you’re not paid, that’s why just informing them to check the manuscript is better than throwing them into the fire with KDP.

Jonathan

9/15/2020 07:41:35 am

So, if people used this properly, I'd *maybe* think I'd be okay with the "Report Error" feature, but the reality is—like everything else—this impacts marginalized authors far more, is easily weaponized in the hands of racist readers, and is another avenue people can exploit (like being Charles'd).

Typos happen. Sure. And if you truly feel moved to send in some sort of feedback about errors you also need to take a moment to see how the book was published. If it's trad published (even with a small publisher) then you need to send the feedback to the publisher, not the author. The author can't do anything about it, the entire publishing process isn't in their hands, nor is the corrections. You're just adding stress to their pile and making them forward those corrections on to the publisher. If you're doing this in the name of supporting the author, skip them and go to the people who can actually do something about it.

But mostly? It's just a typo. The world won't end.

Dani

9/15/2020 01:54:57 am

@bookgirl - Believe me when I say this, I have seen authors get emails from Amazon telling them their book WILL be removed because of a reader reporting errors. Over the past month, there have been a handful of authors having “errors” reported by Amazon when they’re we’re in fact NOT errors, but just some asshat who had too much time on their hands who felt the need to change phrases because they didn’t like them. The authors were writing about characters from different parts of the country/world, and a reader almost got their book pulled off the store for what they reported.

Jennifer, Romance Rehab

9/15/2020 08:58:45 am

It's a glitch in the Amazon matrix, I'm afraid. There are authors having their books taken down because of a few typos and/or stylistic choices. If a reader feels compelled to point out errors, I would still recommend doing it in your review of the book, or in a polite email to the author. Letting Amazon handle it is inviting trouble to the author's door.

Rosie

9/18/2020 10:23:52 am

As for the report to Amazon, I am trying to find out more. One of my favorite author whose books I have read countless time started having kindle version of them on Amazon. The first one I purchased was full of typos, misnamed characters. I even took the paper version to compare to confirm that I was not crazy. I then contacted the author via their websites to tell them that. I received a reply asking me to provide each page with errors. I felt that it was rude to ask me to proofread their work for them when I was being polite. Also, I did not sit there and wrote down every pages with mistakes. So after that I started using that feature in the Kindle books. My first experience I felt that the book needed to be taken down and fixed as it was different than the paper version. It seems as if someone took a draft of the paper version and published it as a Kindle. So, I am confuse now because I thought I was helping out by providing authors with errors I found. You have to understand that most of my kindle books are books that I also own in paper or hard back. So I often verify that the error on the Kindle is not one also on the paper version. What do you recommend then in this instance

Jennifer, Romance Rehab

9/18/2020 11:40:31 am

Hi, Rosie. I agree that the author shouldn't have asked you for a list of specific errors. You did your part by letting them know there was a problem. In instances where the Kindle version and the paperback version don't match, I would still report the problem to the author (or publisher if the book was traditionally published) rather than to Amazon. What the author does with that information isn't your problem--you did what you could. At that point, I think you can wash your hands of the whole thing and walk away knowing you did a good deed. Or, alternatively, you can always mention in your review of the book that there were multiple errors and that the paperback and kindle versions didn't match. That would also alert the author of the problem.

Kathleen Bylsma

9/14/2020 10:47:34 pm

I truly can't imagine anyone being so terribly rude!
I'm so sorry you and all writers have to deal with this kind of trash....I know how hard it is to produce a book that will be appreciated by readers....these words are a struggle to put down to give us all the emotions and joy reading brings us.
Thank you!

Jennifer, Romance Rehab

9/15/2020 09:01:55 am

Honestly, I think most readers are awesome! These are a rare-but-loud few we're talking about. But thank you so much for your support!

M.J. Schiller link

9/15/2020 03:10:25 am

I loved this! And not only because I am a romance author, but because it’s witty and spot on! Enjoyable read! Thanks

Jennifer, Romance Rehab

9/16/2020 10:40:00 am

Thank you so much!!

Josephine Shmoo

9/15/2020 03:16:52 am

Take a beat. You're getting butthurt about not getting a review when you send out an ARC? Let's try this: be glad you didn't get the review because odds are they were being nice by not calling out the drivel you wrote. And that's not strictly romance, that's horror, suspense, literary, YA, fantasy, etc.

Jennifer, Romance Rehab

9/15/2020 08:54:17 am

If you take an ARC and hate the book, I say leave that negative review. The author isn't entitled to a GOOD review just because you took the ARC. But the unspoken agreement with an ARC is a review in exchange for a free book. Breaking that agreement, even if you didn't like the book, is still a dick move. Don't think anyone is butthurt about it...just calling a dick move a dick move.

Jennifer, Romance Rehab

9/15/2020 09:23:30 am

Also, you might be surprised how even bad reviews help authors. I can't even tell you how many times I've read a scathing review for a book that actually convinced me to buy it. Everyone likes different stuff. One person's crap is another's treasure. So, if you took the ARC and hated it, feel free to leave that nasty review. You might not be doing the damage you think you are.

Marilyn

9/17/2020 03:44:43 am

I have actually done an ARC review where the book was just not my thing. And I could not finish it. I left a review based on that, but I did point out that it was well written and the characters were developed, but it just wasn't for me. I gave it 3 stars. I have had several of those ''This was helpful'' clicks for that one. So I say always write the review.

Kindle Crack Book Reviews link

9/15/2020 08:07:11 am

STOP one-starring books if you didn’t read them! Some Goodreads contributors will judge a book by its cover/synopsis/dislike the author and tell readers why a book is horrible before arcs were sent or the book was released!

Newbie Authors: Stop trying to buy your way into Goodreads lists and gaining fake reviews. I SEE YOU! It’s also great to leave a review if you felt if a service was great BUT I laugh when I see you leaving reviews for the service that provides fake reviews/adding to Listopia lists on Fivver. I have 10 more things to add but I’m only a 1/2 cup of coffee in.

Jennifer, Romance Rehab

9/15/2020 09:27:04 am

Good call on the 1-starring!! I've been told people sometimes do that to mark which books they want to read...but that makes no sense to me, since there's a whole "want to read" feature on Goodreads. And if we get into what authors should never do again, I'm adding the fake reviews thing. And also, reviewing your own book on Goodreads. I always cringe when I see that.

9/16/2020 09:20:28 am

Agreed. Totally.
Question. I surf. I've come across, authors I read, pirated books. I dont participate. But should I be emailing them to inform them of the site & book?

Jennifer, Romance Rehab

9/16/2020 10:43:13 am

That's a really good question. Every author handles book pirates in their own way. Some ignore them completely (because responding to them and fighting them is time consuming and is a never-ending battle--you take one pirate down, 5 more pop up to take their place), and some fight them tooth-and-nail. So, when in doubt, I say email the author and let them know you found an illegal copy. It can't hurt. And it's a really nice thing for you to do! The author might not do anything with the info you give them, but telling them about it shows that you care and that you're supportive of them. If nothing else, they'll probably be thankful for your support.

Debra Elise link

9/16/2020 11:58:10 am

You, my friend are a ROCKSTAR! Thank you for every word ☺️

Perhaps your post should be placed in the front of every romance book and marked as REQUIRED READING. Hmm? Not realistic, but I kinda want to do it. 🥰

Jennifer, Romance Rehab

9/16/2020 05:27:42 pm

Thanks so much!! I would soooooo love to be required reading... :)

Sariah Wilson link

9/18/2020 05:30:09 pm

I don't have anything to add, but I am going to follow you now due to your vastly superior opinions on THE RISE OF SKYWALKER.

Jennifer, Romance Rehab

9/19/2020 03:40:48 pm

Thank you! Always happy to find like-minded folks who agree that The Rise of Skywalker was a dumpster fire and that the writers owe the characters and fans a huge apology.