From the past several months, I have been inundated
with emails from writers; both published ones and aspiring ones, to either
carry their book reviews, let them guest post on my blog or to host them on my
blog or to critique their books. One guy even went to the extent of telling me
a story idea he had and he expected me to write it for him. I wanted to tell
him that I don’t have the time to work on my own ideas and write my own
stories, how does he expect me to write his. I advised him to write the story
and then hire a professional editor. Needless to say, he never replied back.
Another guy sent me his ebook and asked me to review
it for him and also do an interview with him. All this without doing the basic
courtesy of asking me first. I politely declined.
It’s getting very irritating to reply to all these
emails. There are all kinds of people who approach with offers of carrying
their advertisements. Then there are writers who have no claim to any kind of
connection with me, but they want me to read their stories/chapters.
Then there are the writers on whose blog I may have
commented once, they have saved my email id and now send me all kinds of
newsletters, promotional offers and alerts. I am getting so irritated, I just
don’t know what to do with all this.
Yes, my blog is about me, but it’s also about my
blog buddies who make an effort to visit me and leave their thoughts in the
form of comments. I have no problem hosting my close blog buddies on my blog, helping
them during their book promotions, doing guest interviews with them or helping
publicize their books. But people who don’t know me just cannot expect me to go
out of my way to help them.
How do you all deal with these issues? Do you review
all the books that you are offered? Do you host all the people who want to do guest
posts with you? Any advice for me?
Wow, Rachna so much in demand:) BTW am lucky not to be bothered but for some who wanted to host ads or run some contest through the blog!However, I understand your problem!!
ReplyDeleteThat's sad that people put you on their newsletters without you joining them. And not right. I'm surprised you get so many requests for book promotions since you don't do them here. I do get some requests for interviews. I always agonize to say no but I've learned that I don't want to be too busy and I only want to share what I think will do well on the blog.
ReplyDeleteFirst of all--you always make me smile! Loved the picture--it says it all! :)
ReplyDeleteSounds like you are getting a lot of "spammy stuff"...
I don't review everything that comes my way, but I love legitimate offers to promote something that I believe in. If I can, I will!
Stay the course, Rachna...and have some chocolate! :)
I don't respond to everything that comes my way. Just what interests me. Other things get deleted. But I never mind being asked.
ReplyDeleteI'm sorry!
ReplyDeleteNow you know why I post guidelines on my blog.
Yes, I get so many requests every week. That's why I try to cover everything in my guidelines, which includes no advertising, no reviews, and guest posts for regular followers only. Those who visit me and I know deserve those guest spots, not a stranger.
Do not feel bad for saying no. This is your blog!
I'll respond to blogger buddies, but most other things get deleted unanswered.
ReplyDeleteHi friends..thanks for the advice and sharing your views. I have decided that I will only respond to my blogger buddies, the rest of the emails will simply be ignored.
ReplyDeleteI have a technical blog where I get many guest post requests. But one look into the mail and there will be request to link to some other website which is not their own. Some people use guest posts to insert links back to their own sites. It's not a good idea, post Google Panda/Penguin, but still they do.
ReplyDeleteThese days I have put-up guidelines saying that I can publish a guest post, but I cannot link to any website from within it. That way, I ensure that I get only sincere guest posts.
Destination Infinity
It's another form of cold caller, don't you think? Nothing really works. I think you just have to ignore them.
ReplyDeleteSo you're flooded in emails. I don't know what's that. I just got asked for a review of a book once and I did it. The guy was not my follower but the book sounded interesting enough and I didn't mind. I think your approach is good. Choose only your blogger buddies, like Alex does. It's the best. Have a great week!
ReplyDeleteI'm glad you reached the decision you did. It's the right one.
ReplyDeleteHappy Weekend!
I'm very lucky that no one annoys me with things like that. Do you find that it's generally the men who are less polite? I've seen so many men advertizing their books on FB who never engage readers in any way -- they just do drive-by adverts and leave. Needless to say, no one replies to them.
ReplyDeleteEven an email can sap you of energy if you spend time working out what to do about it. However you choose to respond (or not) I think it would serve you well to make the decision quickly and not worry too much about it.
ReplyDeletemood
Wow, Rachna! You're quite in demand, aren't you! I hope I too get there soon.
ReplyDeleteMost of the "bloggers" who contact me to do a guest post I consider spam. If it starts out something like "I saw your post on - - - and really like you as a fellow blogger. I think we can help each other . ." That's spam. Some company getting paid to advertise their stuff. I just delete those.
ReplyDeleteAnd I only do guest authors and book reviews if I have sent a request via the person's blog. I don't have the time to read on a schedule, so I don't review on a time line either - unless specifically arranged to meet a blog tour schedule I signed up for.
As for requests for critiques/beta reads; I used to accept any that requested on. Eventually I got overwhelmed, and finally had to just start saying no unless it was someone I'd had lots of blog interaction with and became more than occasional blog reader.
If the person is a true close blog buddy, then you've probably had some sort of previous exchange where you accepted a project for an unknown date, and the date has finally arrived. If you're good friends, and you don't have the time, I'm sure a polite no response with explanation will be fine.
But if you really don't know the person, one trick I've learned is to mark the e-mail as spam and not send a reply. You'll soon discover there are certain wordings in the subject line that are nearly always spam (SPAM mail is defined by yourself, not some dictionary) and you'll see it less in your regular e-mail, but will have to still delete it from the spam. I check my spam a couple times a month just to see if some regular blogger got accidentally redirected there. About 90 percent of the time I can browse the subject titles and mark to delete without ever opening them.
Its really hard to say no to a fellow author/blogger - but with practice, it won't hurt you as much. Your time is valuable, and if the e-mailer hasn't taken the time to get to know you, don't waste your time on them.
Newsletters usually come with a way to "unsubscribe" embedded in the e-mail. Sometimes it is at the publication site itself. If you can't unsubscribe, there is always the SPAM button.
.......dhole
I used to accomodate them but honestly, I don't get many requests for those anymore. If I don't know them personally (as in, they're not a familiar blog friend) I usually don't host them.
ReplyDeleteEek! I can't say I've had it that bad. I get the usual spam. You know, love you blog and I think 'my totally irrelevant to your followers' post/product should be included on it. I've never had anything like what you mentioned, Rachna. That would be annoying!
ReplyDeleteI *NEVER* host *ANYONE* I don't know. It's tooooo much trouble and the only person that wins is "they" and I know "they" don't care about my blog - all they want is the exposure.
ReplyDelete(PS: I mark each of these requests as SPAM and my requests are now few and far between.
Hi Rachna, I am the 400th follower of your wonderful blog. I like reading your blog coz it provides loads of writing tips and many good reads as well.
ReplyDeleteIt would be great if you have the time to follow my book blog Wonderworld - http://wonderworld-variety.blogspot.com . Thanks and have a nice day! Sincerely - Roy
Hi Rachna. I don't get as many of these requests as you probably do, but I do get some. My personal rule is that I only review books that I purchase so that cuts down on the folks wanting to send me a free copy for review. Also as Mark said, I don't host anyone that is not a regular over at my place--or every once in awhile I'll contact the author because it is related to a theme of my interest.
ReplyDeleteOh, I know what you mean! I get between 5-10 emails a day from authors/publicists/etc. asking me to host someone/review a book/etc. If I don't know the person personally, then I tend to just delete the email. I used to respond back, but then I stopped. That wasted precious time even doing that.
ReplyDeleteThat said, every so often an email will catch my eye for a book I would like to review, and I will respond then, but in general, it's just a quick delete.
I only answer emails from people I know. Otherwise, they get deleted.
ReplyDeletewww.modernworld4.blogspot.com
oh my gosh, I had a little giggle when I read your post today. It's good to know I'm not alone. I get many emails as well. If the emails aren't addressed to me personally, then I simply delete them because they're spam. If they are addressed to me (with the correct spelling of my name) but I don't know them and they've never commented on my blog, then I will reply, but politely decline. I have no problem helping bloggers and writers I know.
ReplyDeleteI like that gmail has now offered 2 more choices to my inbox - Promotional (spam) and (social) requests from social media peeps. Very easy to delete! We are all inundated with spurious requests but it's very simple to report as spam or delete. I love helping out friends on the blog but not people who don't give a damn about me, lol!
ReplyDeleteI am asked often to review books. I had to limit requests to people I really know.
ReplyDeleteI have one I agreed to that came in the mail a couple days ago. I was thinking 350 pages. Its a solid 600 pages. Arrgghh! Next time I'll ask for the page count.
Spammers are annoying! Fortunately, I haven't experienced the problem that you have.
ReplyDeleteYou need to be firm and stand by your blog policy.
I hope you work it out soon!
Writer In Transit
Oh how I feel your pain. I love helping writers, but the amount of people approaching me to get exposure for their books on my blog is crazy. Many don't know us, and don't even read our information first...they just see it gets good traffic and pounce. This includes publicists and people with software.
ReplyDeleteBecca and I finally created the form policy. We ask people fill out a form to post with us. That way they have to fill out a few questions that better help us determine if their guest post is right for us. People who just want to dash off something quick and easy usually don't fill out the form...they are looking for free promo and don't want to offer people the level of value we expect. But the people who really get what we are about do fill it out and articulate their idea for a post well. We have found this saves us time, having a guest post policy like this.
I think you've been handling it admmirably, Rachna. To politely decline by explaining you don't have time. It's rude of anyone to just expect you to review their work or write their story ideas. I couldn't believe my eyes when I read that! Even if we're close friends with a blogger, of course we should ask if they have time and if it's convenient. That's just standard manners for anyone.
ReplyDeleteJai