No, I Won’t Share that Book I’ve Never Heard Of

I’m a big believer in promote what you love. So if I read a book and love it, I’ll promote it. I have no problem doing that. I’ll review it, I’ll tweet about it, and I’ll tell my friends about it. I’ll promote anything that I can personally vouch for. Or, sometimes I might talk about books that I really WANT to read because I’m excited about them.

But you know what I don’t like? Being asked to promote books I’ve never read and/or have never even heard of. I don’t want to recommend something that I can’t vouch for. That’s why it pisses me off when an author/person I’ve never heard of or spoken to sends me a message on Facebook/Twitter/email saying:

“Hi there! I just released my new book and I’d love it if you could spread the word. Here’s a link: {purchase link}”

No, no, no. I’ve never spoken to this person, I’ve never heard of their book, and I haven’t read their book. I’m not going to tell people to go buy a book that I haven’t read, I know nothing about, and I can’t vouch for. I get that the author is just trying to spread the word, but I just don’t like being seen as an advertising billboard. I’m not going to “spread the word” about anything and everything that gets thrown my way.

Do you promote books you haven’t read or heard of?

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33 comments

  1. I did that, and it was a horror mistake i stopped doing that,because it’s my blog and not a book catalogue. i read and review and if i like i promote!

  2. YESSS. It led me to turn off messages to my FB page, but I wish I could stop people from spamming the wall as well. At first, if the book sounded interesting enough for me to actually add to my TBR list, I didn’t mind a share. But now the requests are just too frequent to even read them all.

    Even if it’s an author that’s contacting me because I’ve reviewed one of their books, sometimes it’s just done in such a tactless way that it turns me off of the author.

  3. I see posts like those all of the time on Facebook and Tsu, and typically only spread the word if the books are authors I’ve either read before, know personally or have ended up on my HUGE TBR pile to be checked out later. But I do understand the need of the author wanting to get the word out for book sales, etc.

  4. I feel the exact same way! I receive email like that every so often and every time I feel confused. Why would you ask someone to promote a book they haven’t even read and not even know if it’s a good fit for their readers, or most importantly something they would read themselves? When I love a book though I have no reservations of promoting it like crazy on my blog or twitter or just raving about it in general.

  5. Oh this drives me insane! The absolute worst thing I received though was THIS: “I can send you a chapter of her book to review or I can write the review myself and send it to you for approval.” from some “publicist”. Seriously? I loved that she called it an “endorsement opportunity”. Um, no. I have promoted books or authors that I am really interested in but haven’t had a chance to read (it’s rare, but there have been a few reasons I have) but I explicitly state that is the case.

    Shannon @ It Starts At Midnight recently posted: Last List Blog Hop: Guest Post by Author Kristi Helvig & Giveaway
  6. Yeah I do this but only if it’s a book I’m actually interested in reading – so it’s usually sci-fi and fantasy stuff – and/or if it’s a new book by an author who has released a book I’ve read and enjoyed.

    It’s frustrating sometimes to get emails or messages about books that are not even in the genres I enjoy because I know the sender didn’t really take the time to browse my blog to see what I’m actually interested in.

  7. I’d never do that. It makes me feel awkward but I feel like I’m lying if I did. I think there’s power in words and it discredits me and my blog if I promote something that I don’t believe in (and I would probably hate). I heard someone talking about social media and how the power is in the network and I totally believe that.

    Aly @ My Heart Hearts Books recently posted: One of the Guys (Review)
  8. Heck no! I can’t believe someone expects promotion from another when they’ve never even heard of the book. I wouldn’t even do that for money, to be honest. For me, I promote what I believe in. When I love a book, I’ll promote without the author even asking. I might even get really annoying about it. But never would I ever promote a book just because the author/publisher asks me to.

    And I get those requests sometimes – I don’t even reply.

    Nova @ Out of Time recently posted: 3xA MA: 2015 Opening Post
  9. Ah, that’s just terrible. I can’t believe an author would actually email a blogger asking for promotion basically. It’s totally different if they’re like “Hi, my name is *insert*, I came out with *insert* book, I wanted to know if you would mind reading it.” which is basically a review request. But an actual promotion for a book you’ve never read….I don’t get that.

    Now, I will totally “promote” aka, rave/talk about authors I’ve never read if they’re coming out with a book I would gladly give my kidney for (Simon VS. The Homo Sapiens Agenda is at the top of my list for that), but other than that, I wouldn’t do promotion like the above.

    Amber @ YA Indulgences recently posted: Looking Forward To: March ’15
  10. I think it depends on why you blog. I think most of us started blogging because we want to talk about the books we love. I see us as review bloggers. Lately, especially this past year with the indie craze, I’ve seen many blogs who blog because they love to promote books. Sometimes it’s books they haven’t read, sometimes it’s books they have. I’m too lazy to write a post about a book I haven’t read so I see myself as a reviewer. But I don’t mind when people share info on books they haven’t read yet because even if they have and they loved it, I could totally hate it. Or vice versa. I dont really get on twitter, but if I do and I see that a book I’ve heard good things about or that I think looks good is on sale/out soon, I might RT.
    I totally understand why some bloggers don’t like to do this themselves though, it just comes down to personal preference.

  11. I don’t mind promoting books that look good to me but have no time to read. I just figure everyone can figure out if they want to try it or not. Too many interesting books out there to read them all but I bet some are amazing and I want to give my readers the chance to read them even if I don’t.

  12. I get those messages on my FB wall and they drive me crazy. They don’t even bother to read in the description what I read. I ignore them, but I may just turn messaging off. I have promoted for a couple of books I’ve heard of and a couple of times I got burned with being told they were one thing when they weren’t. I don’t do much of it anymore unless it is someone I trust and that knows me is asking.

    Tanya @ Rantings of a Reading Addict recently posted: Top Ten Tuesday ~ My Favorite Books of Last 3 Years
  13. I will sometimes do cover reveals or blitz for books I haven’t read, but only ever if it looks like something I would be interested in or plan to read anyway. I hate when people do this though. It’s so rude! I actually have two authors who did it often enough that I won’t read anything they put out now. Regardless of offers of review copies, I have no interest in promoting them now because they went around begging for promotions from too many people. Book bloggers blog for fun. We are not a service at your disposal to be used to advertise your book. If you don’t have the followers to promote it yourself, there are plenty of places that you can buy the advertising from to help you out. Forcing your work on other people is not the way to gain readers.

    Yay! Comment luv is working again! <3

    Ariel @ Fictively recently posted: How do you feel about book trends?
  14. Guilty as charged. I don’t necessarily recommend the book without reading it first, but I have featured giveaways on my blog for books that I haven’t read or heard of, and by authors I haven’t read… but after reading the synopsis, I find they sound good so I feature the giveaway. It’s only been a couple or three of them but I do wonder where they got my name. I’ve never signed up for any ARC’s or anything like that but find myself receiving emails for such things.

    So yeah I guess I do, but only if they sound interesting to me.

    Carrie recently posted: Captured Innocence, Kennedy Layne
  15. To be honest, I have before, but only on accident. I don’t like promoting books I don’t know anything about. It makes me feel bad. The only times I have have been with two blog tours. One I completely forgot signing up for somehow (I still do not remember signing up for it–I usually avoid them) and I ended up doing an author interview because I realized I hadn’t read the book. The other time was another blog tour in which I didn’t like the book, but I couldn’t back out of the tour at that point. I had signed up for it because the person who wrote the book came from a writing group I was familiar with and had seen good things come out of. I mostly try to avoid blog tours involving promoting books I know nothing about now. It really is about promoting what I love, you know?

    Kelsey Gulick recently posted: Smelling Books
  16. I try to promote only books I’ve read. Although I love to help authors out, I also don’t like to think of my blog as a promotional tool. I view it as a place where I share my own thoughts about books. Also, I’m somewhat uncomfortable with encouraging people to read books I know nothing about. Worst case scenario: I’d hate to find out in retrospect that I’d given a platform to a book that promotes something I don’t believe in at all–whether it were racism, sexism, or whatever.

  17. I haven’t had a blog for that long but I don’t plan on doing this. I have no issue with posting about books I’m excited for, even if I haven’t read it yet but I’m not going to promo a book that doesn’t interest me. if you want me to advertise your book you should probably let me read it first so I know if I like it or not. 😛 But I would probably do a blitz or promotion for a book buy an author that I love, even if I haven’t read it yet. At least then I know that I will probably enjoy the book.

  18. By and large, no, I don’t. I will sometimes post about a book I’m excited about but haven’t read yet (usually a “look what’s coming out – I can’t wait to read it!” post.) But I feel really uncomfortable promoting books I haven’t read and don’t intend to read, so I don’t do it. I’ll do blog tours IF I get to read and review the book first, but if not, then I would rather not participate. As for cover reveals – only if I really, really want to read the book, in which case it falls in that “look what’s coming out – I can’t wait to read it!” category.

    Lark @ The Bookwyrm's Hoard recently posted: The September Society, by Charles Finch
  19. I will read anything but the basis of my blog is that they are reviews… not promos, therefore I won’t promote. But in saying that my blog is newish so I am not even close to be overwhelmed with such requests!

    Laura recently posted: Station Eleven
  20. I haven’t had that happen to me, but I wouldn’t promote a book unless I had read it and loved it. Or had read the other books in the series and loved them, and it was more of a “Yes! The new book is out, I can’t wait to start reading it!” type of ‘promotion’.

    I’d be too afraid the unknown book would turn out to be bad. It also seems dishonest. “Here, go read this book I know nothing about because I say you should!” “Oh, it was terrible? How strange…”

    I’d rather recommend books I actually like.

  21. I lol’d when I read the title! There was one incident where I declined to read and review a book I’ve never heard of before from an author who was also unknown to me. The author asked me if I’d be interested in promoting it instead. I had to decline. If I like your book, I’ll willingly promote you but I cannot in good conscience just go about recommending books or authors I haven’t read before.

    Goldie @ My Book Musings recently posted: Blog tour excerpt: Fairy, Texas
  22. The answer to that is a strong NO. I get those messages all the time, and I just IGNORE them. Seriously. I never heard of the author, never read their books, I’m not going to promote it anywhere. I don’t participate in blog-tours for books I don’t know.aren’t on my TBR for the same reason. I am very picky with what I share…

    Nitzan Schwarz recently posted: Of Beast and Beauty by Stacey Jay
  23. I’m getting so many of those requests lately but I won’t do it either. I have know and like something before I promo it.

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