That’s right, SEND. Me, sending a rejection.
A self-published author sent me a message on goodreads. It said:
As you may recall, you entered to win my book [REDACTED] from the Goodreads giveaway.
As I would like to have a few more reviews for the book, I am writing to offer you a copy of the book, free of charge, if you would be willing to read it and post a review on several of the online book sites (Amazon, B&N, GoodReads, your blog).
Of course, I would ask that you give the book a completely honest review.
If you are interested, please let me know. I can send the book in any format (Kindle, Sony, Epub, Palm, PDF or a printed copy).
Thank you in advance.
Warmly,
[REDACTED]
I have no recollection of entering any such giveaway, but that doesn’t mean anything. Thank goodness goodreads has a page of giveaways I’ve entered. (This link will probably only work if you’re a goodreads member and have entered giveaways.) Anyhow, I gleefully pounce on the link to see whether my CRS has struck again or what, and nope–this book isn’t on it.
My reply:
Actually I don’t recall, and goodreads has no record of it either. Regardless, I’m extremely busy and can’t guarantee I’ll review any books at this time, much less promise to post reviews on multiple sites.
Thanks for thinking of me, though.
Maybe I’m wrong, but I feel like someone was trying to hustle me here. As a result I am NOT HAPPY.
As an aside, maybe my mother did too good a job of pounding it into my head, “If you can’t say anything nice, just keep it to yourself,” but I never post bad reviews. Just because I don’t like something doesn’t mean it has no merit, or that other people won’t adore it, and just because a story is not to my personal taste doesn’t mean I’m all cool with making the author’s job harder. The Silmarillion springs to mind. Also Twilight, or pretty nearly anything with monsters as sex objects. I like my monsters ugly and eating people… No one’s really tickled my “monstrous and sensuous” bone since Claudia.
And yeah, sometimes books are not just not to my taste. Sometimes they’re really bad. But I am not the book police, and at least you know when I rate something highly, I really mean it.