Oh, horse puckey!

Sigh--more controversy of which I had nothing to do with. So, I'm piggybacking because well, I've gotten all ballsy in my old age and I'm allowed to have an op. I try not to have one publicly, but on THIS topic, I do :)

So, Jaynie was upset this week. That upset me. So I went to her blog to see whassup?

She and an author who writes inspirationals had a bit of a tiff over a contest that the author excluded non US residents from.

I kinda thought that sucked. However, this time, Jaynie didn't begin the blog thing. The nice inspirational lady did. She posted Jaynie's comments to her in private e-mails, anonymously. No, she didn't mention Jaynie's name, but apparently, she left out some pertinent goodies and it didn't (in my mind) represent what Jaynie was saying very fairly. Jaynie posted her comments in the e-mails on her blog.

Jaynie's beef--why exclude us folks overseas from a contest? We can promo you here. We might even be apt to skip on over to the ever controversial Amazon and buy your book--pay a ridiculous amount of money to have your book shipped to us and tell people about it here in Australia.

The authors beef--it costs too much to send books overseas. She basically said, too bad, so sad. It was her budget, she could do as she pleased with it and spend it in the best way she saw fit.

If that excluded the extra 7 bucks or so in shipping overseas, cest la vie--she wasn't budging. She also said something a smidge crass if you ask me. especially for an author who writes INSPIRATIONALS. I'd almost expect one of us erotic authors to say, "Kiss my boo-tay", cuz we use words like that, but she said, "This lady believes book giveaways are about thanking readers. Well, they aren't about that at all."

That made me go, huh?

Well, no, they're about attracting readers with a wee tidbit, but it's also about being a nice author chick too. Or I thought it was. She might be raising that skeptical eyebrow at me now, but I thought contests were a back scratcher. Do I have them to increase sales--yep. Do I expect you to rush off and gush. I'd like it, but it won't keep me from sending you one again if ya don't.

She further explained that she wants people to win her books and then share them with various clerks and such in your life. Like your hairdresser and manservant. LOL. She didn't say manservant, but I thought it was funnier.

Anyway, the crux of this was word of mouth is what she hopes to garner from her contests. Sme word of mouth sales, to be precise. Just not word of mouth overseas. Cuz it needs a passport and stuff.

Okay--so the debate was all very nice, except for one woman who really was pretty vehement and didn't make a lot of sense to me. However, she called Jaynie selfish and that was sort of bizarre. There was also the guy who gave us his Dr. Phil-ism on entitlement issues that made me go,"Dude, it's a BOOK, not a divorce." But who am I to judge? I just ignored that and moved on to the stuff I could piece together in full sentences :)

I posted a couple of times and respectfully so. The author and a couple of others posted back, respectfully as well.

BUT THEN (deep breath), after she'd said what she deemed appropriate--made it clear that it wasn't in her best promotional interests and budget to send books overseas--told us all quite gallantly that she wasn't going to be baited into a fight--informed us SHE was not the one to out Jaynie--then, she closed the comments down and said she'd delete anymore that came her way. I'm guessing that means she's not going to post the ones NOT in her favor. She even said it wasn't a forum to talk about how stupid she was. I kinda went, huh again. I can't recall anyone calling her stupid.

I thought CHEAP, but not stupid. However, like I said in my posts to her--I respect her choices and I'd hope she'd respect others if they don't buy her book.

But what really tweaked my nether parts was shutting down the blog and claiming Jaynie's e-mail to her, that she so nobly posted anonymously, was for the INTEREST OF HER READERS.

Oh, bananas! Pluuueease. That's where my busllshit-ometer went, SNORT.

You did not either. You put it on your blog in the first place for that word of mouth thing you hope will happen at the Hairdressers Convention when they pass around your book.

Why would your readers want to know that you couldn't be bothered to include readers overseas?

Seems rather abrasive to me.

She didn't do it for the interest of her readers--she did it for justification--validation. Period.

There wasn't an earthly reader who needed to know they were too much work if they lived outside of your small corner of the world.

Not one.

I was okay with her choice, even though I felt certain alienation was imminent. I was okay with it until she wouldn't let anyone have another opinion, even if it was a strong one and posted it under the guise of blogging for the INTEREST TO HER READERS.

Baloney.

Dakota :)

And as a P/S--I read her blog a bit more and as I dug deeper, she kinda digs being linked to when you use one of her quotes--be it good or bad. She's also very blatant about how immodest she is and she has no qualms about her irritation with people who say, "I don't want to shamelessly promote..." She DOES want to shamelessly promote. Just not in the European market. So my disclaimer to giving her blog traffic, is this--I suck technically. I wouldn't know how to link to her if you paid me. So I didn't :)