First, congratulations to the winner of the giveaway of Just Let Me Lie Down by Kristin van Ogtrop. Random.org selected commenter #6 – Lisa Kirk. Enjoy!
Second, I came across this post on HuffPo last week. It says that book bloggers (who are mostly women) tend to be easier on women authors than men, that we are apologetic when we criticize women authors and often try to be supportive of the author as a person vs. the book we're reviewing. The post also says that we don't afford this same treatment to men.
Interesting.
Is it accurate? I don't know. I don't think that I differentiate between male and female authors when I review. (Let's face it, I read so many more women authors, who could even tell?) For me, I find that I do kinder and gentler reviews when I have had some sort of personal interaction with the author, something that is happening more and more through social media. I'd like to think that my integrity as a blogger can't be compromised by my fear of hurting someone's feelings, but the 100% honest answer is that I have noticed myself dialing it back a little when I have had personal interaction with the person who wrote the book. I am not proud of that, because I think it shortchanges my readers. But I'm human.
Would love to hear from others – do you agree with the HuffPo piece? Do your reviews differ if you're reviewing a male vs a female author? How about those times when the author has emailed you, but you don't like the book. What do you do?