Topics of the YA Mafia

I came home from school today and opened Twitter to find a plethora of tweets about the YA mafia, a topic that both Holly Black and Justine Larbalestier had discussed on their blogs. I've spent most of this afternoon reading all the blog posts and comments about the YA mafia, as well as a bunch of related, older posts.

I have so much to say. There's so much here to discuss.

First, what is the YA mafia?

It's the idea of a tightly-knit group of YA authors who blurb, promote, and review each others' books who can also ruin your (possibly non-existent) career if you insult them or give them a bad review. It's a concern primarily for those who are both book bloggers/reviewers and aspiring authors.

It's also not real. But the issue is a bit more complex than that. There are a couple of facets at play here and some of them are legitimate concerns that I'd like to talk about.

1. The idea that there is a clique of YA authors who blurb and promote each other's books because they are friends.
2. Negative reviews harming the possible writing career of the reviewer.

CLIQUES IN YA

I may be in the minority of readers/aspiring authors here, but I don't care if YA authors are cliquey. Do I think they are? No. I think that authors who are, after all, colleagues, have every right to be friends with each other, read each others work, enjoy each others books and blurb and promote them. The idea that a blurb on a book cover should be accompanied by a disclaimer that the two authors are friends strikes me as ridiculous. 

Authors are allowed to be friends. As a reader, writer, aspiring author, I'm glad they're friends. Writing is lonely. Having somebody understand how difficult it is, sympathize, talk you off the ledge and discuss books in your genre with is great. If an author likes a friend's book better than another author's book, maybe they honestly think their friend's book is better. Everyone has a bias. Knowing the person behind the book often does help you appreciate the book more. That's not a bad thing. To me, there's nothing ethically wrong about authors sticking together and cheering each other on.

NEGATIVE REVIEWS ARE BAD FOR THE ASPIRING AUTHOR

I don't know if this is true, but I don't know it's not. Many authors that I hugely respect and admire, including Maureen Johnson and Justine Larbalestier, say that authors don't have the power to make sure that their agent or editor doesn't take on a blogger, even one that gave them a scathing review. But by the same token I've been told (me, personally) by agents that they won't take on a client whose publicly spoken against another client's book. I've also been told by an author that she'd be offended if her agent took on a blogger who hated her books. 

Whether or not reviews can harm your writing career, it is a legitimate worry. For some, there is an undercurrent of fear running through all of this. Though I gave up reviewing I second-guess nearly every. single. thing. that I say on this blog because of what happened last month during the #querychat and ensuing posts by Stacia Kane. It may be true that the only one who can ruin my (nonexistent) career is me, but it's equally true that there's a fear that I could ruin that career without even realizing it. That's the terrifying part. Not that there's a secret YA mafia out there, not that an author is going to be offended by something I say, but that somehow I'm doing something terribly and obviously wrong and there's no way to take it back. 

My personal opinion on this is that there's not actually anything wrong with aspiring authors reviewing books honestly and critically, but I have no power. And obviously as much as I see nothing wrong with it, I don't have the fortitude to stand by that and continue reviewing books myself. If I don't think I was doing anything wrong, why stop? Because honestly I have heard enough that makes me worry that I'm hurting myself and burning unbuilt bridges with those in the publishing world by reviewing. Not that there's a "blacklist" of publishing or a YA mafia, but that I would step on the wrong toes and hurt my relationships with authors who might someday be my colleagues. 

IN CONCLUSION...

I know I'm not the person to talk about this, but I wanted to toss my hat into the fray because this is an issue that's close to me and since I was mentioned in Larbalestier's post (in Phoebe North's comment), I wanted to give you my perspective on the surrounding issues. 

more of the same

I've read* 23 books so far this year and 6 of them have landed a spot on the favorites list. Or, as I call it, the Ace List. This is a pretty big percentage (26%) and maybe that's because I'm easy to please, or because I have a good idea of what books I'll like before reading them, or maybe this has just been a really good six weeks.

In any case, upon finishing each of these novels, from Anna and the French Kiss to Gayle Forman's upcoming Where She Went, I didn't feel content with just letting it be. I wanted, like I always do, to talk about the books. To recommend them to others and discuss how absolutely great they are.

And I haven't done that. I mean, I kind of have, but it's been haphazard and half-hearted since leaving Ten Cent Notes because I just don't know how to go about things anymore. Writing reviews, recommendations, even blog posts about book-related things, seems a bit daunting. And I know I'm over thinking things the way I always do, but I almost can't stop myself. I don't want to insult people, I don't want to be unprofessional, I don't want to screw things up for myself. I don't want to mess up and the truly scary thing is that I'm not even sure where the line is... what's the difference between a nicely-stated viewpoint and insulting another person? Sometimes the difference between the two is just so thin.

The truth, blog-friends, is that I miss book blogging. Not just reviewing, but all of it. I miss sharing my thoughts on books, miss taking about YA-related issues, miss the discussion posts and opinions and the community that went along with it. What I miss most of all though, is just talking about books. Sharing the books I love and telling you why I love them and convincing others that, yes, they really are that good. I miss being a book person, and having a bigger role in the complex mechanism of publishing and books than a reader normally has.

I feel like I'm cheating on my writing-self by having a blog about reading. Maybe I shouldn't feel that way, but I do. I heard so many times that you must choose between being a (public) reader and being a writer, that once you choose to pursue publication you give up the right to share opinions freely the way a non-writing reader might -- I've heard these things and listened to them and let that choice work its way into my brain. And I hate it for more than one reason, but mostly because blogging and reviewing was something I loved. It made me happy. I'm willing to give it up in order to be a writer; I haven't blogged in the past few days because, honestly, maybe I am giving it up. Completely. Or at least, that's what I thought. It's really difficult to make a firm decision when there really are no hard and fast rules, when you're choosing between two things that you feel shouldn't even be a choice.

Should I stop the critical/negative reviews and only feature books I love, ones I can fully recommend? Yeah, okay, yes. I get that, I get it 100%. But what about the rest of it? Talking about different issues in books, discussions and opinions and lists of favorites? Should I stop those too? At the risk of offending someone whose book I don't love quite as much, should I stop everything, put the kibosh on discussing my reading and books online, in public? I don't know. That is the hardest decision, especially for me: someone who values honesty and respect and love and kindness over so much else. Someone who tries so hard to be nice and supportive and, in a word, good.

I wish this post had a nice, tidy conclusion, but it doesn't. Partly because things rarely are that nice and tidy and partly because I'm too hungry to think of the appropriate ending unless that ending involves bread or soup.

*or started to read at least, since I haven't finished one of them.

my own rules

I've been doing some big thinking lately. Primarily I've been thinking about MY OWN PERSONAL BLOGGING RULES. Because while I don't want to offend anybody and definitely don't want to end up hurting anyone (including myself), I also want to talk about stuff.

And by stuff I mean books.

So I came up with some guidelines for myself, and while they're not exactly guidelines you need to know, I think it's nice to know what the blog you're reading is about. And what this blog is about (hopefully) is AWESOME THINGS. 

AWESOME THINGS ABOUT BOOKS

• I'll be talking about and featuring the books I read and love. This isn't going to be limited to YA because my reading isn't limited to YA, but you can bet that the majority of books will fall under that umbrella.
• I'll talk about the authors I'm a big fan of. Not all of them probably, because there is a lot, but some of them.
• I will be doing discussion and opinion posts (often about the YA genre), but these discussions will never be about any specific book, series, or author.

AWESOME THINGS ABOUT OTHER STUFF

• I'll probably/maybe end up talking about television shows that I love. These include (but are not limited to): Community, The Office, 30 Rock, Parenthood, Friday Night Lights, and Cougar Town.
• And maybe (occasionally) movies. But there are very few movies I care enough to actually watch, much less spend time writing about.
• I might write the occasional personal post.
• I'll talk about geeky-awesome things such as: spies, robots, Star Trek, and Get Smart. 

THINGS I'M NOT DOING

• The biggest thing I'm not doing on this blog are book reviews. While I will discuss the books I love, I won't be doing formal reviews anymore. But you knew that. (This does make me wonder if this could be considered a book blog -- can you have a book blog if you're not reviewing? Or is it called something else?)
• I won't be participating in IMM (In My Mailbox) anymore. Not because I don't love it but because I don't want to mention the books I'm reading and then not feature them and have someone think I hate their book. Note: I don't hate your book, just trust me on this.
• Unless I have big news, I won't be talking about my querying/publication journey much (if at all). Right now I have exactly two people who are privy to all of my query news and I like keeping this information fairly private.

I debated continuing to do discussion/opinion posts quite a lot and in the end I decided that my opinions are fairly innocuous. I'm not mean, a lot of what I say is pretty positive, and I doubt that opinions on something as general as genre will end up hurting me or insulting somebody. There's cautious and then there's paranoid. If I gave up voicing any opinions I'd have to stop blogging, and I think the positives of having a web presence probably outweigh the few less-than-great opinions I'll be sharing.

Do you think I can still consider this a book blog even if I'm not reviewing? Or is that the definition of book blog?

a memory of stupidity, or something

So, true story, in tenth grade I got a C on a math test. But wait wait, there's more! That's not even the good part yet!

I got a C on this math test and I was super-bummed because I literally did not understand anything we were doing and my teacher was super-unhelpful, and the guy sitting next to me looked over at my grade and said, "Wow, you're, like, one of those people who looks really smart but is actually dumb."

BLOG, WHAT DO YOU SAY TO THAT?

If you thought: "there is no answer" than you are correct. I sat there sort of duh-wee because seriously wth?

But he was right. I do look smart. I have that not-too-ugly-not-too-pretty, brunette, quiet, studious look about me. Like I'm thinking really big thoughts when most of the time I'm really thinking about something ridiculous, like robots falling in love or what would happen if I rammed the grocery cart into the back wall of the grocery store, where all the wine is, and how much wine would break and spill all over the place and could it possibly flood the aisle a little bit?

Those are actually things I think about. Often. 


What strange things do you think about, blog? And also: do you look smarter than you are? Or are you smarter than you look?

ennui is a really fun word, but also weird

In case you haven't noticed, and you obviously have, I don't quite know what I'm doing yet. I haven't quite figured out the rules of this blog - what I will talk about, what I won't, what the focus is. I'd love for this to be a blog that is, still, focused on books and YA lit, but I know the problems I ran into last time and I'm wary of posting anything that could cause problems. I still don't know where the line is.

And I know that if this is going to become just another book blog, then what was the point of me giving up Ten Cent Notes (where I had a solid readership and had put years of effort into the blog) in the first place? I have to remind myself constantly that I started this new blog for a reason, a clean start, a fresh perspective. However, as much as I'd love to look at things from the writer's POV... nobody wants to hear that. Or if that's not true here's what is:

I don't feel comfortable having a writing blog, because I am not a writer except in the loosest definition of the word. I'm not okay with giving you writing advice because, really, why should you listen to me? Talking from the perspective of a writer often means talking about writing, and while I love talking writing with friends and family (because my mother is obligated to listen to my writing-related rants), I'm less enthusiastic about blogging about it because I'm pretty sure it's only interesting to me.

So, uh, I'm not quite sure what I'm doing. I'm thinking about blogging about TELEVISION TELEVISION TELEVISION because I love television, but even that's something that I feel like would only interest me. And I do feel like, honestly, that small foothold I had into the world of YA lit has dissipated now that I'm not running a book blog and only occasionally talking about books on the blog. That really sucks, because I love YA and I love talking to other bloggers and being part of that community and feeling like I have a reason to talk to authors, like I'm not breaking some invisible wall between me and them. (True, this wall may only be in my mind, but it's still there.) I miss that and I'm not yet used to not talking books every day and sharing my opinions with people and writing book discussion posts about things that are bugging me or things I wish would change.

I'm sure it's just the fact that starting a new blog and quitting another puts you in an in-between, transition-y stage, and it hasn't been that long, really, but right now I do feel like books are the only interesting thing I have to talk about and omg omg what am I doing?


That's the question I'm trying to answer. So things are still going to be a bit rough around here for a few weeks while I figure it out.
But I don't know.
I'll figure it out eventually. Hopefully soon. The unending ennui is killing me slowly.

a disclaimer of sorts

When I ran a book review blog one of the big reasons I didn't only review books I liked was because I wanted people to trust me. I didn't want to be fangirling all over books that didn't deserve it -- and I wanted to present a balanced view of even those books where all I really wanted to do was shout YES, THIS! THIS IS GOOD! BUY THIS! READ THIS!

I miss that. I miss the detailed, super-balanced reviews.
I miss it because I know, I know, the books I love aren't going to be the ones you love. Just because I think a book is super-fantastic-wonderful doesn't mean you will and there is a part of me that feels bad about essentially only presenting half of the story when it comes to books. Every book I feature on this blog will be one I love. One that I can wholeheartedly recommend, one that's good enough to reread, one that belongs on my Goodreads favorites shelf.

Now, when I tell you about a book, it's because I honestly love that book. It's worth reading. My recommendations will probably never be as in-depth as my reviews were, but they will still - of course - be honest. I'm telling you this because a lot of times when I see blogs where every review is glowing and they never mention the negatives of a book (because, let's face it, most books aren't perfect), I lose a little bit of trust in that reviewer.

But I'm not a reviewer anymore.
And I love the books that will be featured here.
And I hope you will too.