Dear Zoella: A Note About Your Book Club | Discussion Post

Dear Zoella,

My name is Sheridan. I am seventeen years old, and I have been watching your channel for years. 

I don't remember how I stumbled upon your channel, but the only thing I remember is my cousin introducing me to your "How to Deal With Anxiety/Panic Attacks" video.

I can't put into words how much that helped me, how much that changed my life. I don't think I formally recognized that my "school-age shyness" was something completely different. I didn't know that I likely had an anxiety or panic disorder until I watched that video. Though I'm still not at a point mentally where I can convince myself to go to therapy for anxiety (hence why I am hesitant to say that I have anxiety), your videos have helped a lot. I see a great girl doing amazing things and not letting her own anxiety stop her. If you can do it, why can't I?

As hard as that was to put into words, I think you can understand the impact that you & your videos have had on my life. You are such a positive role model for me and I look up to you. I have a ton of respect for you.

Please keep this in mind as you read the following: I'm only seventeen and I still haven't mastered how to put the pen to the page, if you know what I mean. While some of this may seem very cross, that's not the intention at all.

What you might not know about me is that I am an author. Yes, a published author, at seventeen. I wrote a children's book about anti-bullying (Hank and Lui: King of the Mountain) and I couldn't be prouder of my accomplishments. I'm also an avid reader. Reading was and still remains one of the only ways that I can escape the negativity and cruelty of the world, and sometimes, even my own self-doubt and paralyzing anxiety.

When you announced your book club, I was so excited. I had already read a few of the books on the list at the time that it was announced, and I was excited to see how it progressed.

Recently, you held a twitter chat for your book club. This was really exciting because, not only do we get to talk to you, but we get to talk to you about books (which, to me, is the greatest thing that money can buy!)

But in all honesty, I was hurt when I saw that you responded to one of your questions like this.

[image description: A twitter user asked "What advice would you give to someone who doesn't particularly like to read?" Zoella replies: "Start with something a little easier, maybe a YA or something smaller to spark your love of books]

I know that it probably didn't cross your mind when you were answering the question, and I know that you didn't mean any harm by what you said, but I still am hurt. 

I know that you might not have realized that what you were typing can hurt, but that's what I'm here to inform you about. 

I was hurt that you called YA, one of my favorite genres, an easier genre to read. 

While you might not realize it, calling a certain genre of books "easier" to read, is an insult to both the readers and the authors. It implies that the books themselves are not complicated, that it's an "easy breezy read", that a YA book is a fast read because it doesn't make you think too hard about it. 

As an author, I know the term "easier genre" can be extremely insulting, even if you didn't mean it to be. It implies that YA books are easier to write, and calling a book an "easier" read can also be an insult to the intelligence, hard work and creativity of an author. 

While your channel has been almost like a second home to me, books have been there for me when no one else was. I grew up reading Harry Potter (and I still think that it is so cool that you were an extra in one of the movies!). I grew up reading every single day. I grew up finding versions of myself in other characters. I grew up in a hateful world, but I had books to escape it. 

Books have helped me in ways that I cannot quantify. Books have literally saved me, when I thought that saving myself wasn't possible. It is authors and characters and story-lines and villains and heroes and words on pages that did that for me. As a fellow author, I know you understand that, and I know that your book has done that for someone else. (I personally, haven't been able to find the book in my bookstores, and so I haven't been able to read the series). 

To hear something like that which belittles the YA community stings where it hurts. It doesn't make me feel good, to be frank. It feels like, by saying that YA is an "easier" genre to read, you're also saying that my own experience and journey with YA is not as important; that it doesn't mean as much and that I took the easy way out when it comes to reading. I didn't. 

I know you likely didn't mean any harm in your tweet. After all, I know it is just a tweet, and a lot of context, body language and emotion can be lost when our conversations are mainly through screens. I'm not writing this letter in anger, and I'm not writing this to try and make you feel bad. I'm only writing this to help you realize that your words have influence. Your words have power and sometimes, they can make people feel emotions that you didn't intend. 

I hope you realize that. 

Zoe, I love your videos, I love your optimism, and I am absolutely sure that I will love your books! I know that you have great things ahead of you and I cannot be more excited for what is to come. I just wanted to let you know about this. Hopefully, you'll listen to a little young subscriber like me. <3

Love, 

Sheridan

xoxo

Why I Don't Like "Special" Editions | Discussion Post

Imagine, you walk into Barnes and Noble on a search for a book that you have been anticipating for ages. Today is finally the day when it publishes, and you hope to be one of the lucky people who manage to snag the book from the fresh restocking of the bookstore shelves.

The store opens, and immediately, you rush to the shelves. You know exactly where you would find it, and within seconds, it is right in front of you. You happily pick up the copy and bring it to the register, but you notice a little sticker on the front cover.

Barnes and Noble, special edition. it reads. Extra story inside. 

You had read something in the publisher's Twitter feed earlier in the day, mentioning that this book would have additional content depending on the store that you bought it from. But, wait. How could Barnes and Noble have a special edition? Didn't the publisher just tweet that Target was the one with the special edition?

As you scramble to pull out your phone and figure out the details, another tweet comes in. This time, it's about a Barnes and Noble special edition, with different content and extras than the Target special edition.

You want all of the extra content, but you don't have enough money to pay for both editions of the book, nor do you really need two copies of the same book on your shelves. What do you do?

Mental Illness Awareness Mondays: Kaitlin and PNES

If you stopped by my blog for my Change Places With Me: Harper Summer 2016 Tour, you would know that I mentioned the idea of starting a series of mental illness related blog posts on my blog. 

This is for a variety of reasons. I am hoping that this series will open up mental illness for discussion, help to reverse the stigma against mental illness, and remind everyone that you are not alone, no matter what you are going through. 

This post is one of these posts. Kaitlin from www.vivacioushobo.com offered to share her experience with mental illness and the struggles that she faces every day, especially with the stigma against mental illness. Rather than speak for her, I'll let you read her post now. 

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I have PNES (Psychogenic Non-Epileptic Seizures). I was diagnosed with epilepsy in February 2014 after months of having several seizures per day. I did not know I was having seizures, because I only knew about grand mal seizures (the kind where you fall and shake.) My seizures are much different. I behave oddly. I do repetitive movements (like pulling on my shirt over and over), repeat words or phrases, stare blankly, have difficulty speaking, and talk differently with a high pitched childish voice. 

I was very relieved to get a diagnosis of epilepsy, and finally know what was happening to me. This was happening multiple times per day! I was put on two separate anti-epilepsy medicines and was still having seizures daily, or at least every other day. Eventually, I went to the epilepsy monitoring unit and was connected to an EEG and had 24 hour video monitoring for 5 days. They did record my seizures via the video, but nothing showed up on the EEG. They told me this meant that I was having pseudo seizures. I asked if that meant they thought I was faking it, because I absolutely am not. They told me no, they are real seizures, they just don't have anything to do with epilepsy, since the seizures are not caused by electrical activity in my brain. 

They told me the pseudo seizures are caused by mental trauma. The seizures are real, the same way people who have schizophrenia hear voices that aren't there. They aren't making it up, but it is happening in their mind. "But I don't want to be insane." I whispered to the doctor with tears streaming down my face. She explained that having PNES is not insanity and there is nothing wrong with having mental illness, it is the same as any other illness, there is just not a physical cause.

I thought having seizures was scary, but for some reason being diagnosed with PNES is scarier, and more upsetting to me. Even though it is estimated that 30% of people diagnosed with epilepsy actually have PNES, I had never heard of anyone having this before. Because of the shame and stigma associated with psychiatric illness, I don't tell people I have PNES, I still tell people that I have epilepsy. That way if I do have a seizure when I am with someone they will know what to expect. I don't want people to judge me or call me crazy. I have major anxiety that people are going to stop talking to me if they find out that I have a mental illness, rather than epilepsy. 

 Before I was diagnosed with epilepsy and we were trying to figure out what was happening, I had one friend tell me I am doing this to myself, and that it is my fault that I am sick. She said if I tried harder, and exercised and ate healthier, that I probably wouldn’t have any problems at all. I felt vindicated to know that she was wrong and I had epilepsy. Now that I know I have PNES, I can't help thinking about the things she said, and worry that other people will feel like that. Because of the stigma associated with mental illness, I don't feel comfortable sharing my problems with anyone other than my husband.

Because of self-stigma I avoid many social interactions. I can't do a lot of things that other people can do anymore, like drive, or go on amusement rides, and I worry that this will affect my friendships because now people have to make more of an effort to be around me, and I feel like if they knew I had mental illness instead of epilepsy, they wouldn't make the effort anymore.

Telling people I have PNES is hard. I feel like I have this huge bomb to drop on people's laps. I automatically feel defensive and upset, thinking someone might have a negative reaction or judge me. I know that if more people talk about having mental illnesses the stigma will eventually go away, but I am just not brave enough to tell the people in my life yet. I hope this article helps.

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Thank you so much to Kaitlin from www.vivacioushobo.com for contributing to my blog with this amazing post. I also have to give her an extra thank you because she was the very first person that volunteered to write a blog post for my mental illness awareness series. Thank you so much, Kaitlin!

Feel free to post in the comments your thoughts about this post, along with words of support and encouragement. This "series" of blog posts is meant to be a discussion as well so please feel free to use the comments!

As always, be sure to check out Kaitlin on www.vivacioushobo.com, or @vivacioushobo on Twitter!

xoxo,

Sheridan

Harper Summer 2016 Tour: Change Places With Me + MASSIVE GIVEAWAYS

Hi guys! Today I am posting on behalf of the Harper Summer 2016 tour, and I couldn't be more excited!

Wait, what is the Harper Spring 2016 tour? A bunch of book bloggers (including myself) joined together with Irish Banana Blog Tours and Harper to promote some of their books coming out in the summer publishing season this year! If you go through all of our posts (which you should do if you want to enter to win the massive giveaway at the bottom of this post), you will see summaries and other information about all of the books that are soon to come from Harper!

That being said....the book that I am covering for this tour is

CHANGE PLACES WITH ME by LOIS METZGER

Publisher: Balzer + Bray

Publish Date: June 14 2016

Page Amount: 224 pages

Price: $17.99 Hardback

ISBN: 0062385534 (ISBN13: 9780062385536)

Order Change Places With Me Here!

Learn More About Lois Metzger Here!

Learn more about the book on Goodreads here!

SUMMARY

From Lois Metzger, acclaimed author of A Trick of the Light, comes a work of speculative fiction set in the near future about a teen girl who finds a new, mysterious perspective on her life.

Rose has changed. She still lives in the same neighborhood with her stepmother and goes to the same high school with the same group of kids, but when she woke up today, something was just a little different than it was before. The dogs who live upstairs are no longer a terror. Her hair and her clothes all feel brand-new. She wants to throw a party—this from a girl who hardly ever spoke to her classmates before. There is no more sadness in her life; she is bursting with happiness.

But something still feels wrong to Rose. Because, until very recently, Rose was an entirely different person—a person who is still there inside her, just beneath the thinnest layer of skin.

A bold and original work of speculative fiction set in a familiar future, Lois Metzger’s latest novel is a profoundly authentic and heartbreaking tale of the things we keep locked away inside us, even from ourselves.

 ADVANCE PRAISE

"How I admire Lois Metzger's thoughtful and suspenseful novel—the pacing, the sympathetic characters, the emotional astuteness, the believable near-future setting. It captivated me from the first page to the last." —Gail Carson Levine, author of Ella Enchanted

"Change Places with Me is a vivid, beautiful novel, a particular evocation of a story many of us have lived and all of us know. Read this to see what I mean." —Kim Stanley Robinson, Hugo Award-winning author of Aurora

PRE-ORDER

Are you interested in pre-ordering Change Places With Me after reading that amazing summary! Good news, you can do so at any of the sites below! 

Goodreads | Amazon | B&N | IndieBound | The Book Depository

DISCUSSION ON MENTAL ILLNESS

My review for Change Places With Me will be live on the blog a little bit closer to the release date, but I wanted to have a discussion about this book now because I think it is extremely important in terms of the representation for mental illnesses.

That being said, I wanted to bring in the community a little more on my blog. I wanted people with mental illnesses to write about mental illnesses, and I want to make my blog a safe space where people can share their thoughts without being criticized.

So, I asked a few bloggers if they would be willing to write about mental illness, whether it is their own struggle or just some thoughts that they have on mental illness itself or the stigma against it. These posts will be going live in the next few days, but I wanted to give a brief introduction here so that it wasn't too surprising when they started showing up on the blog.

That being said, be on the look out for these posts. I encourage you to participate in the discussion by using the comments. If you have something to say or something you would like to address about mental health, please contact me (iamabookjunkie@gmail.com or @iamabookjunkie on Twitter) and I would be happy to let you guest post on the blog!

FACEBOOK CHAT WITH AUTHORS

Information on the FB Chat. Over the course of February and March, Hannah from Irish Banana Blog Tours was so kind and put together a Facebook chat with some of the authors featured in the Summer tour! Sadly, these two chats have already passed. But, if you want to see some of the questions that were asked and the responses, you can click on the links below!

February Chat
March Chat

GIVEAWAYS

You read that right, giveaways. Harper has been so nice as to sponsor two AMAZING giveaways for the Harper Summer 2016 tour! Read down below to see some amazing prizes and enter to win them!

Giveaway #1 – A Harper Teen Summer 2016 Catalog prizepack of 45 books*.
*Titles not included: The Crown by Kiera Cass, Escape from Asylum by Madeline Roux, Sing by Vivi Greene, The Countdown by Kimberly Derting, & United As One by Pittacus Lore
In addition to the one massive prize winner, we will also have 4 winners who will be able to select 3 titles they want from the Summer 2016 Catalog. (US Only)

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Giveaway #2 – 5 Finished Copies from the Harper Teen Winter 2016 Catalog
5 books are: Front Lines by Michael Grant, Revenge & the Wild by Michelle Modesto, The Lifeboat Clique by Kathy Parks, Symptoms of Being Human by Jeff Garvin, & The Girl from Everywhere by Heidi Heilig (US Only)

How to enter:
Collect the daily word from each blog stop during the Harper Summer 2016 Tour (a total of 50). Once you’ve collected them all, email the complete saying to: HarperTeenTour@gmail.com (mine was in pink!)

Prize Rules:
Winner must have a valid US mailing address to receive the prize
Winner must be over 13
Only one (1) entry per person for Prize #2 – duplicates will be deleted.
Only a completed phrase will be accepted as an entry – do not email each word/phrase daily. Wait until you have the complete saying and then email in.
All email submissions must be received by 11:59 PM EST 3/31/2016.
Winners will be selected 4/1/2016 and will have 48 hours to claim their prize before another is selected.
Participating blogs and bloggers are not responsible for unsent, damaged, and/or stolen prizes offered by the publisher.

Discussion Post: "Rescuing" ARCs

As a blogger, I have had some experience with advanced reader's copies. I have won a few giveaways from publishers, I have been a part of a few blog tours, and I have quite a few generous blogger friends that have been nice enough to lend me their copies.

I have only formally requested an ARC two times, and, to be honest, it was when I still was trying to figure out the structure of my blog and it's content. These requests have not been successful (yet), but I'm hoping to request some in the future.

As you can see, there are several ways that a blogger can receive ARCs for review, even without requesting them directly from the publisher. I am not trying to say that bloggers have a right to ARCs (because we don't) nor am I trying to shove ARCs down blogger's throats and say "You should try and get these just to have ARCs!" That is not my point at all.

Out of all of these ways of receiving ARCs, there is one way that I have never seen mentioned on social media or blog posts (at least, to my knowledge). is through used book shops.

Jess over at Princessica of Books recently made a post about a blogger who had found an ARC of a book at a used book shop, and posted on a Twitter hashtag, offering this book up for trade if anyone was interested in it.

To clarify, ARCs should NEVER be sold. It is actually illegal to do so in any market. I do not condone the actions of this individual and I am not trying to challenge this statement in any way, shape or form. This post is a way for me to understand the conflict that is going on between different groups of people and their thinking behind their actions.

Jess' discussion focused on whether it was right to purchase an ARC if the proceeds went to charity. After reading her post, I began to wonder why bloggers would purchase an ARC from a second-hand store in the first place. After all, not for sale means not for sale, right? 

But it dawned on me that I could clearly see both sides to this story. In order to demonstrate this, here is an example.

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You walk into a second-hand store like Goodwill or Salvation Army. As you look in the book section, you notice an ARC of *insert books here* peeking out at the shelves. You pick it up, and you wonder if you should get it because it is a book that you would be interested in reading OR you need it for your collection! What do you do?

Person One: Put it back on the shelves and walk away, even if you need it for the one collection that you are going to finish. Never for sale means never for sale, ever.

Hopefully, you would bring it up to the store manager, and you would reach an agreement that this ARC would not be sold in the stores again. They understand, and take it off of the shelves, but you don't go home with it in your hands.

At least you know that you did the right thing.

Person Two: Immediately pick it up and go to the cash register. You might mention that technically this isn't for sale to the cashier, and tell them not to sell an ARC again, but by the end of the day you are still walking out with the ARC in your hand ready to go to a new home. After all, if it stayed in the store, it would still technically be "for sale" and it might never find a home as good as the one that you can provide it.

You keep telling yourself that you are "rescuing" an ARC from a retail store. Even though you know it's wrong, after you purchase it, it is officially out of circulation and not on the shelves anymore. It's not your fault for buying it because, if you didn't, someone that didn't know what an ARC was would buy it and continue to spread misinformation about it. At least now it is out of circulation, not for sale anymore, and in a nice home.

At least you know that you did the right thing.
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Do you see the issue here? Both groups of individuals think that they did "the right thing" in this situation. But is there really a "right way" to be handling this situation?

An ARC that is still for sale can cause more stir than an ARC that was purchased by someone. I've seen instances of pretty famous bloggers posting that they found an ARC they needed to finish their collection in a used book store, and I have never seen anyone question their actions online about why they felt they needed to purchase it. Is it different story when you need that ARC for a collection of yours vs. seeing a random ARC in a store?

Can you justify purchasing an ARC as a blogger, even if you know that ARCs are never to be sold?

I don't have all of the answers to these questions, and maybe that's for the better. I'll leave it up to you guys to discuss with me in the comments.

Keep in mind that my comments are a no-judgement zone, and even if you have an unpopular opinion, you should be allowed to voice it here without ridicule. My blog is a safe space and anyone that threatens that safe space is not allowed here. You are allowed to disagree with each other but please voice these concerns respectfully!

Again, to clarify, ARCs should never be sold in any market. I'm asking the question below only to get an understanding of when bloggers/individuals can deem an action as "okay" or "acceptable", even if it might not be. I'm curious to see what you guys think and I'd love to have this discussion with you.

Is it "right" to "rescue" an ARC from a used book store?

Discussion Post: ARCs in a "Collector's Market"

The following events unfolded at about 10:00 pm on February 8th 2016. I did the best to document what I could (and will continue to document anything related to this). I do have to apologize if some of this does not make sense, but I feel so strongly about this and I wanted to write a blog post as quickly as possible about this. This post WILL be updated as events continue to occur and I will post the updated time below. 

Updated at 7:00 pm, February 11th 2016

I knew it wouldn't be long until I had to deal with another incident surrounding Advanced Reader's Copies (ARCs) and their misuse both in and outside of the publishing and blogging world.

This all started with a late night Instagram session on my phone, where I noticed that some of the users that I follow had posted a picture of a certain ARC that they had acquired for their collection. This user, to my knowledge, is not a professional in the publishing industry and they do not have a blog, so I was already questioning how an ARC was able to get into their hands.

But, this user is a massive, collector for a very *specific* series that dominated the publishing world and completely changed what it stood for. I'm not going to say exactly what this series is, but I hope that you can get the gist based on the little hint that I gave you. (I feel like it would point to who they are, and I don't want to reveal names yet because I hope that the situation will be resolved).

Other Instagram users had asked in the comments "Where did you get that?" "Where do I find one?" "What is an ARC?" I felt that, as a blogger familiar with ARCs, I was more than qualified to provide an answer to these questions.

If you need further proof, I attached a screenshot of the original caption of the picture and the comments that I made in response.

The account of @iturnthepages is my own account, and there were four individuals involved in the exchange.

It turns out that another collector jumped in when they saw my response, and replied to my comment, along with multiple comments from the original poster.

I thought that I was going to get a civilized response, and I was hoping that these individuals knew that what they were doing was wrong. They even tagged the picture with #advancedreaderscopies (and the publisher!). I thought that they would have been smart enough to do some kind of research.

It turns out that they did to some "research", but it was misinformation, as you can read from their responses below.

I do not think that this is an ignorance to the purpose of ARCs or what they are used for. I believe that these individuals know what Advanced Readers Copies are and know very well that purchasing these copies for a collection is illegal, regardless of what "market" it happens in. I am infuriated, I am angry, and I am hurt, as a book blogger, but also as a lover of this series. A series that has brought magic to my heart and a love for life to my bones. I am hurt, as a fellow collector, to see that other collectors are continuing to ignore a (very obvious) law for the sake of their own collections.

It also pains me because these individuals were so quick to use their words to justify their own actions. I did not even accuse them (officially) of purchasing an Advanced Readers Copy, yet they still spoke to me like I had thrown that accusation at them in writing over the internet. (I had my doubts about how they received this copy but I had hoped that they did this ethically). I know now that these individuals only responded like this to cover up their own tracks, that they know what they are doing is not only wrong but ILLEGAL, and they refuse to admit it.

An ARC is never for sale. This means in any instance, from any individual, in any year, regardless of whether the book is already released or not, and regardless of it's popularity. ARCs are a marketing tool and should be used as such, for the audience that they are intended for. 

As Erin from The Book Nut put it, just because publishers don't go after every case in the secondary market doesn't mean it's not illegal. Publishers don't have the resources nor the finances to go after every single case. Even then, I'm not even sure how they would handle something like this. ARCs are NEVER for sale. NEVER.

I have not responded to these individuals yet, but I will respond when I am not as infuriated and emotional about the topic. I also reached out to several publishers to give their input on how to respond to a topic like this, and I will continue to update this post as responses come in and this continues to unfold.

If you have any advice, please feel free to let me know. I am feeling hurt by this situation, and I am also confused. I'm not sure what to do, but I need some kind souls to help me see through the darkness and into the light.

UPDATE: February 9th 2016 9:00 AM

I received a response yesterday from a publisher regarding their take on this situation. I'll enclose their tweets below. (This is one of the many reasons why I love Spencer Hill Press, they are not afraid to get involved in something like this!)

I definitely agree with their viewpoint and will be using this to try and talk to these collectors. I'm still hoping for the original publishers to see this and speak up on behalf of the author as well.

Also, the support I have received from all of you thus far is absolutely astounding. I'm compiling all of your tweets and comments into a singular document so that I can try and create a formal response addressing all of the points that I would like to meet.

I would love it if you guys would share this link (to the blog post with the situation or my tweets about it) with all of the publishers that you are aware of. I really, really want this to reach a majority of the publishers in the publishing world because that will only help to give strong evidence against these collectors (and maybe stop this "ARC Black Market", as Alex put it, from occurring in the first place!).

UPDATE #2 February 11th 7:00 PM

After some careful consideration, I decided that I wanted to ask more questions to these collectors to see where they heard this information from. After all, I still hoped that they were just misinformed about the nature of ARCs (because they are not involved in the blogging/publishing world). I decided that I would ask these collectors where they heard this information. I was hoping that I would get a link to a website or some information on who told them this so that I could also try and prevent more misinformation from being spread. Below is my comment and the response that I received. 

The funny thing about this response is that the collector clearly mentions it would be illegal to sell these ARCs for a profit in a retail establishment, because that is what several secondary marketplaces are doing with ARCs anyway. Sadly, ARCs are still sold on sites like eBay, and the profits are given to the seller on eBay. There is really no difference in terms of whether or not ARCs are being sold for profit. 

As you can tell, I was slightly confused by the response given. I also wanted to ask a question that, if they decided to answer it, would clearly state their opinion. I wanted to ask about physical stores, because the "secondary market" that this collector was speaking about was completely online. Again, this collector responded to my question, which you can see below. 

I'm honestly not quite sure what "sold as what they are" means - because if they are "sold as what they are", that means sold as ARCs, which is still illegal. 

The collector here seems to believe that selling ARCs is not illegal in secondary markets because their are no penalties for the seller. However, I am certain that penalties would be handed out if publishers were willing and financially able to track down each and every case of an ARC being sold.

In some cases,when authors see that their own ARCs are being sold on the Internet, punishments are dealt out. Listings are removed from eBay, and the author will likely remain infuriated at the seller forever. There very well may not be "jail time" associated with selling ARCs, but that doesn't mean that there are no punishments overall or that selling and buying ARCs is suddenly morally correct.

For example, using the collector's example of "jail time", there are several crimes that are illegal that a person can commit that doesn't necessarily result in jail time, but that doesn't make the crime legal. 

I'm honestly not quite sure what to do at this point in time - I have not heard from many publishers to  confirm that the selling/purchase of ARCs is indeed "banned" in their eyes. I don't know how to respond in a measly Instagram comment about this issue and to try and correct them, because they seem pretty set in their ways. I do have to say that I have respect for them in terms of their willingness to communicate with me in general - I didn't believe that this interaction would be civil at all. 

I don't want to give up the fight on this, I think now I just have to figure out what my next step is. As always, any help from you guys is greatly appreciated. If you want to share this post, you can. Your comments help me. If you want to tag an author you know or a publisher you know on Twitter asking them to take a stance on this, that would be amazing. If we all work together, if we all care enough about this issue, it can and will be solved. We just have to do some work to get there.

As always, I'll keep you updated as things unfold,
Sheridan

"Free Books" and How That Is Not Always Accurate

This week in the blogging world, I saw a very interesting conversation emerge on the topic of other members of the book community offering advice for their followers to receive "free books". I'm not going to say their real name on the blog, so I'll call them A.

From my understanding, A had created a video where they spoke about some of their tips about how to get "free books". This video was several minutes long and had already been viewed by several people (and had been up on the channel) for a while before I was able to see it.

After watching the video, myself, along with several other bloggers, realized that there was a massive amount of misinformation presented in the video about what "free books" mean, and some of the other terms that A introduced in the video. Instead of picking apart every sentence that A mentioned in the video, I wanted to do my best to convey the correct information in this blog post, so that hopefully, this misinformation doesn't seem to spread, and also talk about why something like this can be so frustrating to bloggers.

First thing is first, "free books" does NOT include Advanced Readers Copies or other books sent from a publisher. Unless you won a giveaway, all Advanced Readers Copies and other finished copies sent out by publishers (in general) are sent out for review. This is especially the case with Advanced Readers Copies, because the reviews and appearance of the book on social media really helps the sales of the book and gets the word out to readers that may want to read this book when it comes out.

These books are not free, because a publisher has to pay out of pocket for these books to be produced. There is the cost of the production of the ARC itself, and (if the ARC is a physical copy) the cost of mailing the ARC out to bloggers and other professional reviewers. It costs the publisher money to make these books and send them to you, and while you don't have to pay anything to receive them, it is by no means "free". ARCs are a promotional tool for marketing. They are not "free books".

When publishers send you books, especially when you request them, they are expecting a review in return. You are not necessarily obligated to write a review for every single ARC that you receive, but at least for books that you request from publishers, you should write an honest review for.

The only "free books" that you will ever receive in the blogging world are the books that you borrow from the library or the books that you receive as a present from one of your friends. (Sometimes you can get ARCs from other bloggers, but this falls into a different category and you should still review them if they are not out yet, or at least try to).

I didn't like the way that A's video was pitched because, to me, it looked like A was promoting the idea of getting into blogging only to get free books. (Just to be clear, I'm not accusing A of doing this when they got into creating videos). This is NOT a reason to get into blogging, and while I know ARCs and other review books can be tempting sometimes, you should blog about what you love. You should create content about what you love, and maybe some of these ARCs will follow, and maybe they won't. Blogging isn't about getting ARCs or being noticed by massive publishers. It shouldn't be that way, and if it is, maybe it is a sign that the community should change/we need to have a massive discussion about it.

A's video also made it sound like requesting and reviewing digital ARCs (also known as eARCs) lead to the blogger being sent physical review copies. This isn't the case. Digital ARCs are for people that prefer reading books on their electronic devices. Everyone has different reading preferences. In my mind, digital ARCs are no different than physical ARCs. They hold the same expectations, and you should review them. The content is exactly the same, just the formatting is different. Digital ARCs don't necessarily lead to receiving physical ARCs at all. Personally, I don't think the two are related at all.

It's moments, posts and videos like this that make me a little bit uncomfortable. In A's case, there was a lot of information in the video that is being spread to a large following. It makes my heart hurt to think that people are only getting involved in blogging to get "free books". I completely understand that these new bloggers may be completely uninformed. I wanted to make this post in the hopes that the "right" information gets spread to all of these people. The book blogging community should be a positive one and one where we are not afraid to point out flaws in others information and offer nice corrections.

I really hope this post did not come across as harsh - I'm not trying to personally attack A for their video or their channel - I'm just trying to make a point. Misinformation is not okay, and make sure that you do your research.

That being said, if anything is incorrect in this post, please let me know and I will update the post with my updates posted in bold. I know I'm still relatively new to blogging and I know that I can get things wrong sometimes.

Let's talk in the comments below. If you have seen this video, let me know what you think about it. If not, what are your thoughts about this post? Is there anything you should add? Should I make another post about ARCs? Would that help to stop the problem? I'll be honest, I don't know what I can do to stop the problem, but I can try to stop the misinformation from spreading. I have to.

Sheridan

Why I No Longer Feel Safe in the Blogging Community

It has only been a few days into the new year, and already, the blogging community was (and continues to be) shaken by another blogging scandal.

I really didn't want to be able to say this again. I really wish it didn't happen. But scandals in the blogging community happen way too much. Even one scandal, plagiarized post, is one too many.

I'm sad to report on what is happening now.

From my understanding, there was an author named Corinne Rosanna Catlin who wrote her own novel. She pretended to be a Penguin Random House employee, and emailed several bloggers under this name or a pseudonym. She asked them if they would like to review some ARCs from Penguin Random House.

Some bloggers (including teen bloggers) were contacted by her and even gave their address in order to receive ARCs that they believed were from Penguin Random House itself.

Jon was actually one of the bloggers who received one of the packages from her, and he described their being the Penguin Random House logo on the side of a box. Inside of the box were several books - which he says were a mix of a Penguin Adult Title (with a Thrift Books Sticker), and the author's book, along with an ARC that he wanted.

I'm pretty sure the ARC was bought off of the Internet if she doesn't work for Penguin Random House. Which, is yet again, illegal.

You can read about the incident more on Publisher's Weekly or from Jon's blog!

(I'm sorry if some of this information isn't correct - I'm still trying to figure out what happened myself. But if something is wrong/something is missing, let me know in the comments, and I will update it!)

I'm very, very scared for the bloggers that gave her their addresses, personal or not, PO box or not, and I am very scared for what this woman can do with them. I'm not quite sure what will happen, but I am happy to say that I have not been emailed yet, and in the case that I am emailed, I will definitely not be responding to it.

But, this shakes me up.

I am a teen book blogger. I'm still relatively new to blogging. I don't really have any publicity contacts from any publishing houses. If I was approached by a publicity representative from a publishing house, I wouldn't have anything to check it against, and I probably would have responded to the email as well.

I don't feel safe. I doubt I will feel safe for a long time.

I was able to get past the (hopefully) isolated incident between Kathleen Hale and Blythe Harris. I have never read any of Hale's books (and I don't plan on doing this in the future) and I figured that this was just ONE bad egg in an entire batch of great ones. It did take me some time though, to trust that my personal information wouldn't be leaked by other people. I still ask for emails to be deleted, I don't participate in Books for Trade as much as I used to. I'm horrified to even think about giving my address out to anyone I don't know personally or trust.

I'm shaken by this, especially when it involves a giant publishing company.

For those of you that don't know, blogging involves a lot of different things. Most of the time, it starts out with a single post on a brand new website. Then reviews of old books you have on your shelves start to show up on the website, reading challenges begin to appear. You begin to write book haul posts and take part in blog tours, and you occasionally can get a book sent to you for review, which is all very exciting!

But when you build up your blog with all of your original content (there is another post talking about this), publishers can take notice, and it is possible for you to work with publishers and authors directly to promote their books/ideas, sometimes even before the book comes out!

Some of this, involves giving publishers your personal information. Your address. Your PO box. Your name. 

To see someone take advantage of this trust that we give to publishers - the trust that they won't do anything "bad" with our addresses, that it will remain private, and it will only be used when there is something book related coming in the mail - is absolutely crazy. I'm not blaming Penguin for any of this (as they are looking into it), but the fact that someone can abuse it like that, abuse Penguin's trust of them as well, just hurts my heart.

It hurts to see that so many bloggers I know, love and trust, are victims of this. I can't even imagine how you all feel right now and I am so sorry that this happened. If there is anything I can do, just let me know. Just know that every single one of you are shining lights in my life and I love everything that you do.

But,what is harder to understand stems from what went through this author's mind that made her think it was okay to lie to bloggers, to trick them into reading her own book. I have seen so many bloggers that said her book looked good, but because of this whole scandal, they won't be reading it at all, even if she sent them the book.

Some individuals on Twitter are beginning to have the conversation of why book bloggers are so "attached" to ARCs and why they were willing to give out information when it is just for an ARC, and not really for blogging itself. Let me say first that I completely understand where they are coming from. When you are not in the blogging community, it's hard to understand that this isn't just about advanced readers copies. Plus, advanced readers copies are not "free books". Bloggers and reviewers have to put a ton of work into reading and reviewing the book in order to boost publicity. ARCs are publicity materials.

But even then, it doesn't matter. ARCs can be a part of book blogging if you want them to be, and you can't victim-blame or shame anyone who was tricked by this. It's NOT their fault, they are completely innocent. If you blame people for not knowing that this person was a "fake", the emails did come from a real Penguin email address in some situations and many bloggers have a great relationship with publishers.

I mean this very politely, but YOU CAN'T BLAME US.

Sorry, that part of the rant is now over. It just hurts to see that some people are accusing us of doing something wrong, when in actuality, it wasn't us at all.

In terms of myself personally, I have never requested anything from a publisher. I've been weary about entering giveaways from anyone, and in case I won something, I always ask that my address be deleted after something is sent. These are only some of the changes I have made since the Hale/Harris scandal. I have only ever sent in two ARC requests, which was one, before I really knew how to properly send one, and two, before all of these scandals were happening. Even though I want to send out more ARC requests, I am scared to, horrified, even. I don't want this happening to me.

I am a teen. I don't have the knowledge or safety that some of the older book bloggers have. I don't have a publicity contact from publishers or know when it is okay to send out information or not. I don't have the experience they have. Luckily, I have some great blogging friends to help me out. I also ask my parents every time I apply to a blog tour or otherwise if I can give out an address to send something to, and I only give this information to people that I trust. But it still scares me. This is my address. My information. 

The trust I have in anything has already been cut slim, and I don't know if that trust will ever be fully restored. I'm not really saying trust in publishing companies or close-blogger friends, but I'm worried that my information will no longer stay private, or that someone will use it for the wrong intentions. Thankfully, I have great blogging friends and authors and otherwise who delete my information after they send anything, so I don't have to worry as much about them. I wouldn't doubt their intentions or use in a million years. But trust is such a hard thing to build up, and it's even harder to do when you are a massive company and one, small blogger.

I honestly don't know what to think of this situation, and I am so very sorry if my writing reads like a bunch of separate conversations and just overall rambling. I'm still feeling very raw from this entire ordeal and I'm honestly not sure what to do about it.

I'm sorry to take over the blog with such a negative post after one of the best blog posts I have ever made (my Star Darlings Tour post, thanks Hannah!) but I felt these things needed to be said.

This post is short, by the way. There are so many other things that I want to talk about, but that I left out of this post because of the sheer length of them, but I will continue to have these conversations.

I can't let them convince me of anything. I can't let them take me away from something that I love. I will fight like heck to make sure that doesn't happen.

All my love,
Sheridan

On Posts and Plagiarism

I was really hoping that I would never have to make this post in my entire blogging career.

I was really hoping that I would never run into another blogging scandal like the one with Kathleen Hale and Blythe Harris, that only broke ground when I was a new book blogger, still unsure of my place in the community. (Yes, I know this article comes from Buzzfeed, but I think it gives a good overview)

While that incident was horrible and downright inexplicable in it's own realm, this next issue is also just as important.

Bloggers are plagiarizing other bloggers. 

As sad as this is to say, this has been happening for a long time, even in just the short year and a half that I have been blogging here at I Turn the Pages. I've seen tweets about bloggers who have had their content stolen. I have read very similar - if not completely identical - Goodreads reviews for books. I have even seen a website where another blogger took pieces of reviews from several bloggers and pieced it together as if nothing was wrong.

It's time for this to end.

I thought this whole scandal would be over and done with by now, especially after the blogging community essentially shut down a blog that had been plagiarizing reviews since it's birth. But, yet again, I see myself reminded that these plagiarisms still take place.

This is NOT OKAY. 

As bloggers, we work very, very hard to post consistently to our blogs, to interact with subscribers, viewers and otherwise. Thankfully, the one thing we don't have to work hard for as bloggers as finding the connection to something that we love. But, a lot of what the general public (and sometimes, even other bloggers) don't consider is that effort goes into every single piece of the website. It took me hours and hours to decide to use the font that you are reading right now on the blog, along with the size of the font and the layout of my posts, not to mention the time I spent crafting this particular one.

To see something that we have all worked so hard for - to see something that we have quite literally poured our hearts into - be copy-pasted onto another blog by a few simple clicks is an indescribable event. Thankfully, I have not been plagiarized (at least, to my knowledge), but I can only imagine it feels like someone is ripping your heart out of your chest.

Blogging isn't just something that we do passively. We put a ton of work into it every single day, even if you don't see us posting all of the time. Hannah from The Irish Banana Review works with publishers to put together blog tours to promote the book way before it is even released. Nori from ReadWriteLove28 puts together a Sunday Street Team for the same purpose. Brittany from The Book Addict's Guide took her love for books and turned it into an Etsy Candle Shop. Our blogging isn't just about our blog, it is about the people that we meet and love.

But, when you take content away from us, and claim it as your own, it is crossing a line. It is definitely one thing to have similar feelings about a certain character in a book, but it is another to copy a review word for word or even paraphrase it.

I really don't know what other way to put this, but I felt I needed to write a blog post because I needed to get my voice out there, to have my voice heard, and maybe, just maybe it would force these bloggers and other individuals to reconsider their actions and remedy the situation.

I know that it can be scary entering a community, or even if you are not new, just to be a part of it. I know that sometimes, inspiration for posts do not come easily, and you want to stick to a schedule as much as you can. I know that sometimes, you can't help but be addicted to the numbers game, and do anything that you can to ensure those numbers keep rising.

But plagiarism is not the answer.

If you need help coming up with ideas for blog posts, or even need someone to bounce them off of, I'm sure I speak for several book bloggers in the community when I say you can come to us. You can come to me. You can email me, or tweet me, or even Facebook message my page if you have to. I am more than willing to help you come up with your own creative and unique posts.

There are other options than plagiarism. If you need some ideas for posts, you can also talk to me and I will include you in some of my tags or features. (By the way, you don't have to be officially tagged in my tag posts to participate). We can even come up with a joint feature together if you would like. You don't have to plagiarize. You shouldn't.

I mentioned this on Twitter, but I will mention this here again. Blogging is a numbers game. Blogging is not about followers or views or other blog statistics. Blogging is about connecting with something that you love, and sharing that passion with others. Your blog may be about books like mine, or it may not be. Your blog could be about makeup or animals or movies or anything that you are passionate about. Finding that spark - finding what you are passionate about, and what makes you, you - is what blogging is about. You have to be your own person to be successful.

Do yourself a favor, along with others in the blogging community, and find a blogger that you really connect with. Maybe you enjoy reading their posts, seeing their pictures on Instagram, or you just like seeing them get excited about their favorite authors. TELL THEM. The best thing you can do for the blogging community right now, even if you are a part of it, is to support everyone. It's not easy dealing with plagiarism, but you can let them know that you support them in everything that they do.
I will be doing this using the hashtag #BloggerLove in case you would like to join me,

Plagiarism is not acceptable, and we have to be the ones to send that message. We can still be a loving, fun, accepting community. We don't have to let this knock us down either.

We won't. 

xoxo,
Sheridan