{"id":690,"date":"2018-12-19T13:02:12","date_gmt":"2018-12-19T12:02:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/readerwitch.com\/?p=690"},"modified":"2018-12-19T13:02:12","modified_gmt":"2018-12-19T12:02:12","slug":"newbie-in-the-blogosphere","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/readerwitch.com\/2018\/12\/19\/newbie-in-the-blogosphere\/","title":{"rendered":"Notes of a newbie in the blogosphere"},"content":{"rendered":"

I started blogging 4.5 months ago. Even though it feels like several lifetimes ago, I think I’m still a newbie. I still get surprised by things considered ordinary. Here are some of them.<\/p>\n

1. Acronyms and jargon of the blogging world<\/h2>\n

Life is short and book bloggers know it. There are only that many books that one can read and that many posts that one can write, so it\u2019s only logical to contract as many words as possible and to invent new terms for things.<\/p>\n

\"Twitter<\/p>\n

Here’s the translation:<\/p>\n

\u2018Sorry, I\u2019ve been out of touch.\u2019
\n\u2018Have you been finishing all the books you planned to read?\u2019
\n\u2018I wish. I just bought tons of new books instead. You? Are you still stuck in this state when you don\u2019t feel like reading anymore?\u2019
\n\u2018Yeah, I dropped most of my advance reading copies of young adult and new adult genres\u2019<\/p>\n

Yes, it was definitely longer to type.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

It takes time to learn all the terms and abbreviations. Once I got so desperate that I started googling for some list of all these terms. Turns out one blogger did compose a list of popular terms and acronyms<\/a>!<\/p>\n

\"Twitter<\/p>\n

(It actually means: \u201cI\u2019m writing a book of a young adult genre\u201d)<\/p>\n

2. To be or not to be a reviewer who posts negative reviews<\/h2>\n

<\/p>\n

Apparently, it\u2019s a popular dilemma in the blogging world. This question reappears on Twitter several times a week and it always<\/strong> causes heated debates and attracts attention.<\/p>\n

\"Twitter<\/p>\n

Just a few months ago I naively believed that a book reviewer is a person who reviews books. Apparently, it\u2019s not that simple. Some book reviewers are actually book praisers. They openly state they will never give a book a negative review. They say they don\u2019t want to hurt authors\u2019 feelings.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

I actually think they also don\u2019t want to hurt the publishers\u2019 feelings as well, because they are afraid to be cut off from the free supplies of reading copies. So much for \u201cin exchange for my honest review\u201d.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, there are several reasons why negative reviews are needed.<\/p>\n