This week's question from Ramblings of a Coffee Addicted Writer (submitted by Silver's Reviews) is about how we turn down reviews.
Since I am fairly new to the book blogging game and reviewing at request, I can not say that this issue has come up too often for me. The thing is, if it has, it is most likely as a result of my own health holding me back from juggling too many (if any) projects at that time. In these situations, I simply explain my limitations to the person requesting and cross my fingers that they understand.
Health Gets In The Way
I think one of the hardest things I have had to deal with in the last couple of months is working up the courage to "Just say NO" to things I really want to do or am interested in. A perfect example would be severing my writing relationship with Word of The Nerd. I truly enjoyed writing for that website, but I knew I couldn't do what they needed me to in order to help their website grow. There were deadlines and stories that would pop up out of nowhere in the middle of the day that needed to be written quickly. I know my health is simply not consistent enough to keep up with that kind of working anymore. It would not be fair for me to take on the job and leave a number of stories dangling when there could be someone else who is much more qualified to keep the site running. I struggled for a long time with my decision and, when it came time, I just told them the deal. It's rough. I wrote a lot of cool stories that I never would have on my own. There are times I miss that terribly. (By the way, if anyone is interested in writing for them, they are always looking for cool people.) I Always Forget About Guest Posts
Coming back to the issue of rejecting reviews, I really like one of the things Billy Burgess says he does - he offers the authors a guest post spot on his blog. This is brilliant! Particularly with my issue, this kills two birds with one stone. First, the author gets an opportunity to spread the word about his/her writing using my blog, and second, I get a post on my blog on a day when I am possibly not feeling up to the task! I have to remember the power of guest posts.
For fellow reviewers out there, how do you turn down a review request?
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