When I started book reviewing, back when dinosaurs roamed the earth, there wasn't any real social media - Facebook, Myspace, and Twitter were a long way off, so communication was limited to book publicists from the major publishing houses.
But now days, with instant communications, the relationships between reviewer, publicists and authors can become as intimate as any of the parties want.
I know there are a lot of people who say "oh, you can't be impartial if you become friends with an author!" Pffffttttt, I say! Personally, I count among some of my dearest friends authors that I have reviewed, including Beth Hoffman, Rebecca Rasmussen, CurtissAnn Matlock, and Sarah Jio.
There have been publicists who have helped me along with way and have become friends, including Seale Ballenger and Pam Jaffee at Harper Collins, Nancy Berland of Nancy Berland Public Relations, Dorothy Thompson of Pump Up Your Book Promotion, and Crystal Patriarche of Book Sparks.
And as I noted yesterday, fellow book review bloggers are high on my list of favorite people - we give each other advice, help with blogging problems, give tips on new books coming out ... and just have a great time talking about our favorite subject - BOOKS!
In short, the whole purpose of book blogging, in my opinion, is to have fun and to share your love of reading and books! So ENJOY!!!!!
