All About ARCs: the Pressure, the Privilege, and the Issue of Payment for Creators (aka Compensation)

I think we can all agree that the concept of ARCs is really cool.

I mean, getting to read books before they release? Without having to spend money? THAT’S REALLY NEAT.

Unfortunately, the reality of ARCs is a little less cool.

Today I’m going to be discussing some issues with ARCs that exist right now and aren’t being talked about enough. I think it’s super important to discuss these issues so that we can work towards finding a solution, because these are things that can and definitely should be improved!!

Disclaimer: I am fully aware of my privilege in being able to receive ARCs from publishers, and I am very thankful and grateful. This is not a post complaining about my privilege; rather, it is about how yes, ARCs are great, but there are issues with it that need to be addressed and discussed.

Discussing the #OwnVoices Label and the Negative Pressure it Puts on Both Authors and Reviewers (A Long Overdue Rant)

If you’ve been here for some time, you know I’m big on discussions (aka rants).

This is no different! An issue arises, whether in the book community or outside of it, I observe it for some time, and then decide to talk about it.

This time, I’m going to be talking about the pressure of the #ownvoices label, on both authors and reviewers. I think people have discussed the pressure of the label on authors (though not enough, which is why I’m here), but not really on reviewers? And it’s a pressure I’ve felt myself so I think it’s important to talk about.

I’ve got a lot to say and I’m pretty sure y’all don’t have enough of an attention span to read more than 2000 words of me ranting so I’m just going to end this horribly written, awkward intro and get on with it.

Furyborn by Claire Legrand // Great Premise, Bad Execution, Bland Characters, and ?? Bi Rep [ARC Review]

There are books I can’t remember for the life of me, and there are books I wish I didn’t remember.

Furyborn is one of the latter.

I enjoyed parts of it? I hated others of it? I was confused about it, but also really bored, and I found it hard to actually care about it sometimes? (Which basically describes how I feel about myself.)

But I can say with all the confidence in me: my feelings towards Furyborn are not positive.

There are a lot of mixed reviews, so it’s possible that I just may be one of the people who didn’t like it, and you might be someone who loves it! But I really… did not enjoy it. So here’s a rant on the bland characters and the very unclear bi rep.

The Unpopular Opinion Book Tag // Being Disappointed by Books is My Brand and I’m Here to Spill the Tea

It’s no lie that I get disappointed by a lot of books.

And that I’m slowly getting more and more critical each day. I mean, I can’t help that books disappoint me???? They just don’t live up to my expectations. AND THEY SHOULD.

I’ve actually been enjoying the books I’ve been reading recently (color me shocked), but I guess I’m just getting better at knowing which books I’ll love and which I’ll hate!! (It requires a lot of searching within myself and I’m not a fan.)

However: I still have many unpopular opinions and many things that I’m salty about, so of course, I decided to do the Unpopular Opinion Book Tag to talk about them all!!!

Also, I’m lazy and can’t be bothered to think of original content ideas right now, so why not just answer pre-made questions. I swear there was a time I was more creative than this but I honestly can’t think of when that was.

4 Things that Stress Me Out (a Lot) as a Blogger + an Obviously Cure-all List of Things to Do to Lessen the Pressure

This post is brought to you by my forever stressing-out-freaking-out mind!!

It was also inspired by this post by Julianna, and also this post by Marie, so be sure to check those out too!

But basically: I’m an eternally stressed-out person. I can only remember a few times I was stress-free, and what took its place was apathy and feeling just absolutely dead, and that was almost worse than stress.

And blogging isn’t exempt from causing me stress—in fact, it’s put a lot of pressure on me to the point that it affected my health. But I’m slowly slowly climbing back up from that Bad Mental Place I’ve been in for the past few, uh, months and I’m really hoping that I’ll be able to blog the way I did before! She says, coming back from a week-long hiatus.

Because I was in that Bad Mental Place, I noticed a lot of ways that blogging was negatively affecting me, mostly in ways of STRESS and PRESSURE, so I decided to talk about a few of those things, and also provide tips to lessen that stress!!

P.S. I was going to include more stress-inducing things related to blogging but then I just ran out? Okay. Cool. I totally didn’t abandon blogging because of just FOUR things. But there is also the pressure to be/appear perfect, which I talked about before!