Saturday, July 18, 2015

Book reviews for teens, by teens!

This is a post by Belle's momma. 

As a mom, it is my job to oversee my daughter's blog and make sure that the books she's reading are appropriate, as well as the emails she is getting for reviews are safe.  So I am constantly skimming books, checking her email box as well as checking the comments left on her Facebook page and here on her blog.

Belle has recently encountered several individuals asking her for reviews.  Apparently they did not even look at her blog or facebook page because everywhere it states "Books for Teens and Clean YA".

It makes me sad that I have to publically come out and say "Come on people, use your eyes and use some common sense."

Yes, as author's you want reviews. I get that. I am an author after all.  However, you need to choose genre appropriate blogs to seek reviews.  If you book has excessive cussing, especially the F-Bomb, then it is NOT a teen or clean YA book (no matter how much you want it to be).  If your book has sex scenes, even if they fade to black when the actual act happens, it still does not qualify for teen and clean YA (it may be YA but it's certainly not clean when it describes hands groping certain body parts then it fades to black before they have sex).  It's sad to me that we live in a society that people believe sex scenes and sever cussing belong in teen books.

I don't say these things to be mean. There is certainly a place for your books somewhere, but they don't belong here. 

The reason my daughter wanted to start this blog was because there are no teen-ran blogs that recommend books specifically for teens.  She wanted to give other teens a place to go where they could find safe and clean books.  So that is what she is doing.

So here comes the very hard to hear part.

If she receives anymore books that include the F-Bomb or sex scenes, the review will be a very low star review due to the inability of the author or PR firm in question to see that this is for teens.

Thank you for understanding.

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