This is something that’s been on my mind for quite awhile. I have a personal Facebook page and we have one for Book Binge. We use the site to network, keep up with publishing trends and stay in touch with friends and family. Or I should say I do (I don’t know what Casee and Rowena use their personal Facebook accounts for, so I won’t speak for them.). I don’t care for the apps and games that are available there, and other than the occasional (ehem) game of Scrabble or Bejeweled, I don’t really do much other than read status updates and cyber-stalk people through their pictures.
Lately we’ve been receiving an increasing number of “suggestions” via Facebook to become “fans” of authors. Personally, I hate these requests. Look, there are many authors I consider myself to be a fan of, but I don’t feel the need to prove it by clicking a button on Facebook. I didn’t realize this until recently, but apparently authors use their fan pages to update their readers about upcoming releases, book promo information and things like that, as opposed to just annoying me like I originally thought. But..I kind of thought that’s what websites are for. And blogs. And Twitter accounts. I don’t feel like I need to become your “fan” on Facebook just to keep abreast of what’s going on in your writerly life. If I do, I think you have a problem, because seriously? I doubt the bulk of your fanbase or readership is on Facebook.
Not only that, but the actual wording of the requests drives me batshit crazy:
Author X became a fan of Author X on Facebook and suggested you become a fan too.
As I said on Twitter the other day (slightly modified because I no longer have the 140 character restriction):
Dear Facebook Authors: Please stop suggesting I become your fan just b/c you did. As long as you love yourself that’s all that matters. You don’t need me.
I realize the wording isn’t the author’s doing. They don’t have control over what Facebook sends in their email. But the whole thing screams, “ATTENTION WHORE” to me. If you feel the need to have a fan page on Facebook, by all means, go for it. But stop asking me to join it. If I want to become your fan, I will. Simple as that. I don’t need you suggesting I do so.
As if that isn’t bad enough, I’ve noticed an increasing number of bloggers creating fan pages for their blogs lately. Why? Why do you do this? I honestly don’t understand why you need a FAN PAGE for your BLOG. If I like your blog, if I’m a true fan of it, I’ll visit it and comment on it. I won’t add myself to a list on Facebook to prove it. Seriously, WHY DO YOU NEED A FACEBOOK FAN PAGE FOR YOUR BLOG?!?!?!
I’ve also been getting an increasing number of “book recommendations” on Goodreads. Another question I posed on Twitter:
Authors, why do you “suggest” your books to me on Goodreads? B/c you think I’ll like them, or just to be a Spammy McSpammer?
To be honest, I doubt the bulk of the authors who “suggest” their books to me know my reading tastes enough to think I’ll like them. Therefore it seems much more likely that they’re just spamming me.
And, ok, I understand authors are often in charge of their own promo. I’ll also freely admit I’ve found many new authors via recommendations, both from other readers and sites like Amazon and Goodreads. But..well, I guess I feel like it’s different if an author recs his/her own book to me. Just like it’s different if an author suggests I become a fan of them.
To be honest, more often than not I want to delete authors from my friend list completely when they start sending me suggestions to become their fan or start recommending their book to me. Sames goes for bloggers who ask me to become a fan of their blog.
What are your thoughts on fan pages and book recommendations? Does it bother you when authors become fans of themselves and then suggest you do the same? How about when an author recommends his/her own book to you? And what about bloggers creating fan pages for their blogs? Does that seem like overkill to you?
I started a fan page for my blog mainly to see if any of my Facebook friends, who are not aware that I have a blog, will stop by. Blatant blog pimping plain and simple for me.
I don’t have a fan page b/c I’ve already got a blog, a website, and twitter, lol. I actually mainly use facebook to stay in touch w/ friends. I don’t mind one request, but if I get more than 2 requests from an author suggesting I become their fan, I delete them.
I get so sick of being asked by an author to become a fan. It’s so NEEDY! I don’t mind an author telling me that they are moving their facebook account to a fan page cause I was ‘friends’ with them. Clearly, I am interested.
But some of these people send me Fan Page requests EVERY DAY. EVERY DAY I ignore them. I am at the point I’ll start deleting them from my ‘friends’. I would have sooner but I’m lazy.
I hope people read your post today and listen up.
(I don’t have a fan page for my blog. I might start one and use it to harass the people begging me to become a fan. Or I might not since I am lazy.)
I did the same as KB…I was constantly being asked about my blog, and if it was on fb and how to get to it both by friends and people in the bookstores when I would talk to them about books.
@KB, so you admit you’re an attention whore? Glad we got that out of the way.
It definitely frustrates me more when the same authors send the request over and over again. If I didn’t accept the first time, chances are I’m not going to.
If only Facebook had a “dislike” button…
I admit it. I am such a whore in so many ways *G*.
I am not a big fan of authors and others constantly requesting and take a look, etc… This also happens on Goodreads. So annoying.
@Heather – I guess I can understand that a little bit, but you can feed your blog into Facebook. I would think that would be the better way of getting people to your site.
I have Facebook so I can play Bejweled.
That’s all.
My understanding is that “fan” pages on FB have no limit on the number of individuals who can sign up, where there is a limit on the number of individuals who can sign up as their “friends” on FB. Several authors I signed up to be their FB friend reached that limit and FB will automatically shut down their FB page. They ask their “friends” to become a “fan” on their separate fan page so they won’t lose touch.
Many author’s will post on FB (their “friend” or “fan” page) about WIPs and updates before it gets on their website/blog site.
I’ve tried following the authors I read on Twitter but with all the RT’s going on its hard to know who is saying what, when and huh?? I don’t like having to click on every “RT@someone” link to figure out what the original comment was about.
FB made changes recently which has screwed up the live feed. The only way to prevent getting all of those “so-and-so is now friends with so-and-so” is for each person to go on their FB Privacy Settings -> News Feed and Wall then uncheck the “Add a friend” box. Till each of your friends that you follow does that on their Privacy Settings, you will continue to have your live feed jammed with their “new friend” updates.
I get asked at least twice a day by someone at work to join facebook just so I can harvest their crops on Farmville. No thank you. My sisters hound me from time to time and say it’s a way to keep in touch… More than my blog, our cell phones and texting???
Nope I have my quota thank-you-very-much. However what compelled me to comment was your revelation (at least to me) that people have fan pages for their blogs. Good Lord!
This has to be a case of too much time on your hands for cripes sakes.
Raise your hand if you’re addicted to Farmville!
I’m staying Facebook and Twitter free, baby – I’m pretty sure they’d be the proverbial straws. I think the only comparable experience I’ve had is when an author or publisher is on LibraryThing and noticing that they rated all the books they wrote/published as five stars. I lose respect for them at that point.
I have a fan page for my blog. But I mainly did it because I wanted a separate page from my personal one.
I’m not a big fan of the applications either. Although there are a few I take part in.
As for Author fan pages, if I read the author, it doesn’t bother me too much.
I decided to become a fan of Elizabeth Hoyt, Susan E Phillips and Eloisa James on FB and it’s been great. You get to interact, read and learn things about your favorite authors that you wouldn’t otherwise.
Neither Hoyt, Phillips nor James have sent unsolicited requests of any kind. I’ve only had positive experiences with fan pages so far.
I would think most bloggers that do a fan page are trying to do a feed and don’t know how.
I mean seriously what reader would ask people to ‘fan’ them. That is rather beyond stupid and just makes them look like asshats. It is bad enough for an author to do it but you can at least understand them using the term fan.
But readers? That is a joke. Of course I can think of maybe five authors I would say I am a fan of other than that I would call myself a reader.
I do agree though that facebook has named things wrong but that should be a big clue for people when they go to sign up that oh that isn’t what I want and to keep looking.
I’m addicted to Cafe World on Facebook and I started using my FB account for that purpose mainly.
I swear, today I’m going to start deleting this one author who sends me crap in my facebook inbox every facking day suggesting I read this book, become a fan of her and all this other crap. I keep telling myself that I’m going to do it when I’m at work and then I forget when I get home because I’m too worried about my cafe (shut up Holly, haha) but seriously, it gets annoying to keep getting all of these stupid friend suggestions, event invitations to things in NYC or CHINA or wherever. I live in California, I’m not going to your event so quit inviting me.
With pretty much all promo being left to the authors themselves these days, I suspect they’re trying every social networking platform in existence to see what will “stick.”
I joined Facebook only because of my sister – who uses it sort of like a blog. I wanted to read what she was writing, so had to join. Damn her! After putzing around a bit, I’ve discovered I mainly like it for keeping in touch with family and friends. I’ve certainly “friended” authors and other readers – but ultimately it’s not why I’m there. It’s much easier for me (and makes more sense – for me at least) to keep up with those people via blogs & Twitter. Oh, and I don’t play the games on FB. In fact, I’m lucky if I remember to check it once a week 😛
I have become a “fan” of one author – mostly because I “know” her, think she’s pretty awesome, and she writes for HH. I am nothing, if not, an HH ho. I pretty much ignore 99.9% of fan requests – and tend to keep my blog “off” Facebook, except recently when I posted about my URL changing. I have it listed in my profile if anyone should care – but yeah, don’t expect me to create a Super Librarian fan page anytime soon. I just don’t see the point. That could just be me not “getting” it. Entirely possible.
And these kind of complaints (which I’ve seen repeated here and there for a while now) are one of the main reasons why I have absolutely NO curiosity about Facebook or any other social media/networking thingie.
I may have to get over it for other reasons but personally? no, thank you. Unsolicited stuff drives me batty(er)
Why, yes, I’m a bit cranky these days, why you ask? 😀
Facebook annoys me period. I only have it to stay in touch with a dear friend that had to move away, and it’s kind of nice to be able to shoot my sister a message if I want to…even though she only lives thirty minutes away. But hey, we’re so busy, so a little Facebook message here and there never hurts.
I avoid the apps there like a plague though. And I don’t respond to the author invites, fan invites, anything invites. Only ones I pay attention to are friend invites that come as suggestions from people I’m already friends with. If I know the person, I’m glad I got the heads up.
I can so see how all you’ve described can be annoying. I suppose I just have a heavy enough mental filter in place. It doesn’t bother me, I can ignore it. Plus, I can also understand it from the author perspective. It’s a damn hard rat race out there these days. I don’t blame them for trying everything they can to make a living. Still, yes, less annoying means might help.