Tuesday, July 20, 2010

Are You Talking About Me?

Quick extra post here just because it's been coming up a lot in comments lately.

It's totally okay to link back to one of my posts on your blog or a forum or wherever. Blogs actually need those links to help them grow, so you're doing the blogger a favor by spreading the word (and thanks! if you do). No need to ask me, feel free to just do it.

I have Google alerts set up so I do see most posts that mention me or my books, but it's also okay to tell me you linked or posted about me. Not everything gets caught or gets caught in a timely manner.

The only thing I wouldn't be happy about, is if someone copied and pasted the entire post and didn't A) give me credit for it, and B) didn't link back to here to give the blog credit for it. That's like stealing someone's work and that's never good.

Re-posting quotes is fine, posting the opening is fine if you want to show parts of the original post.

Being inspired by something I wrote and talking about it yourself from your perspective is also fine. (a link back to the original post that inspired you would be nice, too)

The blog is here to help other writers, and (she says shamelessly) promote me and my books a little as I do that. The more people reading the blog the better. So link away if you'd like, with my thanks.

6 comments:

  1. It's true that there's sort of an unspoken etiquette about these things and not everyone follows it. Google alerts seems to miss things, so it's helpful to know from the source if someone wants to mention you. So here goes... we're linking this post to our blog's Friday round-up if that's okay with you :) Maybe we can help spread the word on blog-iquette (is that a word?). :)

    Marissa

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  2. Pasting the article without crediting the source isn't "like" stealing; it IS stealing. Specifically plagiarism.

    Unfortunately, many people don't seem to understand the concept of intellectual property, anymore.

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  3. Your blog is so helpful. Thanks for all your hard work!

    I got an ARC of Blue Fire in the mail yesterday (yay!!) so I removed my name from your contest. I can't wait to read it!

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  4. I'm glad you're addressing this. I agree about Google Alerts missing a lot, so I always try to let a blogger know I've quoted or posted a link.

    And plagiarism can be a big problem: I once found a RT link to a post I'd written, so I thanked the ReTweeter--only to find the link was to somebody else's blog where my blogpost had been pasted in, without attribution. The ReTweeter unfollowed me. Sigh.

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  5. That's stinks, Anne :( Sorry to hear that.

    Elizabeth, cool! Hope you like it.

    Carradee, you're right :) I was trying to soften it some, but I probably should edit that.

    Marissa, feel free any time,and thanks!

    Lydia, Hi! Just because everyone else got a personal comment and I didn't want you to feel left out :)

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