Bloggers, like authors, are entitled to anonymity. This does not mean they're wrong. Should I be forced to use my real name? I use the name Joood Hooligan. This is because I don't want to mix my personal life with my blogging life. I have a business outside of reviewing books. I work with kids. I don't need the parents googling my name and finding this site - there are reviews for naughty books on here. I read mostly YA, but I'm not the only blogger here. It's open genre, and there's a bunch of platypires on here - plus we're always growing. But those books don't clash well with teaching preschool, so I use another name.
Now, there's something going on right now. #BloggerBlackout. It's where blogs are closed for the week in protest of the harassment of bloggers, and the publisher's inability to do anything about it. This means there will be no new reviews, blog tour posts, and other things of that sort. I understand the reason behind it, but I disagree with how the people involved are going about doing it.
If you want to get the attention of the publishers who are letting a crazy author get away with stalking, block that author from your blog. You can even go as far as to do the same for the publisher's other books - maybe even the authors who support this TERRIFYING behavior.
Blacking out really only hurts your blog, maybe even some other authors who were going to be posted about that week. This big time publisher doesn't give a damn if you don't post about authors they aren't affiliated with. You lose connecting with new authors and creating posts that would drive more traffic to your blog.
This blog, as usual, will be focusing on authors that do not have the reputation of treating reviewers and other authors poorly. Harassment is not okay. We are a community and we are here to help each other. This means reviewers shouldn't go out of their way to target an author, street teams shouldn't go out of their way to target a blogger who didn't enjoy their favorite author's book, and authors will not target negative reviews.
This is why, instead of #BloggerBlackout we will be posting #BloggersAgainstHarassment
-J. Hooligan