Why We Should Read Responsibly

Hi friends! I hope you’re all good. I wasn’t going to make a blog post today, but this post has been weighing on me for a while. I want to share with you why we should read responsibly. Let’s get into it!

Check out my latest book review here!

Content Warning: This post contains mentions of authors who have harmed many people through their words and actions. 

Who is “we”?

When I say “we” I mean book influencers. That includes bloggers, booktube, booktok, bookstagram, book Twitter, basically anyone who considers themselves a book influencer.

If you have a public platform where you review or recommend books, you are part of the “we”.

What does “reading responsibly” mean?

I’m glad you asked. For those of you without a Twitter, you might have missed the call outs of several well-known authors (Jay Kristoff and Emily Duncan to name a few) and their problematic behaviour/content. I’m not going to go into the whole story about these authors, you can read this post here for some more information.

What you need to know for this post, in particular, is that Emily Duncan has been bullying authors, readers, trauma survivors and more online since about 2019. I’m going to use Emily as a primary example since I am more familiar with the events. Her debut book, Wicked Saints, was released in 2019. Since then she’s gotten special editions from book boxes, book stores, publishers and more because this series is extremely popular.

Why then, if her bullying (of POC authors mainly) and overall problematic behaviour have been going on since 2019 (possibly before) is she still a bestselling author? I might ask the same question about JKR. Why, if she is actively trying to take human rights away from people, do people continue to post about her books, buy her books, and talk about them online?

We don’t read responsibly. Yes, I am including myself in that statement as well. We, as a book community, on the whole, are failing.

Reading Responsibly

When I say “reading responsibly” I mean being responsible in our online lives. I put the books I read into very public places, and with my reviews and photos, I often convince people to read those books. So by “reading responsibly” I actually mean promoting and sharing books responsibly. Let’s get into some more detail here.

Responsibility (per my Google search) means to have a “moral, legal, or mental accountability”. So in reading books, we should have moral or mental accountability when we promote and share those books. Especially when we have large online platforms.

Why we should read responsibly

Now that I’ve covered who “we” is and what I mean by “reading responsibly”, let’s get into the reasons why I think we should read responsibly.

I have a combined audience of about 70k followers across all platforms. That’s not a small number of people. Every day I invite these people to see what I’m reading, I recommend books to them and I encourage them to buy specific books.

There are many, many people with larger followings than I have. Let’s use the JKR example. If I make a blog post about a Harry Potter book and I share it on all of my socials, it reaches about 70k people.

Through that post, I am basically encouraging 70 000 people to go and buy JKR’s books. And buying books = supporting the author and enabling them to make more content. So I just told 70 000 people to go and support a transphobe.

Publishers and bookish companies need to make money. I get it, we all need money to survive. And by continuing to buy books and merchandise of “problematic” (more on that later) authors, we are essentially showing those companies that we would buy more. If we shifted our attention to other books, the merch and the special editions will follow. If we keep buying HP merch, we’re going to keep getting it and JKR will continue to harm people.

Do you see my point here? I know I have this audience, I know I can influence them. By continuing to promote a problematic author, I am harming people.

Some grey areas

But Bianca, Harry Potter is my childhood. I can’t give it up. But Bianca, I really enjoyed Wicked Saints and I love the book.

I’m not asking you to stop reading what you like. I am asking you to do it in private, and THINK some more about what you post online.

If you are an influencer, you have the moral and mental accountability to stop promoting these books. You have the responsibility to let the people hurt by these authors speak up. Give them the platform and the opportunity.

I’m not here to tell you what to read in private or what to spend your money on. I’m not here to “persecute” you for reading JKR or Emily Duncan.

You can indeed read whatever you want.

All I’m asking is for you to use your platform responsibly. You actively choose which books to promote online. All I’m asking is that you think about the space you are taking, and maybe fill them with something other than authors who are problematic.

Problematic authors

Now, here’s another thing. There is not one single author or person alive who is unproblematic. No one is perfect. And people mess up. I do believe we as a book community should allow people and authors the space to learn from their mistakes and grow.

HOWEVER, it is not my place to accept author apologies because I am not the person hurt by the author. And I get it, it’s a very grey area. As a blogger, I can’t know every single thing an author has ever done. I have reviews for Rory Power’s books on my blog, who has also been bullying people alongside Emily Duncan. Something I would not have known if I hadn’t been on Twitter. It’s impossible to know everything.

But you can make an attempt, for sure. Especially if you have a platform online.

In short, I am asking you to read responsibly and think about what you post online. Think “does this author really need the space I am giving them?” (I assure you CC, LB and SJM do not).

Let’s work together to uplift those who need it.

If you’d be interested in working with me click here!

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