Okay, there’s some good news and there’s some bad news.

The bad news, which I’m about fifty percent sure you want to hear first, is that this isn’t the blog you’re looking for.

I’ve been interested in setting up a book/writing-related blog for some time, but a combination of procrastination, laziness and indecision has always held me back. I always knew I didn’t want to just write a regular book review blog. There’s plenty of others out there who do an awesome job of that already. So I’ve always put the book blogging idea on the back burner until I could think of a more unique spin on the idea.

It wasn’t until my friend The Book Lady had a deliciously scandalous encounter with a self-published author that I began to formulate my basic idea. A book review blog specializing in reviewing self-published novels. How could it fail? Self-published authors are, for the most part, attention-seeking whores who like to inflict terrible prose upon the world and get terribly upset when their readers tell everyone how much they disliked it. A blog that would surely write itself!

Ten seconds later it occurred to me that in order to review terrible novels I’d have to read terrible novels. Almost exclusively. The needle on the enthusiometer whipped back to zero.

Since then I’ve been tossing a few more ideas around, but I haven’t settled on a definitive vision for the blog. Naming and shaming the worst attention seekers within the self-publishing community is certainly one aspect I’d like to retain, but that should always play second fiddle to a more positive, celebratory exploration of the great literature that does exist.

So that’s the bad news.

The good news is that this isn’t the 1990s and you’re not going to be staring at an Under Construction banner for the next six years.

I decided that the best way to generate ideas for I Hate Your Book, to explore which ideas are workable and which ones are not, was to actually start writing it and let the blogging community help shape it with their comments and contributions.

To that end I’ve set up this Tumblr blog for I Hate Your Book. Consider it an early pre-release alpha, a giant sandbox in which I’ll experiment with different post ideas and see where the journey takes me. You’re encouraged to offer as much feedback as possible. Tell me what works and what doesn’t, what you enjoy and what you’d rather not see again.

Here’s some things you should expect to see in the near future:

• Book reviews. (Surprise!) One thing I’d like to do is steer away from some of the more obvious literary fiction out there and explore what’s out on the fringes.
• The weird & wonderful world of self-publishing. Having Microsoft Word installed on your computer doesn’t make you an author. Unfortunately no one had the heart to mention that to a significant number of people who’ve made use of iUniverse, AuthorHouse and PublishAmerica. Okay, so it’s like shooting ducks in a barrel, but I really, really want to find some diamonds in the rough.
• The art & craft of writing. I like writing. I also like reading about writing. Why not go the whole hog and write about reading about writing? Then you can read about me writing about reading about writing and then write about what you read about me writing about reading about writing. It’s the gift that keeps on giving!

So that’s what this blog’s all about. Subscribe to my RSS feed, follow me on Twitter and enjoy the show.