Monday, February 24, 2014

Authors behaving badly

And I'm not talking about that time I had a little too much to drink and took off my clothes and danced naked in--- no I wasn't talking about that. What I meant to talk about was the sudden upsurge in not very pleasant exchanges between author and readers on Goodreads, between an author and readers in the Huffington Post, between author and reviewer on Amazon. I know we can't all be nice to everyone but I do wish people would think before they put pen to paper. Unless you're a pantster and writing a book. Then you're allowed to just sit and write.
When my kids get all bent out of shape about something and want to right a perceived wrong, I always say - what end result do you want? Will it make everything right again? Because if it won't, then think twice about saying or doing anything. Cowardly behaviour is not right but better to walk away from confrontation that step it up into something you never wanted it to be.
The world's a big place. We should be able to share nicely!
Apart from that bitch who keeps telling her friends to vote--oops sorry - did it again!

4 comments:

Arlene said...

Is because so many narcissistic personalities decide they've the world's best story and should be worshiped? What happened to the surly, alcoholic, self-loathing types who write to feed their inner demons, not act like drama queens who thrive on attention regardless of the harm to their victims. If you cant say something nice, cant sleep unless you warn the masses, it isn't that hard to make the review to the point with brief, polite language, and then move on and ignore the insecure author freaking out because you really didn't want to kiss ass of a poorly written novelist. Bullies are so insecure, time sucking idiots, you just wish they'd even attempt to see the world through someone else's eyes and realize the earth revolves around the sun, not them.

Barbara Elsborg said...

Woohoo!

Heather in FL said...

My feeling on this has always been that if you put something out for public consumption, there *will* be people who don't like it and you have to be able to accept criticism. I think that some reviewers maybe cross a line into hurtful, but I also think that anyone who creates something subjective needs to have somewhat thick skin. It's one thing if the review is instigating physical harm against the author (which I'm still not sure actually happened). It's another for an author to get publicly bent out of shape because someone's opinion of their story was not the glowing, melliflous review the author thought the story deserved and strike back at the reviewer. If the story is really that great, it will stand on its own merits and the other positive reviews will eventually outnumber the bad one.

Barbara Elsborg said...

You're absolutely right, Heather. I can't see how anyone could think a public slanging match is going to make them look like an author people would want to read. When reviews go over the top, most of those who read them can see it for themselves without the author weighing in. OR without both sides conjuring up a host of supporters to start a war.