Hi Guys. Right, no names because I want to tell you of something I've seen on-line today, something that actually made me really, really sad. I do use twitter but I'm not really sure how it works but, I've got a decent number of followers (just under 600) and I've tweeted just over 2000 tweets (retweets included). I've met some lovely people on there - including the composers whose work I use in my books - and I generally have a OK time there. I don't follow everyone who follows me. Today, I did a little surfing and came across an author who I thought I would follow. She has a family member who is also an author. Now, as I was looking through her page, I happened across a couple of unfriendly tweets from two other people (new authors) who seemed to be a bit narky towards her. On further inspection, I found multiple tweets from these two people absolutely ragging this author to bits! Even her parenting skills! I was shocked. I mean, I know people have opinions and people can be nasty but if you are a new author or even a would-be author, the last thing you should do is go and publicly (and virtually) spit in the fact of an established author who has spent time on the New York bestsellers list! I was even more upset to find I was following one of these people :-O I immediately de-followed her. Now, I'm not going to weigh in on either side, I do not know any of them personally and have not read this author's works (yet) but I just can't help thinking how sad and how stupid. On the good side, I have you lot here You might not always agree with me but at least we all help each other out and tell each other when we've got it wrong without descending to name-calling and playground crap! So. There you go. Still slightly shocked at what I've read today! I just hope they don't turn on me! I had thought of blocking them, just in case but I'm not sure if that would just make things worse ...
Think you're so clever with your book and your twitter account, don't you? You even have the temerity to raise children concurrently with working on your current project. You've changed man.
I hope you're joking ... And before you ask, no, I'm not the author I mentioned above. I just couldn't believe what I was reading.
I've seen something like that once. A writer found a blogger's site and discovered he had given her book a bad rating. Rather than doing anything...just...anything other than what she did, she actually got onto the blog and ranted and raved because the blogger dared to critique her work. Really, were I in her shoes, I would've simply either done nothing, or if I simply had to post, post "Thanks for the critique, will keep that in mind for future projects. ~ Author of the book you reviewed". Yeah, guess how many people she managed to alienate from her books because she couldn't step up and be an adult about it? Really, just... New writers, do not go onto blogs of well-known writers and trash their work. It will not end well for you. All writers, do not go onto blogger sites and trash the owner because he/she gave your book a poor rating. It's fine if you disagree, but pitching a hissy fit because someone didn't give your work praise does nothing but convince people to stay away from your work.
Just yanking your chain, as it were. I've never had a Facebook account and don't ever intend on having one. I do my social networking the old fashioned way. I realise that's a bit contradictory, being as I'm conversing on an internet forum but. . . you know what I mean.
This wasn't a blog or a critique. These people sought out this author and posted to her twitter feed! For the most part, this author either ignored the comments or said something back along the lines of "Say what you like, that's your opinion" but what they were saying were not just critiques of her work. They openly admitted stealing her books through uTorrent, they accused her of letting her daughter dress like a tart and accused her family-member-author of riding her coat-tails to stardom and then went on to tell her she needed to spell check her work and verbally abused her characters (fictional characters, that is). All this from people who apparently are god-fearing Christians who then openly admit they would "slap some sense into their daughter if she ever dressed like that" and then offered to pray for the author in question. One in particular posts things like "see you later c**ts, I'm better than you all" Plenty of her fans jumped to her defence.
In all seriousness, the example you give is reprehensible. The dark side of the human psyche manifest through the anonymity of the internet. Sad, sad people to purposefully seek someone out to spew their vitriol. Arseholes.
They're called trolls, and the only sane thing to do when you encounter one is ignore him or her. They thrive on any sort of attention.
I really hope they were just trolls, I'd hate to think that with an attitude like that, they will get an audience for their future books, if they publish them. We all have a little green eyes monster that comes out now and again when a fellow author (or whatever line of business you're in) gets to the next rung on the ladder before you but I would hope us grown ups have enough grace to kill the monster and offer our (maybe not quite hearty) congratulations and then get straight back onto climbing our own ladders.
cutecat22 - You are simply awesome. It is so easy to become jaded and you've somehow managed not to become so. I'm glad that there are people in the world like you.
Its a sad fact that an awful lot of people are openly envious of anothers success and will attack them as if their success somehow takes away from everyone else. I've come to realise many people never grow up and have to lash out in these unkind ways because they do not have a way to deal with their rampant envy. 2 cents.
Goodreads was becoming a cesspit of envy and bigotry before the moderating staff cracked down. Even today, you cannot read very many book reviews, forum posts, comments on author pages, etc. before you see someone trashing an author or trashing a book because of who wrote it. Unfortunately, the most inflammatory voices are the loudest because inflammatory content rises to the top because bold language and animated gifs attract more likes than mature reasoning.
Verbal vomit is the new politesse, sadly. Also, the internet and its related ingress/egress portals, puts you into unavoidable contact with individuals who would almost certainly never inhabit your real-life sphere. In the real world you have the ability to select your sphere of people and exclude those who don't know how to people properly. The internet is kinda' like that Health or PE class where students aren't segregated by prior academic performance. You interact with students in those classes who are never in your English or Calculous class. I know that sounds unfashionably elitist, but...
By the headline, I thought you were referring to something "quite awful", like someone getting his head decapitated in a motorcycle crash on the side of the freeway or something along those lines. People badmouthing someone is kind of normal to my experience.
Some people are gits. Good thing a lot of people see they're gits and will have none of it. It's easy to act like one online because there're less ramifications. Usually the best thing is to ignore them, and if it gets really bad, report/unfollow them depending on the website. The successful author should just enjoy her success and let the wannabes make asses of themselves. They're really just digging their own grave.
As an old saying goes, you give someone enough rope, they will hang themselves. I think what made my jaw hit the floor was the fact that these people were fellow/soon to be fellow authors.
Interesting tie-in. The Glasgow Herald carried a front page article yesterday entitled: Police chief: Offensive Tirades on Twitter Are New Graffiti. He said the rise in abusive behaviour on social media is replacing traditional forms of vandalism, like spraying slogans on walls, smashing up bus shelters, etc. I'd pay it that much mind. At least ignoring these verbal vandals on Twitter and Facebook doesn't cost money, like rebuilding a shelter, nor scrubbing paint off walls. I'm with @stevesh on this. Ignore trolls, and don't assume what they say has ANYTHING whatsoever to do with their target–the target's writing ability, or skills with parenting, or anything else. Trolls just throw mud, and hope some of it will stick. A troll's style of rhetoric gives them away, so you can easily pick them out from the people who are giving a genuine review. If you don't react, they'll move on. They get their thrills from the outrage they cause. So don't give them any. Starve A Troll. I think I'll get a T-shirt printed...
And as someone said (sorry, I didn't make a note of the source), "Graffiti happens at the intersection of ambition and incompetence: people want to make their mark on the world, but have no other way to do it than literally making a mark on the world." I suppose we should pity trolls, but they're so damned annoying.
I think the hate culture is actually an acting out of that life of quiet desperation so many seem to be living. I can't control my life, I didn't do what I really wanted to do and my time is running out. Oh well, at least I showed that hotshot. Yeah I really gave them what for! Time to go back to kissing my boss' arse now. I just posted in the Wayfayers Tavern about this. The little acts of mutiny the people I work with carry on with. It's just too hard for them to do what they are supposed to do. They can't bring themselves to conform entirely so they pick one annoying little habit that they persist with. It's all they've got as they feel the noose around their neck of modern life and needing to keep a job they don't actually want to be in. Really? This is what we've come to in terms of exercising our power.
Oh dear Mustn't be shocked though.Writers can be terribly envious, and it doesn't matter whether one is a bestselling writer or just a locally popular one. I treasure my brief experience of writing fame not for all the love and thanks that gushed out from hundreds of fans, but for the opportunity to gaze into the depths of those three or four haters' depravity. I had one hater once, who published a series of cartoons destroying me, my family, my writing, I have never read such grotesque 'humour', 'South Park' are kind compared to that woman. Interestingly, she was a screenplay writer and a Drama major. Also, she had hatred campaigns towards other before me, so some people are simply like that. Another (cyber)stalked me for four years, a number one fan at first, as you can imagine. Another one opened a haters club for me. Guess what she did for a living? She was a published author, more experienced and successful then me. I have a few more stories, some of them even a bit sinister, and even though such people are a vast minority, it's a normal thing to get them once you are popular. It truly is best to completely ignore them, as if they don't exist, because all such people want is attention. I made many mistakes (biggest of all, didn't ignore them!) but I learned so much, and if real fame comes, I won't repeat the same mistakes.
:-o (((Hugs))) It's actually really scary to think that when you finally realise your dreams, ones you have worked damn hard for, part of your success has to be a couple of wolves at the door waiting to tear you down. I'm not totally naive to bullying, hey, I'm 41 and have kids and when someone upsets your babies you turn into the spawn of satan, I just didn't expect it like that. Thanks for sharing, if I ever come across one, I shall be sure to ignore them the best I can x
You guys may have noticed that I collect quotes from people I admire. "It is not the critic who counts, nor the man who points how the strong man stumbled or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena; whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly...who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, and spends himself in a worthy cause; who, at best, knows the triumph of high achievement; and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat." Theodore Roosevelt, 1910