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Authors Behaving Badly
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I think that as soon as you put your published work out there, you're opening yourself to criticism as well as praise. If you can't handle that, you should not publish. Not everyone is going to like your book and, in my opinion, a review where a reader points out what didn't work for them in a book and why is better than one that just gushes about "oh-ehm-gee, I loved it! Best book I've ever read!!!!!1!!"Using social media to rant about reviews sharing their opinion is not right.
I know that in the case of The Selection, the author herself was the lesser of the two evils, but the agent has really ruined everything for me. I respect Wendy as a reviewer, even though our opinions differ quite significantly from time to time. Calling someone a b*tch on a public forum is not ok. This is one book that's going on my "do not buy" list.
Preposterous and childish. Nothing short of that. While I appreciate the hard work and time devoted to writing any book by anyone, an author simply cannot expect everyone to "love" their work. To get your "panties in a bunch" over an ill review of your work is a quick way to get your name blacklisted by readers everywhere.I've never read anything by Kiera Cass and after reading about this and her or her agent's actions toward someone who didn't like her book, I'm fairly certain that I never will. Why would I, or anyone, want to support an author willing to stoop to such childishness?
That's exactly how I felt, Matt! I would not want to give my hard earnt money to someone who would stoop so low and attack another person simply for having an opinion.
That's so saddening to read. I suppose some people just can't handle it, so they lash out. We all must learn to accept criticisms and do our best to learn from them.
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Tara-Jayne (♥ I Read, I Love ♥) , The Great & Mighty Mod! :P
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I hate the fact they did that, i mean If you didnt like it and then u lie.. whats the point... I mean lesson in life is dont lie, and yet when she didnt lie shes gets verbal abuse.
Its ridiculous ..
I understand and respect that it's not an easy thing for an author to receive a bad review, especially if it's one where the book is just slammed and the opinion not justified. The book, after all, is their baby and many hours of hard work have gone into creating it.But, as Jane said, I believe that if you listen to your critiques, you can improve as an author. If you hide behind the wall of "well, she didn't like it so she's not a good person", you'll never get anywhere.
If you're going to write, you have to understand that not everyone will like your stuff. It's really disheartening to hear that something like this happened.
I agree. We all get criticized for the things we do in life, so one must learn to just deal with it and move on. I don't understand why some people take things so personally. We live in a crazy world.
message 10:
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Tara-Jayne (♥ I Read, I Love ♥) , The Great & Mighty Mod! :P
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Roger wrote: "I agree. We all get criticized for the things we do in life, so one must learn to just deal with it and move on. I don't understand why some people take things so personally. We live in a crazy world."Yes we do indeed :P
Rea wrote: "I understand and respect that it's not an easy thing for an author to receive a bad review, especially if it's one where the book is just slammed and the opinion not justified. The book, after all,..."This is so bizarre and unprofessional. Some folks just can't handle rejection. Although I do wonder how mothers would react if you told them their kids were bad, ugly or unworthy. They might run you down with their minivan. If I were this writer, I'd get a new agent. Due to all the unfavorable press, it may be difficult for her to get represented by a reputable agent. I've been exposed to agents and find many of them be sharky, smug and narcissistic. They believe bad publicity will get attention, which it can if your a rising celebrity. Paris Hilton can get away with this (you know that time she exited a limo with no underwear and exposed her privates to the paparazzi) I don't believe this kind of behavior will help authors sell books. I only review the books that resonate with me because I will not waste my time on a book that didn't move me. As a reviewer, I do my best to show respect to the author by choosing my words carefully.
Matt wrote: "Preposterous and childish. Nothing short of that. While I appreciate the hard work and time devoted to writing any book by anyone, an author simply cannot expect everyone to "love" their work. To g..."Matt, I agree.
Whilst it's unacceptable for an author to react this way to a review at all, what makes it worse is that the review was written in a clear, concise manner that pointed out the problems she had with the book and even attempted to point out some good points. Her agent's manner was appaling and the author didn't think to stop her, just as bad in my mind!
Hayley wrote: "Whilst it's unacceptable for an author to react this way to a review at all, what makes it worse is that the review was written in a clear, concise manner that pointed out the problems she had with..."I agree. That woman's off her trolley!
I think that an author has to realize that not 100% of the people will ever like your book no matter how good the masses think it is. Therefore, you only create problems by responding negatively to bad reviews. It is best just to zip it. Now, I won't read the book. Where as before I might have out of curiosity because so many others liked it and this person had strong views against it. Now I will not. To bad. She's lost a lot of potential readers because of this.
This seems to me to be a complex behavioral issue.Any time people form a community, it sticks together partly because of the sense of satisfaction each individual member gets from it.
The literary community is no different, and as with any group, people who adhere to it too zealously (and there's actual issues of brain chemistry at play) will also defend it overzealously.
In fact, I'm going the the indie route after spending a year talking to pubs and editors despite some decent interest. I know readers like my books (people have read them) but they don't fit the usual mold of what the "literary community" is looking for, and I don't want to compromise my writing style.
On the side, I co-manage an indie news website in Canada, and we get this kind of reaction from someone in the arts community to a review about once per month.
It's not just work to them, it's their baby, and they react like defensive parents. It's NOT professional to them, it's personal.
It's not reasonable, but it's also not going anywhere, due to community orthodoxy being part of human nature.
It is personal but it's not professional to *whine* about it publically for the reasons I stated above.
Terri ♥ wrote: "It is personal but it's not professional to *whine* about it publically for the reasons I stated above."Oh, totally agree. In fact, if she was smart about it, she'd use negative reviews as a learning experience, both from a humility perspective and to figure out which audience she's most definitely NOT trying to to write to.
Aurora wrote: "Rea wrote: "I understand and respect that it's not an easy thing for an author to receive a bad review, especially if it's one where the book is just slammed and the opinion not justified. The book..."Aurora, I can relate and appreciate your approach to reviews.
Matt wrote: "Preposterous and childish. Nothing short of that. While I appreciate the hard work and time devoted to writing any book by anyone, an author simply cannot expect everyone to "love" their work. To g..."I've come across a lot of authors that behave that way. It's so unprofessional.
RedMum wrote: "I suppose everyone wants to be a superstar these days."I guess so. I don't. I just like to write stories.
Terri ♥ wrote: "It is personal but it's not professional to *whine* about it publically for the reasons I stated above."I agree. Perhaps she's hormonally challenged. I just don't like whining at all.
Here's the weird thing, I actually don't trust it if a book I'm looking at has only got 5 star reviews. It automatically makes me suspicious that they have just been posted up by everyone the author knows and aren't actually objective. And as a reader a few 1 star reviews isn't going to put me off reading a book if I genuinely find the premise interesting - after all reviews are only people's opinions which are entirely subjective. To react that way to a bad review is daft. As people in this thread have said, that's what is actually going to make them choose not to read the book.
M.G. wrote: "RedMum wrote: "I suppose everyone wants to be a superstar these days."I guess so. I don't. I just like to write stories."
Probably not just a sane strategy, but a successful one as well. I figure if writers are happy with their own product, they at least get that satisfaction.
Emma wrote: "Here's the weird thing, I actually don't trust it if a book I'm looking at has only got 5 star reviews. It automatically makes me suspicious that they have just been posted up by everyone the autho..."The author John Locke, who publishes pulp fiction in eBook form, has been very successful in part by accepting negative criticism and trying to learn from it, but he also noted his sales went up when he had more negative reviews, for precisely that reason: they made the good reviews reliable.
M.G. wrote: "Whether or not my book makes the cut, I still like participating in this group. If it does, please feel free to share all your thoughts, feelings, opinions. Enjoy the Journey!"Thanks, M.G. I plan to read your book because it sounds interesting. Trust me, I will be honest and admire you for expressing yourself.
Emma wrote: "Here's the weird thing, I actually don't trust it if a book I'm looking at has only got 5 star reviews. It automatically makes me suspicious that they have just been posted up by everyone the autho..."I don't pay attention to those kinds of things. If I'm interested in the story, I will read and share my own opinion regardless of ratings or reviews.
Aurora wrote: "Rea wrote: "I understand and respect that it's not an easy thing for an author to receive a bad review, especially if it's one where the book is just slammed and the opinion not justified. The book..."Well said.
L.H. wrote: "Terri ♥ wrote: "It is personal but it's not professional to *whine* about it publically for the reasons I stated above."Oh, totally agree. In fact, if she was smart about it, she'd use negative r..."
Exactly.
M.G. wrote: "Terri ♥ wrote: "It is personal but it's not professional to *whine* about it publically for the reasons I stated above."I agree. Perhaps she's hormonally challenged. I just don't like whining at ..."
LOL!
Emma wrote: "Here's the weird thing, I actually don't trust it if a book I'm looking at has only got 5 star reviews. It automatically makes me suspicious that they have just been posted up by everyone the autho..."After looking at the overall layout of the reviews, I read the one-star reviews, then work my way up. I've found that the one-star reviews are more honest than the "this was the best book ever!!!" reviews.
Emma wrote: "Here's the weird thing, I actually don't trust it if a book I'm looking at has only got 5 star reviews. It automatically makes me suspicious that they have just been posted up by everyone the autho..."I'm the same. If I find a book here on GR, I'll usually look for a review by someone I know with tastes similiar to mine first, then read a few of the 4 or 5 star reviews, and after that I'll read some of the lower ratings. That way I feel I've been fairly objective and I end up with an idea of whether or not I'd be interested in the book... which occasionally leaves me in odd situations (like I'm interested in The Hunger Games but have no wish to read Mockingjay!)
If I only see 5 star ratings, I become a bit suspicious and it leads me to be unwilling to spend my money on the book. I have to weigh the pros and cons to come to a purchase decision. There have been some books I've refused to buy because they didn't have any ratings under 4 stars. So the negative reviews really do help!
And I can say the same thing about books with low reviews that I liked. I choose a book if the topic interests me.
Terri ♥ (aka Mrs. Christian Grey) wrote: "It is personal but it's not professional to *whine* about it publically for the reasons I stated above."So true.
Rea wrote: "There have been some books I've refused to buy because they didn't have any ratings under 4 stars. So the negative reviews really do help! "I definitely think there is a value to negative reviews. Well written and thought out ones can give the author constructive criticism (ranting, hated-filled ones probably not so much). And for potential readers it can reassure them that a wider range of people are reading the book.
I know that if reviews are dramatically polarised I get really curious because I want to see what side of the line I would end up on. This has led me to reading many a book that I loved and equally a bunch I didn't like.
I once was helping an author promote their book, we had a deadline for when I needed the interview back and what they were using for a giveaway. I hadn't heard from said author in over 2 weeks, and since the day of the interview was to be posted was less then 24 hours away, I sent a polite e-mail asking if they still wanted to do the interview.
The author took to their FB page saying "If I owe you an e-mail, you'll get it! Give me time!" I felt this was directed at me, I also found out that the winner never got their prize and the author never replied back.
The author never said thank you for me giving them my time to help them promote their book, (Not that big of a deal), but the whole time the author was rude, belittling and made me feel like shit. When the author was the one asking people to do a blog tour not the other way around, this was over a year ago now, and I have since deleted all posts on my blog pertaining to the author and will not read their books due to how I was treated.
Rea wrote: "I think that as soon as you put your published work out there, you're opening yourself to criticism as well as praise. If you can't handle that, you should not publish. Not everyone is going to lik..."I'm fine with gushing reviews as long the person states WHY they loved it so much. Just like I'm fine with negative ones as long as they state WHY it didn't work for them and they don't personally attack the author.
All I can say as an author,if you can't stand the heat, stay out of the kitchen. Some authors are so desperate for attention and just downright nuts in my meager opinion.I will be truly grateful for ALL your honest reviews, thoughts, feelings about LIGHTMASTERS. Share openly...Please.
That's very sporting of you, M.G. If the book interested me and the writer did not insult me personally, I would still give it a go. I've also seen reviews of books I've read that didn't make a bit of sense to me or were very different than how I perceived them. Everyone has off days.
Basically Books!
Books mentioned in this topic
Carrier of the Mark (other topics)The Selection (other topics)
Basically, what happened is Wendy gave the book a low rating and explained in her review why she didn't like it and her reasons for only skimming half the book. The author's agent then went on to call her a b*tch on Twitter and conspired with the author to go around liking all the positive reviews.
This has gone on before with a whole mail sent to friends and fans by Leigh Fallon, author of
There was something at the start of the month with authors knocking Goodreads as well. Using social media sites, I might add.
How do you feel about these authors' actions?