IWSG: When Mean People Have Too Much Time on Their Hands

Y'know, I love the internet.  It has opened up so many opportunities for me in all aspects of my life, most particularly writing.  And it's just terrific that people now have an easy vehicle by which to publicly express their opinions. The downside of that, of course, is that people now have an easy vehicle by which to publicly express their opinions---and cyber bullying isn't just for kids.

I've made it a practice to give drama queens a wide berth, but sometimes they hunt me down anyway. For example, I've recently discovered that on Goodreads, my book has been placed on reader shelves titled things like: "Authors behaving badly" "Authors I don't trust" "refuse to read" "I don't think so" "no way in hell" "Cheap ploys to make a buck" "not if I were dying" "this is not a real book." And can anyone tell me what "unethical slore" means??

I appreciate the free publicity, but it's weird, isn't it?  Especially considering that I'm not even sure what it is I've done to earn a spot on those lists. I've heard about an angry hoard of Twilight fanfiction readers who apparently think Stephenie Meyer invented the world and therefore anyone who's ever written a fanfiction of her work has no right to ever publish anything, so I'm gonna guess that's my crime. Yes, I write fanfiction.  Yes, at one point I even slapped Twilight names onto Three Daves and threw it online for reader feedback. But no matter how I turn my head around the issue, I just don't see how something like that could provoke such ire. I can only conclude that some people just want to be angry about something, no matter how illogical.
    
And so it is for us writers---if we want to put our work out there in the world, we're going to have to deal with the crazies on occasion. But don't let those mean-spirited jabs get you down, just do what you know is right and be grateful that you get to be you while they have to be angry, mean, nasty them.    

On the positive side of Goodreads, Three Daves has made it onto theCollege Romance list! Feel free to throw me a vote & move it up the list. :)
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