The shame game - can I get a little respect?

Robert Kroese - Doesn't play well with others.*Correction - the title of his book is Schrodinger's Gat. I was so annoyed I didn't bother to read the title properly. Please forgive me.

If you know me at all, you will know that I don't like online drama and 99.9% of the time I try to be kind in my dealings with others. (That .1% - well no one is perfect.) I feel there is far too much meanness in the world as it is.

Just this one time, I am going to shame someone right here on my blog. Not to be mean, but because I feel demeaned and devalued by his treatment of me, as a blogger and as a person.

I recently received a review request from an author. It was a generic form letter in which he did not bother to insert my name in the greeting and did not follow the directions of my review policy. They are pretty straightforward after all.

I responded to that request by declining his offer to read his book based on those factors and suggested that in future requests he might want to treat bloggers as people rather than a means to an end by at least personalizing his requests.

This particular author, however, is apparently extremely arrogant and doesn't know how to play nice with others and I was quite offended by his response which was "Here's a personalized request for you to kiss my ass. Get over yourself."

Now, I don't have a big head here. I don't think my little blog changes lives, and even my book is not likely to be made into a movie, and will probably never even make a best seller list.

But I do ask to be treated with respect.

So I, again trying to be helpful, explained that I was hoping he would take my advice about personalizing his requests as he approaches other reviewers. His second response was as bad as the first.

He said "Thanks for being 'helpful.' I got a similar response from another douchebag reviewer 4 years ago when I self-published my first novel. That one went on to sell 60,000 copies. Fortunately I didn't listen to "helpful" people like you then either."

His website claims he is: "Writer of humorous scifi/fantasy. Skeptical believer. Recovering Republican. Small l libertarian. I'm just happy to be here."

I claim he is an arrogant jerk.

So bloggers beware - if you get a review request from an author named Robert Kroese for his new book Shroedinger's Cat - do with it what you will. But if you are hoping he will treat you with the respect due a fellow human being you are sadly out of luck.