We’re in a whole new year now, a few weeks in even and I’ve been reflecting back on 2012 as I meander my way into remember to put ’13 on anything I write or post. One of the things I’ve been thinking of is that there sure were a lot of ‘author blowups’. Authors freaking out on their blogs. Freaking out on Facebook. Freaking out on websites dedicted to calling out ‘bullies’. Freaking out about reviews, other authors, readers and the list goes on and on and on and on….
Here’s my hope for 2013: Fewer Authors Behaving Badly.
Why? Well, it makes us all look so bad. It alienates our readers when they stumble upon these diatribes. It also makes people less willing to talk about our books. Hell, if I know I’m going to get jumped all over, I don’t want to say anything. And when people don’t talk about our books, for better or worse, those books die on the vine. Especially in today’s world when there are so many more books and so many more ways to find them. Books get lost wayyyy too easily if we don’t allow those who read them to feel about them however they want to feel.
So how do we stop these author blowups?
Authors, you need to shut up.
I know it’s hard when someone is harsh about your book(s). Trust me, I have cried over a review before. It stinks, especially if a reviewer is making their comments a personal attack on your life, your person and your skill, rather than talking about what they liked or didn’t like about the particular book. We put our hearts into this, it’s hard not to take things personally.
But that dosn’t mean we need to put those feelings out in to the universe in the form of blogs, tweets or facebook posts. Talk to your friends, talk to your spouse, talk to your Mom, but don’t respond. You can’t argue how someone FELT about your book. They aren’t wrong. Even if they’re harsh, they’re not wrong. They have a right to feel how they feel, and if they feel it strongly enough, a right to post it on a review or a website.
Not only do they have the right, but we NEED them to do it. You know when people buy a book from an author they haven’t bought before? When people love their book… or when people HATE it. They buy it because they want to see if it’s as good as someone said, or as bad as someone said. Buying our books is what we want. And there will be people who LOVE your book and wonder why anyone hated it, people who bought the book because they heard something harsh about it.
I guess I see it that way. Writing a book is my business. Publishing a book is partly my business. Promoting a book is my business. But how a reader responds to my book after that… it’s none of my business. I can’t write to please them (and I don’t because I’d never catch that dragon’s tail), so I can’t get pissy about it if they do or don’t. At least not in public. 🙂 Maybe at home I’ll complain to the cats.
But please, stop having hissy fits in public. It just doesn’t help anyone.
(Cross posted to my Jesse Petersen site).
