authors behaving badly

[julesjones]

Not that I am always a perfect observer of this dictum myself. But authors, if someone gives you a 1 star review, bite your tongue. Because if you follow Candace Sams's example in attacking a reviewer for daring to criticise her book, you are likely to end up a public laughing stock. Especially if you continue to keep digging your hole deeper when people try to advise you that your behaviour is ill-advised. If assorted big name editors and authors are pointing at the ensuing trainwreck as a teaching example for baby authors of What Not To Do On The Internet, you really can't claim that it's just Mean Girl readers who don't understand about writing.

Comments

[alex_beecroft]

Oh dear! All that effort and (presumably) emotional turmoil just to make herself look bad. And probably nobody would have cared a bit about one bad review if she hadn't.

[autopope.livejournal.com]

Better yet, do this (http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/2008/04/we_get_reviews.html) (I got the idea from Scalzi).

[julesjones]

Oddly, I was thinking of that as I posted. :-)

Will people have accumulated enough new entertaining examples by now for it to be worth having a fresh game of Owning Your One Star Reviews?

[lonemagpie.livejournal.com]

maybe if she spent more time writing her books than arguing on the net, said books would be better.

I mean, we all get slaggings, some which are more about grudges than the work - but you can generally tell the difference!

[julesjones]

There's more than a grain of truth in the comments saying that the poor quality of the writing displayed in her rants was far more off-putting than the review itself.

[jthijsen.livejournal.com]

Oh dear, I'm afraid to look...

[julesjones]

If you do look, be prepared to lose half an hour to it. It is awesomely bad popcorn-munching fodder.

[sallymn.livejournal.com]

OTOH, she's in good company, some of the great authors of the last century threw amazing hissy fits about reviews :)

But these days, the virtual acoustics being what they are... no. If for no other reason that a lot more people now know her book was rotten...

[julesjones]

It's not just that her book was rotten -- it's that we now have a large sample of the quality of her writing minus the input from the editor she blames for her bad review.

[hafren.livejournal.com]

Gawd 'elp us....

[strix-an-stones.livejournal.com]

*winces* When I get bad reviews from reviewers, I thank them politely and leave it alone. When I get them in public forums from readers, I leave the page and don't go back - ever. It curbs the desire to reply, sparing me the indignity of turning into a sideshow attraction.

Thankfully, the worst comment I've had thrown my way was by a reader who purchased one of my three lone paperbacks and felt it was over-priced (trade versus standard), and my work only rated the purchase price of an ebook in her "humble" opinion. It wasn't anything I could control, so I ignored it.