Bad Author Behaviour … by Lisa Henry

46 comments

• 

  oh yes! I absolutely agree with this. I am a “fan” of almost every author I have read a book from so I have been able to witness this.

  Here is something some of these authors don’t think about: they are damaging their reputation and that of the author friends they are defending. I have been put off from reading books by a couple of authors because of this. How can I read a book from someone who rants about other readers who have not agreed with them? It puts me in preventive move and makes me want to avoid being in the same situation by simply not reading any more of their books.

  I will say that some readers can be very offensive in their feedback and the reviews can be mean spirited at times. Often I wonder the wisdom in authors reading these reviews. I do agree that at times it does require a very thick skin to be able to read them. But like you said, once a book it has been published authors need to “detach” from it and let it be. Either grow a thick skin or do yourself a favor and stop reading the damn reviews.

  As a reader I am often intimidated when an author comments on a review. Sometimes it is flattering but sometimes it also makes me apprehensive and makes me feel like I can’t openly express my thoughts about their book.

  Ultimately authors need to remember that they are their own brand. Whether you write beautifully or not your name is your own brand. Is it really wise to be undermining your own brand by presenting yourself as unhinged? I think not.

• 

  I had seen a lot of these accidents too – I read Dear author site often and they did mention several of those author meltdowns. – mostly not in mm world but I had seen some in mm world as well. Those meltdowns is why I get twitchy even when perfectly nice and polite author comments on my reviews just to thank me. Which is too bad because i had some awesome conversations with authors off list – i asked questions they answer and all that, but thats how i feel. I get that the author is just being polite but I already wonder what is going to happen when/if I write a bad review. Will he/ she explode? Maybe track me down? Yes I have read about the clown who had tracked down the reviewer because he was a journalist ( author) and had access to database or something ( do not remember all the details exactly ). So yeah , I think it is better for authors not to read reviews if they cannot handle negative ones and certainly commenting on them is a terrible idea imo.Thanks for the great article Lisa.

  • 

    Sirius, I love talking to readers about my books– love it! But only if they approach me. And yeah, there are too many stories out there about reviewers getting threatened and hassled, and not just online but in real life as well, that are just beyond scary.

    • 

      I think you did it perfectly Lisa when you invited readers to ask questions about Dark space, you know? You invited us to your place and I was more than happy to visit 🙂

  • 

    Sirius

    While I appreciate and respect your sentiments, and I tell authors who ask whether they can comment on your reviews that you prefer them not to do so, most of the authors who comment on their reviews here are polite. We have only had a couple of incidents that I recall where authors were outright rude and had a meltdown in four years that the site has been in existence, and I banned them from returning. I would say that’s a pretty good record. 🙂

    A lot of reviewers appreciate having authors comment on their reviews, if only to thank them for their hard work because reviewing is a tough job if it’s done right, and I would not want to discourage them from doing so. While this site is for readers, we also support authors and many of them also support the site.

    I understand your concerns and I am respectful of them but I would not want authors to get the idea that every reviewer has the same views.

    • 

      Yes sorry about that. I should have stressed that I realize that my views are not the site’s policy and I know many reviewers love authors commenting on the reviews. And I totally respect that – I always thank the authors who thank me for the reviews but I will not engage with the discussion on the reviews. Again sorry about that .

      • 

        I think the difference too is that here on Jessewave there are great moderators, who look out for the reviewers. On Goodreads, it can be vicious.

        • 

          Oh for sure. If this site was the only site I visited I may not had the issues and reservations like I have. Wave stops rudeness right away ( I am not just paying her a compliment 🙂 that is how I truly feel. At the same time this is not the only site I visit – and I had seen viciousness and seen lots of it that is why I feel how I feel.

      • 

        I would have to go with what Wave said and as an author, I do want to have respectful discussion with a person… professional reviewer or no… about what works for them and what doesn’t work for them in a book.

        Too often, authors…and reviewers … forget that there is a spectrum of readers’ knowledge / exposure / likes of a genre. So maybe it’s a matter of knowing the slice of reader a book would appeal to and rate it with that firmly in mind and an author pretty much has to enter into it with that aspect engraved in their brain too. I personally don’t care for the 50 shades thing but to some readers, this was a fantastic series that opened them to a new genre. I’ve got to respect that. And hell, celebrate their love for a series I might not care for.

        Because it would be wrong of me to shame someone for their choices in reading. I think authors sometimes forget that too. I’ve seen some say… well THAT stuff’s fluff and of course everyone’s going to like that because…blah etc. We have to keep in mind some people want fluff. I myself want more grit and gore but fluff has its place…and I read it too because some of it is damned good storytelling.

        I disagree with the notion that Goodreads is solely for the reader because I think an author can gain good insight on a variety of things concerning their writing. But engaging in battle or being defensive is ill-behaviour regardless of who is doing it. Interact… but do not hostile-engage.

        I always try to be nice and respectful. I thank people even if they hate the book because they took the time to read it…and hell, worked at their job and gave me money they earned. I owe them a huge amount of thanks for that. I can’t say that enough. :wave:

        Of course, watch me have a ranting meltdown next week and have to be talked off the back of a sheep or something. 😆

        • 

          Hi Rhys!

          I’ve drawn a line in the sand on Goodreads. General discussions, I’m there. Raving about other authors’ book — I”m there with bells on! But I won’t comment on my own books’ reviews unless a reviewer asks a question directed at me.

          I think basically that we all have to find out what works best for us, but I totally agree that you should never hostile-engage. I”m at the point where I see that now, and think “Are you kidding me? This again?” People just don’t learn…

        • 

          Oh yes…I’m with you there. I will say thank you but I don’t want to tussle. 😀

          And oh yeah, I’ve had a ER? WHAT? moment or two on Goodreads. 😆

• 

  Mercedes, you said this so well! I was quite angry at the time I wrote it (I’d just seen a reader get blasted for what seemed like a pretty reasonable review). It just astonishes me that some authors are so stupid about social media like Goodreads. Readers don’t forgive that sort of behaviour, and neither should they!

  • 

    Lisa

    Thank you again for allowing me to reprise your essay here. I have expressed similar views on many occasions in my own posts but I think that coming from another author give it more credibility.

    As you said so eloquently in your essay:

    When you get your royalty cheques from your publisher, where do you think that money came from? So to all the Authors Behaving Badly out there, grow up, chill out, and stop biting the hand that feeds you.

    • 

      Thanks for having me 😀

    • 

      Can I say how much I adore you, Wave? :hurrah:

      Thanks for bringing this here.

      • 

        Is it worth a pound of chocolates Rhys? I like dark. 😎 Seriously, I love to discuss books with authors and engage them if they drop by to comment on one of my reviews, or a post on a topic related to writing, (at least I like to think it’s related but I’m often wrong). 😀

        I remember fondly the long discussions we had at GRL about books, not just your books, and it was one of the highlights for me. You and PD Singer put me through the wringer. 😆

        Although this site is primarily for readers, some of our reviewers are authors and I value them as much as those guest reviewers who are strictly readers. I would never denigrate them because they are authors and they would have to stink up the place to get me pissed.

        We all have to learn to get along even though there are times when we go over the reader/author line in a way that’s not polite. I try to keep the peace here and I have only had to ban maybe 2 or 3 authors for bad behaviour in all the time we have been in existence. 😮

        • 

          Oh yes, I like that some of the reviewers are authors as well. It gives a good perspective. *nods*

          I agree that we have to have polite discourse. That is so key in these discussions.

          Heh, talking about my books is boring. I’ll gladly talk about writing and others’ books any day of the week.

          As for chocolate, I can probably get my hands on some dark chocolate. God I love that stuff. How much do you want? Got some nice Japanese chocolate. *grins*

• 

  I want to clarify something else about what I just said (yeah I love to ramble ;)). I am one of those readers who actually likes to find out author’s intent especially when I am wavering about my own interpretation but what I do not want to hear ( again I am only talking about my views which have nothing to do with the site’s policy. Lets say I am only taking about my amazon reviews) even if author expresses it in the polite manner that my interpretation was wrong. Yes I did not pick up on what you were trying to convey but by the same token we can say that you failed to express your intent clearly in the book so this reader could pick up on it. So my interpretation is not wrong. Just different. That I actually had happen and more than once and was annoye as much as I would be by actual rudeness. But I think this is a great place to thank Ben Monopoli for his reply on my review – he just clarified what I was wondering about without telling me I was wrong so i guess I was happy to see that? Anyway ramble is over for now.

  • 

    I agree with what you’re saying, for the most part Sirius. An author should be able to write in a manner that leaves no room for (mis)interpretation. But the English language (or any other for that matter) has so many different interpretations/quirks of the same words that we humans sometimes get it wrong. I admit to my own failures in this regard.

    Authors have sometimes written me about factual errors in reviews, and if I agree with them I point this out very delicately to the reviewer in question, in private, if it’s someone else’s review.

    There’s always room for clarification but not to the extent where it becomes a public brawl.

    • 

      Oh yeah yeah – my brain is all over the place today. Factual mistakes I do not mind being corrected publicly at all. If I used the wrong name of your character, wrong date, etc – tell me I will correct and happily apologize. I still hope that you ( hypothetical you author) will phrase it nicely but I have no problem with that whatsoever. But really clear factual mistakes are so few IMO. If in your mind it is a fact that your character is a nice guy but I decided that he is a jerk for example – I do not consider it factual correction. If your character’s romance leaves me cold the fact that I do not know that he may have a different romance in the future books does not make me wrong.

      • 

        I absolutely agree with you on that, Sirius. Reviews are always going to be subjective, and authors should never call someone “wrong” just because they didn’t interpret your book the way that you intended. There will always be as many interpretations as there are readers.

        Edit: It’s almost 1.30 a.m. here, so I’m off to bed, but I’ll check back in tomorrow!

• 

  This article confirmed my suspicions that there are some sockpuppet that tried to boost the books’ rating.

  From time to time I will stumble upon a book on goodreads with fairly high stars (3-4) but when I check the reviews they were simply stars given with no review written. Now this is not odd, I did that too on the majority of the book in my shelf because they were fun enough to read but perhaps not left me enough impressions to write about.

  Then I found some that has high stars, short comments with how much they love the story but not elaborate on why. Those do triggered the red flag in my head. Sometimes I would be curios enough to even check those reviewers profiles to see if they were real or not, or just have a completely different taste in novels than mine.

  • 

    I don’t see the point of sockpuppets. I suppose there might be some short term gain to getting lots of stars on Goodreads, but it’s going to backfire, and you’re going to lose all credibility.

    I’ve seen reviewers with shelves labelled “bad author behaviour” or “attacks reviewers”, and if I’ve seen those shelves, so have a lot of people. Once you muddy up your reputation like that, it has to be impossible to restore it. I really don’t know why some authors risk it.

• 

  This is a great essay by Lisa Henry. I totally agree. When an author publishes a book and puts a price tag on it, it should be a strong enough book to stand on its own. If the author feels she has to prop up her own book with much post-publication defensiveness across the internet, what does that say about the quality of the work?

  When authors snivel in public about their reviews, they make all of us authors look like whiny amateurs. That goes for posts on their personal blogs because that’s a passive-aggressive way to sound off in public (it’s on the internet).If their agenda truly was to get sympathy from their friends, they would email their friends and keep it private. Nothing wrong with that.

  True professionals put their book out there, keep their mouths shut, learn from reviews, and keep on writing. Bad reviews are the small, but accepted, downside to the AMAZINGNESS of publishing and having readers.

  Sometimes I wonder if we m/m authors even KNOW how incredibly lucky we are to get any review recognition at all, especially with how saturated our field is right now.

  Awhile back, I wrote a blog post on bad author behavior, and an author indignantly commented that authors have a right to fight back over bad reviews in the same way that a store owner should take action if someone comes into his shop and starts yelling and throwing things.

  But the two situations aren’t comparable. If somebody’s having a meltdown in your shop, you might have to call the cops before you’re physically attacked. If you’re an author and you get a bad review on the INTERNET, the situation is remote and no immediate threat is involved.

  I see that as a blessing for us authors. We’re sheltered by the remoteness of the internet, and we can lick our wounds in private and choose not to respond. It’s not like we’re lawyers in a televised trial and we are expected to respond while standing in the spotlight.

  As an author, I’m grateful to all those who have reviewed or will review my books. My instinct is always to thank you, but I’ve realized I shouldn’t comment on a review because readers deserve their privacy to discuss the book.

  I don’t care if I get bad reviews. I don’t even care if a bunch of readers single out my book and make fun of it in a huge string of comments. It hasn’t happened yet, but I recognize that it could. As long as I know I did a good job on my book, it goes a long way toward balancing out other reactions.

  And I would never lash out at a reviewer or turn against him or her for giving me a negative review. An honest review like that just means that when I get a positive review from that reviewer, I can trust that it’s the real thing. 😀

  • 

    Hi Val! I totally agree with what you’ve said. Yeah, when I get a particularly scathing review, I’ll call in my unofficial email support team, and they’ll talk me through the “Why am I even going this? I should just quit now and become a florist or something people like” stage. Because we’re human, and these things get to us. But never in public. I mean, nobody needs to know how much ice-cream I ate after someone I never met didn’t like a book I write, right? 😆

    Oh…there has been a lot of ice cream!

  • 

    Val, you’re so smart! Now I have to read Fall Into The Sun sooner lol!

• 

  I’ve commented to reviewers on who review for actual sites as this one simply because I feel the need to thank them for their time and review. I’ve even done that when the review has been shall we say not glowing.

  As for Goodreads I’ve recently had an experience that’s made me stop going and stop looking. One reader whom I’ve never had contact with in any way wrote a review of one of my books. He or she, I can’t even remember, called ME a bitch because that person didn’t like the book. I’ve never responded. If they didn’t like the book that’s fair, I read books I don’t like too. I don’t attack the author, in fact they probably never know I read their book.

  However, the whole thing has made me feel as if GR is a joke. Just because it is a reader site does not give a reader the right to call someone they’ve had no contact with a bitch. I probably am a bitch, but that’s not the point.

  If readers are permitted to act in such a way in a public forum without recourse, I certainly am not going to take the site as a whole seriously.

  There are readers on there I have corresponded with and whose opinion I respect a great deal and any discussion takes place off of GR.

  Elizabeth Noble

  • 

    Hi Elizabeth. It’s awful that a reviewer called you a bitch just because they didn’t like your book. In that respect, Goodreads is a joke. There is no real evidence of moderation and, when it comes to personal attacks and name calling, there should be. It must have been very difficult not to respond to that.

    So far I’ve been very lucky on GR — no personal attacks yet. And I say yet, because I’m pretty sure it’s going to happen at some point. It seems to happen to everyone, readers and reviewers alike.

    • 

      The reviewer who calls the person they never met in real life a nasty name just because they did not like her book – well, such reviewer gets exactly as much attention from me as a reader as she/he deserves – zero. Nobody likes nasty personal attacks and *anything* which relates to author as real person is a humongous no/no for me in my reviews. But I wish sometimes authors gave their readers more credit – such reviews have no credibility in the eyes of many, many readers. It is hurtful, of course it is, but it is still in my personal opinion not the reason to engage. I also wish some authors did not take such a broad view of what personal attack is – again in my personal opinion only, any criticism connected to your book is not a personal attack in my opinion.

    • 

      Thanks. Actually it was easy not to respond, I didn’t want to acknowledge the statement. Unless someone there invites me to correspond with them I don’t comment.

      • 

        That’s the safest policy somewhere like GR, for sure.

        I always used to say, “Don’t say anything online that you wouldn’t say to someone face to face.” Unfortunately I think some people would be just as rude in person.

• 

  Okay, first of all I really, really have to say this……that is one scary-ass picture of a kid having a tantrum! 😯 I have seen a few just like that in RL.

  When I give a bad review in GR, I try to make it very clear as to why it didn’t work for *me*. Issues that I may have with a story may be non-issues for others; I am aware of that and am perfectly okay with it.

  I don’t give bad reviews very often because I know that even though I may not have enjoyed the story, others will….. and that authors have put a lot of effort into their story to be dismissed so cavalierly by me.

  The only feedback I’ve received from an author is a nice “thank you”…..and I thought that was pretty cool. 😀

  • 

    I don’t think that most authors would have a problem with you saying why you didn’t like their book… unfortunately, it’s a very vocal minority that lash out and attack reviewers.

    And, seriously, you don’t need to defend why you didn’t like a book. You paid for it, right? You’re entitled to your opinion, even if it’s just as simple as “this didn’t work for me.”

• 

  The list of authors I will not read anymore includes those who get into spats between themselves as well as those who have a go at reviewers and readers. There have been some running battles where two or more authors have been really unpleasant to each other. I resent their hijacking of what I consider my (or our as in reader) space. I also wonder if they realise that we readers are eavesdropping on these arguments and deciding they are not people we want to spend time with.

  • 

    It is so, so very easy to get on someone’s “don’t buy” list, and I imagine pretty impossible to get off it again. I really can’t handle people who get into public fights and name calling online. And I’m exactly the same — I won’t buy books off authors who I’ve seen stoop to that behaviour. There are plenty of other great books out there waiting to be discovered!

• 

  Hear, hear…
  Great post, Lisa.
  I followed this “ugly” story on GR. There was even a website where authors who think they are oh, so wronged by bad reviews, were gathering and (check this out) releasing personal information about some reviewers who wrote bad reviews about their work. That is beyond wrong. They’re calling reader’s opinion, freedom to say that you don’t like some book, a form of bullying. And it isn’t. It’s their right.

  • 

    Hi Lege! If you’re talking about the site I think you are…it’s so appalling I don’t even have the words for it. That behaviour is beyond juvenile, it’s almost psychopathic. And, again if it’s the one I’m thinking of, they have the hypocrisy to call the people they’re attacking the bullies.

    It’s a hate site, pure and simple.

• 

  What Lisa Said. That’s how the world works on my planet, and I can only wonder when I see or hear about writers who are apparently from other planets.

  I have no problem with Goodreads in general. Sure, there are jerks there, but they have a bazillion users — of course there are going to be some jerks. [shrug] There are a lot of awesome people there, though, especially in the M/M Romance group, and I’ve found it easy enough to ignore the jerks.

  That said, one of the ways I avoid them is by not responding to reviews, positive or negative. I’ll chat in e-mail with someone who writes to me about a book [waves to Sirius] but enough writers who’ve made even brief, polite comments on reviews have gotten flamed for it that I just don’t comment on any. It’d be just my luck to run into someone crazy enough to flame me for NOT saying thanks or whatever, if I replied to reviewers I know. [headdesk] So I just don’t.

  I think this is part of the problem, though — the whack-jobs are just a tiny minority, whether of writers or reviewers. But their whack-jobness is making those of us who are rational change our behavior with one another to try to avoid the whack-job minority. That’s kind of annoying. I really wish I could just relax and join conversations in a positive way occasionally, whenever it seems appropriate. And I’m sure reviewers would like to not have to hold their breath whenever they see a writer stop by to say thanks for a review. We’re all on edge because of the occasional person who never learned to play well with others, and it shouldn’t be like that. :/

  Angie

  • 

    Angie

    On this site I welcome authors and I love to engage in discussions on books in general. What I enjoyed best at GRL 2012 were the discussions with other readers and authors which was fantastic. Even authors whose books I had written negative reviews were really polite.

    It’s really awful when readers and authors can’t talk to each other in a non-threatening environment about books.

    I no longer visit GoodReads because I can’t take the atmosphere there where so many people are at each other’s throats. Authors exposing reviewers’ personal information, reviewers getting revenge by dumping on their books, and generally bullying each other is no way for us to live together.

    Other than Sirius, as far as I know the other reviewers like to engage the authors in discussions about their books, unless the author takes the discussion in another direction that leads to friction, at which time most of them just close the discussion down.

    As you know Angie, we have had some pretty volatile posts here without meltdowns. If someone is being really unpleasant or obnoxious I ask them to leave, and if they continue I close off the post and ban them.

    It would be great if we could all get along, but there are unpleasant people with their own agendas. Any large website needs a moderator who will be firm and shut down discussions when the participants seem to be getting vicious.

    You’re welcome to comment on your reviews here at any time if you would like to Angie, with the exception of Sirius’s reviews. 🙂

    • 

      Just to clarify – this is indeed how I feel – I vastly prefer off list thanks if you feel you must , however I also have no problems following the site’s policy and will always acknowledge on list thanks. I shared my feelings , I certainly do not need special consideration about thanks and as I said I am well aware that Wave always stops real rudeness right away.

  • 

    Angie conversation that I had with you was the best conversation ever which I had with the author about their book. More conversations like that may help me get rid of how I feel about authors commenting on my reviews one day :-). Seriously. Thank you.

  • 

    Not commenting on GR reviews is definitely the safest! It’s much nicer here at Jessewave though where everyone acts like an adult! 🙂

• 

  I had my first book come out recently, so I’ve just been introduced to the reviews on Good Reads. I use the site all the time to find books to read, so I wanted to know what people thought of my book. I haven’t had any ‘bad’ reviews, but there were certainly some 3-4 star reviews that had aspects of my story they didn’t like. There were some critiques I didn’t agreed with and others I totally agreed with, but they are both valuable information for me. The reality is you will never appeal to everyone, but you can always learn from an honest critique.

  I had one reviewer write me a direct message on Good Reads and I figure that is the only time it is appropriate for me to contact the reviewer directly beyond the occasional like.

  • 

    I think I was lucky with my first book, since it really polarised views. It got some great positive reviews on GR, and some really cutting negative ones. But at that time I wasn’t using GR much, so what I didn’t know didn’t hurt me. 😀
    My skin’s got a little thicker since then, which can only be a good thing, and I’ve learned the most important thing — a review of my work is not a review of me!
    And you’re absolutely right. It’s often the negative reviews that are actually the most helpful!

• 

  A thesis could be written on this subject and we’d be no closer to figuring it out.
  I love books and I love talking about them. If I can actually discuss one with the creator of that work, well I’m in heaven. The problem is that there’s no rule book for the technology we have at our fingertips. We shouldn’t need one if common sense prevails but we all know common sense isn’t all that common. The simple things already mentioned should be enough: be polite, don’t say something you wouldn’t say directly to that person, etc. I don’t have much respect for snarks & bullies who hide behind the anonymity of the web. It’s too bad that some sites and some authors feel that they shouldn’t engage in a discussion, even to say thanks. I get why that’s necessary now but it could be so great! I mostly do my complimenting privately or on the author blogs.

  • 

    Like you say, Mary, there shouldn’t have to be a rule book. And, if there was, I doubt the sort of people who hide behind their computers and take potshots at one another over the internet wouldn’t read it anyway.

    That’s why I love sites like Jessewave — everyone is polite, friendly, and able to have a difference of opinion without it turning nasty.

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