Earlier today, I saw a negative review of a Spencer Hill
Press book on Goodreads (not one of mine). No big whoop--we all get some
negative reviews, and this one, while I disagreed with many of her points, was clear and logically-written, although I strongly disagreed with her statement that one of the characters was depicted in a racially insensitive way because she doesn't speak English at the start of the book.
However, when I read the comment thread, one responder, R***,
said, "I get that you didn't like the book and
that's great. Not everyone will. But, damn, you trashed it."
And then, the attacks on her began:
And then, the attacks on her began:
"Anyone tell you to go f***
yourself recently? Well I'm here to preach the good word!
"F***. OFF. Don't come on here and criticize a well-written, fully articulated and intelligent negative review just because you don't agree with the reviewer. It makes you look like a tw**."
"Thanks to R***, I am NEVER touching any work from this author again."
People posted memes asking, "Are you retarded?" and calling her an a**hole. Others blacklisted the author for the comments of R***, saying it must be the author using a fake name (side note: it wasn't the author). To me, these seemed completely inappropriate for a book review.
But then I did something really, really stupid. I engaged.
For the record, NEVER respond to negative reviews of your own work. I don't. No author should. But this *wasn't* my book, and I just wanted to mention that the character who doesn't speak English at first learns fast, and the fact that she didn't speak it from the start made sense. I also asked people not to post profane personal attacks. And I mentioned my connection to SHP, since that's the disclosure policy when any SHP editor, publicist, etc. posts on a review site.
*face palm*
Yeah, I know.
As you might expect, everyone then turned on me. They decided to mark all or her books--as well as all of my books--"not-for-me."
They called me several unflattering things. One even tweeted a link to the let's-call-Kate-several-unflattering-things thread to Twitter.
Another of the responders took a screenshot of my comment and then used it in a new thread to expand at length on my shortcomings. One person on *that* thread asked:
"And what is there to defend her from? She's not even on the thread and the review is about the book. Getting a negative review is nothing anyone needs defending from. This is ridiculous, that so many authors need to be coddled to not feel "attacked". It's a book!"
Here's the thing: a book isn't just a book to authors--it's a piece of their soul. If that causes non-writers to eyeroll, I can't do anything about that. But books are like children to those of us who write. If someone says your baby is ugly, it hits you hard. And being accused of creating a racially insensitive character is an accusation of being a racist. Authors *do* read their reviews. They see the nasty things people post about their books. And those reviews stick in their souls and fester. Sure, we need to have a "thick skin", and I can take bad reviews of my books, but I get strongly protective of our authors.
Yeah, I made a mistake. I should not have posted on that thread--it didn't do anyone any good. I publicly apologize to anyone I may have offended. I did not set out to offend--I merely wanted to set the record straight on behalf of the author, who knows better than to respond to her own negative reviews.
"F***. OFF. Don't come on here and criticize a well-written, fully articulated and intelligent negative review just because you don't agree with the reviewer. It makes you look like a tw**."
"Thanks to R***, I am NEVER touching any work from this author again."
People posted memes asking, "Are you retarded?" and calling her an a**hole. Others blacklisted the author for the comments of R***, saying it must be the author using a fake name (side note: it wasn't the author). To me, these seemed completely inappropriate for a book review.
But then I did something really, really stupid. I engaged.
For the record, NEVER respond to negative reviews of your own work. I don't. No author should. But this *wasn't* my book, and I just wanted to mention that the character who doesn't speak English at first learns fast, and the fact that she didn't speak it from the start made sense. I also asked people not to post profane personal attacks. And I mentioned my connection to SHP, since that's the disclosure policy when any SHP editor, publicist, etc. posts on a review site.
*face palm*
Yeah, I know.
As you might expect, everyone then turned on me. They decided to mark all or her books--as well as all of my books--"not-for-me."
They called me several unflattering things. One even tweeted a link to the let's-call-Kate-several-unflattering-things thread to Twitter.
Another of the responders took a screenshot of my comment and then used it in a new thread to expand at length on my shortcomings. One person on *that* thread asked:
"And what is there to defend her from? She's not even on the thread and the review is about the book. Getting a negative review is nothing anyone needs defending from. This is ridiculous, that so many authors need to be coddled to not feel "attacked". It's a book!"
Here's the thing: a book isn't just a book to authors--it's a piece of their soul. If that causes non-writers to eyeroll, I can't do anything about that. But books are like children to those of us who write. If someone says your baby is ugly, it hits you hard. And being accused of creating a racially insensitive character is an accusation of being a racist. Authors *do* read their reviews. They see the nasty things people post about their books. And those reviews stick in their souls and fester. Sure, we need to have a "thick skin", and I can take bad reviews of my books, but I get strongly protective of our authors.
Yeah, I made a mistake. I should not have posted on that thread--it didn't do anyone any good. I publicly apologize to anyone I may have offended. I did not set out to offend--I merely wanted to set the record straight on behalf of the author, who knows better than to respond to her own negative reviews.
* * *
(Asterisks added for anonymity and to take out the worst of the bad language)
