Wash Your Mouth Out
One of the basic rules for success in any business – freelancing included – is “Be professional”. I was reminded of this again today by an absolutely brilliant article over at Writer Beware Blogs!
The parent site, Writer Beware is a wonderful resource for the more book-oriented author: it covers the scammers, the fake agents and any other problems in the writing industry. Not only that, but it covers them extraordinarily well – just have a look at all the resources for the current Google Books goings-on and you’ll see what I mean. Bookmark it if you’re in the business.
Anyway, the article in question covers some news of authors who go postal online over bad reviews. The most recent of these was one Alice Hoffman. After a poor review of her current novel (which, I might add, I read and thought was neutral, rather than distinctly negative), she hopped onto Twitter and sent several messages. One began “Roberta Silman in the Boston Globe is a moron”, another said “Now any idiot can be a critic” and yet another posted the reviewer’s email address and phone number. “Tell her what u think of snarky critics” suggested Hoffman.
The other famous occurrence is Alain de Botton, who posted a comment on a reviewer’s blog and then expressed surprise that “it seems that I’m telling the world” when everyone read it.
The thing that surprises me here is not that vomiting vitriol at negative reviewers is so common (as you’ll see from Victoria’s post), but that these public outbursts happen at all. Some people need their mouths washed out with soap and water.
I’ve had negative reviews in the past. We all have. Anyone who writes online will get negative feelings at some point: it could be disagreement over an opinion, pointing to a factual error in an article or just simply saying that the content sucks. It happens. The important decision is how to react.
In my mind, the only way to react is to ask why the person thinks what they think. Discuss it with them. Correct errors or support your point of view and you’re in a debate, not an argument. By talking freely and politely, much more can be achieved – just look at the ScrawlBug post on bidding sites and the incredibly useful, helpful comments there. You’ll see what I mean.
And this is what I mean by “Be professional” – don’t rant and rave like a child who’s had their favourite dolly taken away. Be adult and figure out what’s wrong. Correct it, adjust it or agree to disagree.
Why? Well, if I had been a fan of Alice Hoffman, I wouldn’t be any more. That kind of childish pettiness incurs a total loss of respect in my book.
Let’s have a little poll:
Spike,
Maybe someday folks will remember that the internet is the soapbox to a very large neighborhood. The last thing you want is to have mothers screaming and covering their kids ears every time you approach the soapbox.
My best advice comes from some very hard lessons learned in the business world. If it makes you feel better to type out a hate filled rant then that’s fine. Just wait for 24 hours and then see if you’d still like to hit the “send” button.
Cheers
George
I get all my books from Gutenberg.org. All those writers are dead.
Should we expect all people to react in the same way? Let’s all be perfect in a perfect world… sounds like heaven or 1984. Who cares what the critics say anyways. Does anyone listen to them, really? The only critics I read were accomplished writers. The critics who were just critics were nothing more than crickets in the basement lulling me to sleep.
Now, JRR. Tolkien wrote some priceless criticisms that I found wonderfully written about “Beowulf.” He wrote that the problem with analyzing it, was that as soon as you cut with the scalpel into the work, you kill it and you cease to see what makes it breathe. I wish I could recall the exact phrases he used, as they were brilliant, and mine just a dull imitation. Nonetheless, when a noteworthy author says something about another author, I listen. When some muck luck who can only put together single line criticisms in newspapers says something about an author, and I actually read it, I wonder if I would have wasted my time less by following a Twitter link.
When I follow the writers’ criticisms, I invariably am led to other classic writers who were also brilliant.
George: Absolutely. I find it surprising that people still think they’re immune to everything on the Internet. No criticism, no responsibility, no thought. I wonder how many people realise you can be held accountable for online content in a court of law, and just how much trouble they’d be in if one of their targets decided to press charges.
Steven: That first line of your comment is classic!
I agree on the whole critic thing, with an exception where it’s a review and not a critique: if I know the reviewer’s tastes, I’ll follow their opinion a bit more. Good example is a friend in Oz who has yet to recommend a single duff title for me. But then he’s not claiming to be a professional – just a book-lover.
The moral of this story is “Don’t write down anything that you may regret in the morning.” Unfortunately, many authors are legends in their own minds! Not you, of course.
JR Nuerge
Eco-friendly+Eco-nomical=Eco-fabulous!
http://www.jrnuerge.com