Like many people in my community, I use Goodreads as the main pinnacle of my marketing plan. It’s where I check first for new reviews, messages, ratings and comments. I also use it for my personal reading record and am proud of the (over) 400 books I’ve read and rated on there.
I have been a member of the Goodreads community for four years now, and began my writing career in the ‘creative writing’ section. Whilst I wasn’t big on reviews, I have written some in my time on the site.
I have witnessed the rise of a phenomena that I am in utter disbelief exists; the practice of an author finding those reviewing his/her book badly and interracting with the reviewer. This usually involves shit fights that I haven’t seen anywhere else except high school. And for the first time since joining Goodreads and seeing this come up AGAIN in my newsfeed, I am a (self) published author who has now been on both ends of the stick.
And as an author, it sickens me to see the stalking and harassment of those who dared give a book a bad review. I know, it sucks; you bared a piece of your soul and someone did a Nelson at it:
But you know what? Life goes on! Put on your big author panties and get over it. Accept that you cannot please over ten million Goodreads members and move on. Take the review with a grain of salt and whatever constructive critiscm you glean from their words and close the tab. Watch some YouTube. Make a cup of tea. Begin a whole new book and remember the thrill of writing again.
Because, honey, if you’re writing to please others, you’re doing it wrong.
I myself have had the one star blues. I know the vortex of ‘why?’ that engulfs you after finding it. Why didn’t someone enjoy my book? A lot of other people did. And I also know that all the good reviews and ratings will pale in comparison with that one star but it doesn’t mean that you’re shit. It just means that someone wasn’t on the same wavelength as you or your novel. It happens.
How the shit does that give you the right to stalk and harass someone? Are you kidding me? How old are you? Is the stalking okay because it’s only done over the Internet? Does that make it okay to send harassing PM’s?
NO.
Holy shit.
Have a good long hard look at yourself and reasses why you’re in this business. You are a writer. This means you are open for critiscm. If you don’t want to be, don’t publish. Seriously, that’s it. That’s the answer. So stop being surprised when you publish your baby and someone doesn’t like/get it. And deer god, STOP HARASSING THOSE WHO DARE TO HAVE AN ALTERNATE OPINION TO YOURS.
It is not up for discussion.
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