Hello all and happy Thursday! So, I was scrolling through Instagram and, since I follow many authors on there, I ended up seeing a lot of authors complaining about being trolled on their social media and being sent links to hateful articles or reviews and that’s just not okay. I decided that I wanted to talk about this issue a little bit with y’all so please feel free to join in the conversation and let me know your thoughts in the comments.
Being an aspiring future author myself, I find the amount of trolling and hating on authors to be rather appalling. Yes, it is completely appropriate to voice whatever opinion you hold, regardless of whether or not it be positive or negative, but to actually message and link to an author and tell them straight up how much you hated their work is just disgraceful! The way I see it, if you didn’t like a book then tell everyone in your life: tell your family, your friends, your pets, a grocery store clerk, the mail-person at the post office, tell yourself while looking in the mirror, or (if you have a blog as most y’all who are reading this do) post a review or a rant about it for your readers. But, it is so not okay to go bashing an author to their face and tell them all about how you hated their work.
An author’s work is like a piece of their souls, they’re like children to them (us). How would you feel if someone walked up to you and told them that they hated some part of you, if someone were to look at a piece of your very essence and say, “I hate this.”, how would you feel? Pretty crappy, I’m sure. So then, why is it suddenly acceptable for some readers to go out of their to tag and message authors telling them how terrible their work was?
I think that this ties in with the way authors are portrayed nowadays in that they have become these kind of celebrities that are upheld to this impossible standard of perfection when, in actuality, they’re literally the most average and normal people ever (except in their minds of course because it’s their creativity that makes them all unique). They walk their dogs, they take out the trash, they shop for groceries, and, yes, a lot of them even have day jobs that aren’t writing because it is insanely difficult to live off of the money you get from writing alone. They write because they love it and they are kind enough, they are gracious enough to put out something so personal for all of the world to be able to read it. That’s a very special thing and lately, as I mentioned at the beginning of this little rant, a lot of people have been abusing this fact. Newsflash, it’s hard to be a writer and no, no one is perfect and there will no doubt be many mistakes or things that aren’t that great but, to call someone out for their shortcomings when their trying so hard just because they didn’t “satisfy you” is unacceptable.
Being a writer, I really really really want to get into this industry and share my stories and my creativity with the world but, it’s instances like these that scare me out of my wits every time I think about when I’m going to start sending in my work for publication. Will I be trolled next? Will people send me stuff about how much they hate me and my work? It’s a scary thought and it’s absolutely ridiculous that this is even a problem.
So, I ask y’all, what do you think should be some guidelines and unspoken rules of etiquette for relations between authors and readers? Have you come across things like this? If you’re an author, has this ever happened to you? Why do you think some folks think that this behavior is in any way acceptable?
Let me know all your thoughts in the comments below and let’s have a nice conversation about this issue. Love y’all, have a wonderful Thursday!
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Yeah I think it’s really unacceptable to direct hate at authors (or anyone). It’s obviously fine to have opinions and write negative reviews- but there’s really no need to send it to the author or link it to them.
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I completely agree. I mean, especially in the blogging community, I’ve read some pretty negative reviews but that’s fine because it’s for readers and their audience, I doubt any of those bloggers went and linked the authors to those negative reviews. It’s just cruel.
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Yeah for sure- I always view reviews as for readers, not the author in question. And my personal rule is not to link reviews to authors in general- but I’d think it’s especially horrible to do that with a negative review! Like you said, it’s just cruel
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Great post! I don’t see anything wrong with readers sharing their negative opinions about an author’s work, but it’s very uncalled for them to purposely link to an author and directly tell them that you dislike their work. What point is trying to be made? It’s simply rude and unnecessary.
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Thank you. I completely agree, everyone has an opinion and everyone has a right to voice those opinions but to negatively force that onto a person who’s just trying to do their job is so cruel and, like you said, completely unnecessary.
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This happens so much these days. Its fine to not like something and its another thing to not like something and blame the person who did it in the first place just because you didn’t like it! ( do I make any sense?). I have always hated this kind of stuff! Its just so rude. Great topic for a post!
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Yep yep yep, well said. And the older generations blame us younger generations for being “too touchy” about different subjects but it’s for a reason. People won’t quit being jerks and judging everybody else so of course we’re “touchy” when jackasses start talking trash. It’s called injustice and closed-mindedness and it’s not a bad thing to oppose that sort of behavior.
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Yes. I have faced that so many times! I completely agree with you!
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THIS. IS. BEAUTIFUL. I agree 100000000% and because of the reasons you mention, I try my best to be polite even when I am talking about a book that didn’t work for me. Just because I didn’t like a particular book doesn’t mean everybody will feel the same way. ALSO, it doesn’t mean that the author of that book is a horrible human being. Seriously. Anyways, thanks this beautifully articulated post and for your wonderful message of kindness.
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Thank you so much, I’m glad you enjoyed it!
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