When Is Enough Enough

A few things have culminated around the same time leading to this post. Everyone makes mistakes, and the internet being what it is, is more than happy to jump on whoever makes it to attack them for it. As much as some reaction is valid, at what point does it step over the line into bullying?

We've seen Charlie Sheen have a meltdown in public (well I don't follow celeb culture but I get shrapnel wounds from others), we've seen a 12yr old girl whose parents paid for a slick video on YouTube, presumably in the hopes that she'd be spotted as the next Beyonce or something, which backfired because the song was so bad. The latest one was a self published author called Jacqueline Howett who went ballistic at a negative review in the comments section of the review, starting with her demanding the reviewer get the newly formatted version of the book, that the review is invalid and that he remove it, and that he ask her permission before making a review public, ending up in her telling people to "fuck off".

Possibly the reason this one struck home more for me, is that I sorta watched it happen live. I was in the front row as she exploded. While I was reading the comments, she'd likely be at her computer in tears over just how badly her reaction had hurt her. I did go from being amused and entertained, to feeling sorry for her.

When you have lots of people piling onto the comments to tell you that they've never heard of you until this story went viral on Twitter, Facebook etc, that they now will never touch anything you write, that you've commented professional suicide, that there are now lots of discussion threads in lots of writers and readers forums all with much the same hatred aimed at you it must be horrible. If that wasn't enough professional publishers also keep an eye on popular reading and writing forums looking for talent, she must know she's killed any chance of ever being taken seriously as a professional because of her attitude.

As I got further down the comments, I noticed a few people saying "c'mon guys, she's had enough, we've made the point, let it be, close the comments". By the time I got to the bottom of the 307 comments it was indeed closed which I was grateful for. I can imagine maybe a 30min outburst of very badly thought out image control put her into a spiral, that brought her credibility face first into the ground before she could recover. We've all been drawn into arguments from time to time and said things we later regretted, I'm no exception. Sometimes we feel compelled to have the last word which only makes things worse. I'm betting today she's reading that post with a large double whiskey thinking "Oh shit, what have I done?"

My advice to Jacqueline is to try and turn this around a little bit while it's still a viral topic:

• Make a public statement, laying out a blanket apology to everyone you offended, and in particular to BigAl
• Show some contrition, a craft is a lifelong learning thing, honest craftspeople are always looking to improve and hone their skills
• Thank people who took the time to read and / or review your work and point out areas where you can improve
• Don't do the "I'm sorry, but I'm still right" approach, that will just make it worse

Why strike now? Why not wait? Google your name, look where the results are. You need to get in there with some closure to this mistake, otherwise everything you do in the future will drown under this episode. To me it looks like a 30min outburst then you did eventually realise, or someone close to you forced you to realise your mistake and you bowed out of the conversation, but it carried on for ages without your input, continuing to damage your reputation. If someone helped you step back, they are a true friend, you owe them big.

Self publishing is a wonderfully liberating concept. It's something I hope to do myself further down the line. It offers the chance for anyone to publish their own work and be read by others. Being self published has it's disadvantages in that there are no proofreaders, editors etc ensuring the final work is of a decent standard.

This is where reviews are even more important to readers. In the self publishing arena your reputation is 100% in your own hands, you are the PR person interacting with readers, you are the editor with the decision to cut scenes or rework parts. In the professional publishing arena there are many other people whose judgements affect your reputation. Writers with a self critical enough eye to trim stuff down, cut stuff out, modify where needed and at the very least ensure it's well spell checked will rise to the top. Those who either can't or won't butcher their pet project to improve it won't. That will be reflected in the reviews and sales.

Reviews are also just opinions, there is no definite opinion on something, we're all different. Like many others I find only positive reviews suspicious. I like to get a balanced aggregate opinion, which means reading the negative too. With products the features people see as negative ie "software that comes with it is terrible" likely don't affect me, as I'm a Linux user and that software is Windows only. It's still a negative for Windows users. The thing is, than no matter who you are, how big or small, you're always gonna have good and bad reviews. That does not give you any right to try to silence the bad reviews.

Sometimes the bad reviews or comments can easily be ignored as irrelevant aka "the average YouTube comment style" but those that lay out why the review is bad, which in this case BigAl did, should be taken as free advice on where to improve. Some people advise not getting involved in the comments of a review, I'm not so sure I'd say that as a general rule. It's all down to the individual. If you are willing to engage people and welcome the criticism you get then it would be a rewarding experience not only for you to improve, but a way to help your PR with the readers you're talking with and those simply reading the comments.

That can easily draw more people to your side if they see you're a human being like them, who makes mistakes like them and is looking to improve, like them. It can draw extra sales / readers who the review would have potentially put off, because of the engagement from the author. We live in a connected world, where the gatekeepers who used to keep us apart are crumbling. There's no reason why creators and fans can't converse directly.

If you're not capable of doing that, then the best advice is to stay out of the comments altogether. As has been suggested by plenty of others, drop a line thanking the reviewer for their time and the review and leave it at that. If you don't want to read any negative reviews, honest or not, don't read reviews, or better yet, just don't write or self publish.

Writers and reviewers are readers too, and reviews are aimed at giving other readers an idea if a book would interest them or not. As a reader you're influenced in your own writing, not only it's style and themes but in the standards you know you should be writing to. As and when I get round to self publishing myself, I welcome any reviewers in advance who want to read and critique my work. I have one short story called Jump already online for anyone to read or review.

Some people only want to be told they're great. That does them no good at all. It's that mentality that leads to the 12yr old mentioned at the start thinking she'll become a star if there's a professional video available. It leads to the early rounds of the "talent" shows like Pop Idol being full of ugly, uncoordinated, tone deaf, uneducated nobodies all insisting that they're God's gift to music and that the judges just can't see it. They're hilarious to watch, but it's not an intentional comedy act on their part. They're simply deluded by having nobody around them willing or able to be honest with them. If you throw a tantrum when people are even the slightest bit critical, they won't be critical to avoid triggering your diva gland and having to deal with a grown adult acting like a baby.

Part of the backlash is to punish, another part is to teach. There has to be a point where enough is enough, the person has learned from their mistake and needs time to lick their wounds, and recover having learned what not to do again. For this, surely part of the deal is that the public see the writer has in fact learned from their mistakes. For all we know she's frantically waiting for a call back from her lawyer with plans to sue BigAl for doing nothing wrong aka hitting the big red button marked "Streisand Effect" and making it much worse for herself than she's already done in that single 30min period.

I was heartened by a lot of comments from other writers saying they welcome reviews and advice. This is what I'd expect from any craftsperson, it's what I aspire to. Being humble is not a crime, it's an asset.