Every now and then a reader or an author’s friends take a dislike to a certain author and/or her book/s. This dislike typically takes the form of posting negative reviews on the various public forums distressing the maligned author. Often the reviewers attack the author, not the book. Sometimes they give away key parts of the plot, spoiling it for any future readers. Sometimes the “reviewer” hasn’t even read the book, but their friend “told” them it was bad so they give it a 1 star rating anyway.
The worst possible thing the author can do is reply to the troll trying to explain about the book or berating the troll for publishing spoilers. Just as bad is the author asking other people to reply on her behalf.
This is called “feeding” the troll. The troll becomes even more angry with every counter argument and the fight escalates.
The best thing an aggrieved author can do is ignore the review and hope that the excitement dies down quickly and everyone forgets about it.
Even better is for an author to ignore every review, good or bad, and never get involved in public discussions about personal opinions. A treasured 5 star review is celebrated in private or with trusted friends, and a poor review is also only read in private and never ever commented on publicly.
Helen Woodall
helen.woodall@gmail.com
Helen is available to line edit and/ or content edit fiction and non-fiction. Rates on application.
2 comments:
LOL! Been there, done that. You are sooo right. Sometimes biting the bullet is the only way to survive.
Hi Fran, Nice to see you again. Yes, it's hard to play dead but it's the only way to avoid exacerbating the situation.
Helen
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