Blowing The Lid Off: Bad Shenanigans In Author Land!

I’m floored. Just absolutely floored. And I think that may very well be a strictly Southern expression so basically what I’m saying is I’m just absolutely pissed off and it’s to the point of being so bad I’m lying on the floor with it!

We hear the old “authors behaving badly” all the time. But it’s usually in reference to something they have said or done publicly. Well, let me tell ya…it’s not just the public persona that needs to maintain professional standards…AND…remember exactly what friendship means.

No one ever talks much about what goes on behind the scenes, do they? It’s all whispered. It’s the truly DIRTY end of this business. No publisher selling your book and conveniently forgetting to send you your money, keeping the rights to your books long after your contract has expired can surpass some of the antics that go on behind closed doors. If you think that an author having a melt down on a blog is bad behavior, remind yourself of some of the downright mean-spirited things that go on in private.

We all know it happens, too. And if you didn’t know it, you suspected.

There are cliques in the publishing world, aren’t there? This group of authors hangs with this bunch. That group hangs with another bunch. You can tell exactly who are friends, can’t you? No problem. It’s great to have friends online. You need to bond with other authors. And oftentimes that bonding comes about through shared publishers, shared genres, or even shared battles you’ve won together—or lost. I know I have some dear friends due to a couple of publisher closings that left us with our jaws dropping. Bonds are forged, lifelong friendships are made. All good, right?

Not necessarily.

Don’t let friendship get in the way of good judgment. Don’t let that one friend talk you into something you should not do. Don’t let the pack mentality become so rabid that you attack when it is just plain damn wrong. Think!

I’ve recently become aware of an incident that involved that pack mentality. A group of author friends going to Amazon and giving one-star ratings to two other authors to be exact. Yep. How do I know this? Well, when you get ready to email someone, make sure you select exactly who you want that email to go out to when that drop down menu appears, okay? And you’d best check all recipient names before you hit send, too.

The authors who had planned this are very very lucky it wasn’t me they were going after. The two they had targeted want all of this to go away, but know I’m blogging about this, know I won’t use any names. Why? Because I promised them I wouldn’t use names. I gave my word. Something that the unholy alliance of authors who planned the Amazon sabotage probably wouldn’t understand. But if it were me? I’d publish their names and the email that was accidentally intercepted. Damn straight I would.

I’ve been around the block a whole lot of times, and there is no way in hell that I’d let that bunch go without public humiliation. I liken what they planned to do, what they have so obviously done before to other authors judging by what I read, to career murder. If an author can commit career suicide, surely sabotage should be viewed as murder.

Now, in another entirely unrelated situation, lots of authors have been complaining about getting bad ratings at Good Reads. A couple of M/M authors I talked to last night have had twos tossed up less than an hour after a book’s release—and the books would have taken much longer than that to even read. But it’s not just within the M/M genre this is happening. It’s happening to M/F authors, too. There is also the matter of Facebook taking down pages with no explanation whatsoever—to both M/M and M/F authors. The reason I am pointing out that it’s happening to both is because no one needs to think this is genre-based. It’s not. It’s about erotic content in general.

Several authors have said that the Facebook take downs occurred a few days after they had accepted friendship from someone they deemed to be of an ultra-conservative religion. Hmmm…when you get a friend request, make sure you take a look at that person’s page before you accept. If their profile is set to private and you can’t get any info? Well, I’ve accepted in the past and then deleted later on when I discovered the person was not a true reader and just a guy looking for women. Or when I’ve discovered pics and statements made on the page that are contrary to my beliefs. Lately? If a page is set to private, I just don’t accept. Period.

With the Good Reads ratings, some authors suspect it’s other authors giving the bad ratings. Why would they do that? Same reason they were going to do it to the authors above on Amazon. Jealousy. The author is good, getting too much attention, better sales, or just plain rubs them the wrong way. But there is something else to be considered here too. Put aside ultra-conservative fanatics. Put aside jealousy from other authors. What about authors who don’t write erotic romance and consider it porn?

Have you ever come across one of them? I have. And it wasn’t pretty.

As soon as they find out you write erotic romance—BAM—they don’t want to talk to you anymore. And if you are published with a digital publisher? Well, you don’t rate a simple howdy do! And no, not all authors who are published or aspire to be published with NY publishers only are like this. Not at all. I’m just giving you the different possibilities for these ratings that seem to be cropping up everywhere these days. Conspiracy theory? No. Shenanigans! And the not so funny kind at that!

And about those bad ratings showing up less than an hour after a book is released and it would take much much longer to read the book? Well, what about when the book releases and less than an hour later, it shows five-star ratings? Same thing—just the flip side. Hey! Rate your own book a five. That’s cool. Damn straight it is. You worked hard for it. But please wait until the day after it releases, will ya? LOL See, I consider that okay. But what isn’t okay is when an author registers with Amazon or even their publisher with several different email addresses and leaves all kinds of glowing comments for herself and that wonderful five star—occasional four-star rating (just to make it believable), now is it? Basically, if a book goes up today and I go back the next day and I see fifteen glowing comments? I’m going to read them. Yes, I am. And not everyone is good at hiding their writing style. You see, as an editor, I’ve learned to mimic various author styles of writing. I’m one of those who could vary my reviews on these sites and get away with it! LOL Joking, joking, joking. It’s just not something I’d do. I’d know I did it and it would bug the hell out of me. But not everyone does a good job of writing these reviews. So when I spot these hoards of readers going to a site and posting glowing reviews, it catches my attention, and I can almost always spot the reviews that were written by the same person. It’s not always the author doing this either. Sometimes it’s a well-intentioned friend.

But think about it. KNOW that someone is going to notice. And I’m not the only one who notices.

And here’s one more thing for you to think about:

This is something that happened a couple of months ago to a friend of mine. She had been a friend to two authors—online, of course. She chatted back and forth with both of them daily. She considered herself to be good friends with both and had been for almost two years. But the author/s confessed something to her that ruined both those relationships. It seems that these authors had been talking to this friend of mine but were one in the same. Just an author with two separate pen names, friending other authors as two individual people. Confused? Me too.

How the hell can you pretend to be two different friends to the same person for almost two years. My friend listened to this author/s problems. Talked to her through her marital breakup. They exchanged pics of their children for God’s sake. Oh…the author with the two pen names has four children. But she split them up in “ownership” between the two pen names. Now that’s just WHACKED! My friend was hurt by this. Deeply. She asked me just a couple of days ago if I used more than one pen name. My reply? “Hell no. I don’t have time, energy, or the intelligence needed!” LOL The only way I’d ever use a second pen name would be if I tried my hand at Young Adult. And then I’d keep that pen name a secret—but NOT from my friends. And I KNOW who they are, too! But you see? My author friend now suspects everyone is lying to her. Not good.

It breaks my heart that someone did this to her. Really does. It could be argued that when they struck up a friendship, revealing that pen name wasn’t necessary. But after three or four months? Definitely when you begin to reveal personal information, I’d say it would have been time to come clean, wouldn’t you?

If the shenanigans I’ve posted about today boggle your mind, well, you’re right on track. We should all be hearing a collective “HUH?” while reading. What happened to playing fair? Honor? Respect? For that matter, what happened to The Golden Rule. Remember that one?

DO UNTO OTHERS AS YOU WOULD HAVE THEM DO UNTO YOU.

And I don’t mean to bring religion into all of this. But don’t you think that living your life by the Golden Rule just plain works? Nothing religious about it. Just plain makes sense to me, at least.

To those of you who have engaged in some of these kinds of shenanigans, I say, back up. Take stock. Recommit yourself to maintaining a better level of professionalism. And if you choose to make friends online, then be respectful.

To those of you who have never crossed the line, I say, others can and will learn from the example you set. It’s through you that new authors learn—and not just about the writing craft.

In closing today, I want to issue a warning. The price of chocolate is going up! LOL…yeah, the price of everything is going up, but chocolate has me worried, lol

AND…for my weekly book trailer showcase, I’ve chosen Cindy Jacks! I love this video. Soooo sexy! It’s for her Ellora’s Cave Quickie entitled LEAP. You can find Cindy here: http://cindyjacks.com



http://tessmackall.com

Books available from Ellora's Cave and Pink Petal Books.

Why Are Trainwrecks So Popular?

Before I begin today’s rambling rant, I want to welcome our three new blogging buddies—the absolutely fabulous Mia Watts, Cari Quinn, and Allie Standifer. And I also want to remind everyone that Three Wicked Writers Plus Two has a Yahoo group and we’d love to have you join. This week we’re launching Wake Up Wednesdays! Members are asked to post their favorite hot hunk pics. This week’s theme is COWBOYS! Giddy up! Here’s the link: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/threewickedwriters
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Last week the publishing world witnessed a major trainwreck. It was on a review site which is where most of the trains seem to derail. Sometimes it’s about a publisher and what that publisher has failed to do, and a lot of times it’s about an actual review. I’ve come to expect these runaway trains and the carnage they leave along the tracks.

But this particular derailment got my attention in a different way. First, the review was not a bad review overall. Let’s face it, most of the blood-spilling is the result of the way the review itself is presented. Think about that. If you’ve got to get a bad review—and you will—shouldn’t it just be an honest review, well thought out, and WITHOUT the snark? I think the vast majority of authors can handle that kind of review. It’s the snark we can’t deal with and that makes us breathe fire.

My lungs are still charred from one I received a couple of years ago in which the reviewer thought my book was back dropped against a blue screen—no real setting. HUH? I had coral-hued sunsets, Texas dust, trees galore, sex amongst the wildflowers, wild mustangs, faded green pickup trucks, etc. etc. etc. Then the reviewer was concerned about my 2007—contemporary novella—and why Indian rights were never considered when the matriarch of the book died and left the will up for contest between my hero and heroine. Oooooooooooookay. But! The reviewer thought the book was well-written. Ooooooooooooookay.

Now like I said, the review this particular author received was not that bad. The reviewer was not at all snarky. Very polite. An honest review done in a nice way. Personally, I could have swallowed that review and just never pointed it out to anyone, knowing that in a couple of days it would have been buried well enough that not too many people would come across that low rating. LOL If there is one thing that the reviewer could possibly have done differently, it would have been to give the author a bit higher rating. He seemed to like the story and thought the author was a good storyteller evidently. But he took off right much in the way of rating because of editing issues. Mostly grammar, I think. But then again, I haven’t read the book and won’t (more on that later). It seems the reviewer thought that the issues with grammar and editing in general made the book too difficult to hold a reader’s attention. And if that’s the case, maybe that two-star rating was indeed warranted. I think all of that is very very subjective.

So basically, the author commented, telling the reviewer he hadn’t downloaded the right copy of the book. Apparently she’s self-pubbed. Nothing wrong with that. But it came out in her comment that she had emailed him a note on downloading the right copy, and he commented later that he had done just that. The author also posted some reviews that she had received on Amazon.

And that, my friends, is when the train rounded the bend a little too fast and the wheels came off the track.

Others started weighing in with their opinions—against the author. A lot of them were commenting anonymously, as was their right, and some weren’t. But if you look at those comments, you can see just how venomous they became. It was like each commenter was throwing a cup of gasoline onto the author. And honey, did she ever go off. Like a rocket. NASA could use her on their launch pad.

Did she deserve what she got? Some of it. Yes. Did she really go too far? Absolutely. But did she deserve in excess of 300 comments that all said the same thing roasting her over and over? No. Now before I go any further, let me say there were a few commenters who very nicely gave her some good advice. Commenters who were NOT trying to fuel the fire, but get her to listen to reason. I even recall one commenter pretty much saying enough was enough and it was time to shut down comments. But comments did not shut down until there were about twice as many--finally.

And the number of followers for that review site just kept ticking away. UPWARD.

When I first saw the site, the number of followers was sitting at 371. And as I had gotten offline pretty early the night before and didn’t check email before I went to bed (which is why I didn’t see all of this until the next morning), I’m sure there were even less followers on that blog initially. I could honestly sit at my computer, click refresh, and see five or six more followers every three or four minutes. Still can, though it’s not quite as fast and furious as it was a couple of days ago.

As of this posting the blog has 974 followers—up 19 from when I checked late yesterday afternoon. And all because of a trainwreck. An author had a meltdown. Comments were allowed to race like wildfire.

So the blog has enjoyed some success that I would relate directly to this fiasco. Do I begrudge the blog benefiting? No. Actually, it seems to be a solid review site. Like I said, no snark. So maybe authors and readers recognized this and decided to follow the blog. And maybe some of them just followed as a show of support for the reviewer. And maybe some of them are just hoping for another trainwreck.

What about the author?

Well, the number of followers on her blog didn’t go up. But the number of hits she received on her blogger profile now number over 70,000. She’s only been a blogger since October 2010. I’ve had blogger since June 2007 and have only had 1933 hits to that profile page. Nobody loves me! LOL

Is she selling books as a result of her meltdown? I can just about guarantee it. Is that a good thing? In the short run, money is always good. But what about the long run? Is she going to have to change her pen name? Was that a real name? Lots of unanswered questions. So why am I not buying the book? First, it’s not erotic. Lol Kidding, just kidding. But really? It would only be a curiosity buy for me. While I am a bit of an impulse buyer, there’s something just wrong about buying a book as a result of a trainwreck.

And that’s the end of that particular story.

So what do you think of the popularity of trainwrecks? What fuels them? Why do we stop and gawk? And what about that author? Did she really commit career suicide? Or will anyone even remember her name six months from now?

This week’s featured author video is from Casey Sheridan for her new release from Breathless Press. I love the bluesy music. The images are ohhhh sooooo sexy! Great job, Casey! You can find Casey here: http://casey-sheridan.com