This just in:
Okay, so this is going to amaze all of you, but Stephanie, one of the notorious GR bullies, just wrote a showing the world how she and her friends humiliated another blogger/reviewer and then created a major shitstorm, blaming an author for everything. She actually believes that an author went to the trouble of creating a bunch of fake profiles to trick her and her pals into reviewing her book.
Sorry, Steph, but you got that backwards. Your blog isn’t badass. It’s just ass bad. Delusions of grandeur are clouding your judgment here. How do we know this? Because no one is going to be this desperate to get their book reviewed on your crap blog.
Okay, so… how did this all start? It’s a long story, but it boils down to this: a reviewer befriended Steph on GR. It appears that this reviewer was doing her best to make friends, innocently assuming the people (i.e. GR bully trolls) were honest and trustworthy. (Cough! Cough! If only we’d been there to set her straight, poor thing.)
Then, Steph set her up:
The scene in the book that Steph mentions was a fabrication:
Melody didn’t know that she was being set up. She was just trying to fit in. I think many of our blog readers who’ve once been friends with these jerks can relate.
And then… and then… Steph doesn’t stop there. She accuses an author of being this blogger/reviewer who is trying to befriend her just so she can get her book noticed by the trolls at Cuddlebuggery. I know, OMG, right? In fact, she accuses the author of making multiple fake accounts (hmm, gee, where have we heard about this before? Oh, I don’t know, maybe from every single bully attack we’ve ever documented on our blog). And she makes these accusations based on… nothing. She notes a few reviews, likes and comments, but there is no solid evidence that this reviewer is an author pretending to be a reviewer. It’s absolutely insane.
So, you’re probably wondering, why is there no evidence? Because Melody is not an author. She is someone completely different.
So then, the accused author calls her out and Steph says:
She’s right about only one thing here:
“After all, everyone knows Goodreads is full of meanies who are out to get authors.”
Wow, you’ve come along way, Steph! We’re glad you could finally admit that.
Anyhow, we checked this author’s page on GR and it appears as if she’s no longer there. We’ve heard from a few people that she deleted her account and left, like so many authors do when they’ve been attacked for some stupid-ass reason that the bullies make up.
Moral of the story:
You don’t have to do ANYTHING at all to get targeted and attacked by the GR bullies. You just simply have to be a GR member.
It’s because of shit like this that so many people are fleeing Goodreads. As one our blog readers said:
Just another reminder to all publishers, authors and everyone else. Don’t create Goodreads accounts. Don’t use Goodreads. Don’t invest in Goodreads. Don’t advertise with Goodreads. Don’t give them your money or time and don’t give the website any credit what-so-ever. It’s a sewer site that breeds trolls and promotes harassment with an accepted, negative atmosphere. You don’t want your books or name associated with any of that.
Facebook and Twitter is a much better source of advertising and social interaction to connect with readers and authors. Time spent on those social networks will grow your brand and expand your audience. Time spent on Goodreads is a risk, let me emphasize that, A RISK, not a reward. People need to understand that.
Amen.
« Bully Hypocrisy, Part Five Million Guidelines For New Authors »
Is that Steph’s real picture? Wow, she’s pretty young for being such a nasty little witch.
Many of them are very young. That’s why they act the way they do. I’m just surprised at the ones who are older. Looks like they never grew out of high school.
Once again this looks like a loser with no life. Who has time for this crap?
No kidding. I barely have time to get to the gym, let alone track every single comment, like, review, etc. on someone’s GR profile.
I do want to point out that the author did, indeed, contact at least 7 tour companies, maybe more. That the author did, indeed, more-or-less plagiarize Harry Potter. That the author did lie about a lot of things. This author is not necessarily an innocent victim, but… these people see sock puppets everywhere. They have called every person who disagreed with them a sock puppet and refuse to accept that maybe, just maybe, some people really did like the book. And did you notice how in the comments they started going on and on about “fake” reviews and rating books that haven’t been read and what a horrible thing that is? Typical hypocrisy.
Oh yeah, they are complete hypocrites who see socks everywhere. Really, if they want to see real socks, they should just look in their sock drawers.
We don’t know about this author’s book. None of us have read it, so it could be that it’s an HP rip-off. And we don’t know about her contacting 7 tour companies either. But what’s wrong with contacting a tour company? If you look at the kind of advertising and promotional moves publishing companies do for books, contacting 7 tour companies is really nothing. I’m sure the author thought she was doing the right thing after writing a book. Athena is trying to contact her right now to offer her some advice.
The problem is she was trying to have at least 7 (that’s the number I’m using because that’s how many times from how many different tour companies one of the bloggers I know was contacted) blog tours running simultaneously. It was ridiculous overkill. It was causing almost a spam attack effect on bloggers, and is just bad business. But you’re right, it’s her choice. However, it doesn’t help things. All I know is that people who are definitely not bullies have been upset by the multiple contacts, and want nothing to do with the author. Of course, they aren’t running around the web stalking her, nor are they setting up her fans. They just… aren’t reading the book. I know, what a crazy idea…
Yeah, 7 is a bit much. That’s true. She’s a new author and thought she was doing the right thing. She didn’t know. Athena got a hold of her and gave her some good advice for the future, so she can avoid making these mistakes again. Our philosophy here is that a new author should be educated, not attacked, for not knowing something. Unfortunately, GR doesn’t follow this philosophy.
I wonder: maybe you guys should write a how-to manual for authors in the Goodreads age. There are so many mistakes new authors make that could be so easily avoided.
Ha! That’s funny! Athena was one step ahead. She just asked me to publish this:
https://stopthegrbullies.com/2013/07/28/guidelines-for-new-authors/
Thanks, Goronwy, for all your info and recs! Keep ’em comin’!
So far, we’ve received 10 emails about this whole fiasco and more are coming in. This author has a lot of supporters — yes, I checked the IPs. They’re legitimate and they’re all from different people. Stephanie is SO wrong about this author and it can be proven.
I’m going to recommend that the author find a good attorney and sue Stephanie (since Stephanie lives in the US). This is harassment.
I’d like to see her sue Steph for libel. She would win.
I would LOVE to see I’m-so-righteous-and-awesome Stephanie Sinclair get her pants sued off! I saw that you put her on your biggest offenders page. Eagerly awaiting news on the lawsuit!
Melody’s Twitter began on July 5th. Her blog started on July 6th. Can’t find her goodreads account… but if I were to guess, it started on July 5th as well. Now, if you don’t know this by now, you can do a google search based on images. Plug in the URL to her profile picture and do a search. The girl in the picture is a stock photo used on many websites for ‘pretty girl’ images. Is she the author of the novel in question, who knows, but I can assure you, Melody is about as real a person as Harry Potter. Who is she? Where did she come from? Why did she have such an interest with Steph and company? Who knows. Sounds like a good mystery to be solved.
Whoever she is, we know she’s not the author.
Hold up. Just because this Melody person used a stock photo doesn’t mean she isn’t real. How many GR members use generic pics for their profiles, including the bullies? So does this mean they’re not real people? Well some of them aren’t or weren’t as STGRB pointed out, their socks were deleted by GR, but there are thousands that are real people using generic pics. Melody was doing the same. I’m sure she deleted her account and disappeared because that bitch humiliated her.
I was just pointing out some obvious things. I agree she is obviously a real person, and people do use stock photos all the time for profiles. That is nothing new at all, especially from the BRT’s – they do it all the time. I was just pointing out some facts, that’s all. Melody, most likely, was an over excited fan/reviewer that wanted to step in. No matter what the case is, it doesn’t give the BRT’s the right to go trash Judyann’s books and social networks. I will NEVER accept that kind of behavior from any of them. However wrong or right they are in their accusations, it is always wrong to stalk and harass the authors the way they do.
I know for a fact that it’s not the author. I am so sick of these trolls on the internet. Everything she provided as “proof” can be faked. I’d like her to provide the I.P. address to prove this is the author. I know she won’t though because it’s not possible. It doesn’t exist.
We’re all with you on that one, Jen.
Judyann should contact these people:
http://www.cyberinvestigationservices.com/
Cyber Investigation Services is a highly experienced internet defamation & libel group that helps Corporations, Small Businesses, and Individuals with complex internet issues. CIS is a leading cyber investigation & litigation support firm that receives thousands of requests for help each year. Our unique solutions allow us to act quickly to rapidly evolving cyber defamation cases and achieve the desired resolutions.
As a Cyber Investigation group, supplemented by top attorneys, we have tools not available to others. For example, we often have techniques to stop anonymous defaming attackers without the costly expense and time required of obtaining court orders and subpoenas. Our philosophy is simple. We use our wealth of experience to provide our clients with the quickest and most cost efficient solutions possible, but we surround ourselves with top legal experts if the next level response is needed.
I will pass this link on to her. She doesn’t deserve this.
It’s seems as if this is running wild lately. And the problem is that once they accuse someone of using socks it sticks, even though it may not be true.
On another note. This might be something to check for the sake of curiosity. A woman who writes gay romance named J P Barnaby recently alleged that a gay man from Canada plagiarized her book word for word, including the dedication. And then other women who write gay romance made similar claims. They may be true. However, the entire story just doesn’t connect. It doesn’t make sense. Why would a gay male author with other published books do this so openly? And the books he allegedly plagiarized are small books that no one ever heard of that are not very good. And, he did this with his own name. I know people steal all the time, but usually something important, not something insignificant. Something just doesn’t add up, and the author who did plagiarize barely has a web presence. Then, a bully who follows the Jane Litte camp, Katiebabs, wrote a huge post about it, and in the meantime the author, Barnaby, who claims her book was stolen has garnered tons of exposure. But even more interesting, there was an attack on the author who allegedly plagiarized, (Wagner), on all his previous books that literally date back to 2000. Again, it could all be true. But I have never seen anything this unbelievable before, where someone could be that dumb.
Some of these women who write these so-called “gay” books are aggressive and vicious from what friends tell me. And when “Katiebabs” posts about it I can’t help wondering if there is more to the story.
So-called is right. Especially with this author. Aside from that, I don’t know that I would call her vicious, perhaps clueless would describe her. She is most definitely in the camp of the bottom feeders.
I have no knowledge of this event but wanted to answer the question as to why a “big” author would steal from a “small” one.
Because the small author is small and relatively unknown and it’s highly unlikely anyone would believe that the big author had a reason to steal, after all they are big and famous, surely they don’t need to.
But truth be told, writers block can be an ugly thing. Jealousy even uglier. When little fish comes up with a great idea that big fish wishes they had thought of first, then sometimes big fish sees it as their right to take it.
This is just the ugly side of writing in any genre.
And this happens all the time in all sorts of business venues. So it wouldn’t surprise me at all if the claim is legitimate.
From the bit of research I’ve done, it appears that this guy is guilty of wholesale plagiarism. In a comment he wrote, he blames his “ghostwriter” for it. But it’s not the first time he’s been called out on it. It appears that at least four authors have has their entire manuscripts copied (including the dedication and copyright pages).
Thank you all for posting this! I know this author and she’s been hurt deeply by this. It isn’t just the review, it’s how Stephanie has gone out of her way to humiliate her. Her goodreads account is getting slammed. She’s had to make her twitter account private, but that doesn’t stop them from tweeting her. They are stalking all of her accounts and just harassing her. The author has not responded since the first time she contacted Stephanie trying to find out what happened. She’s tried to hold her tongue and let it pass, but they will not let her be. Her book, a few other bloggers have liked, but are afraid to post about it. They didn’t think it was a Harry potter rip off. They just enjoyed the story. I read her book and loved it as well. Now her followers are not even reading, but writing bs claims. I read a review about how they thought the mc was dramatic in the opening scene. If they had bothered to read the whole book, they would know it wasn’t even the mc. They are pulling bits and pieces of a book they have not read and just trying to make it seem horrible. The author wants to take down her book from the stores and from goodreads. But goodreads won’t let her. And her fans won’t let her take down her book either. They don’t want her to give up. It’s just disgusting how much power this one blogger and her friends have. Blog tour hosts are canceling because other bloggers are freaked. A few blog tour hosts didn’t even give her back her money. Then, they went on Stephanie’s post to say they dropped her and they were disgusted by her. Her book came out on the 26th. This is what she’s been dealing with. They did this to hurt her and it’s working. It’s like they are winning.
You know what will happen. All of this will blow over, then the bullies will be on to their next target and they’ll forget all about Judyann. It’s a power trip for them. They get high on it and on ruining other people’s lives. They thrive on drama. That’s why it’s always the same people you see doing this, over and over again. They think they’re “badass” but all they are are little girls re-living high school again. They make themselves look foolish. Not their victims.
To add to what I just commented about: the alleged plagiarist, Michael J. Wagner, actually left a great review for the book he allegedly plagiarized…”Aaron.” You can see that here.
Who would do that? Makes no sense.
Another devastating story of abuse, humiliation and a bored brat who does not have a life outside bullying online. Awful, just awful, the more I read, the more disgusting it gets.
I’ll bet that these bullies can’t even hold down a real job, they are probably fired shortly after someone hires them. This is truly an epidemic.
After thinking about this incident for a few days, I am more saddened after I had time to evaluate it. It is truly a heart-breaking story. If you step back and try to imagine how this all began and what event lead to the next, it paints a picture – a sad one. Whether or not Melody was Judyann, a friend of hers, or somebody completely different, it does not change the narrative of this story.
Let me explain it this way,
It all begins with a person named Melody who held Stephanie on some sort of twisted pedestal. For some reason, she felt Stephanie’s friendship and approval meant something. She must have really looked up to her, her website, and her review. She went completely out of her way to meet Stephanie, and whether you feel it was inappropriate or not, the simple fact of the matter is that she idolized her in some sense of the word. She must have really believed that Stephanie’s opinion would have made a huge difference in the book, and she desperately wanted her approval and acceptance.
With that said, Stephanie you crushed her. You not only humiliated her, you insulted her. If that wasn’t enough, you wrote up a nasty blog about Melody and Judyann like it was some sort of sporting event. If that wasn’t enough, you then wrote up a nasty, misleading, and insulting review about Judyann’s novel of which you and your friends bumped the rating for all to see. If that wasn’t enough, you all proceeded to laugh and make fun of her and for what? Because a girl wanted your approval and did something crazy to get it? Is that why?
You may think what you did was funny, but in reality, there was a girl out there who wanted to earn your acceptance, approval, and most of all, friendship, and you shoved it right back into her face. You belittled her. You embarrassed her. You hurt her. With that said, let that be a warning to everyone about who Stephanie truly is and how she treats others.
Well said! I’m a firm believer in karma and what Stephanie did to this girl, Melody, has earned her some really, really bad karma.
Now you see why we call them bullies.
This reminds me of Litte’s ROMfail. Completely mean and destructive without a blink of an eye. These people have no filter. Didn’t learn when they were children about empathy. All of these people exhibit the same behavior. Karma, or just unhappiness will bite them all in their sad ass.
Poor Melody, I’ve been there. Trying to get thier friendship and approval is a waste of time