Okay so… we’re back for round two. Yesterday, we showed you screenshots of the attack on author, L. Kirstein that we found through . But you’re probably all wondering how this author was targeted to begin with. Yeah, yeah, we know that a victim doesn’t really have to do anything to be targeted, just as G.L. was, but there was something that sparked this attack and had nothing to do with the author’s behavior (we’ve verified it.)
The story goes something like this. A new author published her book. An overly excited family member made a misguided attempt at promoting the book on Amazon. The author was then blamed and targeted.
Does this story sound somewhat familiar? That’s because we’ve heard of this kind of thing happening before many times. Of course the story varies each time, but the core of it is always the same: the author gets blamed for something someone else did. For example, remember what happened to Kiera Cass when her agent did something stupid? If you don’t remember, here’s an excerpt from our Biggest Offenders page:
To make a long story short, Kiera Cass’s agent caused a dust up on GR over Wendy’s review of Kiera’s book, so Wendy stalked Kiera’s Twitter and took screenshots of a conversation Kiera had with her agent over the whole ordeal. Kiera’s agent called Wendy an unflattering name and Wendy showed the screenshots to her friends. Kiera tried to reach out to Wendy and all the injured parties involved, apologizing and trying to make amends. Did Wendy accept her apology? Did she respond at all? No. Instead, she sent the bully mob after Kiera and began a hate campaign against her by contacting her friends at Publisher’s Weekly and having them publish an article vilifying her. Not cool.
We bring this example up for a reason. Because guess who on L. Kirstein? Yep, that’s right. It was none other than the Godmother of the trolls herself:
Remember when we said that all Wendy (real name Mimi G.) has to do is say the word and the minions attack? This is what we mean — the attack on this author is a prime example.
After the author was targeted, she did something that most authors do, thinking it would help the situation, not realizing how vicious and unforgiving these trolls are. She apologized:
And then what happened? Well…
This is why we tell people to NOT ENGAGE. Don’t even try to explain the situation to them. They won’t listen. They won’t believe you. When they come to their own conclusions, in their minds they are right and you are wrong and there is NOTHING you will be able to say that will convince them otherwise.
Wendy’s comment above is a perfect example of how she really is. She’s a snotty, spiteful, stuck-up, unforgiving little snake. Really, there aren’t enough words in the English language to describe this woman and how malicious she is. We knew this from the beginning when we saw what she did to Kiera. And just as Kiera learned, so did L. Kirstein: don’t try to apologize to Wendy. She will only spit in your face.
Which is why we had to laugh when she whined about her review being hidden:
Notice how she says:
“A fantastic resource and place to respectfully discuss books.”
Key word there: BOOKS. Then, she whines when her review gets hidden for bashing an author! Unreal!
If only you and your friends had been respectful, Wendy. If only you had stuck to just discussing books instead of organizing attacks on authors. GR might be a better place if that had been the case.
Btw, the comment by Shannon, the Holy Demon, that refers to is :
And this is a perfect example of the bullies breaking the rules… AGAIN. Because this is the kind of thing that Patrick specifically said is a no-no:
We will be sending GR a copy of the screenshot above and letting them know that Shannon has no intention of following GR’s TOS.
Okay so, we’ll end this post with a little message to Wendy and Shannon:
Hey girls, do you remember why Goodreads began hiding author-bashing reviews in the first place? Do you? Well, just in case you don’t, we’ll remind you since you seem to have a faulty memory. It’s because of all the personal attacks on authors that you and your friends organized back in the day, prior to STGRB. Remember that? Do you remember all the author-bashing reviews you wrote back then? Authors were “fair game“, weren’t they? Like game to be chased down in the jungle and killed. It wasn’t until we started our blog and brought national attention to what you were doing that Goodreads had to respond publicly by announcing and publishing their reviewing rules. (See Criticism and Controversy on Wikipedia. For more information, please read: Ridley Gets Schooled, GR Rolls ‘Em Out, and Bully Entitlement.)
But it’s funny, girls. It’s funny how you fail to mention this to your new friends, isn’t it? Funny how you fail to mention that it was because of YOUR actions that this happened. But guess what! There’s hope! Because we’re here to let the world know what YOU did and the consequences YOU caused.
So, we’re sorry, but if you don’t like the fact that GR has become “an incredibly negative and drama-filled place”, you only have yourselves to thank.
Well done.
