Well, unfortunately, the attack on Nathan Bransford continues. After he shut down the comments on his blog post, the bullies started going after him on Twitter. We managed to get some screenshots of a few of our Biggest Offenders who berated him for stating his opinion on his own blog. We think you will find their tweets to be very telling. We’ll start first with Jane-the-master-bully-Litte first, showing you her angry tweets scolding Nathan as if he’s a little boy. Notice her condescending tone:
What kind of “disturbing repercussions” are those, Jane? You mean you and your band of merry bullies would actually have to start acting like decent human beings? Omg! Heaven forbid! How horrible! You might actually have to start being nice to people. That’s so… so… disturbing!!!
*major eyeroll*
This coming from the queen bully herself. Oh, the irony!
We noticed that two of the reviews Nathan cited were written by bullies on our BBG list, Blythe Harris and Stephanie Sinclair. Don’t you love how Jane describes these two bullies as “passionate readers”? Don’t forget that it was Blythe who’s an eighth grade teacher and who together with Adam Archer Pring, cursed out a 14 year-old girl on GR, telling her f*** off. And it was Stephanie Sinclair who humiliated another GR reviewer and then blamed an author, claiming the author had made a sock. If you want to see the author’s real story about how she was bullied by Stephanie, click here.
Anyhow, the point is, these women ARE bullies! They are NOT passionate readers.
Then, another bully jumps in and calls Nathan “a privileged male telling a mostly female community to shut up and be nice girls.”
Of course, when we (meaning STGRB) criticize their bullying behavior, we are suddenly the hateful bullies who “stalk them and put them in danger”, which is bullshit.
Here’s the thing. When these bullies are put on the spot, they will use any ad hominem attack they can find against whoever is telling them that their behavior is out of line. And that’s the bottom line. That’s what it boils down to.
Refreshingly, someone else who was like-minded jumped in and agreed:
And just when Nathan thought it was over, another attack came from Cuddlebuggery. By reading the tweets, you can tell that at that point, Nathan was getting frustrated:
And that’s it, folks! Those are the screenshots we took.
So… our message to Jane, Kat, Steph & co.:
Whoever you think you are, girls, you have NO RIGHT to berate Nathan for stating his OPINION on his OWN BLOG. Nathan is a good guy and he made a valid point. And he has a right to state his opinion. Okay? So it’s time for all of you girls to shut your gaping holes and leave him alone! No one wants to listen to your whiny bullshit anymore. Unlike Nathan, who is so patient and nice, we WILL tell you to shut the hell up, because it’s about time someone did.
Our message to Nathan:
Now, we hope you can appreciate why we placed these people on our Biggest Offenders list. It’s because they think that they own the literary world and that they can dictate the “rules” (their rules) to everyone else. They think that everyone MUST follow them or else. And that else is that the people who don’t follow their rules will be stalked and bullied and their books shred to pieces until they give in and cry uncle. This is why we call them bullies. They have no right to tell you, Nathan, what you can and can’t write on your own blog. And they have no right to tell you that your opinion is wrong. If they bother you again on Twitter, just block and report them. That’s all you have to do. Works like a charm.
One last thought before we go. Remember what we said about Mike Mullin being a bully kiss-up? Well, this ought to make you vomit:
Sorry if that made you sick. We just wanted to show you the lengths people like him and Stacia Kane will go to just so they can sell books. They debase themselves. They have absolutely no dignity. Sorry, but we have ZERO respect for that.
In the next few days, we will be making a HUGE announcement about GR and why it is they keep protecting the bullies.
Until then, have a great, bully-free day!
It’s funny how she gets more and more angry when she realizes that he’s not going to buckle and give in to her bullying. I think that’s awesome!
Exactly! She’s trying to bully him into agreeing with her and at the same time, trying to give him a lesson on bullying.
Irony abounds! 😀
She was doing the traditional bully tactic of baiting and he wouldn’t fall for it. He kept being polite. Of course she hated that and got mad. He wasn’t playing by her rules.
She was so way over the top that it was ridiculous to read. Congrats to Nathan for keeping his cool. He must have been wondering what the heck he wandered into, for the simple sin of expressing his own opinion (heck, even in his own space). You know, in the same way the bullies claim they have a right to do about anything, to anyone, in any manner they see fit. Only, Nathan was a lot more polite and reasoned about it.
Hypocritical of them to think that what they claim they should be able to do no one else can.
“Do as we say, not as we do!”
“It’s our freedom of speech! Oh, by the way? That freedom goes in only one direction: ours!”
The bullies: “That freedom of speech goes only in one direction: ours!’
WELL SAID.
This is also the very same tactic that Jane will use whenever someone challenges her on her own comment thread. It’s an old legal trick. Reply with a question and dig them into a deeper hole without them even knowing it.
So “be nice” = “STFU.” Yup, that’s the mark of a reasonable person, all right. Gotta love how people like “dearauthor” love to write rules for how authors are to conduct themselves online*, then shriek with fury if anyone dares to suggest that reviewers do things a little differently.
And I was happy to read this from Nathan: “Wait. Reviewers can say whatever they want, I can’t say I think they’re over the top?” Why, yes indeed, my friend, that’s exactly what these spoiled turd-throwing little princesses on Goodreads have been telling the rest of us for some time now: Reviewers can say whatever they want in their reviews, and the rest of the world needs to respect that completely, because reviewers who put books they haven’t read onto shelves with names like “abusive attention whore author” and “would rather soak my head in sulfuric acid” are the book industry’s biggest cheerleaders and therefore need to be treated like queens.
*See, for example, this from February 2013:
Passionate readers? I AM a passionate reader. I read hundreds of books every year. I read so many I don’t even put them all up on GR because it takes time away from my reading. That’s passion. These bullies know nothing about passion nor reading. They read what? Maybe 12 books per year? Bitch, please…
Jane really goes to town on Nathan. I feel so bad for him. He’s such a sweetheart! What she does right there on twitter, Class A Bullying. And I love how he keeps his cool all the way to the very end, making her look like the raving lunatic she really is. I knew there was a reason why I adore Nathan so much.. 😀
And yeah, that Mike guy does make me want to vomit. Seriously, where’s the damn bucket??
Last time I checked Ridley hadn’t read a book since 2008…
Heh. Does not surprise me at all. She’s too busy attacking people to pick up a book. In that time period I’ve read over 1000 books, and over 1000 fan fiction stories in various fandoms. I just love to read and escape in a world where the people are better than people in the real world.
If someone were to write a book about all this, these people would all be cast as the villains. And we all know what happens to villains in books… 😀
I just wish they all would grow up already and get over their high school phase. Enough is enough.
I think I’ve easily read 1000 books in the past two years… So I completely agree.
The basic presumption of these bullies to think of themselves as reviewers is wrong. These are rank amateurs who don’t even know what a book review is. They think a book review is a weapon to be use to harm an author, not a critique of a literary work.
They only way to shut them up is to make them fear repercussions for posting their filth. They all need to be rooted out and their true identities exposed. The greatest weapon they have to spread their filth is anonymity. Find their true identities and post their personal info online as they have done to me and many others. Take away their anonymity and they will shut up. They are in reality cowards and haven’t the spine to voice there opinions if they can’t hide behind some alias.
Nathan really nailed it, didn’t he? Reviewers can say whatever they want, how they want in their reviews, but authors writing an opinion piece? Blasphemy! This is all so tired. It was so nice when Jane was quiet, licking her wounds when she was outed as an author promoting her own books on Dear Author.
Their rules change all the time, and there is a very specific reason why. They don’t want anyone to be able to keep up. These attacks are their past time, their gratification, it makes them feel excited and powerful because their lives don’t offer it otherwise. The fact that they even have these rules within a digital world in an industry they don’t run tells us all what is really going on here.
Jenn/Jane, Ridley, Has, Cuddlebuggery, Kat, etc. Same names, different author. It’s amazing to see that even when an author is polite in a response, even offers to do better, it’s met with such vitriol. They aren’t interested in apologies. These people, Jenn/Jane included, love the attack. When I say love, I mean in a way that nothing else can touch for them. There is no other explanation why the same people continue this behavior for years on end.
Nothing Bransford could have said would have appeased them. I wish Bransford had told them all to stick it. The outcome would have been no different. But it was amusing to see them make such a$ses of themselves while he’s been incredibly gracious.
I used to have this problem with such people as well. Thankfully most of the people I blocked or unfollowed on Twitter. But that was a stressful experience I really shouldn’t have been forced to go through.
I think it be interesting also to find out even more damning stuff but not going to assume it is true. As much as I’d hate to think about it, what if some of these reviewers are trade published authors, or worse the agents that represent them.
Which makes me wonder, how might one avoid someone who you has a similar pattern, but the one you know of at least doesn’t use her agent name on Goodreads.
I’ve turned to other social networks because of this mess, and a personal friend of mine whose name I won’t say, has also done this.
Queen Jane is full of herself. So who died and left her in charge?
This made me laugh, really! I’m watching Nathan trying to REASON with these completely unreasonable asses, who feel they should be the final authorities on books and authors. Follow THEIR rules or else!! Or else WHAT– you bunch of nasty criminals…
These nasty, miserable people do not like NICE, and Nathan will find that out soon enough. The word nice does not exist in their vocabulary, it never has. They have no intention of EVER taking any responsibility for the misery and financial loss they’ve caused so many authors, NONE. There will never be any ‘reasoning’ with them, and that’s why they must be dealt with like the criminals they are.
It’s like inviting Charles Manson over for dinner, hoping he has finally had a change of heart!! GIVE ME A BREAK. You can TRY all you want, but it won’t work…these are whackjobs that can’t be fixed. They have deep seeded problems that go beyond just trying to ‘teach’ them how to act nice. They are NDG (no damn good), and there isn’t any other excuse for them.
No man has a right to do what he pleases unless he pleases to do right.
Didn’t Jane Litte a while back tell her readers and commenters to play nice ON HER BLOG or be moderated? Didn’t she say something about the Internet being contentious and ugly and RUDE and that she was tired of personal attacks? She even instituted a new moderation policy for her site, saying any comments personally attacking another would be “hidden.” Whatever happened to that new attitude? Was it just to keep her advertisers (authors and publishers, you see) happy? The real Jane, I suspect, is the one on Twitter.
I do seem to recall her making such grumblings on her blog some months ago. But see, civility as far as she is concerned should only go one way – to her. You see, she doesn’t actually have to be civil. She’s queen of the internet, after all.
Anyway, this latest Twitter battle only shows that Bransford is a class act through and through while she isn’t. But like I’ve said about Litte before, she isn’t a professional. Bransford is.
Hey since they have a blog post about the ‘dos and don’ts’ for authors, someone should do one for reviewers. See how far that flies. They’d go into hysterics.
lol Jane is like a child throwing a tantrum because she wasn’t getting her way in the argument. He handled it like a pro.
Yep, he handled it like a pro because he is a pro. You can see a clear difference between his behavior and her behavior in that conversation. She didn’t make herself look good at all.
Exactly, she’s stomping her feet and whining because he’s not giving in to her demands. Unprofessional, thy name is Jane Litte.
Nathan has always had my respect, and now even more so. Look at how he handled this discussion, vs. how Jane Little and the others did. Very telling.
I agree.
It’s amazing to see the lengths these amateur “reviewers” will go to in order to argue against civility. Shows what their true intentions are. Destruction is the name of their game, and they can argue until they’re blue in the face that it’s about something else (their version of “free speech”). It’s anything but.
No one is arguing against free speech here. We’re arguing against slander and dangerous, destructive, personal, bullying behavior against authors that affects their livelihoods and health. Constructive negative reviews are welcomed. Hate isn’t.
Hear, hear!
The bullies (Jane Litte and the other unhinged amateurs) are proving Nathan’s point oh-so-well!
No lie there!
The “DGeneE” looks like a sock for either Looney, or one of Jane’s followers. They often throw that word “privilege” around, as if they’d invented it. That’s the topic that caused Jane to moderate her comment thread. The one that stopped Looney from going back to DA.
I also viewed the conversation between Jane and Nathan yesterday, and I had the same exact thought: how dare she speak with that tone. WHO does she think she IS? Nathan, however, is a very polite, professional man and he would never react to her in any way that wasn’t civil.
On the other hand, Nathan is no fool either. He’s been around for a long time as a blogger and in some of his previous posts that date back to the beginning of his blog he’s discussed online behavior and how he’s personally been attacked online. I seem to recall one vicious online comment that even attacked his looks. And he’s a VERY nice-looking guy, which made no sense at all…but at the time you could see it hurt his feelings.
Which is all he was trying to do with his post…show that people have feelings.
They attacked his looks? You’re right, that doesn’t make sense. Nathan is such a handsome guy. They were probably jealous. That’s the only explanation I can think of.
Nathan is a total babe! I’ve had a huge crush on him forever.
I agree. He’s adorable, which is why that whole thing was so ridiculous. But that’s what the bullies do. They spin everything to their own advantage.
Nathan is a beautiful man. Inside and out.
The bullies? They’re ugly through and through.
Nathan, don’t you let them get you down. You know you’re better than they are. 10000000x better.
I’d give anything to have Nathan give me a saddlebag-massage! He’s a tall drink of water, that one… ;D
Oh I know! He’s such a cutie!
It cracks me up that whenever anyone mentions Looney on this site, we all know who we’re talking about! LOL
Daniel Radke here. Thanks for posting my play at the end of your last post. I’m pretty proud of it for only having 20 minutes to work on it. Glad you folks enjoyed!
Little, not-at-all-known fact- the comment Nathan links to in his tweet that “sums up the logical extreme” was also my work (I posted anon at first because I was being a pussy). Here’s the comment-
All of these book reviewers and goodreads fans have swayed my opinion. It’s not considered bullying if you’re not talking about the author! If you’re talking about the author’s product, you have the right to be as vitriolic and caustic as you want. If I want to call an author’s work a putrid abortion that should never have seen the light of day and then share my opinions with as many people as possible so we can all cackle at each other, I’m not being a bully! I’m simply providing an honest, straight-forward review.
Now, if I called an author a bad person, I agree, that would be completely unacceptable. One does not attack the author personally, and one would be a horrible person for it. But if I want to dedicate 2000 words and fifteen assorted gifs and memes as to why an author’s story was the most ridiculous tripe, the most egregious of offences, the most disgusting attempt at storytelling I’ve ever seen, why would you call me a bully?
And furthermore, I am simply a blogger with thousands of viewers. If you contend that my reviews are rude and improper, I will remind you that I am not bound by professional regulations of any sort. If I compare reading your words to being sodomized by an HIV-infected tampon, then I expect your professionalism to be upheld to its highest standard. Because that’s what you, author, should be: a complete professional.
Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m off to read a 75,000 word novel that I can tell I deplore after 10 pages so I can spend three hours and 1,500 words on a massive take-down so other vapid people can tell me how witty I am.
And don’t you dare call me a bully.
…AND apparently one of the bloggers quit blogging because of ANOTHER of my comments. She didn’t take too kindly to being called “popular-hot-blonde-chick-in-every-high-school-movie-ever mean.” Though I did apologize to her because, well, if she really enjoys book blogging that much, she shouldn’t let an asshole like me stop her.
So yeah, funny stuff. Found myself on the front lines of a war I didn’t even know was being waged!
Your parody of the whole episode was hilarious, Daniel!
Although I do feel sorry for Nathan. He really is a good guy.
Thanks man! And I wouldn’t worry about Nathan. He’s probably exhausted by all this, but he’s been handling it like a pro.
That war was waged a long time ago by the DA mean girl crowd. And by mean girl that has nothing to do with bashing women. It’s an expression used for a type of bully that’s found anywhere from playgrounds to book review sites. It could be a man or a woman, as was the case with good old “Derrick” on GR. “Derrick” is a mean girl. They’ve earned the title and they should embrace it.
Hey Daniel,
Saw your posts on Nathan’s thread, and you’re a damn good writer. Funny as hell, too. Have any books out? If not, you should think about it. I’d buy ’em in a flash!
Nathan brought up civility and Jane stated that it had nothing to do with it. Not surprised. When I think of Dear Author and Jane Litte, civility is not what I think of. I’m really enjoying how Nathan is brushing her off in a totally cool way and I hope his response, or lack of it is raising her blood pressure.
Jane works both ends these days. She claims to want civil discussion on her own blog in order to look good and hope to remove a lot of the damage that has been done to her reputation as a blogger, and in the same respect she promotes vicious dialogue that is far from civil everywhere else. We’re talking about something that is far more complicated than the ordinary blogger…and more dangerous. There’s a reason why she’s been so successful at the expense of so many people. A few years ago she would have been posting about this in the worst possible way and her comment thread would have been on fire with every loon online. Today she posted about a data collecting agency no one cares about. It’s an old trick bloggers use. Don’t talk about it and it will disappear. And usually it does disappear. I’m sure they thought STGRB would disappear when it first started last summer. I don’t think any of them fully understood how deeply this issue goes, and how many people have been affected by it over the years.
Jane Litte is a publicity-whore. Nothing more. Her big claim to fame is stirring up sh*t on the internet. Writers write. Artists create. Doers do. Jane Litte uses her valuable time on earth to start petty internet wars. Pfff! Brushing off that inconsequential and annoying Litte… I mean lint, from my jacket.
And don’t forget Hairy Man-Face! She’s another one who spends her precious time spewing hate. What some people do with their lives is pathetic.
You are right. They had no idea how passionately people feel about this issue and as long as they keep bullying people, the opposition to what they do will never go away.
I’m laughing at the comments left on his blog post about STGRB. All the same lies and accusations that never held any water.
You might find this of interest. Hopefully, more laws will get passed in the years ahead to stop some of this loud-mouth bashing and defamation of character toward authors. When these individuals, websites, and social media sites start getting bombarded with lawsuits, perhaps it will shut a few mouths. If it doesn’t, at least people will have the recourse to go for their pocketbooks or get them locked up behind bars from criminal charges of bullying and/or stalking.
http://live.wsj.com/video/for-twitter-free-speech-is-a-high-wire-act/2610C733-12E3-4DCB-8E52-1308F27D0CFA.html#!2610C733-12E3-4DCB-8E52-1308F27D0CFA
I just experienced a backlash of being attacked for a 2 star review. In light of all this I just spent four hours reading through your site. The bullying was so bad Amazon even removed three comments (one telling me I should step in front of a bus). It all started with one of the author’s editors. It has prompted four articles on the web and people keep sending me links. I have since decided I no longer will be accepting review requests. This actual review is from a permafree book. I grabbed it because it was from my favorite genre. They stalked me all over the web, flagged blog posts on Goodreads, reported me on twitter, facebook everywhere and caused me nothing but heartache all week. I do not even KNOW the author, never even mentioned the author in the story. Just what I did not like. It was a critical review, and everyone who has read it is confused why it is a problem. This is what I do, I read… review… even act as a publicist. I am seriously thinking grave digging would be preferable, at least my clients and people I deal with would be dead.
That is horrible, Kriss! I’m so sorry! Did you want us to report on this? If you do, just contact us through our website and let us know which review it was. We will write something up letting our readers know what happened.
It HAS been horrible. I’ve been watching this just appalled at these people who think that review is abusive. I’ve tried to steer them toward truly abusive reviews so they can see the difference, but mostly being ignored.
I am at the point of needing help. I was asked to step into traffic on a comment which thankfully has been removed from Amazon. The author has called me out on his page saying I am a troll. He needs to look into his own camp. He is upset because my review has been upvoted (and down voted too) and is now the highest critical review. ONE review out of now 115 reviews on Amazon and only two are 2 stars, one of them is mine. I rated it a one star (after revising my review to show the attacks and also expand on my thoughts more). BUT if I am the one who is the TROLL how ccome his editor stalked me from Amazon to my Facebook blog page (which btw I find really bizarre). I posted the review on my side blog because I did not want a lot of attention on my main blog. It is now going on five days which I get to wake up again to attacks. I have decided to no longer accept reviews based on this and now do not even feel comfortable posting a three star review. How is this OK? My reviews are not book reports, I work HARD at them. I did not have to review this book, I bought it and reviewed it. I was not even asked too, I did it because I was shocked after reading it (TWICE I may add) that he had such high ratings over such a short period of time. I am NOT accusing him of fake reviews, because I would have to have proof. I will take all of them as legit ones. BUT so is mine. Mine has just as much validity.
Hi Kriss, yes, what this author and editor are doing to you is wrong. I’ve seen your review. It is a fair critical review of a book. What I know is that everyone has different tastes in books and you happened to dislike the book and you said so. That is not a crime. We will report on this episode as soon as we can and see if we can get a hold of the author as well. We really hope you don’t stop reviewing because of this bullying. It happens not just to reviewers but authors as well and our first response when we hear of something like this is to NOT ENGAGE. Take screenshots and report whoever is bullying you. We also encourage authors who are attacked to KEEP WRITING and DON’T GIVE UP just because a few jerks decided to attack you. It is the same with you, Kriss. DON’T GIVE UP! Not all fans, authors, and editors do this kind of thing and those that do, ruin it for everyone else.
Also, if you could give us some screenshots or evidence of this author harassing you, that would help. We’ve been looking but can’t find anything.
Problem, I only have his post screen cap about calling me a troll. I do have his editor’s private message after she attacked me on my page. You will not find my FB page because I removed it and all you will see are me and my fans and a few of her responses because she deleted her initial attack. I know that the person above has seen it but that is the only proof are witnesses. HECK a bunch of folks wrote articles because of witnessing what she was doing all day. She was smart and I did not think to make screen caps because I did not know it was going to esculate. I am being accused of upvoting my review and I did no such thing, in fact I woke up to seeing 4 upvotes and 3 downvotes and the notification of a conversation on my page. All I can share is his post on his FB page on Friday.
Please send us any screencaps or evidence you have to
rated it a one star on Goodreads because their rating system is different than Amazon. As you can tell by my scattered response this bullying has really gotten to me.
Nathan is an absolute trooper here. With that kind of pressure a lot of people would just have buckled down. He’s a real hero.