Just recently, a blog reader tipped us off to this tweet by biggest offender Wendy Darling where she is talking about friends of hers, Ana and Thea of the Book Smugglers, who were accused of author bullying. And of course, all of her little twitter friends remark on how unacceptable it is:
So, where did this alleged bullying happen? On this article, written by Ana:
We won’t bore you with the details of Ana’s ponderings. If you want to read it, the link is above. We’ll just show you the conversation between the author of the book series in question and Ana when the author decided to step in and clarify a few things about his books:
We thought it interesting that Danielle cited the article written by Publisher’s Weekly that Wendy Darling had her friends write in order to start the hate campaign against Kiera Cass after Kiera tried to apologize for what her agent did. For more information on that, read our post on Wendy.
Anyhow, getting back to the Book Smugglers, after Ben essentially apologized and left the convo, Ana then went off about how obnoxious it was for Ben to come to her blog and make a comment in “her review space”… blah, blah, blah. Then, later on, she was which she whines about here.
So… what do we think of all this? First of all, we were tipped off to the Book Smugglers a year ago, which is why the blog is listed on our sidebar under Blogs and Fora to Avoid. So this recent episode doesn’t surprise us at all. Ana’s attitude toward this author is exactly the same author-phobic attitude that permeates the GR bully culture. That is, they feel that authors have no right to a voice. That authors must remain silent and take whatever is thrown at them.
Do we agree with this?
Of course we don’t.
Our advice when it comes to bad reviews (not referring to bully reviews here) is to NEVER respond unless it is to thank the reviewer or to offer a refund. We do, however, understand that many times reviewers will make factual or interpretational errors in their reviews. Some authors feel the need to correct these errors in order to make sure other readers are aware of them. This is perfectly understandable.
But, before entering “their review space” and correcting them, we highly recommend asking the reviewer if they are comfortable with it. Say something like, “Is it alright if I clarify a few facts about the book?” If the reviewer says no, then you know what kind of person you’re dealing with. So it’s best in that case not to proceed. Also, if the reviewer says no, she will automatically discredit herself and her review in the eyes of other readers. She will make herself look foolish and ignorant, because at that point, her message is clear: “I can say whatever I want about a book even if it is factually incorrect.”
On the other hand, if the reviewer says yes, then you know you’re dealing with someone who is not author-phobic and you can feel comfortable telling them what you have to say. The point is, just proceed safely and make sure everything is cool before giving your information.
We’ll end this post with a comment we found by a reader of Ana’s review. We appreciate his keen insight into the mindset of Ana and the rest of the bullies:
Did you hear that Ana and company? The world doesn’t revolve around your opinions. Time for you girls to grow up.
