Wow! I haven’t posted anything since June. Oops! My bad. I didn’t realize it had been that long.
Any hullabaloo, a sh*t storm of mediocre proportions has been circling the Fanatical World of Facebook over the past couple of days. Apparently a NYT bestselling author got a little pissy over answering pretty standard author questions and took to her Facebook author page to rant. This was her original rant:
“I am not your personal customer service hotline. Do not ask me the order of my series or when the book is coming out in your country or how to make your f*cking Kindle turn on. Google it. It will take you less time and turn up a much more reliable answer.”
Obviously, someone wasn’t having a great day. Turns out readers and other authors get kinda pissy when you post rude, not-really-thought-out, I’m-too-busy-for-you rants like the one above. The reactions came pouring in. Close to 400 of them. Some in favor of the author, some…not so much.
The author tried to clarify herself in another post, it was also less than eloquent. It also racked up another 300 replies, some of equal non-eloquence.
Since then (yesterday), both posts have been deleted from her page. Here is the post on her Author page today:
“I have deleted my posts because my publisher asked me to and they are very busy and do not have time to deal with the hysteria I apparently whipped up. But you puzzle me. Because I don’t think it’s rude or outrageous to remind people that I’m human and that I have a family and that I am not an automated customer service hotline who is here to service your needs. It saddens me that a public person drawing boundaries inspires such an outpouring of hate. I would much rather spend my time responding to thoughtful reader questions than boneheaded ones. Call me crazy. Anyone who knows me understands the lengths I will go to for my fans. And I’m sorry but if you’re asking me to list the order of my books you are wasting both of our time. Seriously. Think about it. I will not pretend to be someone I’m not. It doesn’t feel safe here anymore. And for that I am sorry. But I don’t apologize for a single word of my earlier posts. I have met some amazing excellent people on this page. I’ve enjoyed knowing you. Goodnight.”
To me, this post came off as “My publisher made me write is apology-non-apology post. You can all kiss my ass. I am who I am. Suck it.” I think the best damage control in her case would just be to leave it alone now. She didn’t understand why people were so upset. It’s not with what she said, but how she said it, whether she meant it that way or not. People’s outrage is just flying right over her head. Either she’s just shallow or not the brightest bulb in the box. She’s obviously not going to win over new readers with this attitude…or is she?
Her following yesterday was a little over 16,000 fans. As of right now, she’s at 17,000 fans and probably growing! How the hell did that happen?!?!?!
From what I gathered reading through the almost 400(again!) comments was that this is how she usually interacts with her following. They are used to it and they enjoy it.
There are so many questions I’ve been asking myself…Was this some publicity stunt on the authors part to gain attention, which honestly could have backfired horribly? Can I grow my readership and become a NYT bestselling author by hardcore ranting and raving to my readers? Have I been going about this marketing thing all wrong by being too available/open to my readers questions? Could I get away with this same strategy? Am I willing to try, possibly risking current & potential readers?
The list goes on…
Honestly, I couldn’t do what she did. I like engaging my readers. I like answering their questions. I like it when they ask questions. I like their enthusiasm. I also try to maintain a happy existence on all my social media fronts (regardless of the hardships going on around me), probably makes me one hell of a boring person, but to each their own. Good luck to the author above.
And to all 10 of my readers who have religiously stalked me on Facebook/Twitter (I’m stalking you back), bought all 2 of my full length novels (City of the Gods…urban fantasies…great books if you ask me), bought both short romances from Amazon (99 cents each, BTW), & the anthology I appeared in (Dark Light 3, pick up a copy, you won’t regret it)…YOU ROCK! (See, I could have tried being degrading but it’s just not who I am, instead I’ll just use some shameful self promoting…hey, it’s my blog, I’ll use it how I want).
McStubs Musings 
You are a sweetheart! This was such a good post. I don’t know who this author is you are talking about but clearly she isn’t like us who beg for questions. I suppose when you have 17,000 followers and 400 dumb questions it can get a little old. Maybe I’ll know how that feels some day. I’ll always answer yours,however.
I think it would have been better to say ‘Hey, sorry. I’m human after all.’ Sometimes just admitting you’re flawed is enough.