Please hang in here with me through this rant and read it all the way through before you make any judgements. In no way am I saying that every person should like EVERY book or EVERY author. That's inconceivable and will never happen.
I recently heard of an author's work being BASHED on Twitter -- actually saw it with my own eyes. I didn't defend the author because we are entitled to our own opinions; however, what I SHOULD have done was defend the author in the way the person tweeting was giving her opinion.
Now I hear "through the blogging grapevine" that this same author is being BASHED and this person (and I do not know, nor do I care if it is the same person who was tweeting the crap) was out and out telling people NOT to buy this author's books.
Here's my issue (or should I say "Here are my ISSUES"):
1. Everybody out there has a right to publish anything (with the exception of pornography and we aren't talking about that here so let's not start that conversation), hell, white supremacist and racists of all kinds publish stuff every day.
2. This author that I am talking about writes novels that, in my opinion (notice I said IN MY OPINION) ARE worth reading and for someone to so blatantly tell others that these books should NOT be purchased is preposterous! It is like a bur under my saddle and it really angers me.
3. NOBODY and I mean NOBODY has the right to get on the web, the phone, snail mail or any other public forum and tell anybody else to NOT buy a person's work. YOU ARE MESSING WITH SOMEONE'S LIVELIHOOD.
Whoever is doing this needs to take a step back and look at how it would feel if it happened to them. Karma always wins no matter what. It may not happen today, tomorrow or the day after that but I promise you that whoever is propagating this will get some nastiness back. NOT by me because I like good Karma.
So please, if you dislike a book, movie, music, art, whatever. Remember it might be unappealing to you but something worth picking up, watching, listening to or looking at for someone else.
There is no need to be ugly about things. There is enough meanness and hatred out there, do we really need to spread anymore around about people we don't know and books that may actually mean something to someone who hasn't read them yet and who now probably won't because of something that came out of someone else's mouth??
Please be careful what you say. Words hurt. Not just the person they are directed at but they, in the end, will hurt you as well. Negativity breads negativity. The more you put out there, the more you get in return.
Sorry about the rant.
Keep Reading Goddesses
I recently heard of an author's work being BASHED on Twitter -- actually saw it with my own eyes. I didn't defend the author because we are entitled to our own opinions; however, what I SHOULD have done was defend the author in the way the person tweeting was giving her opinion.
Now I hear "through the blogging grapevine" that this same author is being BASHED and this person (and I do not know, nor do I care if it is the same person who was tweeting the crap) was out and out telling people NOT to buy this author's books.
Here's my issue (or should I say "Here are my ISSUES"):
1. Everybody out there has a right to publish anything (with the exception of pornography and we aren't talking about that here so let's not start that conversation), hell, white supremacist and racists of all kinds publish stuff every day.
2. This author that I am talking about writes novels that, in my opinion (notice I said IN MY OPINION) ARE worth reading and for someone to so blatantly tell others that these books should NOT be purchased is preposterous! It is like a bur under my saddle and it really angers me.
3. NOBODY and I mean NOBODY has the right to get on the web, the phone, snail mail or any other public forum and tell anybody else to NOT buy a person's work. YOU ARE MESSING WITH SOMEONE'S LIVELIHOOD.
Whoever is doing this needs to take a step back and look at how it would feel if it happened to them. Karma always wins no matter what. It may not happen today, tomorrow or the day after that but I promise you that whoever is propagating this will get some nastiness back. NOT by me because I like good Karma.
So please, if you dislike a book, movie, music, art, whatever. Remember it might be unappealing to you but something worth picking up, watching, listening to or looking at for someone else.
There is no need to be ugly about things. There is enough meanness and hatred out there, do we really need to spread anymore around about people we don't know and books that may actually mean something to someone who hasn't read them yet and who now probably won't because of something that came out of someone else's mouth??
Please be careful what you say. Words hurt. Not just the person they are directed at but they, in the end, will hurt you as well. Negativity breads negativity. The more you put out there, the more you get in return.
Sorry about the rant.
Keep Reading Goddesses
5 comments:
You are absolutely right in every single word you just said. One Mans Trash is another Man's treasure. It is disheartening that others feel it is necessary to affect someone else's life in this way. You reflect a self truth in your writing. Great post and necessary!!! Thank you. Leslie Stockton :)
Thank you, Leslie! I was shocked the first time I saw it on Twitter. This author is such an amazing person and really does write a book worth reading. A truly good book (several of them actually). I couldn't imagine anybody saying these things about anybody much less THIS author!
Thank you so much for commenting and visiting the blog!
Kimberly
Every author has the right to tell his/her story as they want it to be told. Every reader has the right to form (and voice) a personal opinion about the books he/she reads. But that right doesn't include warping others' opinions about it and denigrating an author's work just because it doesn't fit one's taste.
You are correct in saying that it's unrealistic to expect that everybody will like every book. It's human nature. We all have different tastes and likes/dislikes about foods, clothing, etc. Books fall into the same category and our taste for books might differ even if we have many other tastes in common.
It doesn't mean that you have to like what I like or read what I read. It just means we are unique individuals who have the right to make decisions on what to read.
The key point here is how we voice our opinions. Constructive criticism allows an author to learn from past mistakes and correct them in the future. Pointing out where the book could have been improved to make your reading experience better is very helpful to an author. Bashing and saying the book sucks without giving a reasonable explanation as to why you think so is not productive and only brings negative attention. Not to the author, but to yourself.
We know that, as authors, we will encounter those hurdles along the way. It's inevitable. But we do hope that the others reading those comments will have the common sense you had and choose to make their own opinion instead.
Cheers to you.
I think that some people just have to put others down in order to feel better about themselves. Negative people like to spread it around to try to make others as miserable as they are. I don't think anyone should bash books or the authors. There are constructive ways to state that you did not enjoy a book, and giving the reasons why in a honest, polite way. And you might want to say some good things about the book too, there is generally always something good with the bad. But no one should ever bash and try to tell others that the books/authors are no worth reading. If you want to tell your BFF privately (not on twitter, blog, fb, etc) that you don't think they would enjoy it, fine. But do not try to tell everyone they should not read this book/author. If everyone liked the same thing, there would only be the need for one book, one movie, one song, etc......VERY boring in my opinion. Besides, would you want others to be bashing you for something publicly? Everyone should treat all others with respect, and treat them as you would want to be treated, how you would want your child, mother, sister, brother, father, etc. to be treated.
I absolutely, positively agree. I'm on Goodreads.com, and not all books are my cup of tea, but I try REALLY hard to explain why I PERSONALLY didn't like the book. Sometimes it hit me at the wrong time -- kind of hard to switch gears from chick lit to Henry VIII! And sometimes I just get bored because I'm in the mood for fast. But to TWITTER???? Holy carp.
Post a Comment