I’m not much in the mood for blogging today. It’s been a rough weekend for me for a variety of reasons not fit for blogging ears. I hope to have fabu news on Monday.
In the meantime, and completely on a different topic, has any one else noticed this phenomenon? Once you are a writer, people respond to any disagreement, political, aesthetic, what-have-you, with threats not to read your book and to tell everyone they know not to read it either? I was reading some blog the other day about bad covers, and any time someone disagreed with someone else’s definition of a bad cover the first thing they did was swear that they’d never buy any of the person’s books again and blah blah blah, usually signing off with an officious “You’ve just lost yourself a reader, Ms. Blank.”
To them, it probably reads as “hit them in the pocketbook” but to me, it reads “And your mama wears army boots!” It’s so off-topic and random.
I can’t imagine how many people I’ve turned off of my books because I dislike, among other things:
1. Super low cut jeans
2. Saxophone music
3. jellyfish
4. “intelligent design”
5. Scary-looking zombie-like creatures (who aren’t zombies) on computer generated romance novel covers
Ah well. Good riddance?
15 Comments
June 25, 2006 at 6:26 pm
Definitely a good riddance! I figure people that worked up over nothing (not to mention, incredibly narrow-minded) would never like my book anyway.
June 25, 2006 at 6:29 pm
That’s really kind of astounding. It reminds me of that whole Dixie Chicks snafu when lead singer Natalie Maines said she was ashamed President Bush was from Texas. All those people who refused to buy their CD’s, all those radio stations that boycotted their songs…
I mean, before this happened, who was looking to the Dixie Chicks for political policy statements?
I’ll still read your books, Diana. (And I just happen to agree with all your listed dislikes–I just hope no psycho readers will judge me on that).
June 25, 2006 at 7:10 pm
LOL. And then there are people like me who are planning to buy your book precisely because of what you say on your blog. Although I must respectfully disagree with your position on jellyfish.
Shoshana
June 25, 2006 at 7:14 pm
As someone who was quoted badly today in an article by a newspaper I will not name, I understand that some people will likely not buy my new books because of what I said. (Yes, I said it…but it was out of context though frankly, I should have known better than to expect a reporter to keep me in context. My bad.)
I think it’s perfectly fair to vote with your pocketbook, but to penalize an author for having an opinion is just wrong. However, I think most people who say “I will never buy your books” so easily probably never bought them in the first place. REAL fans, real readers are much more loyal and will give an author respect as a person in a country with freedom of speech.
I have an author who I disagree with politically on so much, I’m sometimes floored we’re from the same universe. However, I buy her books, in hardcover, because I respect her right to say whatever the hell she wants and her books entertain me and are worth the $24.95 price. But then, that’s just me.
Julie, who doesn’t think all Georgians are rednecks any more than I think all hispanics are illegal immigrants, which was the point lost thanks to the reporter.
June 25, 2006 at 9:11 pm
I never make buying decisions based on the author’s political, religious, etc. views and statements, but there are a few authors I won’t buy anymore because of the way they have trashed other authors, either in the media or on loops. Not people who are just engaging in discussions about books — people who are downright mean-spirited in their public attacks against other authors. That’s where I draw the line in my dollars buying their product, although I usually have no problem separating the artist from the art.
June 25, 2006 at 9:18 pm
Julie, feeling for you on the out-of-context quote. Years ago I was in pr, and I can remembers absolute horrors when a sound bite was taken totally out of context.
June 25, 2006 at 9:20 pm
Phyllis, thanks. And I agree…the trashing of another author is the only sure-fire way to turn me off to an author. But usually, those aren’t authors I buy anyway. At least, that’s been my experience.
June 25, 2006 at 10:34 pm
You realize of course that the jellyfish society is going to come after you. I’ve heard the similar comments and had your same reaction. I respect that others have different opinions than mine- but I don’t understand the desire to want to vilify someone for theirs.
June 25, 2006 at 10:40 pm
Some people are just idiots with nothing better to do…obviously! LOL!!!
June 25, 2006 at 11:37 pm
You dislike jellyfish???????
Well, you just lost yourself a reader, Ms. Peterfreund.
Hmph.
June 26, 2006 at 1:50 am
Ditto to everything Phyllis said. She’s such a wise woman!
June 26, 2006 at 2:08 am
Phyllis is a wise woman. I live in fear of saying something mean about one of her faves.
The Jellyfish Mafia are starting to scare me. Am I going to wake up with a Man o’War in my bed?
June 26, 2006 at 2:53 am
So has anyone ever come out in support of jellyfish? And what, exactly, do you have against plumber’s butt? And if I say I hate cauliflower, will you never read my books?
Okay, I will confess to boycotting a writer because of her views… on my writing. She was a final round judge in a contest, and let’s just say there was nothing constructive about her enthusiastic criticism. Was she right? Most definitely. But her comments were a little too Simon Cowell-ish for me, and since I had never read a book by her, that pretty much guaranteed I’d never pick one up. Yes, it’s immature and I’d like to think that now that I’ve grown a thicker skin I would react differently. But probably not. If she’d been someone I already read and liked, though, I doubt it would have made me stop reading her. (Note – I am not referring to anyone who has ever appeared on this blog).
On the flip side, I had another pubbed author judge in a different contest with the same MS, who was equally critical. But the comments were not only incredibly constructive, she even replied to my thank you note with a follow up email So I now buy her books without fail.
So I guess my point is that unless an author insults me personally, what he/she says/thinks/feels doesn’t really play into my decision to read his or her books.
Diana – sorry you’re having a rough weekend – least it’s almost over. Hope your fabu news helps outweigh the tough stuff. If not, make yourself a nice cauliflower parmesan gratin. And Julie, I’m off to find that paper…
June 26, 2006 at 3:13 am
I’m not saying I’ve never boycotted an author because they’ve pissed me off personally. It’s just not my first line of defense.
For instance, there’s an author out there who has a remarkably prickly blog persona. She’s a tough one, I must say. However, I did buy her book, and I read it, and the reason I haven’t bought any subsequent books in the series is because I didn’t care for it all that much. There’s another author who full on insulted one of my friends on her blog. I bought her book anyway, mostly because it had been getting tremendous buzz, and really enjoyed it. I will probably buy her books again in the future, despite all that.
But there are definitely people out there whose books i don’t buy for personal reasons. It usually has to take the form of enormous screaming matches (and I mean screaming matches, not heated debates, but personal I hate you! I hate you too! kind of stuff) and a lot of horrible things said about me, personally, for me to get to that point. And even then, it depends. I’m mostly of the never say never variety, though. there’s a writer who had a very public bitch fest about me and called me all kinds of names, and after a while had passed and everyone’s tempers had cooled, I even bought one of her books.
Another time, this person accused me of all kinds of terirble things and so on and so forth, and then, a few years later, we spent a whole evening hanging out at a conference and bonded, and I honestly dont’ think she remembers this huge online feud we’d had. I don’t want to remind her. It’s in the past, we’re all over it, blah blah blah. She’s a total sweetie though. If someone told me now that she was capable of all the vitriol, I think I’d be surprised.
Ooh, gossip, gossip.
But boycotting people I don’t like feels vaguely hypocritical to me, because there are authors that I love to little tiny bits and pieces, personally, think they are the best people on earth and I totally want them in my sandbox, but their books, for whatever reason, don’t do it for me. Sometimes I’ve even bought several of their books, trying over and over again, but eh, doesn’t happen. But if I stop buying their books, does that mean I don’t like them personally? Nope. Still love ‘em.
The best is when I can love hte author and their books.
But the political/aesthetic/jellyfish stuff starts gettign so sticky. Like, I love Speaker for the dead, and I love what OSC has to say about writing craft. Politics? Um, yeah, pretty much diametrically opposed on that. What’s a fan to do?
Though, where do you draw the line? Do I feel weird about listening to Off the Wall for the millionth time? i love it on my iPod, but it rarely makes it into the stereo party mix. Sad, huh?
June 26, 2006 at 3:47 am
Oh, you’re KILLING me with the gossip. Can you do a Blind Vice like Ted Casablancas on Eonline (don’t know hot to post links, here’s a URL so you can see an example: http://www.eonline.com/Gossip/Awful/Blind/blind.060609.html)? It could be a contest – all guesses anonymous of course, and winner gets an ARC to read on the plane to Atlanta…