I could have also titled this post "Authors Gone Wild," as a couple of big-name fiction writers are taking to the web and giving reviewers a piece of their mind.
Alice Hoffman read a somewhat negative review written by author Roberta Silman of Hoffman's new book, The Story Sisters. Hoffman then took to her Twitter account and over the course of 27 livid tweets, Hoffman called Silman a "moron" and published Silman's phone number and email address, encouraging her fans to "Tell her what u think of snarky critics." She has since released a tepid apology and taken down her Twitter account.
Now, author Alain de Botton has leveled some pretty harsh words against Caleb Crain, the author who gave a negative review of The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work. De Botton left this comment on Crain's blog in response: "I will hate you till the day I die and wish you nothing but ill will in every career move you make. I will be watching with interest and schadenfreude." Yeesh.
Are these authors going ballistic for good reason? They do put a lot of hard work and years of their lives into these books, but it's the duty of the critic to be honest. Do you sympathize with these authors? Or does it just make a crappy situation worse?
High
Lepel
Robert Clergerie
It comes with the territory, just don't read the reviews! I'm sympathetic to writers but lashing out only makes the authors look bad.
1"Tell her what u think."
Why do I find that so hilarious?
2There should be another option here. I can understand being upset about a review and mentioning it online, but giving out the critic's email and phone number was going way, way too far.
3Declasse all the way. Behavior like this would make me not want to read the author's work.
4How immature! I have never heard of these authors, but their behavior is a real turn off.
Granted, it's free publicity (since I had never heard of them before and you wrote up a whole article about them)
5geesh! Grow up, Alice!
6I'm a writer and I can understand how heart breaking it can be to be put down by your peers like that, but that was soooo not a wise way to respond!
7Yeah, it's free publicity but it's negative publicity. I've liked Alice Hoffman's writing in the past and might have checked out her new book, but now I'm just reading a negative review that she herself is directing everyone's attention to. And I definitely won't be checking out that book. If it weren't for her doing all this I probably never would have read that Boston Globe review.
8How mature...
Reviewers are entitled to write something negative, and authors are entitled to be upset and express this. However I don't have any respect for someone who replies by publishing phone numbers and so on.
You're a writer, you should be articulate enough to write about why you think that review was unfair, instead of using insults. Pathetic.
9I can understand being upset (after all, a lot of hard work went into their books, I'm sure) but that was so not the way to handle it. Be upset in private, but in public, don't act like a child about it. Kinda sad.
10Yikes. If you can't stand the heat, stay out of the kitchen. These authors need to grow up.
11The sad thing is the review of Alice Hoffman's book isn't even bad, it just isn't a rave. Pretty much the person's point is that it isn't as good as her previous work. To attack someone who is clearly your fan is just so beyond nuts.
12It's like when celebrities get mad that SNL spoofs them.
At least someone cares enough about your book to read it and review it. You could be one of those authors not making oodles of cash
13Post New Comment
Please share your opinion with our community, but make sure it is on topic and follows our Community Rules. We moderate comments and prohibit personal attacks, threats, spam, lewd images, or the promotion of your personal website.