Social Media and Author Maturity

Recently on Twitter, I saw an author tweet about people they had blocked, mostly because of a disagreement over a subject. Out of a strange curiosity, I reviewed their twitter feed, and discovered that it was mostly them boasting about blocking people left and right, and for a variety of subjects. What took me aback by all this was not only did this person seem mean spirited towards the people they had blocked (referring to them by an ad hominem or a cruel name), but their tweets suggested that they had blocked quite a large number of people. They likewise took a "woe is me" attitude, as if the opinions of these people, and the action of having to block them, made this person a martyr on par with Saint Sebastian or Joan of Arc.

At first, I wasn't quite sure how to take all this; after some thinking, I felt inspired to write a blog post on this kind of attitude.

Of course, as one must always do on the internet when you first begin making suggestions or talking about a subject, let me make a few things clear: I understand this is the internet, and people are going to do what they want to do, and I can't control anyone, etc., etc., etc. Don't take this post as a declaration ex cathedra that must be obeyed; look at it as an author speaking to other authors and offering advice - mainly in why this attitude is a wrong one to take.

First, this kind of attitude is unnecessary social media drama. Seriously, I loathe Facebook because this sort of thing permeates it: people blowing their gasket at the first sign of contrary thought, then blocking people left and right over every tiny little thing. Blocking people because you disagree with them (even with a mute or unfollow function readily available) is just being a drama llama - especially if you proceed to go around bragging about it like you are some poor martyr who was compelled to do so.

That's not to say there's never a reason to block someone. Generally, I work by these rules in regards to blocking:

1. If you post pornography or stuff in general that would embarrass me to see on my feed, were my wife to be sitting next to me.
2. If your account is spam or doesn't serve any purpose that might produce some form of interaction.
3. If you keep doing the "follow for automatic follow-back" thing several times (at that point, you're being obnoxious).
4. If you're a jerk or generally act disrespectful to myself or to friends/family, and to the point that friendly interaction is no longer possible.
5. If you're the Game of War Twitter account.

However, if someone's opinion or personal action, especially one that most people would find inconsequential (eg., celebrating Valentine's Day), upsets you so much that you have to block them...then you're demonstrating a great level of immaturity. Welcome to the real world: there are going to be people who disagree with you. You're going to have to coexist with people who disagree with you. And it's those people's absolute right to post their views on their account, provided they aren't going to an extreme in doing so. Unless they're directly attacking you, don't go blocking them or crying on social media about how you were somehow forced to block others, when all you could have done was count to ten and moved on with life.

There are people I regularly interact with on Twitter who I disagree with politically, religiously, etc., and while I'm not saying that I'm alright with every single thing they tweet or share, I try my best not to have a knee jerk reaction towards it. I try to avoid feeling the need to purge my feed of contrary opinion. Even if I choose to disagree openly, I try to do so in a respectful manner, and with consideration for their viewpoint. That's not to say I'm perfect - I could definitely go back in time and rebuke myself with this post. I've had to mature with online interaction, let alone real life interaction. One thing I've tried to live by is you choose your battles, and you choose what hill you want to die on. What's more, you have to remember that others outside your little conflict are watching and observing you, which brings me to my next point...

Second, it's a foolish way to act, given you are the persona of your material. That is, you are the face of your product, which is your literary work. One thing that is commonly harped about on most indie guides is that, as an indie author, you are marketing yourself. You don't have a publicist to be your public face, or to deal with the media when you go on a drunken rampage through downtown Los Angeles. As obvious it might sound, you are literally who people perceive you to be. Being an indie author permits people to see you in the "raw." They see you in the way you present yourself.

So, if you act like a ten-year old and flood your feed with stuff that makes fun of people for a variety of reasons, you present yourself  as that sort of person. Of course, your friends and those who agree with you probably aren't going to berate you, but you're going to create this aura around you that others are definitely going to notice. There's a reason why a writer like Norman Boutin is so infamous: because of how he acts, especially towards other people. There's a reason an artist like Tom Preston gets so much flack: because he's constantly playing victim, complaining about things that shouldn't bother him, and blocking anyone who displeases him in the slightest. Yes, you have a right to your opinion, and yes, you too have a right to do with your social media account what you choose to do...but remember what you are, and what you are trying to do. You're not only selling your product; you're selling yourself.

Again, I understand it ultimately boils down to what you want to do with your account, even if that includes blocking everyone who openly celebrates Valentine's Day, or everyone who's a Postmillennial because you're a Historic Premillennial. However, as I said before, remember your ultimate goal, and what you are trying to do. Are you really trying to build a reader base, or are you trying to gather together a team of monomaniacal sympathizers and supporters to come to and pat your back every single time you feel slightly depressed? We all have our bad moments, but if you examine yourself and find that you are repeating this over and over again, it will snowball at some point.

Things That Ruin Indie Publishing

When I first stepped into the world of indie publishing, I didn't realize just what kind of world I was stepping into. Thankfully, my experiences have been for the most part positive...but, as with anything a person becomes involved in, the negative aspects soon rear their ugly heads. To open up discussion on this, I thought I would give a simple list of things which either hurt indie publishing or give it a bad name for readers who may be used to more traditional publishing.

I don't claim to be the end all be all expert on indie publishing, so please don't take this blog post as canon or dogmatic pronouncements made ex cathedra. These are simply observations I have made myself, or complaints I've heard from other indie authors. Also keep in mind that I'm not trying to target any one author or person with this entire list; again, these are just general observations made. Yes, some examples will be cited or referred to, but this isn't meant as an attack post.

All that being said...are there any disturbing trends you have noticed? Feel free to leave a comment, and I just might add it to this blog post!

1) Unnecessary high prices.

When you look at most indie novels available for your e-reader, prices can vary from $2 to $5. Many times, authors will put their novels on sale for $0.99, or even let it go free. Keyword here: these are novels I'm talking about. For the amount of length you get to read, this is a pretty good deal, and when compared to books done by major publishers, you see the price is about the same.

Some people, however, will publish a 38-page book for $5...and even higher. It's as if people think they can publish the short story they wrote in high school and get a few bucks from it. I recently came across one indie author who was selling his 52-page novella for $16.95. I am not making that up! People really do pull stunts like this.

Not only is this kind of careless pricing going to hurt potential sales, but it makes readers believe that indie authors are simply out to make a quick dollar. To all authors who are doing this: seriously, please stop it!

2) Abysmal editing.

Typos are everywhere in the printed medium. Even in traditionally published books, there are typos (try reading Twilight and you'll see what I mean). This doesn't mean typos are okay, mind you; typos should be avoided at all costs. However, a few typos here and there might be overlooked by more forgiving readers. You forgot one punctuation on this one page? Is the rest of the book readable? OK, cool, we'll let that one slide; just remember to correct it in a future edition.

However, if an author self-publishes, and doesn't put any effort into editing their work, then the results are tragic. Punctuation mistakes abound, spelling mistakes make reading a chore, and awkward sentence structures rule the day. I've come across books that read like English wasn't the author's first language (and sadly, it was), as well as books that are so incoherent in sentence structure that they seem like the ramblings of a madman.

Readers might expect typos and glaring errors on a blog post, or a fanfiction website, or an internet forum with a "creativity" section, but if they're going to give money for what they expect to be a refined book, they should at least be honored by an author who puts time and effort into making certain that errors are kept to a minimum and the end product is as polished as possible.

3) Terrible cover designs.

For this section, I feel like I could just point people over to the website Lousy Book Covers and be done with it. If you want an example of why making a good cover can be important, then that site is chock full of them. For a lot of people, this is what they think of when they think of indie publishing.

The sad thing is, for many of the novels shown on Lousy Book Covers, I've actually gone to Amazon and read the samples, and have found that...many of them are actually pretty well written. The writing itself isn't half bad. In fact, sometimes it was really good. Unfortunately, when a potential reader comes across the work, they may not get the chance, or gain the interest, to pick up the book and read it, or even take a look at the sample chapter. They'll take a look at the cover, say, "By the gods, that's bad," and move on with life.

I understand that many indie authors (like myself) are working on a shoestring budget, and may be worried about how much they'll have to pay in order to get decent cover art. However, I would highly suggest that, if you invest in one thing for your book, it be this. There are websites where you can find premade or custom made covers, and there are artists out there willing to do work for you at an affordable cost. Some authors have spent $300 on their covers, but others have found decent covers for closer to around $50. Either way, the end result is that your book has a cover that doesn't look like someone's 12-year old dabbled in MS Paint for a few minutes.

An article worth reading on this subject is WillowRaven's post on their blog regarding the difference between cover design and covert art, as well as the difference between custom covers and original covers.

4) Terrible pen names.

A lot of indie authors use pen names, which is absolutely perfectly fine...but most make an effort to make certain the names they use are reasonable. They should, at the very least, sound like real names. So please...don't call your Cat Kicker. And don't call yourself by an internet handle like catkicker9000. That's cute on an internet forum, but not on a book.

And please, please, please, please don't call yourself by a fan version of another author's name. Don't call yourself B.K. Rowling. Don't call yourself George R.R. Tolkien. Again, you might laugh, but some indie authors have actually done just that.

5) Irrational author behavior.

Most well known authors are too busy with their day-to-day lives, or with their promotions and next projects, to bother with every internet critic of theirs. By contrast, many indie authors seem to not only have the time, but the passion, to go on a crusade and destroy anyone who dares suggest their book is terrible. If you want one major example, go and read my post on Norman Boutin, who has become internet infamous for his tirades and antics.

Nobody likes receiving a one-star review on Amazon. Nobody likes hearing someone tear their book apart. Nobody likes hearing words akin to "this sucks." However, that is part of putting your piece of art out onto the market and letting people comment on it. It doesn't matter if you're a classic writer like Dante Alighieri or a famous author like Stephen King...at least one person out there is going to absolutely hate your work. Many indie authors are aware of this, and have found ways to thicken their skin or train themselves to overlook criticism. They are, like Elsa, able to "let it go."

Other indie authors don't do this. They will respond to every single criticism with hostility. They will take the time to rant against negative reviewers on Amazon, or pull stunts like writing revenge reviews against said authors, or using sock puppet accounts to write positive reviews in an effort to "balance out" their score. Some have plotted with their agents or editors to get back at their credits. You're probably laughing, but I wish I was making half this stuff up. If you want some wonderful case studies on the various antics authors will go to in order to silence or blacklist their critics, go and look at the "Authors Behaving Badly" series on Pocketful of Books. What grown people are capable of doing will astound you.

UPDATE - February 18, 2015: Adam Dreece, over on his blog, has written a post on the same topic. It's worth a read.

Norman Boutin: A Case Study on How Not to Take Criticism

Every artist, of whatever genre or medium, has to deal with criticism. No matter who you are, there is going to be someone out there who is going to dislike your work, and there is going to be at least one person who absolutely hates it. Long story short, you are going to experience some negativity. Now, of course, negativity can a good thing: sometimes we need hard truths, and sometimes we need someone to point out our errors so that we can learn from them and improve our craft. On the flip side, there is also unhelpful or unedifying criticism that is best to just dismiss (for example, someone who reads a romance novel set in the 19th century and gets mad that there are no giant fighting robots should probably be ignored). Due to these two circumstances, being able to not only weed through criticism, but also to take what is helpful and learn from it, becomes an important part of any artist's life.

In regards to criticism in general, there are many ways you can respond to it: you can go the J.K. Rowling route and humbly accept it; you can go the Douglas Adams route and laugh it off; or you can go the George R.R. Martin route and shoot your critics the bird before moving on with life. One of the most important things to remember, however, is that you never have a meltdown. You never go on a crusade to end all criticism or defend your cause. You never let some angry person on the internet ruin your life. Some even suggest not even responding unless it's directed towards you, but to take the critique to heart nonetheless.

Some authors, especially in the Indie market, have chosen to ignore all of this. This blog post is an examination of one of them.

A while ago, I was introduced to an Indie author by the name of Norman Boutin, and a book of his entitled Empress Theresa. I first came across him in a post on Lousy Book Covers, where he had a scuffle with the website owner, Nathan. Long story short, he was "daring" Nathan to post the latest cover art for his book to the website, going so far as to say "I know you won’t." When Nathan did, Boutin gave this response:

Nathan, That is not the latest cover. It is the KINDLE edition cover which hasn’t been updated yet ( except in the KINDLE Store ) The latest cover can be seen in the Paperback version. The sky is a darker blue than in the version you showed. In any case, you didn’t put it up at the head of the thread where it should be and where it would be seen by people. I knew you wouldn’t. It would make your sad cover designs look ridiculous. Latest cover design can be seen on empresstheresa.com, [emphasis mine]

In case you didn't click on the Lousy Book Covers link yet, this is the cover art he's talking about:

"Notice how far better it is than the graphic design junk you sell to naive writers." [Exact quote from the author]

One need only Google his name (or the book's name) to find out just how highly he sees his own work. Of course, there's nothing wrong with taking pride in your writing, but Mr. Boutin reaches whole new levels of narcissism. He sincerely believes that his work is better and attracts more readers than classics like Brave New World or Anne of Green Gables. I'm not kidding. If you think I'm exaggerating, here is a direct quote from Mister Boutin himself:

I've noticed that on lists of books assigned to high school English classes, lists collected by academic services,  among the books read in class are such stories as George Orwell's 1984, Orwell's Animal Farm, and Aldous Huxley's Brave New World. A 16 year old high school girl a few miles from here read 1984 in her school. Really?  I'm astonished!  How infinitely more interesting and entertaining the students would have found Empress Theresa. [source; emphasis mine]

And another quote:

I have an idea.
Put the following books side by side on a table:
Empress Theresa
Little Women
Silas Marner
Anne of Green Gables
Tom Sawyer
Huckleberry Finn
and Gone With the Wind
Have the students vote **BY SECRET BALLOT !!** on which book to assign to the class.
Let me know how it turned out. [source]

Since Boutin believes that his book is the next American classic (even saying on some occasions that there will be a movie), it would be expected that he's less than happy about the widespread criticism it has received. On forums, he'll readily respond to anyone who suggests a less than enthusiastic opinion of his work, and on Amazon he's replied to nearly every single review. Reading through his replies, you tend to notice a pattern in how he treats negative criticism:

• If you criticize the book, or bring up criticism of it, he'll ask you to read his sample chapters and "judge for yourself" how good it is.

• If you follow his advice and read the sample chapters, or Amazon's sample chapters, and dislike it, he'll disregard your opinion since you didn't read the whole book. (In the realm of logical fallacies, this is called moving the goalposts).

• If you have read the whole book, and still don't like it, he'll still dismiss your opinion, and for any arbitrary reason he will find.

Reading Boutin's responses to those who post negatively about his book, his personality comes across very much like those people you find in art class reviews who have literally an excuse or response to every critique from their peers. They will continually say things like "Oh, you just don't get my metaphor" or "No, it's supposed to be that way." Almost every supposed fault has an excuse or an explanation that is meant to automatically negate it. Now granted, there may be times when there is a legitimate explanation for an artist's otherwise unorthodox aesthetic tactics...but when every single bit of criticism is met with a quick and rash defense, it begins to reveal more about the artist than it does about the art. What's more, if you try to tell them about this, or point it out, they defend themselves with "I'm just responding to you" or "I'm just showing you're wrong." In their mind, a habitual defense against every accusation or critique is a perfectly normal thing.

From Mr. Boutin's own personal discussions with his critics, one thing is certain: any perceived issues are never because of him. It never appears that Boutin even entertains the notion that there might be a problem with his book. It never seems to dawn on him, "You know, some of these people may have a point." He does not seem to have the capability to say, "There are a lot of complaints about this specific problem - let me change this to minimize this problem." If you want to know how far this goes, keep in mind that he will even defend his typos! I am not making this up: when people point out the typos in his book, he will argue that other authors have typos in their books (source); his conclusion is obviously that no one should complain about his, since other authors have made typos.

More telling is how insulting Boutin gets towards those who criticize his book. For someone who thinks his book is a wonderful showcasing of how a good Roman Catholic is to behave, it does not seem below the author to employ ad hominems and personal attacks against his critics. Some examples of this:

What really amazes me is that you say you're Catholic. It doesn't show. [source]

A kid's website, full of stuff to sell to kids to help dissipate their going-nowhere lives. [source; regarding the TV Tropes page on his book]

Next Fall, the next school year, all the trash you've written here, on TVtropes, and on Amazon will exposed for the trash it is. You credibility will go down the toilet. [source]

You're jealous because I had a great idea for a novel, because knowing it was an idea that could only be used once I spent years fine tuning it to make it the best writing possible, because it reaches the kids without blatant preaching, because you know you couldn't write something anywhere near as good, and so you attack my work using every device you can think of, spending enormous amounts of time to attack a stranger you'll never meet who lives on the other side of the world in a nice, quiet corner of the greatest country in the world. [source]

He's arrested at the spoiled, rotten 12 year old kid level. No matter how old he gets, he'll always behave at the 12 year old level. [source]

I've never seen such rude and crude people! Forty years ago I worked in a factory. Those people were much more civil and refined than this bunch. [source] 

I could have given PM Scherzer inner conflicts and weaknesses to make him more "interesting", according to the cliche advice I get here. [source]

I learned how conscience-less some people can be in trashing a message they don't like. [source]

Go back to your galactic war sci/fi stories, Tom.You will never understand a book like Empress Theresa. [source]

I came home today with the intention of writing an UNHAPPY NEW YEAR ! post to these lying haters, explaining to all what's wrong with them and why these lonely people whom nobody can like have to look for company on the internet but can't even stand each other either and never talk to each other. [source]

You're full of hot air and other stuff, Tom. [source]

Aw shut up! [source]

Even more astounding is the conspiratorial nature that Boutin takes towards much of his criticism. If you make a mistake, or misunderstand something from his book, he'll accuse you of "lying", purposefully spreading misinformation, or actively suppressing the truth. He'll often accuse critics of being part of an anti-Catholic, anti-theistic, anti-Norman Boutin conspiracy out to stop the "message" of Empress Theresa. He fears that those who are especially outspoken against the book are brainwashing other people against him. In case you think I am exaggerating or misrepresenting him, here are some examples (and keep in mind, these are said in absolute seriousness - he's not trolling):

These atheists from catholic.com, or whoever they are, won't stop the truth about the book from getting out. [source]

You're young and you're being fooled by the rantings of RPRPsych. He's playing mind games with all of us. [source]

Are you exchanging private messages with this guy? Don't do it. Don't let him get in your head. [source]

The atheists must really fear and hate this book. [source]

These people follow me all over the internet, even to websites I'd forgotten myself. [source]

Who are these people? They're from various 'writer's forums' I joined over the years. When I announced the paperback edition, suddenly there they were waiting to trash it. From my experience on those 'writer's forums' which contain thousands of members, I know that some of these people, those incapable or writing anything more serious than a vampire story, zombie story, or something of that kind, can be very negative in trashing a work that looks promising. It's envy. There's no limit to what they will do to spoil things.  [source]

This has been a concerted effort by people with an agenda to kill the spiritual message of the book they heard about on the internet for years. [source]

When one of my posts gets deleted, it's because I told the truth. People around here don't want you to learn the truth. [source]

For whatever reason, jealousy, anti-religious feelings, pure devilishness, or whatever, you want to kill the book. [source]

On this same note, let me say that yes, I have read the book. Or tried to read it. I eventually stopped because, to be perfectly frank, it gets really boring and tedious. You can read my review here, if you're curious. I go into detail about the problems I found within the book, and why I stopped reading. And before you ask...yes, Mr. Boutin responded to my review. He provided several responses, most of which I simply chose to ignore, because I have seen how he deals with criticism on the other reviews, and I have come to the conclusion that attempting to even engage in civil conversation with him is akin to nailing jello on the wall. However, one part that stood out to me, and which is related to this topic of his conspiracy theory forming mind, was this:

QUOTE Then you have the Prime Minister known as Peter Blair. While I understand from reading the author's comments elsewhere.......[[[[[ Ahah! Gotcha. 'elsewhere', hunh? Like I indicated earlier, this negative reviewer is taking bits and pieces from everywhere instead of just writing a valid review based on the book's own merits without prior knowledge. ]]]]]........ that he meant the character as an homage to Tony Blair... [source]

This accusation flabbergasted me. Yes, I had done research on Mr. Boutin's antics and arguments (as most of this post shows); however, part of this was to try to understand his point of view. My reference to having read his comments about Peter Blair "elsewhere" was simply to show that, from a source outside his book, I read an explanation of his regarding a character. I do this with any artist or author, because I like to understand where they're coming from. It's why I listen to DVD commentaries, and it's why I read artist biographies. In the past, I've even tweeted questions to authors before writing reviews because I wanted their own clarification on certain things. My point in bringing this up is to show that Mr. Boutin could not simply say, "Oh, that was nice of him to do research on me." Nope. It's a conspiracy. I'm just going around, digging up dirt on him, and not basing my opinion on any knowledge of "the book's own merits". Again, it's all a giant conspiracy to him. Everyone who doesn't like his book has an agenda and is out to ruin his cause.

The sad thing is that some people have attempted to reach out to him, and help him to get his book edited either through classes or professional assistance. Thus far, he has spurned all advice. As I wrote before, there seems very little admittance on his part that his book could be improved. By contrast, I've known of plenty of authors (professional and Indie) who lament errors or mistakes in their books they wish they could change. Heck, the wife of Frank Frazetta, one of the greatest painters of the 20th century, had to put a lock on his museum door because he was sneaking in and touching up some of his most famous paintings. Yes, even someone like Frank Frazetta would tell you that he's not entirely happy with some of his work. Yet there are those out there like Mr. Boutin who think their work is above criticism, and is absolutely perfect. If you think the book is somehow lacking, that's a problem with you, rather than the book.

Of course, it's real easy to enter the realm of schadenfreude, where we all point and laugh at someone else's shortcoming. However, I believe instances like this are a good moment to pause and think, "Wait a minute...am I like that?" I have to look at this and wonder if I feel the need to respond to every single critic. I have to ask myself if maybe I have an excuse for every single critique I receive. I have to review how I take criticism on a large scale, and see whether or not I presume it is all a giant conspiracy by a large group of people. I have to look at how I respond to a person's critique, and make certain I am not misrepresenting them, or jumping to conclusions.

The worst thing we can do is not learn from the mistakes of others; we'll spend so much time laughing at someone else that we'll forget we're staring right in a mirror. Let's take a moment like this to sit back and examine ourselves, and see if, just perhaps, we struggle with this as well.

Update - January 1, 2015: The initial comments towards my review, made by Norman Boutin himself, and which I quoted earlier, have been erased by Amazon. In their place, a whole new slew of comments between Norman and other commentators have begun. Many of these comments I have included in the part regarding ad hominems.

Update - February 5, 2015: Norman Boutin has hit a new low in his attack against critics. Recently he made these statements:

My sister was operated on this morning. She was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer last Summer. She's been getting radiation and chemotherapy to prepare for the surgery. They took out the tumor today but her prognosis is very poor. The disease is 95% fatal.

It would have been nice if she'd lived to see Empress Theresa the great success it should be. But thanks to you internet trolls that won't be for several more years.

YOU PEOPLE ARE SCUM !!!!!!!!!!!!!

You better hope God will forgive you. I won't. [source]

Let me first say that, if it is true Norman Boutin's sister has cancer, that is terrible, and my thoughts and prayers go to him and her. I have had family members who suffered with cancer, and I know it is not a pleasant thing to go through. It gives me absolutely no pleasure that someone in his family has cancer. All that being said...

To use his sister's cancer to try to shame his critics for criticizing his book is a disgusting emotional tactic. I really have no other words for it.

If my readers are interested in an example of how not to react to criticism, Norman Boutin has reached the pinnacle of it.