The Word Cloud

Some of you may have seen this already, but it's worth sharing with those who haven't. http://booksandpals.blogspot.com/2011/03/greek-seaman-jacqueline-howett.html

The net is awash with this affair, which has gone viral. There are many lessons to be learnt.

First and most obviously, how NOT to promote your book. The original review to which she responded was actually quite good. Her response was totally over the top and yes, at first it was very funny. But then it rapidly started turning into something else, which was disturbing and far from amusing.

As one blogger pointed out, she hasn't killed a child or kicked a puppy and the only person she's really hurt is herself. Some of the comments left after she'd bowed out are malicious and bullying IMO. As for people who go to Amazon to leave reviews that say they haven't (and wouldn't) read the book ... words fail me. What are they getting out of that except the thrill of putting the boot in? I know they say they're attempting to balance out the positive reviews that are clearly from members of her own family, but do they have nothing better to do with their time than to leap into a mob attack on a woman who is clearly unhinged and in meltdown?

So that's lesson number 2. When you put something out in cyberspace, it will be there for ever. And it can attract unwelcome attention from people just looking for someone to bully.

Final lesson is for people who self-publish. Be sure that your book is edited and proofread before you launch it into the world!

I agree with you, Debi: this isn't straightforward, and the nature of the web is one of the main issues. What's out there is out there, and it can come back to haunt any of us.

Argh - my own website is in dire need of updating! It has all kinds of info there that I'd prefer not to be in the public arena (eg re my kids) and nothing about editing or even my last book. And it says I'm still a photographer too. Please don't put me in the same bracket as JH and what's happened to her - at least I've never refused to accept legitimate criticism or bullied anyone. (Unless you count shaking people like Sean by the lapels when they think about giving up!)

That's what could be termed creative shaking, Debi. Shaking that gets results.

When you put something out in cyberspace, it will be there for ever.

Ugh, don't I know it.

Growing up I was always on FidoNet, then the Internet, and loved getting involved in discussions - I still remember the wonder of talking to someone in America online for the first time. It was a big deal back then :) I think I'm the last generation to remember that. My dad was always big on computers, and being dipsy-praxic I think it actually saved me in a way - I substituted my inability to handwrite and spell with touch-typing and a spellchecker :op

Aaanyway, I learned my lesson the hard way. I feel for this author. I got caught in something similar. I was in a country that was clamping down on the media at one point, and made a post on my blog about the BBC being taken off air. It was a well-rounded account of what was happening in-country. But it got hijacked by an anti-government nutter who changed the wording and published it out of context with my name and photo! the guy tracked down everything else I'd ever done online and accused me of being part of an anti-government group.

The group was a creative writing circle!

He just assumed that, due to the members, it was a political campaign. He had no regard what so ever for my welfare in-country. I knew people who had lost their visas for less. He just decided to mash it all up and put his own spin on things from the safety of his London flat. Dingbat.

It's easier than you'd think to get drawn into replying. He eventually deleted all the correspondence but left the article. Which was probably fortuitous. But every time you Google my businesses you get this quite near the top of the rankings. Nothing I can ever do about it - reason didn't work.

Anyway, that's why I value my anonymity. I enjoy participating online and being free to indulge in discussions like this. But I wouldn't promote myself in the same space. And my promo site and FB page are administered without any personal touch. I teach PR and SN promotion to organisations occasionally and there's so much I've learned through brutal trial and error.

I know an agent who has a twitter account but doesn't always make the distinction between personal posts and professional ones. Doesn't sit easy with me. I think you really have to have two hats - the 'me' hat and the 'business' hat. You're either one or the other. Don't mix the two.

SN is still a relatively new thing. I just don't think people realise what they're getting into a lot of the time. It's easy to see the benefits, but harder to see the pitfalls until you're in one.

As for critics - just remember the words of Liberace:

"What you said hurt me very much. I cried all the way to the bank."

Wow, this was awesome! Very funny. It made me think, though, about all the attention she garnered with this strategy. It's too tragic and eleven-year-old to be a cleverly devised campaign, but what a blinder if it was! She must have had thousands of views with people from all over the writing world recognizing her name. If there's no such thing as bad publicity, she just did a Robert Downy Junior. I wonder if she was telling the truth when she said she saw a spike in sales around the time her abuse went viral? Maybe some people bought the book to laugh at it?