Hi there! If you follow me on Twitter, you might have noticed that I am currently fighting with an author who gave one of my books a bad review, and I am going to summarize that whole situation for you really soon. If you read my book on marketing, yes, I did advise against engaging people who give you bad reviews. The one exception to that piece of advice would be if someone gives your work a bad review to help their friend get back at the company that published that book because they fired her, and if you have a screenshot of that person admitting they left the malicious review with the intent of trashing said company. When I said "don't engage," I meant "Don't engage people who say they don't like your work, because liking is subjective." I did not mean "Lie down and let people walk all over you to further their personal agendas." Because I know this author is now probably reading my blog to see if I'm going to say something about this, I will say this: shame on you. You're an author, for God's sake. You don't think that action is going to have karmic repercussions? You are a bad person.
So, that's happening. It's still kind of in the "developing news" phase, though, so I don't know what else to say, other than to tell you that I Hulked out for an hour or so yesterday, sent many Tweets, texts, and emails, then requested that Amazon consider removing the review, and am waiting to see how that turns out. Not sure what more I can do about that, but since you're along for the ride with me for the next year as I promised to post every day, I will certainly let you know what, if anything, happens. I will say, it would be nice if Amazon would take a stand against people who use one-star reviews like that, because I think it degrades the quality of their overall reviewing system. I also have this problem with the book of a publisher client, and it seems to be just as intractable. If this fills you with a similar rage, please stare at the tranquil Carmel Highlands photo while taking deep breaths. This seems to be helping me.
Here is a rant about hitchhikers that I was working on yesterday before "Reviewgate" began. Since that story doesn't really have an ending yet, I will just finish this one up.
I feel like I shouldn’t have to say this, it being 2013 and
all, but could you do me a favor and NOT PICK UP HITCHIKERS?
I’m saying this only because we are on vacation in
California, and almost every day, I see a person pulling over to pick up a hitchhiker
and take them south down Highway 1, presumably toward Big Sur. Maybe they have some kind of Zen hitchhiker
retreat down there?
In case your parents never gave you this lecture, here is
why letting a stranger into your car is a bad idea:
- You don’t know them.
- Why don’t they have a car of their own?
- They are going to murder you.
- You are going to murder them.
- Did I mention that someone is going to get
murdered? - Not always true, but for the most part,
hitchhikers have to walk a little bit each time they get dropped off. They are carrying all of their stuff on their
back, and this combination MEANS THEY ARE STINKY. Do you want hobo stink in your car? What is the matter with you? - Even the police would tell you not to do this.
- I don’t care if he looks like a nice guy. He is going to murder you.
- If your car insurance company happens to find
out that you picked up a hitchhiker, they are for sure going to drop you. They probably don’t have this written down,
but I guarantee there is a secret hidden clause for people who are dumb enough
to ride around with hobos, because this behavior is probably an indicator of
the fact that you do other bad-judgment kinds of things that could get you
killed, like making crazy left-hand turns.
I’m just saying.
10. I
don’t care if you’re on the way to Bonaroo, ok?
Still not a good idea.
Also, I totally get that some people don’t want to adhere to
the rigid rules of society, man, and that they are living off the grid, man,
and that they don’t want the state tracking their movements, man, but even if
you’re into paying for things in all cash, I still think you should take
control of your life and investigate bus travel, rather than sticking your
thumb out on the side of the road and hoping for friendly people.
I got on this kick because, I kid you not, the other night I
was in the parking lot of a grocery store, and a hobo-looking, probably would
be hitchhiking if he could guy started walking toward me, and he was all
“Excuse me, ma’am? I am 27 years old and
I have no ID and no money….” And I was
like (loudly, so other people in the parking lot could hear me) “Then you
should know better than to talk to women who are alone at night, you are making
me uncomfortable, please leave me alone,” then promptly went into the store and
waited for him to leave, because OH HELL NO you are not getting money from me
or getting into my car, because you are a murderer and I don’t want to end up
on the news, ok?
I know, this whole post makes me sound like the dad from
Freaks and Geeks, but I don’t care. I
can’t believe hitchhikers are still a thing, and when I see them, part of my
brain goes haywire and I want to warn everyone I know, so there you go.
