First, I read this, which led me to below:
I signed.
I read the comments.
I agree with the majority of them.
I think what was missed in my previous post about bullying is that I don’t care if you hate my book – you can think it’s trash and wonder why I wasted years of my life writing it, HOWEVER, that does not give you the right to attack me personally. For example, if you list my book (and many other books) in a category on Goodreads as ‘fuck-that-shit,’ I am going to be offended. Yes, you’re entitled to your opinion. No, my opinion is not more valid than yours or anyone else’s. However, unless you’ve read the book, why would you classify something I’ve put a lot of work into as basically worthless? In previous reviews I’ve done, any issues I’ve had with the story or characters have been just that. I would not attack and author simply because I thought their writing was poor or because of how they executed a story, nor would I do something immature and classify their book as unreadable and the author as a waste of time. Unless the material is outwardly homophobic or racist, it’s not my place to force an opinion on another author.
So, if I can help other authors get above this type of bullying and connect with the audience and readers they set out to write the book for, I’m definitely going to help.
More on this topic by people who say it better: here and here.
annbenjamin 