How Not To Be A Professional Author

Unlike a lot of authors in the writing community, I've noticed, I tend not to spend much time talking about the actual process of writing, or the ins and outs of promotion. I just get on with it, in the background, and can't imagine those aspects are of much interest to most of my readership in the grand scheme of things. The work itself is what matters. This recently came up in my Instagram feed, though, and I thought it warranted comment. All names and identifiers have been removed, which is probably for the best.

 

 

Authors, do not do this. The shoddy grammar and creepy stalking aspects aside (the author tracked the poster down from their Amazon review via a Facebook search and messaged them directly, asking them to remove their negative review), it's unprofessional beyond measure, not to mention cheeky, and the sales pitch at the end is just laughable. Though I do post reviews on Amazon and elsewhere myself I stick to music and games these days, in part to avoid minefields like this. I'm a writer too, and know how some can take a bad review (not that I even read my own reviews, for the most part). Everybody gets them, though. Suck it up and move on.