You Can Look, but…

… You can’t touch.

Over the last couple of years I think I’ve slowly started coming to terms with some of the unexpected side-effects which emerge when you put out a book.  I’ll be honest, it’s taken me a while and, lowly part-known that I am, I can understand why those who are more famous often have a love:hate relationship with the internet and social networking sites.

This blog is probably the only part of my on-line portfolio that I have any real control over.  By this I mean, in terms of content.  Everywhere else is subject to  random coincidence, semi-intelligent web-crawling programmes, industrial-scale marketing, the good side of humanity and sadly, on occasion, the worst side too.

This site is therefore the only place I feel confident enough to respond publicly to anything I see or read elsewhere.  Yes: I’ll reply to Twitter direct messages, or to emails, but these are by nature quite private exchanges. Most importantly though: I have a policy of absolutely not responding to any book reviews I receive for Firebird or Thunder.

As far as I can tell – at least so far – this is turning into a good strategy…

Recently I’ve been lucky enough to spend a little time talking with some communications professionals.  The context of these conversations was business-oriented but also interesting from a writer’s perspective.  You see, business – as much as anyone else on-line – suffers from Trolls and the professionals’ consensus for dealing with these sorry souls was simply: ignore them.

Of course, downright illegal, threatening or abusive messages can and should be acted on – usually by a request for deletion of the offensive matter to the relevant web-site service provider.  As for the rest of the sad-garbage, it’s most often an attempt to stimulate a reaction and, hence, gain a platform – i.e. to be noticed – and the recommended means to deal with this is to do nothing.  With no fuel, the experts advise that the fire-starter will head off and try to make misery elsewhere.

Of course, on the rare times when I need to do this, I come away with my sense of justice feeling bruised and I have to work hard not to react and try to fight my own corner.  This is tough but one thing helps me to get through it and stops me from posting something I know I’ll regret.  And it’s one thing not even the smartest troll can feed off, something no one single individual could ever trace backwards.  It’s one thing that adds value to me and yet vilifys the worst of them.

My one thing?  Simple: I take any form of inflammatory or abusive feedback as a free insight into areas of human-nature which would normally be alien to me.  A free insight which I can adapt, amplify and feed into my next bad-guy.

And anyone who’s read any of my work will know that the bad guys in my novels rarely enjoy much in the way of a happily-ever-after…!

[p.s. I’m off travelling for a while during March, so I apologise in advance if I seem slow in responding to comments or questions…!  Cheers, AB]

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About anthonybellaleigh

Writing to amuse myself and entertain others. (https://anthonybellaleigh.wordpress.com)

Posted on March 4, 2014, in General, Uncategorized, Writing and tagged , , , , , , , . Bookmark the permalink. 2 Comments.

  1. Good strategy, and I agree, but boy, it’s irritating.

    Like

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