Ooh, there’s been a right old ker-fuffle recently. You probably know about it, but just in case you don’t, it goes like this. Romance author Deborah MacGillivray has allegedly been harassing someone who gave her a three-star review on Amazon. This not only includes sending her a slightly bizarre email, but also badgering to get her review taken down (by asking other individuals to complain about it), and even apparently stalking the reviewer in a quasi-frightening manner:
Re: vote down this bitch please
Posted by: “DeborahAnne MacGillivray”
writer@DeborahMacGIllivray.co.uk scotladywriter
Date: Tue Aug 21, 2007 10:17 pm ((PDT))
Well, thanks to XXXXXX our PI , we now have her name, her husband’s
name, her chidrens’ names, her grannies and great grannies name. Her
address phone number and email
lol…quite interesting.
Now, before moving onto anything else - and without in any way downplaying how (crease forehead) serious this is - there are a couple of things to note. The first is that you don’t need to be particularly clever, or to employ the services of a ‘PI’, to find that information about most people. (Having said that, if anyone knows my ‘great grannies’ (sic) name, please do let me know). The second is that you have to be particularly stupid to put it in writing if you’re actually intending to do anything with the information. The third, just referring to the email quickly -
However, I fear you did missed the point of Damian wanting to fight Dirk. He was not fighting for Tamlyn, he was going to take Challon’s place - to protect Challon.
and…
And where you got he was hung up on Tamlyn by the middle of the, that is SOOOOO wrong. He knew from his return he was mean for Aithinne, she was THE ONE. You are reading your quick assessment into that. He was NOT hung on on Tamlyn at any point after his return and he saw Aithinne. For you to keep saying that, shows how totally you are missing the true emotions of these characters.
As for accusing Athinne of asking Dirk into her room - he is MALE. Male do silly thinks when they are upset and jealous. This is so TM - Typically male. Men do silly things at times of high emotions. Damian is human, not perfect.
- the third thing to note is ‘holy fuck, I don’t want to read these books, even if they’ve been edited’. In case there was any doubt, the covers all seem to feature half-naked men, perhaps in some indifferent ‘if you can’t beat them, join them’ shrug in the direction of patriarchy. But let’s not get into all that. It’s a short step from there to observing that Deborah says she’s a web designer in her spare time, and then we’ll all be rubbing our chins thoughtfully for hours.
This is not the point. Tess Gerritsen, whom you may know from such novels as The Surgeon, posted on her excellent and thoughtful blog recently, offering some clearly tongue-in-cheek sympathy for MacGillivray:
My first reaction to this story was: “What? I can get the bad reviews taken off my Amazon pages? How do I do that?” Because I didn’t know an author could do that. I thought you just had to live with them and suffer heartburn every time you scroll past them.
and
Now, I’m not saying that Ms. MacGillivray wasn’t out of line here. But her other major foolishness was that she got caught at it.
Now, I don’t think there’s anything overly controversial in her post. Whatever they might say, authors aren’t keen on bad reviews, and it’s not too much of a stretch to imagine many have harboured purely-imaginary-and-yet-at-the-same-time-atrociously-violent feelings towards some reviewers. Amazon is an interesting case, because anyone can post there. The minimum you can give is one-star, and plenty of people do. My first book, for example, has had a bit of shit there, and I’ve certainly had a private grumble about it. ‘Lady Jane’, for example, found The Third Person “very disjointed and not just in the third person”, suggesting she reads far more into a book’s title than I do. ‘P Blundell’ says that if you ignore certain things, it’s a “good read” - then gives it one fucking star. ‘E Ryan (rhino)’ suggests I attempt to “over-darken the whole rape/torture topic” and concludes the book is “written like the author was half-drunk while doing it”. Well, I hold my hands up to at least one of those complaints, Rhino. Possibly both.
But, you know, I don’t wish violence on these people, because they’re entitled to their opinions. I wish them happiness and a long, lovely life. Even giving one star - what, there’s nothing good about it? - that kind of shit washes over you, because it has to. Life’s too short. And yet I can take Tess’s post in the spirit in which it appears to have been intended. In releasing a book, you have to accept criticism; in releasing criticism, as it goes, you have to accept criticism. Was Tess making light of a deadly serious situation? Pfft. If you like. Assuming everything is true, I think we could all agree the instigator of this whole thing is just a fucking idiot and a threat to nothing aside from her own career. Either way, the law can settle it without the aid of bloggers.
And yet. Following the massive ker-fuffle mentioned above, Tess Gerritsen has made the decision to stop blogging. If nothing else, this tells you not to underestimate the Romance genre: when you blow air at them, they can deliver a fairly vivid plumage. I think it’s unfortunate. On occasion, I have quietly disagreed with Tess about a few things (nobody will have noticed), but I’ve always found her blog to be interesting, open and honest: one of the best crime writer’s blogs on the net. Perhaps she’s been slightly thin-skinned about the response, but people are entitled to avoid confrontation if they wish, and the internet is a particularly brutal place. Like a car, once someone’s in it, they behave in ways they’d never dream of face-to-face. Walking along the street, for example, a young man might pause to allow a woman through a tight spot on the pavement. Stick him in a car, however, and it’s suddenly a matter of pride to get through first. He might shake his fist, glare threateningly, shout abuse. It’s easy to be a cunt when there’s no immediate comeback. The same with the internet. This is nothing new.
Anyway. To anyone who hates me and has hired a PI to find my address - if you’re sending someone round, could you please tell my local taxi company and Pizza Hut? Because they’ve got my address, and they can’t find me for shit.