Authors Behaving Badly: When Authors React Badly to Negative Reviews and Criticism! OR: How NOT to Handle Bad Reviews!
When an author puts a book out into the world they must know it's not going to get completely positive feedback. All books, throughout history, from Hamlet to The Da Vinci Code, have people who love them and people who hate them. And most authors handle the negative reviews pretty well (even if they're crying inside).
However, some authors decide that they want to fight their critics. Some get personal. Some get downright nasty. Did someone say car crash?
I was originally going to post one article on this but so many authors have behaved badly that I thought I would make it a weekly feature! I bringz you all the drama every week from authors who have been a little naughty.
5. M.R Mathias has ideas above his station!
Oh my goodness. I can honestly say that this is my first 'Authors Behaving Badly' post where I genuinely feel no sympathy for the author. AT ALL. This author is such a diva that he makes Mariah Carey look laid back. Sheesh. Thanks to Heidi @ Bunbury in the Stacks for tweeting this story to me!
Who is he: M.R Mathias (a self-published fantasy writer)
Who he responded badly to: A forum on the website 'Fantasy Faction'
What made the fur fly: Well. M.R Mathias posted a thread advertising his new book on a Fantasy Faction forum main discussion board. The Mods, trying to keep things organised, moved his post into the 'Self Published and Small Press' section. This is the response they received:
When other site members reacted against his post and took offense at his tone he went on to say this:
FYI read the the heading for this post. It is for MODS. Not you. There is no agressive tone Ma'am. And if Stephen King suddenly started King Publishing would he be a self publisher? I think not. A pen name is a brand, and mine is selling books at a level above a ton of big publisher's imprints. For me wanting to be treated as such is no crime. Nor should it cause offense. When people see my titles and posts in the self pubbed area that groups me with them. I am proud to have risen from those roots, and for you to chastise me over this request is well.... Sick and petty.
I want my books to be placed on the level they are actually on. Where is there a wrong side of that?
To Respond though: If you dont read my books that is your loss. Really it is your loss. I have a 4.5 star rating after 90 reviews at B&N.
Appearantly someone likes them, if you chose not to read one of the best fantasy trils ever written then by all means take a pass.
To answer your question:
Amazon Kindle Store's Bestseller list. B&N's fantasy list. 4 titles in the top 5k of the whole B&N store.
10 titles in the top 10k at Amazon's WHOLE STORE.
Also the Goodreads Best Indie Novels list at #2 with 400 votes... which irritates me too, but whatever.
I have award winning titles folks. 2011 Readers favorite Award - The Butcher's Boy by Michael Robb Mathias. It was #24 in the Amazon Bestsellers list. ot a genre list. THE Bestsellers list at Amazon.
You and your eBullying will only make people think bad of you. My request to the MODS is polite, civil, normal, reasonable, and backed by fact.
Thank you, if you aree not a MOD this post is not for you. If it irritates you and you are a self pubbed author, get over it. Use it as inspiration for what your books can be. M.R.
The arrogance is absolutely astounding! 'I have award winning titles'. Who does this guy think he is!? Eventually, a Fantasy Faction Mod came in and posted this message of clarification before closing the thread: Mr. Mathias,
As, you have posted this in the public forum I will respond in the public forum.
First of all, Small Press is defined by Wikipedia (related to US publishers) as a publishing house that makes under $50 million dollars a year and publishes fewer than 10 titles a year. Unless you are making and publishing more than that, in the US, you are considered a Small Press publisher. There is nothing wrong with being a small press publisher. If you look purely at the numbers a company could make $40 million dollars a year and publish 9 books a year and still be considered small press. That does not make them less successful or the work they publish less important. But it still means they are small press.
There are lots of people who have their work published in small press houses and there are a lot of people who self-publish their work. We at Fantasy-Faction feel there is a place for every type of fantasy on our shelves and on our site, which is why we have the Small Press & Self-Published section in the forms and regularly review titles from both types on the main site.
I am very happy that your work is so successful and appreciate that you enjoy posting about it on our site. But your work is small pressed published and therefore belongs in the small press section. pornokitsch, who posted above is also a small press publisher. He posts about his anthologies here all the time, and does so in the appropriate section of the forums. If you would like to continue posting about your work here, please feel free to do so, but do it in the appropriate places.
Secondly, in this forum we are treat people with respect at all times. I do not allow people to disrespect our forum members or mods. It’s rude and uncalled for.
Third, if you have a problem with the way the site is run, you can private message any of the staff and they will discuss the problem with you. Posting your complaints in the public forum is not professional. You can’t just put ‘Only Mods Read This’ in the title then expect no one else to respond. That’s not how the forum works.
Further comments can be private messaged to me, or one of the other mods. Thank you. But it didn't exactly end there. Mathias took to Twitter and posted a string of tweets tooting his own horn and slating Fantasy Faction. Here are the highlights: Michael Robb Mathias
Michael Robb Mathias
1. Jacqueline Howett 2. Leigh Fallon 3. Keira Cass 4. Eoin Macken
