Anne Rice Defends Authors from Online Bullying

February 20, 2014 By Mercy Pilkington 26 Comments

Once you reach a certain point in your career, regardless of what field your specialty lies in, you’re afforded a level of “I don’t care”-ness that allows you to put up with personal attacks from nameless critics in a way that doesn’t impact your day to day life very much. Even better, you can also afford to reach out on behalf of people who are not quite yet at your level and defend them against similar attacks.

While Good e-Reader has covered the news of alleged author and reviewer bullying on Goodreads, this time it was bestselling and revered author Anne Rice who posted her position on author bullying, as well as warns authors that this behavior is no longer limited to Goodreads but has worked its way over to Goodreads’ parent company, Amazon.

Rice posted on her Facebook page yesterday this warning to authors about the activity she’s witnessed, and even been subjected to herself:

“Anti-Author Bullies are a real problem on Amazon.com, especially in the Amazon Discussion Forums. Authors, especially indie authors, need to be warned about this small but toxic underworld thriving in the shadows of Amazon.com…keep in mind: my post here has nothing to do with authentic customer reviews on Amazon, both positive and negative. I’m talking about a little subculture that specializes in trying to lecture, browbeat and humiliate authors. They are gangster bullies. These people desperately want a place at the table in the world of books and readers, and they have worked their way into the Amazon system like termites in a beautiful wooden structure. Beware.”

Rice also linked to a well-known website that focuses on the bullying issue, StopTheGRBullies.com, which highlighted through screenshots several comments directed at–and responded to by–Rice herself on forums where she attempted to defend authors’ rights to write and publish their works without being subjected to personal negativity.

Rice has supported authors’ craft through a variety of discussions on Amazon boards on many different topics, but those discussions are now closed. Many reviewers and authors have spoken out on the topic of online aggressive behavior and have called out for Amazon to take action against the practice. While sites like Goodreads have evaluated and adapted their terms of service in an attempt to foster only healthy and constructive book discussion, Rice’s post on the topic opens the door for further discussion on what steps still need to be taken.

Mercy Pilkington (2165 Posts)

Mercy Pilkington is a Senior Editor for Good e-Reader. She is also the CEO and founder of a hybrid publishing and consulting company.

News Items of Interest

StandingWithAnne

It is the height of disingenuousness for those thugs of Amazon to defend themselves as “readers” or potential customers when their main goal is finding books and authors to trash, so that they can continue to grow forum boards like “Badly Behaving Authors.” They are badly behaving forum users. They aren’t coming by books honestly — they are searching freebies and deals looking for self-published authors who have dared to do something, anything, that they can leech onto as “bad”.
Amanda

There is a petition to stop online bullying on Amazon: http://www.change.org/petitions/amazon-com-start-protecting-authors-on-the-amazon-discussion-forums-by-either-blocking-the-amazon-bullies-aka-amazon-fora-trolls-or-by-deleting-their-accounts-altogether?utm_source=guides&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=petition_created
Rick Carufel

The tragic thing here is that STGRB is just another bully/hate site that is nothing but personal attacks on goodreads and Amazon members or gloating over someone getting banned for GR. By stealing the conversation from the Amazon forums they have managed to leech off of Ms. Rice’s fame and celebrity. Once she finally gets around to actually reading the other posts on STGRB she may very well change her mind about the whole situation.
Helen Hollick

As an author (and reader!) my thanks to Anne and yourself for posting this. As an author I welcome constructive comments – if a reader doesn’t like my books I want to know why as much as those who did enjoy the read. But the nastiness some people like to dish out is horrid and destructive – my tactic now is to ignore these people (Don’t feed the trolls) but like all bullying it should be stopped in the first place!
Yolanda

Says the guy who was banned from STGRB for hiring hackers to find and publish people’s private information online. Get over yourself, Ricky. They banned you for a reason. You’re just bitter because you were wrong.
Miles New

Liston is like most big bullies, if you can stay away and make him miss for a few rounds he’ll get frustrated. Once you strip away that feeling of invincibility, he can be had.Bullying is never about you. You have the right to explore who you are.People who say they don’t care what people think are usually desperate to have people think they don’t care what people think. Stop Bullying. No one deserves to feel worthless check your safety at http://bit.ly/1nctEuL.
Rick Carufel

Lies troll, I never hired anyone. I asked for help finding the identity of a vicious stalker who published my personal information and was encouraging people to file a complaint to Social Security saying I was fraudulently receiving benefits. I was banned from STGRB because I called them for telling everyone to complain to goodreads about fake reviews when it was known GR was deleting accounts for doing just that. It was then it became clear that only their agenda mattered and they could care less if people were banned from websites by following their recommendations.
Rick Carufel

Be aware that the people who sign that petition are listed and this is just compiling a list of people for the troll/bully culture to target.
Spectator

Nah, Amazon, don’t change a thing. The s—fights are too much fun to watch. Really, the only service STGRB provides is making my workday go by faster. If Amazon and Goodreads started censoring everyone, STGRB would have nothing left to post about, and I’d have no more lolcows to laugh at. 🙁
Yolanda

Bulls**t. You wrote about hiring hackers on your blog, dumb*ss! You also got banned for sockpuppeting and for lying about Goodreads accounts getting deleted for posting on STGRB. You’re the liar, Dexter troll.
Amanda

That’s why people sign under a pseudonym. What’s your point, btw? Are you trying to keep people from the signing the petition so that the bullying on Amazon will continue?
Rick Carufel

How adult of you troll, name calling. For the record I asked for help. To hire is to give someone a job. I employed no-one nor did I try to do so.
Justin

Yeah, right. As if you’re really laughing, but keep pretending if it makes you feel better. I remember when you and all your friends cried like babies when Goodreads announced their new policy in September. Boy was there a lot of butthurt going around. 🙂
Rick Carufel

You are correct, it is possible to use false info to vote, I just did it. So if you sign do use a fake identity. My point was to try and prevent people from becoming targets for the troll/bully culture.
Spectator

Nope. I just like watching internet s—fights. JoCo vs. Glee, TVTropes.org vs SomethingAwful.com, OwlSamantha vs Common Decency, Chris-Chan vs.the harsh reality of life as a 30 year old man-baby… It’s not a proud hobby, but it helps pass the time. And man, the STGRB vs reviewers thing has outlasted almost all of them and is still going strong, despite a few lulls recently.

The policy change was a bright spot for ZOMGDRAMAZ, though; you’re right about that. As a third party with no dog in the fight, I thought GR could have handled it better in terms of announcing it, but as far as the actual policy, hey, their sandbox, their rules. They can control what content stays up. So everyone lost in that case, which makes for the best lulz, really.
Justin

Uh huh, right.
Yolanda

Me, name calling? Didn’t you call yourself Dexter troll? That’s a fitting name for you, among others I can think of. Cyber stalker is another.
Rick Carufel

I didn’t call myself a dumb*ss, you did. I just realized who you are.
lorcadamon

I might be naive here, but I’m kind of amazed at the pathetic nerve it takes to attack Anne Rice in those forums. It would be akin to walking up to Stephen King and telling him couldn’t write to save his life. Do these people think Anne actually becomes bothered by their nameless taunts? It’s ANNE RICE, for crying out loud. Yes, I’m sure she cried herself to sleep because strangers on the internet said something mean to her.
lorcadamon

I think his point was much like Rice’s point in the article: do not participate with regards to your status as an author because they are going to lash out at you.
Spectator

Meh. Believe what you want to believe. I’ll just sit back and keep watching the show. 😀
Yolanda

Oh yeah, who am I, dumb*ss? By the way, it’s a very fitting name for you.
Rick Carufel

Are you so profoundly stupid to actually attack people with your bully/troll tactics in an article about the Bully/troll problem?
Yolanda

I was going to ask you the same question. What a coincidence! You can’t run away from the truth, Ricky!
Really?

I’m an author of children’s books. One of my nonfiction books was attacked by a so-called “reviewer” on the book’s Amazon product page––and the review wasn’t even about the book itself! The guy even made a false and slanderous claim about the child who is the book’s subject. Amazon refused to remove the phony “review.” And yet, when I recently attempted to post a positive review about a truly great book I read, Amazon sent me a rejection email, with guidelines for resubmission. After resubmitting it numerous times, I gave up. Amazon’s increasingly invasive rules make no sense. They aren’t worth the hassle to try to figure out.
someguy

So Ann Rice is here to protect authors from bullying reviewers… but whose going to protect reviewers from bullying authors? Like Ann Rice, for example.