But It's a Dry Heat

Archive for the ‘Lessons Learned’ Category

Windmills? What Windmills?

I’m hardly one to call for civility and decency.  Snark is my primary means of communication.  But even I have mellowed with age.

As the story of this author kept spreading across the web, as people apparently couldn’t let it go, I started to feel sorry for her.  Yeah, me.  Pity. The cold, dry fig of my heart, started beating.

Perhaps it’s the anonymity of the media, but the Internet can accelerate people from zero to outrage in a microsecond. I see it all time, everywhere. Blogs. Forums. Newsgroups. Someone says the sky is blue.  Someone else takes umbrage to use of the word “blue,” screeching that blue is the color of Smurfs and Smurfs are filthy, blue, child molesters. And off we go…

I’ve seen people on newsgroups rant about (more…)

Monday, Lessons Learned

As I read this train wreck, a few things came to mind…

A) I’m really grateful for editors.

B) It’s really not a bad review.  In fact, I’ve written nastier reviews.

C) People don’t know the difference between “e-published,” “self-published,” and “indie published.”

D) Apparently, the best way to drive traffic to your blog is to write a [slightly] negative review of an un-hinged self-published author’s book.

E) Or, be the un-hinged author who throws a public snit on a review blog. Though this approach, arguably, doesn’t so much “drive” traffic; more like it re-routes a semi-truckload of bad karma in your direction.

via Smart Bitches