Bisky's Twitterling's Scribbles! discussion

I rarely talk about promoting and social marketing on here, because it causes arguments.

But after one of the artists I used to follow regularly had a bit of a public mental breakdown because the stress of social media.

I thought I'd create this topic, not a blog post because I think I'd like to see what anyone has to say.

If you are going to promote your work online, make sure you find a place to vent about it. I don't mean with just reviews. I burnt out in November, people who followed me before would have seen my inspirational tweets once an hour. But seeing a snarky comment on one every single time grew too much for me. I'm not writing full time, I also study, so dealing with it all was too much and I took a short break.

This month I'm trying to get a novel done, so they are less frequent, and my writing takes precedence over anything else I do, thus why I keep having to put back my reviews etc.

But I always expected this would happen so it's not bothering me too much (though I have project work for other people I haven't done yet which is a pain)

But this is one of the reasons I created this forum, as a place of support. And why I go crazy at promotional spammers or would be trolls, because there is enough of that on social media already.

If you are building an internet platform, you WILL get stalkers. You WILL get trolls. You WILL get times when you can't handle what's happening. And depending on how you market will depend on just how much you can talk about your feelings.

Friends and family will probably not understand what you are doing. So they probably won't understand how irritating messages or people tweeting you gibberish can grind you down.

This month I found someone writing poems about my appearance on the internet. It was a bit creepy, and I've not been well lately and when I'm unwell, I don't deal with things as much as usual. I also got my first personal attack about my writing. So I appreciated being able to vent on my Facebook.

And I got over it.

Sometimes it's not so much -getting- the platform as much as it's dealing with it.

Make sure you have somewhere where you can go and vent, to people who understand it. Be it here, or a writers group.

Does anyone else have anything they do, or plan to do, when creating/maintaining their platform?

*hugs Bisky* We're all going through a struggle in this life. Just remember that if someone has a problem with you it's THEIR problem not yours. I have noticed that you aren't responding as much on twitter and I do miss you, but if you need to get away then your true friends will understand and respect that. Just like everywhere else there are creepy crawly things out to get us. Be careful and be safe. If you ever need to talk you know you have friends that are there for you.

I'm still trying to build things up, and I'm waiting for that first horrid review. I'm just hoping my legion of 4 or 5 fans doesn't castrate whoever that is lol. I am always looking for a way to improve and make my writing more enjoyable for myself. I may be trying to promote to reach a wider audience, but I'm not really concerned about what they think unless it can help me improve my writing. I recently unfollowed someone because they only gave botted responses. They weren't botted though. He typed out every one, and every one had a link to his book. I had to unfollow and block him because he kept mentioning me with his hard selling pitches about him not being a bot. I don't usually block anyone, but sometimes it's just something you have to do.

Great idea for a thread, @Bisky. I'm sorry to hear about the problems you've had in the wild west of the internet. It's one of those sad things - probably 80-90% of the people you come across out here will be supportive or at least respectful, but it's the other ones that stand out. And it's usual not the outright negative ones that are the hardest to cope with. It's possible to understand a harsh critique or a troll, but less so some of the random strangeness (like the poet(?) you mentioned).

I have slowly been building up a support structure of fellow writers online. We are comfortable enough with one another to vent about these encounters that bother us. Usually it's enough - just telling someone who "get's it" seems to exorcise the negative energy.

(HUGS!) Social media makes it too easy for people to behave badly. I don't get it. I feel so bad for authors who get bullied. I've been lucky. I have 1 creepy follower but she's not too bad.

This is a wonderful thread! I think it's safe to speak for the majority of us when I say we're here for one another. As Bisky said, not many others in our personal lives will understand fully what we go through, so it's imperative that we have somewhere or someone to go to. So thanks Bisky for making this for everyone! It's really important to have support or somewhere to vent where people will understand what you're going through and not judge :)

Here's a vid I recently came across about 'How to deal with Haters,' I thought it was light hearted and funny, but also helpful :) It's kind of geared a little bit more toward Vloggers but I think it could definitely apply to anyone really, so check it out :D

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WRKlw...

Thanks guys, I'm fine really I was just reminded how easily one person can ruin a good thing you've got going if you aren't careful.

I'm not promoting very much at the moment or on twitter so I guess I wasn't really expecting to get the fuss. I'm waiting for my first horrid review and my first psychotic troll, but since I'm not very active it kinda surprises me that I still get it because my platforms aren't really that big yet.

But I had an amazing response to pitmad and it generated a lot of interest with everyone so that was nice :3

I think David hit the nail on the head, trolling I can deal with (and sometimes enjoy the fight) but sometimes people send you things that are just bloody disturbing and you're kinda like 'that's enough internet for today!'

I'm good now, I'm just not as active as I'm currently writing a novel xP Doing my own little NaNoBiskMo. 50k down, just need to finish up in the next couple of days.

Google+ is also a nice place to vent about other social media. Seems to be a calm atmosphere in what I've encountered.

Oh Bisky, this is my go to place when I'm down, when I feel the world is not as bright as it should be. On those days, I may be more talkative, or the total opposite, very very quiet, but reading the posts in this discussion group helps me reconcile with the world.
I don't know why you invited me to this group, or even how you even noticed I existed, but I can only thank you for this seemingly tiny little gesture. For you it may have been just another click but for me it turned out to be a blessing. :)

People can be great and supportive, and other people can be rude and angry. Most of the destructive ones don't provide any constructive feedback with their negative remarks, which is usually for one of two reasons: 1. They feel angered at the subject of the work because of something personal or because someone succeeded in publishing something they personally do not like (or wanted to publish themselves) 2. They didn't understand the basic concept of the work in the first place.

I just saw a couple of awful reviews that had no place being so cruel, and the reason was that they literally didn't understand the novel or its genre to begin with. That, of course, simply isn't fair to the author because now there are two 1-star ratings for her book even though the reasons were actually not relevant.

I have also noticed that there are people who try to be funny and like to get attention from their negative comments. I found one Goodreads member who literally rated every single book they read with one star and ranted and raved about how horrible each and every book was. In capital letters.

Don't worry, friends. It feels awful when people tear you down, but intentionally aggressive comments with no constructive attitude come from people with a little something missing, something the rest of us have: a heart.

Aww GG so many feels ;-; We love you! And you are super special, so thats obviously why Bisky invited you ;)


@Christie You're so right! <3 And also, people like that need new hobbies xp


I don't know why people bash others. I suppose it must be because they are lacking something in their lives and overcompensating the most terrible of ways, or they're just jealous or something. As hard as it is, I think the best thing we can do is to just ignore it. Others will see how retarded that person is being and it could make it worse if you decide to fuel their fire, because then each time comment it's going to be worse and worse until someone "wins". Stooping down to their level could give a bad image to ones followers and ultimately I think we're all too awesome to be dragged down to a troll's level.

Thanks for the love guys, I think it's surprising that the indie writing world can be as volitile as the music one. I think I expect it more from music because of all the teenagers. I wonder what would happen if there was some kind of police on the internet or if people started being held accountable to what they said, would they be as likely to randomly attack.

I think what bothers me the most about some comments is the other people who can see them. I don't think it's very nice to see such negativity when you click on something of mine. But usually, blocking (atleast on twitter) doesn't always delete the tweet for others.

Oh and love you G.G <3 I head hunted you off the another Goodreads forum because you were so awesome :]

Wow... I can;t even understand someone wasting their own poetic talents on tearing someone down... What an absolute waste.

I guess the writing world represents the "real" world pretty closely... there will be lovers, there will be haters...

I am learning to accept that I will never really understand where some people are coming from... but, perhaps I just need to base a character on them, and then I might come to understand!

fun fact time! Apparently in japanese term for hater can be translated as 'paper tiger'...
That's all their strenght; a back of shit.

*highfives Bisky* You'll pull through it all. Bad poetry and sonets will end soon.

You guys are too adorable. I'm going to become a stalker if you keep being so nice to me! :P

All I can say is that if people start writing poems about you (no matter what kind of poems), or following your every move, you are doing something right. I know it sounds stupid to say that but it's true. Disturbing or not, just accept it as a sign of 'fame'. The more popular you will become, the more likely you'll see stuff like that. It seems it comes with the territory. :P

Totally not on this topic, but do you know what the best thing about this group is? You don't have to be "On" here. I can come here and just be me. Everyone here is real and not the author persona we are supposed to be on most social media sites or other boards on here.

@Cassandra Where is the "like" button? :)

@Cassandra Oooo.. that could be a discussion topic itself.

Cassandra: YES.

G.G That's true. I can take it when I'm expecting it. Thing is, I'm not very active on any platform at the moment. It meant the messages were on every comment and sometimes they were the ONLY reply, hahaha. I mean, I've had a lot of marriage proposals...

Cassandra, I made the 'No harsh swears' rule for me because I sometimes forget about my big gob when I'm writing on here :P

I love it when Carl pops into the threads. His replies are so philosophical and deep :'D

let's rise our coffe mug/and althgrogh it may be risky/ weep the dust under the rug/ and celebrate Bisky

I've not had problems yet with my online platform / stalkers / etc., but there was one guy that came close. He found my Pinterest boards, one of which is called "Corsets and Lace" (to go along with my fantasy, etc. themes). Some of the pictures are provocative; I mean, they're women wearing corsets and lace. He started DM-ing me on Twitter about the pictures he really liked, and it skeeved me out. I continue to reply to him when it comes to anything else, but I stopped replying to him about those. And he went away.

I'm just afraid at some point, the "ignoring" thing isn't going to work. Plus if someone is persistent, your ignoring them isn't necessary going to put a stop to it, and you're still going to be subjected to it.

I've somewhat scared myself by spending too much time on this site:

http://www.stopthegrbullies.com/

This might be another topic in and of itself, but I do think these online self-pub haters are a problem. And if they descend on you in a pack, you're going to feel pretty awful. Ignoring them is pretty much the only option, but it's still going to take a large chunk out of your morale. I'm worried about that, quite honestly, even though I am working hard to do everything "right"--not because of them, but because in their own twisted way, they ARE correct that doing things their way sells more books.

Such good advice! I haven't had any trolls (yet), but I'm just waiting for them to show up. It's so hard not to take things like that personally. For some reason, people seem to think that being able to hide behind an online identification somehow gives them a right to be cruel. It's a tough business.

(Hope things are better for you now, Bisky!)

Nicole, quite.

I haven't had any bad reviews yet but I have had several inappropriate comments on my blog. I am pretty open and I don't use bad language and I use pictures of myself to coincide with the feeling of a poem I write. Mostly, the pics are of me because I am worried about finding free pictures so I don't infringe on any copyrights.

This in and of itself causes lots of criticism. Normally, I ignore it. I don't even pay it enough attention to delete it. I had one blogger get so bad calling me a whore that I did a post called Hasty Whore and the Chigger. I didn't call him out by name but he knew who he was and he backed off. I also refrained from saying anything personal about the commenter.

When we write we have to understand not everyone will agree with us. Not everyone will like us. And while that used to break me down into a gooey mess I got stronger each time.

My advice be you, be amazing, and ignore those who have nothing better to do than to tear you down. OH and of course vent here :)

@Nicole I know! It's like OMG there's a @Carl sighting! Fence him in! Bring out the tickle-monster! haha

HastyWords wrote: " I had one blogger get so bad calling me a whore that I did a post called Hasty Whore and the Chigger...."

Woah! It's one thing to attack a book but geez to call someone a whore on the internet it pushing it too far.
I think you reacted well though. I also love the title of the post you chose to reply. Hats off to you!

@Carl teehee

Well whore was only one of the things he said. I have a poetry website about depression lol. The important thing is he stopped. I think sometimes you just have to let people know you won't be bullied.

Bisky wrote: "I rarely talk about promoting and social marketing on here, because it causes arguments.

But after one of the artists I used to follow regularly had a bit of a public mental breakdown because the ..."

Hm, I probably am one of the people who made snarky comments, so if I over-snarked you I apologize. I never set out to harm, only have a laugh, but I can be sarcastic. It's the way my family interacts with each other.

The only real problem I've had with promoting is that it is never-ending, thankless, and seems to have almost no measurable effect. I have taken the lesson that the best promotion is an increased online presence and good representation of yourself on reader sites and blogs, and i have tried to do this, but it's time consuming. SO SO TIME CONSUMING. That can wear you down. I go through periods where I just can't make myself do it. I enjoy self-publishing, but there is something to be said for having a big marketing machine behind you. It's hard hard hard to go it alone.

J. David wrote: "The only real problem I've had with promoting is that it is never-ending, thankless, and seems to have almost no measurable effect. I have taken the lesson that the best promotion is an increased o..."

I agree completely with you...every word.

J. David! I assure you! If you ever annoyed me my dear you'd already know :P You're in my *acceptable to be gobby to* list.

I'm actually pretty lucky that my family understands just how time consuming it is and just lets me be on my phone constantly. My parents see it as work funnily enough, I know a lot of other people my age would not have parents so understanding (not that I live with my parents but you know what I mean xD)

@Bisky What's gobby? Is there some way for me to make money off of it? Or, alternatively, to get free food as a result of it?

Great thread and some great comments! Agree with a lot you all say.

Keep up the good work guys, and keep being yourselves. Don't mean that to sound like a cheesy cliché! :)

@J.David someone once tried to put me in a cage and charge the public one dollar to see me to hear the interesting profanity I come out with.