Social media tattles on writers. I’m always dumbfounded when new writers fuss in writers groups and on personal pages about things like:

1) I’m sick of people not understanding how hard it is to write a book.

2) I gave away ten books and got one review. That’s theft.

3) Nobody is buying my poetry book.

4) I got a one-star review and can’t talk Amazon into taking it down. It’s false.

Immediately, my gut reaction is to not buy that author’s work simply because of how they present themselves to the public.

The public does not care about any of the above. They want to like the author and enjoy the read. They are not hoping to become a groupie, and they don’t want a writer to be work. They want to admire the writer and the story. That’s it.

1) Nobody but you needs to know how difficult it is to write a book. It is not a topic for public discussion. Maybe one-on-one with another writer feeling your pain, but not the world.

2) Giving away books is solely on you. You choose who to give them away to. I do not give away review copies unless they admit to being able to post on Amazon and have done reviews before, raising the odds of a review being done. If someone does not review the book, they don’t get another one.

3) And that poetry book that won’t sell? How many poetry books have THEY bought in the last year?

4) As to the one-star review? Some readers won’t read a book unless it has a one- or two-star review. Some readers won’t give five-star reviews except in rare cases. I hold my breath until I receive a one- or two-star review on each new release, just to pop that bubble and get it over with. Not everybody loves your work.

Take all that complaint energy and infuse it into marketing and writing. Complaining about how things are not going your way in the profession you chose, in the profession a lot of others wish they worked, makes a writer sound rather . . . spoiled.