This bookish feature is an original by me! I had the epiphany for this the other day when I was writing out my 15 bookish confessions. (See #7) A lot of times I like to go “beyond the book” and do something that will connect me with the book and characters a little more. It will pop up on Mondays! Be on the look out for which books caught my eye and made me go beyond just reading it!
I told myself I was not going to put up anything on my blog regarding drama in the bookish world. Only because this is supposed to be a happy place for me. But everything that is happening has basically blown up the book blog community and causing a range of different problems and I just haven’t been in the mood to post anything happy here. I’ll be back tomorrow with a TTT….. But for now, I need to say some things.
After an author (and I use that term loosely) STALKED a blogger to her house (YES TO HER FREAKIN HOUSE) so many people in the blogging community have been debating quitting blogging. Not going to lie, this freaked me out so bad the idea DID cross my mind once or twice, but in the end, I realized I loved this too much to give the author that satisfaction. She doesn’t get to scare me from doing something that I love in my free time with my own money just because there was something I did not like and wanted to let people know why I didn’t like it. So please, if you’re thinking about quitting, DON’T. Take a breather, take some time off, do whatever you need to do, but do not quit. Instead, do something to protect yourselves. Because regardless of what has been said, your voice is worth it.
One of the main reasons the “author” was upset with the blogger was because the blogger had a fake name and fake pictures of herself… Ummmmmm what part about that says “I’m a weirdo”? Because to me it’s normal. If you didn’t know, Nikki isn’t my real name either. I go by a fake name that even all my books are signed to when I go to signings. I’m not exactly sure why I did this when I started my blog as it was for an undergrad class, but I did. And it never occurred to me to change it. But the fact that this lady is making a big deal and legitimizing STALKING her because she was “Catfished” (which has nothing to do with nothing btw!) I’m so glad I kept it as is.
The irony of this situation is THE REASON WE BLOGGERS HAVE FAKE NAMES ARE BECAUSE OF PEOPLE LIKE THAT! It baffled me that she didn’t understand this. Like lady please! What I’m trying to say is there are crazy people out there and PROTECTING YOURSELF IS KEY. If you are someone that uses an alias, I’m super glad for you. If not, please take the necessary precaution to protect yourself. Maybe cut back or be more conscious of the things you place on line about yourself. Even me with an alias I’m going to go back through my Beyond the Book posts and remove any pic or anything that may connect someone with me.
Another ironic fact… Every blogger that I have seen that has said they read her review said they were more curious about it than before. So, she in fact did not turn people away from your book or bully you. She actually got more people wanting to see what it is that was making her have these thoughts that she put up in her updates. As for ruining your career… Yeah NO. You did that.
Like many of us, we have seen authors do crazy things over bad reviews before, but it normally stops behind a computer screen. (This is in no way jjustifyingthat behavior either… Authors just need to STAY AWAY FROM GOODREADS!) This one got completely out of hand and I’m so hurt for the blogger. I did not know them personally, but that doesn’t have anything to do with anything. I am a person who has feelings and stalking is not ok. Ever. I’m also a fellow book blogger who followed her blog and Twitter because I LIKED HER OPINIONS ON BOOKS. When I originally followed her, it had nothing to do with what she looked like or even what her real name was. To the blogger, If you ever read this, I’m so sorry this has happened to you. I hope you will walk away from this unharmed and ok.
As for those of you in support of this lady, DO NOT COME POSTING ANY COMMENTS. I WILL report you as a Spam blog. Also, this is not a post to bash her. This is merely a post to keep those bloggers that I love from quitting on her behalf and to get them to be more cautious so that things like this don’t happen again. (Because once this hit the fan, more and more authors have been seen supporting her…. -____-) Also, this is to keep those readers who missed everything informed.
Names have been left out so as not to bring the wrong traffic to my blog. The name of the blogger was left out because it has been smeared across the internet enough.
Do you use an alias?
Are you as shocked by this as I am?
What precautions will you take after this situation?