Why Do Some Writers Have It Out For Others?

Can anyone explain that to me in a rational manner? I’ve been doing this for a while now, almost a decade, and it never fails to amaze me how there is always some writer out there who wants to tear others down. Inevitably it is almost exclusively an independent author who has no true knowledge of the business or the inner workings of a complicated machine. They vent and fume over what peers are doing- without substantiating their arguments. How useless is that?

First of all, how many traditional authors are now looking at publishing their own works? The industry has changed so many times in the last few years that what was once the norm is now a waste of time. Take Facebook and Twitter for example. Used to be an author could build a good following and sell a few books along the way. Shifting dynamics in publishing have steered away from traditional social media. Remember what happened to the dinosaurs?

I read the message boards from time to time and find there are two types of people in them. (The truly honest ones are hard to find so I won’t include them in this) 1. The Know It All. You know them. These are the bitter people who have usually failed in their endeavor and decide that everyone else must suffer with them. Any idea they read is a bad one and they give you the ‘you can’t do that’ speech. Case in point. I ran across a discussion where a new writer was struggling with finding time to write and market their book. Several grumps immediately came out swinging claiming that marketing was unnecessary and a waste of time, because authors shouldn’t have to do that. Have these people actually read any current research? No matter= success suicide. Anyone serious about this craft needs to understand that the only way to succeed is to be well rounded in EVERY aspect of writing and publishing.

The second type are the ones who think everything one of their friends does is awesome! You know them too. An author will throw up a new cover and all the comments from their friends are ‘oh I love it!” or ‘this is so good!” when in truth its pretty close to a dumpster fire. Are people so thin skinned they can’t take receiving criticism? Don’t get me wrong, people can be dicks about it, but there is a right way to tell someone their stuff stinks and offer some helpful suggestions to make it better. Why else would you put your work out there? If my stuff is bad- which some it was absolutely terrible- I want to know.

For anyone interested in learning a little more about the fiction writing process, or for my peers reading this that might offer good feedback, I invite you to check out my how to: So…You Want to Write a Book? I’d love to hear from you.