Some authors have been bullied online. Whether by readers, reviewers, other authors or all of them, cruel words hurt. These days, most social networks have steps you can take to try to stop bullying, but at what point do personal attacks become bullying? At what point do you report the person’s activities to the administrators and stick the bullying label on it? One nasty review with a personal attack or derogatory words is unpleasant, but it isn’t bullying until that same person or their friends or cohorts make another attack. And even if they spread their dislike onto other social media networks, it isn’t bullying unless it happens repeatedly over a period of time. By definition bullying means that the attacks are sustained. Sustained is a vague word, though. At what point could you say something is sustained? After one day, two, three? Or would it require a week? The answer to that depends on the sensitivity of the person being attacked, the nature of the attacks, and on how … [Read more...]
WWW #16 Do you believe these emails?
This post is part of 'WORLDS WITHIN WORLDS', a series of writings about Prunella (Ella) Smith, author, editor & reviewer, and the many worlds she inhabits: her physical reality; her online world where disgruntled author Dita stalks; the worlds of the books she edits; her dream world, and the world beneath the veil of her ordinary reality. Click here for the previous offerings in reverse order, or here for links to them in order. Worlds Within Worlds: Dita's evil emails?'(Or some such title) I check the time, lean back in my office chair, raise my arms above my head and arch my back in a luxurious stretch. It’s time for a break. Kelee’s story isn’t a difficult one to edit. The author has done most of it herself, but it still takes an intense focus. When there’s no line editing to do, I do a copy edit, and that’s not so open to interpretation. Grammar either works or it doesn’t, and every sentence has to end with a full stop, right? I can’t keep that level of concentration up … [Read more...]
