Twitter flog

[dwg.livejournal.com]

So...Beauty was released yesterday(ish). Our story begins with a fan tweeting the following to LKH:

[ source ]
This is important for two reasons:

1) she retweeted it to her near 33,000 followers, and
2) it sets the context for what happens next.

Because later, LKH returned to twitter to thank fans for the generally positive feedback she'd been getting over social media and then...it just goes horribly wrong.

@LKHamilton: Thanks to everyone who bought Beauty! Appreciate all the nice & fun comments. Glad everyone liked the added preview from Kiss the Dead. link

@sognanteD: re: Beauty. I hope you don't read reviews. I love your work. 5 stars from me. Take that critics! link

@LKHamilton: My puzzlement is why, if they hate my writing, they keep reading my books. They seem to live on Amazon to give me trash reviews. link

@LKHamilton: I actually don't read reviews, normally, but my on-line security person says its mostly the same 12 people who always hate me. link

@MichelleBowser: Have seen it happen in writing groups when 1 gets published, others turn suddenly hateful. Sad, true sign of failure link <-- LKH retweeted this to her followers.

@xandersmummy: how on earth could anyone trash your writing and send hateful thoughts. Your bloody brilliant. I'm hooked 100% link

@Stroppy_Girl: I have read some of the crap on Amazon - srsly, some of those people have major personality disorders. link

@LKHamilton: But yes, most of my haters are wannabe writers. Some loved my writing until I got "too popular". Jealousy is ugly link

@LKHamilton: Thank you for the kind words. I don't really understand the level of negativity that some of these people embrace. link

@xandersmummy: No problem, obviously they a screw loose or more like 50. Insane. Whenever I pick a book up I struggle to put it down link

@Tracy_R:  Im gonna take a stab in the dark & guess the negativity is mainly coming from the involuntarily celibate ;) link <-- Retweeted

@LKHamilton: I admit I wonder how much sexual frustration is behind the hateful comments. link

@damnia13: I have not been ugly in a long time lol.I wish people could give there opinon without being nasty. link <-- Retweeted

@damnia13: I think LKH is an awsome person.If you do not like her book dont read them.She think's of others and she gave me some really link <-- Retweeted

@damnia13: words that have helped me.If you cant be nice to her than dont say anything at all.She inpierses me to me a better person link

I made a note of what was retweeted, because these are messages that a professional author apparently thinks are okay to send to the fanbase, especially one as divided as this. All of these are public tweets, and Twitter will thread conversations so anyone can follow what's going on.

Until now, LKH hasn't outright said anything publically about her critics. At least, not since Dear Negative Reader. We've had to read between the lines on blogs and in the books themselves, and what's more? Beauty comes with one of those:


That entire paragraph is something to behold because it manages to encompass a laundry list of issues in one convenient slab of text. I'll get to that when I break down the story for you guys. But my point is, this story has barely been released and hours later the author gets on Twitter to say almost the exact same thing.

So in one fell swoop, LKH has dismissed any and all criticism in an insulting generalisation, confirmed pretty much every snide "you're just jealous" remark in the books, set an appalling example to those that look up to her, let people know that it's totally all right to attack people for not liking something and daring to say so, and told everyone what she really thinks about her readers.

Because opinions aside, that's what we all are: her readers.

ETA 12/5: naomi_jay brings us author LM Pruitt's response and a note on Jennifer Armintrout's comment on the matter.

And this popped up in Laurell's twitter feed:



[link]
No context for what the drama may be, so infer from that what you will.

ETA 13/5: I'd post this via blogfloggery but I feel it deserves to be part of this post for the context. LKH has blogged about haters. Text for those who hate visiting her blog:

They will hate you. Someone, somewhere, sometime, will hate you. It is going to happen at some point in your life, probably several times. You can’t be nice enough, or good enough, or scary enough, or bully enough, to prevent them from hating you.

Why will they hate you? So many reasons, here are just a few.

They may hate you for the color of your skin, your sexual orientation, that you’re prettier than they are, that you’re uglier than they are, more popular, less popular, your religion, your lack of religion, that you’re more successful than they are, that you’re less successful than they are, that you are a better athlete than they will ever be, that you’re a worse athlete than they are now, that you dropped a ball, you caught a ball, you ran a touchdown, you fumbled a touchdown, that you write better than they ever will, that you have a happy family & they don’t, that your married & they want to be, that you’re single & they want to be, you have kids, you don’t have kids, you have a bigger house than they do, better job, no job, a lot of money, very little money, your grammar doesn’t meet their standards, you’re taller, shorter, too loud, too soft spoken, getting more sex than they are . . . The list goes on forever.

Don’t let the hatred get you down, or stop you from doing what you need to do, just do it, be yourself, & let them hate you. They will hate you no matter what you do, just don’t let that hatred, that envy, that jealousy, do anything, but let you know you are you, & since the only thing you can be is yourself, let them hate you. Let them eat their own hearts out with envy. Let them choke themselves on their feelings of inadequacy that they project on you. Let their jealousy blind them to their own highest truth. Let their self-loathing use you as a substitute for themselves. Let their fear narrow their world & destroy their own possibility of happiness. Know that hate breeds only bitterness & failure in the end. Do not hate them back, because then they own you. Don’t give them any power in your life. Don’t try to understand them, because if you are doing what you are most meant to do, following your greatest & best path in your life, you will have no time to hate, you will be too busy living.

You guys, just look at this. People are just so jealous, and if you pick apart that second paragraph? It's everything she said over twitter and then some. The third paragraph is dedicated solely to show everyone how much she does not care.

And smile! We've made it to sf_drama - hat tip to rodentfanatic for this post, cruise on over to check out the discussions.

ETA 14/4: Here's something from Laurell's Facebook, re: the above blog post:


[link]
O RLY. We're expected to believe that this is nothing but coincidence? Can we add this to the conspiracy of twelve that live to trash reviews? Where's my tinfoil, she might be listening to my brain-thoughts...

ETA 16/5: This popped up in my Google alerts - Everything I learned about bad author behaviour, I learned from Laurell K Hamilton by Jen Moody, where she cites Hamilton's ongoing behaviour and the epic Candice Sams meltdown as prime examples of what not to do and thus be a better person.

As important as it is to learn what to do to be a good and successful writer, I think it’s just as important to learn what not to do. Accepting criticism, being (even marginally) gracious, is a huge part of a writer’s life; if you’re unable to do this without, say, fire-roasting everyone who has ever read your work, then you’re probably—just maybe—in the wrong profession.

Here’s looking at you, Hamilton and Sams.

ETA 18/5: Things have been mostly quiet on the Twitter front until today, when Hamilton and Yasmine Galenorn had a short exchange about how they don't read reviews, and then this happened:


[link]
If this is to believed, then I ask how on earth she knows about the Amazon reviews - her "online security person" be damned in this, because surely this falls under the umbrella of how everyone "knows better" than to tell her about Amazon.

Comments

[ladyniko.livejournal.com]

She showed up late on Friday, then didn't want to do a late night reading of her latest book because she had to put her daughter to bed and she didn't sign off on the schedule, (I'm sorry, but this con is very considerate of guest's needs & they damn well make sure the schedule is signed off on before they go live with it.) The topper was that come Sunday, she was supposed to do a coffee and small gathering/reading as a wrap up but lo and behold, she was nowhere to be found - she'd left early without bothering to tell anyone on Con Com that she was leaving. (I was the one that told them because I saw her walking out of the hotel with her daughter in tow.)

I think there were other issues as well, but those were the ones I could remember off the top of my head. Needless to say, she's never been invited back to this con.

[magdalen77.livejournal.com]

That's probably why she goes to so few cons anymore. The con organizers have her number and don't ask her to come. If she wants to go she has to go on her own dime.

[nialla]

There are also reports that other authors on panels with her don't fall for her bullshit. I've heard some will actually roll their eyes at her even if they don't say anything.

I guess they're just jealous haterz too.

[astronauta.livejournal.com]

Wow. Just.. wow. That is some ego on her.

Excuse my ignorance, but wouldn't she have been paid to do all that (greetings, readings, etc). Or is this like a give and take thing where cons can brag about having someone and the artist could promote their work?

[cristata_alba]

I can't speak for Midsouth, but there's usually some kind of exchange involved.

It depends on the con & the guest how that works - at the con I staffed, the con would pay for airfare, hotel costs & food for every guest, and had a staff member pick up the guest at the airport. (Versus volunteers who ran panels, who only got money off of their admission.) Some guests have appearance fees beyond the expenses, and some guests insist that the con pay for 1+ other people's hotel & flight - their spouse, or a child. In exchange, the guest commits to doing a certain number of panels or events, having their name used in advertisements, that sort of thing. This all goes into a guest contract, which is signed by both the con and the guest/their lawyer.

So while LKH may not have been paid directly, the con invested money in her and that was a total dick move on her part not to fulfill her end of the bargain. :/ (And it's not like conrunners don't talk about it when guests pull this sort of crap...) I'm with you, that's a hell of an ego.

[astronauta.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the insight! This is really interesting. It's also rather telling of her character. This definitely warranted a bit of blacklisting.

[ladyniko.livejournal.com]

Yes, she was paid an appearance fee. She cashed the check, then promptly "forgot" she was scheduled to do the con and didn't want to return the money to the con when she balked at having to hold up to her contract.

So, since it was too late to buy plane tix for her and her daughter, they ended up driving down (which is just as easy, considering that it takes almost as much time to drive from STL to Memphis as it does to get to the airport, park the car, check in, get through security, get on the plane, fly and then, get out of the airport once you land...)

Like Silver Saber stated above: Fees depend on the con and guest - some cons, authors just set up a table in like an area called "author's alley." They can get free space for that and not be paid to be at the con. Now, if you're talking about a Guest of Honor (GOH) like LKH was at this con, they're paid a fee for the weekend to appear at all the events. Some well-established authors every once in a while will waive that fee in exchange for the con donating a certain amount to their favorite charity.

If you're a GOH at a con, you're under contract to appear and if you take that money & don't show up to all your panels because you pull a prima donna act like LKH did? The con will make sure to never invite you again and could quite possibly sue you for breach of contract. (That's something cons do not like to do, because then it earns them a rep of being hard asses and they would rather want people to come & be their GOHs & such.)

[astronauta.livejournal.com]

Oh God. What the hell. Arrogance was expected, but this high level of disrespect was not. I feel really bad for those involved behind the scenes.

She's not only killing her books, she's killing her image. D: