Friday 30 May 2014

SOCIAL NETWORK UPDATE

HAVE YOU CLOSED YOUR ACCOUNTS?

Yes, I have closed my Wattpad, Goodreads and Facebook accounts.

WHY?

To stop trolls. Thankfully this has now been resolved and those involved have apologised to all concerned for their behaviour.

HOW DID THE SITES DEAL WITH THE TROLLS?

To be honest I don't really know. Having closed my accounts I wasn't privy to what was being said.

STGRB advised me that the main antagonists had been in contact with them and realised the error of their ways. They were regretful and apologised. The trolls promised to remove all their posts including the fake reviews. STGRB site would in turn remove the posts identifying them as bullies and replace it with a post featuring their apology.

GOODREADS sent me an email 'sincerely apologising' for not dealing with the situation effectively in the first instance, they had assumed the reviewers whilst 'biased' were 'entitled to their opinion' as reviews are 'inherently subjective'. They soon realised that was not the case. They have promised that should I wish to open a new account they will monitor it closely. They added this, which was a lovely gesture: 

You have received overwhelmingly positive reviews. Not many authors have works that have achieved an average rating of 4.5 or higher - and you have several!

WATTPAD also apologised for the delay in responding to the issue and my 'being placed into this'. They gathered the facts before going any further. I am told they took the situation very seriously and helped resolve the matter. I did not witness it due to closing my account, but I have faith that they handled it with a mixture of diplomacy and forcefulness in regards to the sites T&C.

WILL YOU REOPEN YOUR ACCOUNTS?

No. The smoke is still clearing and I have other matters to attend to but will keep my blog updated with 'Reviews' and information on my own publishing journey.

Special thanks to STGRB, Anne Rice, Melissa Douthit, Athena Parker etc for highlighting what I was being subjected to while ensuring the situation was resolved amicably, even when they came under attack themselves. Also for supporting my decision to close my accounts in order to prevent other innocents getting attacked. Thank you for your support.

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10 comments:

  1. Anonymous9 June 2014 at 00:01

    I am terribly sorry to hear of your troubles. I am also incredibly disappointed to be unable to view updates of Mae Day 2. Oh, how I loved this series, along with your other stories! I hope that you will publish each of these stories, as I will be an avid consumer of each of them. As a fellow author, I have great respect for your ability to craft a tale. Keep writing! You truly have talent and a unique perspective on the world around you.

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  2. MariaCooney9 June 2014 at 00:30

    Don't worry I am editing ready for publishing. :) If I ever need to test new material I will go to Wattpad. In the meantime I have 17 others than need to be published first.

    Thank you for all the support and taking the time to read my draft work. I am glad you enjoyed it. :)

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    1. Anonymous11 June 2014 at 00:50

      I am a huge fan of your Wattpad stories and was shocked to see your account closed, but understand your reasons behind it. Are you planning on publishing to Amazon? Can't wait to read Wow! X, Do Not Touch!, again and find out the end of Kismet the series (when you finish it).

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    2. MariaCooney11 June 2014 at 00:59

      I can't see your name but thank you. I will be publishing to Amazon. DNT is one which doesn't need as much work as the others so may be published sooner. Kismet has a lot of work as I need to figure out where to stop and start each instalment as the end of the first will change to keep the word count lower.

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  3. Charlotte U. P18 June 2014 at 13:41

    Will you let us know where and when we can buy/read your books? I had several in my library, but had not yet found the time to read them all.

    I simply cannot let go of your work after reading Stowaway, the story did not end! And so I need to know where I can read book number two.

    But also I have been looking forward to read your other work to. This whole ordeal was a bummer to us all, mostly you offcourse, but it affected us readers of your work to.

    I wish you good luck in the wrighting to come :)

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    1. MariaCooney19 June 2014 at 17:01

      Yes of course Charlotte. Don't worry I will be keeping people up to date. I have a few things to sort out with work and family life then it is editing, editing, editing ready for publishing. You will get to finish the books for sure.

      Thank you for all your support. It is greatly appreciated.

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  4. GBscotland23 June 2014 at 15:52

    Hi I was sad today when I hopped on my bus home and opened up my wattpad app to continue reading Love is in the heir. Admittedly I haven't been on their for a while it was unfortunately exam season. I couldn't find the book so I came home and explored the net and found this blog I hope to god you make your way back to those sites soon because unless I am mistaken you wrote Love in bloom? which can I say is one of my favourite books I have ever read, next to, of course love is in the heir. I would love to finish the book and hope that when you do return these nasty little trolls leave you be and give your writing the chance to flourish and entertain others the way it has me. hope to see the books back soon. ps is there anywhere I can still find love is in the heir, whether it be free or for sale? thanx GB

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    1. MariaCooney26 June 2014 at 01:07

      Thank you for taking the time to search for this blog and lave this message.

      Please don't worry about the trolls, they apologised and headed off back to their bridges. Hopefully they learnt a lesson on how to treat people.

      In the meantime, I will be staying away from posting more works online as I am editing ready for publishing and when I post online I get hundreds sometimes thousands of notifications a day and that takes time away from writing, as I have to read and reply to each of them. Then I get the pleas for updates and with several stories ont he go, I can't keep everyone happy. Regardless of the fact that I wrote and posted several stories last year, was awarded most active on Wattpad etc, I still got complaints and pressure that I wasn't updating quick enough. That is something I don't have any more since closing them down.

      I will look to returning when I get time to focus on the editing, publishing and all the other things in my life that need taking care of first, since I put them on the back burner for wattpad and that was not the way things should be.

      There isn't anywhere to read them at the moment but when they are published. I will advise people.

      Thanks again. :)

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  5. Anonymous9 July 2014 at 05:12

    So sad that you had so many problems on Wattpad! I miss your stories!!!! You were my favourite author. Every story cracked me up at some point, with tonnes of heartbreaking and uplifting moments! Sorry if I was one of the annoying readers begging for an update! Looking forward to seeing your works published! You deserve loads of success!!!

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    1. MariaCooney9 July 2014 at 14:56

      As a writer I can tell you, having readers beg for more is a huge compliment. Not a complaint. it is just sometimes we need to step back from the internet and avoid distraction to be more productive. I was due to take an editing break when the trolls started so don't worry I will be back.. Just not immediately.

      In the meantime I have to publish at least one book before I return.

      Thank you so much for your support. :)

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