TROLLING AUTHORS

I was never 'victimised/bullied' or whatever you want to call it until I became an author... that in itself is very telling. Why are authors being targeted? Why should writing a story mean that people try to publicly humiliate you and make it their mission to destroy not only your reputation but that of your work?

Trolling authors seems to have become a bit of a trend in the on-line writing community, whether it be reviews on Amazon, Goodreads, Smashwords or posting their stories on writing sites. It is a shameful practice and not something I knew existed, let alone prepared myself for when I decided to try my hand at writing. However, when I posted my draft work on-line for people to read and provide feedback, 'Feedback' not 'Abuse', I found myself targeted by Trolls, who leave 'Abuse' they insist is 'Feedback'.

There is difference between 'Constructive' and 'Destructive' criticism. I have found that some take the word 'Critique' and replace it with 'Critic'. Unfortunately they often view that word to mean that they should post a negative review not only of the story but of the author. 

There was a time when a 1* review meant that the story was not to the readers taste. However, 'fake reviewers' aka trolls are using it to signify that they 'don't want to read it'. How can you 'review' something you don't want to read? Why would you search for the story just to mark it 1* and add it to a shelf on Goodreads entitled 'Never want to read'? That is akin to searching for all the DVD's you don't want to watch and marking them down. It is not only a waste of time and effort but leaves us unable to trust reviews. 

It doesn't make sense to write a review based on the fact that you 'don't want to read it' or 'Don't like the author'. To create an army of sock puppet accounts (fake accounts) with the specific intention of marking all of an authors work with 1* is crazy.

Some trolls have more sock puppets than a Muppets movie and even use them to interact with themselves on threads. Bizarrely it has been noticed that men tend to use women's names for their sock puppets... probably because they don't have the balls to use their own name.

A review is an evaluation of a publication, not the author. 

WHY DO THEY DO IT?

Your guess is as good as mine. I've come to the conclusion that perhaps they don't really understand the word critique or know how to write a review. They may have watched too many programmes with a food critic in a restaurant making a chef tremble in fear. That is the only example they have of a critic, so in their mind the author becomes the chef and they sit behind their computer screen (aka dinner table), feeling superior whilst dismissing the authors work without even trying it. 

Realistically the only person who will ever get a 5* review from the troll is 'themselves'. They rarely post a good review unless it is for a friend and declare themselves judge, jury and sometimes executioner of an authors entire series of work, both past, present and future. They click 1* on each story without stopping to read it or type a review. Why... because they can't write a review when they haven't read the story. I wouldn't be surprised if they had never read a book in their entire troll life. They obviously don't enjoy reading so why bother?

Sure there are those who review stories they didn't enjoy but they will have a vast mixture of honest and insightful reviews on their page with constructive feedback. Trolls don't.

THE DARKER SIDE OF TROLLING

Trolls often make wild assumptions on the authors private life. They only ever post a review that is critical of the writer, tearing strips off them.  They get 'brave with the keyboard' and over opinionated to the point of cyber bullying. 

Examples of what constitutes cyberbullying include communications that seek to intimidate, control, manipulate, put down, falsely discredit, or humiliate the recipient. The actions are deliberate, repeated, and hostile behaviour intended to harm another. Cyberbullying has been defined by The National Crime Prevention Council: “When the Internet, cell phones or other devices are used to send or post text or images intended to hurt or embarrass another person."^[5][6]

A cyberbully may be a person whom the target knows or an on-line stranger. A cyberbully may be anonymous and may solicit involvement of other people on-line who do not even know the target. This is known as a 'digital pile-on.'^[7] 

I've witnessed a number of authors who have closed all their social media accounts, because someone with no writing skills of their own has decided to attack them. Having someone mark down their work and bring along other trolls to do the same is too much for them to take. Some have even given up writing completely because they have had their confidence knocked so badly by these 'review imposters'. Others close their accounts because trolls start to target their author friends and mark their work down too. 

I recently had to do this myself to prevent trolls attacking my friends in order to hurt me. Luckily it is all resolved now and the bullies apologised, promising never to do it again and calling off their minions. I think they realised there are no winners, they were wasting time and effort trying to destroy the reputation of an author who was just another name on their hit list, put out there for everyone to bash until the next victim came along. Unfortunately for them their anonymity was removed with a simple IP address trace by an anti bullying site STGRB. The trolls were furious when they were names and shamed, they called on their fellow trolls to arms. The fire they had started raged out of control along with their tempers. They ended up getting burnt themselves but they learnt a valuable lesson in the process. 

As a writer you know you are never going to please everyone. You don't expect 5*'s from every reviewer. A reader could fall in love with one of your stories and gives it top marks, along with a lovely review stating they can't wait to read more of your work. However, that next story may not appeal to them as much as the first so they mark it lower. Sometimes it is just 2*'s and no review notes. It can be as simple as they don't like historical romance and found it boring, whereas they loved your paranormal romances. They don't hate you for it and send you abusive messages.  Trolls do. 

If I receive a 2* review I am keen to read it to see what both, did and didn't, appeal to the reader. I've been fortunate to receive reviews from readers that vary, and sites like Goodreads and Wattpad allow me to engage with the reviewer to gain more insight into both the positives and negatives they experienced whilst reading that 'story'. Note I said the story... not author. 

A review should be about the story. For someone to write a review which is focused solely on the author is wrong. The sites are asking for a review on the content of the literature. Not insults and assumptions regarding the author. Reviews like that end up containing more fiction than the story they should be reviewing. 

For most authors writing is a compulsion, we have to get the story out of our heads. If people enjoy reading them, that is a BONUS! Writing a story shouldn't mean you get attacked on-line by trolls who make it their mission to ruin your life, both writing and personal.  

TROLL CONTROL

Don't let trolls change your work. Sure reviews can making you question your writing style and your plot line but demanding you make changes to appease them... No! It's called Troll Control. You are the author, not them. If they don't like it there are plenty more stories out there for them to read. 

If you get a negative review, so what, everyone does. Take from it any points you feel would truly benefit you as a writer. Ignore the other nonsense and move on to the next review. In my experience as a writer we can often focus so much on that one negative review that we forget all the positive ones we received too. 

WHAT IS LIKE TO BE TROLLED?

I have been trolled on and off for the past couple of years. I have received trolling comments from the same person, who created several fakes accounts with the sole intention of abusing me and got their friends to join in... for years. The comments they left were not reviews or feedback, they were trolling comments, abusive emails and most recently 1* reviews on my Goodreads account. The troll denies 'stalking' me but if I have to block someone to prevent them sending me abusive messages and they keep creating fake accounts on sites purely so they can send me another... that is stalking and trolling. If they carry on periodically attacking me for years, watching my every move looking for an opportunity to have another pop at me... that is stalking and trolling. If they search for my work on-line with the sole intention of marking all my stories with 1* (not one else, just me)... that is stalking and trolling. 

HOW DOES TROLLING START?

They become invested in the story and either you let them down by not changing something 'Troll control' or you are writing the same genre and they want to take you out as competition. Sometimes is just because they are bored and you were the name on their roulette wheel. The roulette wheel is usually when you are doing well, been featured by a site or have too many 5*'s for their liking... no one can be that good... except them.

The Troll Roll Call... They update their status to vent how much they hate you. They find something to dislike, be it your writing style, age, race, gender, sexuality, nationality, or your face... your profile picture can be picked apart in seconds. Then it starts to gain momentum.They receive the attention they were hoping for from their followers and start to turn others against you. The other trolls attack you for upsetting their friend. You block them but start getting the emails from fake accounts that they have set up purely to attack you and 1* your stories.

Believe it or not some people have vehemently defended the bullies rights to troll, calling it 'freedom of speech' and denying it is 'hate speech', which most site have rules against. They are delusional. When someone turns on a computer they may worry about being attacked by viruses e.g Trojan, Malware etc. Millions is spent each year by users on antivirus software to protect against them. For those who have been trolled... viruses become the least of their worries. They are more worried about the latest email or attack from the spiteful, vindictive, manipulative people who relish tormenting others. Their sole purpose of going on-line is to bully. They find like minded negative trolls to join forces with and brag about their latest target. They give out false information to spur others to join in. 

Trolls don't take the time to go and verify any of the information they are given, they want to take a pop at someone... so why waste time with the truth? They can have evidence blazing in front of them, to show that the accusations are not correct, yet they blindly jump on the bandwagon and start mudslinging. They are groomed by others, told what they should do and how they should to it e.g. 1* the authors work or send very nasty messages. 

They attack you as instructed and rush back to brag, where they are applauded by others which gives them a euphoric rush. It becomes addictive. It is a terrible practice and sites like Goodreads, Amazon, Wattpad, Facebook, Twitter etc are struggling daily to keep the sites clear of this type of user. It is not a task I envy but some sites have it more in control than others. 

GOODREADS STANCE:

Trying to remove all reviews that contain bias would be an impossible task, as reviews are inherently subjective and we don’t have any way of knowing who’s associated with whom. That’s not something that we can accurately police on our end, and we have to be consistent in how we apply our policies. 

That said, creating sock puppet accounts to deflate the ratings of a particular book does violate our Terms. If you see any of that, or if (troll) continues to attempt to message you or contact you, please do not hesitate to flag the material or send us links to the content, and we will take appropriate action.

Best regards,

The Goodreads Team

Wattpad one the other hand have Ambassadors as well as a team of Wattpad employees. These are users who volunteer to police the forums, chatrooms, profiles etc. The site gives them permission to act on their behalf, to intervene in disagreements and remind users of the sites T&C. These ambassadors find themselves tagged by people who are either being attacked or witness it. It gives users and immediate way to bring it to the attention of the site 24/7 and allow someone to step in. They calm the situation down and encourage users to move on, but if they arrive and see an 'attack' in progress they close down the thread immediately. They issue a warning to all involved and report it to head office. Users who persistently abuse the site will be suspended or have the account removed permanently. Unfortunately most trolls have set up several sock accounts so don't care. No sooner have Wattpad deleted an account than they start to use one of their others. At least they acknowledge there is an issue and are trying to manage it. 

HONEST, NEGATIVE REVIEWS

Not every critic is a troll. There is a definite difference between a 'honest' negative reviews and a negative trolling one. Someone making personal comments about you, wishing you and your family ill health e.g. cancer or death, and saying they can't stand you or your work... is not a review. I am just grateful that during the numerous times I was targeted I had support from both the reading and writing community but those who supported me found themselves becoming targets as a result. 

Most recently Anne Rice has been very proactive in wanting to affect change on these sites. She is not asking them to removing honest low star reviews. She is asking them to find a way to identify fake reviewers and abusive users. To hold them accountable for their actions in line with the sites T&C. Anne was attacked for taking that stance, and has not only had to ban trolls from her FB page but watch as they attempt to rip her apart with personal, ageist and offensive remarks on sites like Amazon.

What is wrong with wanting to trust a review, like we used to? To know that when we read a review or see the book ratings, that there is not a smear campaign attached to it. That we are not reading a sock puppet review. There was a rumour that Amazon was only going to show 'verified purchase' reviews in order to combat it but what if you are gifted the book or borrow it from a library? Maybe you read it years ago and seeing it advertised reminded you to review it. It would silence the voices of a large number of honest reviewers. 

Authors are also faced with readers who ask for a refund and leave a bad review. It is becoming a real problem as some of these are the 'fake reviewers' who are doing it to mark down their competition whilst leaving a link to their own story in the review!

HOW DO WE START TO DEAL WITH IT?

'Don't feed the trolls' is true for the most part, ideally ignore them so they can crawl back under the bridge they came from. To reply to them is like giving them an orgasm wrapped in a bow, as they literally get off it. Your time is best spent writing another chapter for those who appreciate your work. Your success is a trolls poison! 

If they get so out of hand that you are being victimised not criticised... call them out. Name and shame. As you will often find they have other victims. You can support each other and build stronger defences as you network with others. Don't sit back and make it easy for them to kick you when you're down. There are groups out there who will help you. You are not alone but be warned, Trolls don't like to be named and will play victim the minute they know the gig is up. 

There is a simple answer to their problem. Say 'Sorry'. If they have been instigating attacks against you they need to make it a public apology so everyone knows to back off. It is their fault there is an audience, they worked up the crowd so it is their job to calm it down. Do the honourable thing, admit it, apologise and set an example by staying away. Simple. 

It is important to note that Cyberbullying is illegal. IP addresses can be traced easily now so more and more bullies are being called out. Website are liable as publishers for everything that appears on their site including the content posted by their users. If you want to take a libel or defamation case forward to the courts, the web owner must now provide the identity of the troll. Custodial sentences are being passed for those found guilty of trolling, anywhere from 8 weeks to 28 weeks. 

A majority of states have laws that explicitly include electronic forms of communication within stalking or harassment laws.^[25][26]

Most law enforcement agencies have cyber-crime units and often Internet stalking is treated with more seriousness than reports of physical stalking.^[27] Help and resources can be searched by State or area.

Trolls won't go peacefully, they are too sadistic for that, but don't retaliate with counter-trolling comments. That is of no use to anyone, stooping to their level is what they want.

Everyone is entitled to their opinion, it doesn't mean they are right and whilst we always seem to hear the trolls voice the loudest we should concentrate on more important voices... real readers. Those who hound us for updates and fall in love with our stories. Who leave us encouraging comments and reviews. Who mark our stories 5*, 4*, 3*, 2* or 1* and we know it is a 'honest' review. That is all we are asking for.  

WHAT CAN YOU DO TO HELP?

• Support an author with a honest review. 
• If you see a review that is blatantly trolling, report it, and select 'unhelpful'. Most sites have an options similar to this. 
• Share your review on social media along with a link to the story. Even if it is a low star review, someone may be intrigued by the story and find it more appealing.
• Don't engage with negative people on threads. They are looking to pull you into their fight by pretending to have your back. They will stab you in it. 
• If you are being trolled and the person is flaming your accounts, close them. They can't attack without a target and site can deal with reports without your account being open. You are effectively 'pissing on their fire'. 
• Keep screenshots of abuse if you are going to take court action. You will be asked to provide it by the police. 

Above all continue to enjoy reading, writing and reviewing.