"Talk It Out" Thursday: Authors and Social Media

"Talk It Out" Thursday is a feature done here, at Crystal in Bookland, where a discussion topic is given each week and we discuss our opinion on it. 

At the end of this post I will have up what we will be discussing next week, please feel free to join but make sure to link back. 

Since this is my first week starting this feature I asked a few bloggers to also chime in with their opinion on this discussion. Recently I have experienced really being affected by the way an author handles themselves on social media. 

Over the last two weeks I have actually unfollowed two authors because of their "bad behavior". I refuse to name these authors, so don't bother asking, but it got to the point that every time they would tweet I was cringing. One was overly condescending when talking about other authors and pretty much the book community in general, not so much their fans but just other writers. The other author I found to be very rude to their fans. I was quite appalled by this. When I first started noticing it, I thought well we all have our bad days, then I noticed this wasn't a rare thing, it was a continuous one. This author was being really rude just talking about random things when a follower would tweet them, it wasn't like the author was being attacked by anyone or anything either. It just seems to be their general attitude. 

The thing is I have copies of both of these authors books to read...now I'm just looking at them going "I don't even care to read you" because honestly after seeing this stuff I don't want to support these people with their career. Why would I? Maybe I'm supposed to separate writing from author, and that would be fine before the days of Twitter and Facebook, but now it just doesn't work that way for me. 

When authors act this way on social media nothing about it makes me want to go and spend my money to support them. I pretty much will just write them off and never look back no matter how great their book sounds or all the praise it is getting. 

Now on the other side of things, when I interact with an author that is so overly amazing I want to read all the things! I've had several authors that I start chatting with, and to be honest their book probably never would have been on my radar, but because of their awesome personalities and just who they are, I add their book to my TBR to give it a try. I find myself wanting to support them even though I haven't read a word they have written yet. This is not to say in anyway that I will praise their book if I don't like it, because I want, but that's a whole other discussion for another day (seriously that one is coming soon). But it does mean if I didn't like one of their books I will probably be more willing to give another one of theirs a try. 

But to give you a little example of what I mean, lets talk about Megan Erickson. She just put out a debut NA novel, MAKE IT COUNT. Most of you know, I'm not the biggest fan of New Adult. I will pick up something an author I already love wrote because I love their other books or I may pick up one that has a ton of hype, but I'm not ever out scouting for a new NA on a regular basis by any means. Now Megan wrote a NA and when we first started talking it was just about random things, and ended up she is so frickin awesome (seriously if you don't follow her you should, because her tweets just rock) I decided to read her book, which I'm super glad I did because it's fantastic! 

Other things I really love about authors on social media is the ease of being able to reach out to them and chat about anything and everything, stalking them, erm....I mean following their updates on all bookish things, and even getting book recommendations, because awesome writers know awesome writers, right? 

I asked a few blogger friends their thoughts on the subject and this it what they had to say:

"Social media personalities always affect how I will react to anyone -- author or not -- but it's especially more noticeable from authors since they're such a strong presence in the book/reading community. I've seen it from both sides -- an author willing to interact with readers or fans on social media actually makes me more inclined to read their book. Negative interactions or rude replies will quickly turn me off, even if the interaction is not with me. Your social media presence really says a lot about you, whether you intend it to come off that way or not. Once you say things, they're out there and they will continue to represent you, well, pretty much forever.

I think authors on social media can really amp up the promotion just by being nice and friendly and not even actively promoting their books -- In fact, if it's an author I'm not yet familiar with and we just start chatting, I may explore their books and get to know them more, and pick up that book on my own. But if they push that book on me instead of creating general discussion, that will turn me off. It's a very tricky business!" -Brittany @ The Book Addict's Guide

"I definitely do not follow the drama queens. No one has time to deal with that. It is unfortunate when authors feel they need to stir up drama to keep themselves in the spotlight. I do love to follow authors who interact with their fans and respond to messages. There is nothing cooler than having an author RT or favorite your tweet about them, or even respond with a thank you. I have met a few authors randomly over twitter and because of their fun personality I've started adding their books to my TBR. So while there are definitely pros and cons to this, I feel like if you can avoid the drama people by not following them and not feeding the trolls, you can really get a lot out of author social media presence." -Julie @ Chapter Break

"It definitely affects me too. I’ve had a few authors whose books I was interested in, who I followed on twitter. And then saw some Instances of really bad behavior and just NOPE. Not supporting that." -Nikki @ There Were Books Involved

My point here is that when authors have this negative way about them I absolutely can not and will not support them. If an author has a good social media presence I will definitely be more willing to pick up their book and support them however I can. Sometimes I wonder if some authors realize this and how much it affects us as readers with the way they interact with people. 

What about you guys? Is this something that you even notice? Or do you even care? 

Next Week's Topic: Reading/Reviewing for an Author You Interact With

 That awkward moment you are going to read/review a book for an author that's a friend/someone you communicate with often! What are your thoughts on it and how do you handle this? I will post next Thursday on this topic, if you decide to join  make sure to come and link your post with mine. :)