Tuesday, March 02, 2010

Right as Ninepence

That's me. (Though your guess is as good as mine as to why ninepence in particular is deemed to be right.) By which I mean my back appears to be ok. I didn't get back to work last week unfortunately, but I'm back this week. And a lovely week it is so far. Crisp, cold, frosty mornings giving way to beautiful, warm, sunny days. Perfect. It won't last of course, but I'm enjoying it while it does.

I was thinking (in a confused and muddled fashion) this week about the way the internet distances people. It brings us closer together, sure, I have friends from all over the world now, with whom I can chat at no extra cost, as often as I choose. And yet there's a separation still. Not from my friends but from people in general. It's a lack of manners, a lack of respect. Perfect strangers seem to feel that it's ok to demand things. Often in the rudest possible language. The sense of entitlement coupled with a shortage of common courtesy in gobsmacking sometimes.

People feel they have the right to demand updates to stories, that writers have placed on the web for readers to enjoy free of charge.(And sometimes (though not quite as often in my experience) writers can do the same, demanding x-number of comments before they update, sorry, but if you do that then I stop reading). And then they flounce off in a huff if they don't get one quick enough. Or worse still, offer personal insults and offensive, profane or nasty little comments. And if they do get their updates... do they say "thank you"?? Do they heck. It's free people. You don't have the right to anything!!

A writer friend of mine recently posted her latest novel on her group. Some folk weren't satisfied with this and had a whinge about the format. Because she hadn't posted it in the format they wanted for their ebook reader. She was a little frustrated and annoyed but she was still far more polite with them than I would have been. (I'd have probably sent them here). Another writer friend wrote a long email which pretty much said that people shouldn't be so damned ungrateful (but in far more polite language). I had to agree with her. And a third friend commented about the numbers. The sites and stories are getting just as many (if not more) hits as they were five or ten years ago. But only about a tenth of the feedback. Now I know it's hard sometimes, to write a long review, detailing all the things you liked, what worked for you, etc. But is it really so hard to simply say, "Enjoyed your story, thanks for writing"??

I can't claim to be a saint here, either. I seldom feed the authors these days. But I'm going to try to do so in future. If you want to keep reading, if you don't want writers to be discouraged and stop, how about you do the same?? Send thanks to all the writers out there.

If you read 'em - feed 'em.

Ze

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