So here’s the thing:

Authors cannot prevent their agents/editors/publishers from picking up a book by another author, even if that author personally hurt their feelings.

Reviewers cannot prevent other readers from buying books, even if the author of that book personally hurt their feelings.

Hurt feelings aren’t very professional. Normal, yes. Human, yes. But not professional. Sharing them in public can affect your professional reputation. By that, I mean your reputation within a profession, whether as producer, consumer, or critic, regardless of whether it is your primary source of income or simply a hobby.

Behaving like a human causes other humans to treat you as such. This can work in your favour, or it can work against. Frequently it does both. Your professional reputation depends on who it works against and who it doesn’t. Hurt feelings seem to be particularly polarising, and sharing them in a public venue needs to be done with care, to minimise the chances of them working against you in future.

An author’s professional reputation can prevent authors from being picked up by agents/editors/publishers. It can prevent their books being read. A reviewer’s professional reputation can prevent readers taking their reviews seriously.

Some people both write both books and reviews. They need to be very, very good with words, and very, very professional about keeping hurt feelings out of public arenas, or their professional reputations take a double hit. This doesn’t mean they have to like everything they review. It just means they have to be professional in how they review it. If a reviewer (whether they are an author or not) only writes good reviews (or only writes bad reviews) this impacts their credibility, and thus their professional reputation as a reviewer. This frequently carries over into their professional reputation as a writer.

If you are an author who also reviews, there is a chance that at some point you will find yourself in the company of people you have reviewed. If both of you are professionals it shouldn’t matter how you rated their book. If the idea of people around people you’ve reviewed makes you uncomfortable, may I suggest not writing reviews? If you behave professionally, but the reviewed author doesn’t; hey, you have the higher moral ground. Enjoy it. Your professional reputation will come out of it much cleaner than theirs.

A negative review can prevent an author blurbing your book. Not having a blurb doesn’t stop that book ending up on shelves (or e-shelves). Blurbs are meant to help fans of one author find similar authors. If you didn’t like that author’s book, there’s a good chance that those who did won’t like yours. There’s also a good chance that the author’s agent/editor/publisher also has a different taste in books to you, and your book won’t appeal to them. Try sending it to the agent/editor/publisher of a book you did like. You’ve probably got more in common.

In conclusion: Publishing is like any other profession: if you are vocal about your dislike of a company’s products, it’s probably not a good place to seek employment. Try applying to a company you like instead.

However, this doesn’t make the Cult of Nice mandatory. In fact, it’s unprofessional. It damages the credibility of reviewers and lends itself to shielding the bad behaviour of others. If you can’t handle the idea that the people you are talking about may be reading what you’ve written, don’t write it. If you can’t handle reading what others have written about you, don’t read it. If everyone’s professional, it shouldn’t matter either way, and if people behave unprofessionally… well, that’s their reputation, not yours.

There is no YA Mafia. Go about your business…

(Prompted by:

Becca FitzPatrick’s Be Nice
Stacia Kane’s Publishing: It’s a Business! And it’s Hard Sometimes
Holly Black’s YA Mafia and the Ruination of Careers
Dia Reeves YA Mafia
Stacia Kane’s Reviews are for Readers
Cleolinda’s My New Layout is Teal and so are my Deer
Sarah Rees Brennan’s Hang up the Fedora: Reviews and the YA Mafia
Jane Little’s On Bloggers, Reviewers and Readers #Ivegotyourback

)

I apologise for abusing the phrase ‘professional reputation’ quite so extensively. I shall make up for it by attempting to insert the phrase ‘amateur reputation’ into a future post.