Guest Post: Zoe Whitten

Today, I’d like to talk about something which I’m sure could become a controversial topic, a phenomena I’ll call hate hype. You might not be clear on what I mean, so let me explain.

I did not find out about Twilight via a fan referral or by browsing books, but rather through all the people who hated it. Their hatred initially turned me away from the story without trying it, but over time the venom online became so toxic and over the top that I had to check the book for myself. And…I thought it was a nice fluffy romance. A lousy horror story, sure, but it was cute and made me laugh, so I think it accomplished its goal. I’m not as big a fan of the movies, but now that I’ve watched a few and read three of the five published titles, I consider myself a mild Twihard. (I’m aware of Midnight Sun but have chosen to respect Ms. Meyer by not reading her rough draft, even if I really, really want to.)

Another example. I see a lot of people hate on Justin Bieber. Some of it is the standard boy band jokes about him being too young to know anything. That’s coolio, but the people who tick me off are the haters who say “Justin looks like a girl.” There are some triggers to get my knee jerking, and this is a capital B I BIggie. Do you know how many times I’ve had my ass kicked for “acting like a girl?” The bullies tried to beat the girl out of me, and the adults mostly let it happen. And that’s why this kind of gender joking shit is not funny to me.

“Ha ha, yeah, Justin is a little boy who has a high-pitched voice.” Fine. “Oh Em Gee, Justin has a director’s cut movie in 3D? Isn’t he a little young for this much ass licking?” Heh, not bad, and still not crossing a boundary. “Har-har, such a pretty lesbian!” Whoa, you’re now crossing the line into douchebag territory.

So no, when some mean-spirited people give Bieber crap like, “This stupid kid looks like a girl,” it does not sit well with me. Instead of recording some dumb-ass YouTube video telling everyone to leave Justin alone, I bought Justin’s CD as an act of quiet rebellion. And…he’s not bad. He’s not super awesome like MGMT or Vampire Weekend, but he’s not as harsh as listening to Puberty Love on infinite loop. Some of his songs like Down to Earth and Overboard are really good, and others are sorta okay. Being honest, I can’t listen to First Dance without my mind going to the gutter over the lyrics, so I usually skip it. But, it’s the only song I’d skip on the album, and that’s for goofy personal reasons. I’d give My Worlds 3 stars. So, nothing spectacular, but nothing that makes me wanna barf. But then again, I like the Bee Gees and John Denver, so what the hell do I know about music?

But my point is, these are just two examples where the hatred of a person exceeded the product they put out, and in turn, that negative feedback eventually sent me back to look and see if the hate was really earned. And usually, it isn’t. (I say usually because I tried to read Dan Brown and felt he earned his criticism. Sorry, Dan, but I think you suck. Hubby tried your book last month, and he thought you sucked too.)

But no matter which example we’re looking at, the haters love baiting the fans for liking an “obviously flawed” product, making the fans more and more rabid in their defenses. Then the haters blame the fans for their raving antics. The haters see no fault in baiting or bullying because they’re “only having fun.” Bullying, no matter how mild, is always justified using the logic that the personal fun of the attacker is more important than the personal discomfort of the victim. But beyond this, the attacks are just troll behavior, the actions of a negative person looking for a reaction from anyone.

When they get it, haters then turn around and say, “See? Get a load of these crazy fans, this is why I really hate this artist.” So, you don’t base your opinion on the product the artist produces, but instead on the reaction of the fans you intentionally baited? And, how often do you engage in troll behavior like this? Do you earn money at this? Or frequent troll miles? Is your life so empty that the only joy you can find is in needling other people into agitation? And if you gleefully answered yes to that last question, dude, have you considered therapy, or at least a home prescription of marijuana? Cause that is some seriously fucked up issues you got there.

This belligerence from haters leads to fandoms which are scary to outsiders, but it also creates massive hate camps that accomplish the exact opposite of what they meant to do by funneling hate-weary people into fandoms. Which leads me to the question: is it still true that even bad press can be beneficial? Or, more directly, would I want an army of online haters telling people to avoid my work for being too Pagan, too violent, or too sexual, or too queer? Would it be a good thing if say, the Catholic church condemned my books, a la Dan Brown?

To deal with a negative crowd reaction like that, I think the only possible response is isolation. I notice how the people who generate the most hate are generally also the least publicly accessible. They tune themselves out to both the haters and the fans, and they just focus on what they do. They have to, or they’ll never get their job done.

Having my own hate hype and fandom machines would mean free publicity every single day. It doesn’t matter which hate camp we’re talking about, they can’t go 24 hours without finding a way to denigrate their favorite target du jour. The fans react with knee jerk regularity, stirring to defense without their idol rousing them and feeding the trolls exactly like they wanted. At a certain point, it just turns into trolls on both sides in a constant flame-baiting cycle. The fires somehow fuel each other regardless of whether the source material is used up or not.

If I had a rabid fandom and a hate machine, I could post the occasional blog with closed comments and let the fandom fight it out in some unrelated forum and safely out of my front yard. Every lob and counter-lob they throw is just another chance for an outsider to ask, “But really, who the hell is Zoe Whitten anyway?” In theory. But it would also mean denying myself the one thing I wanted most, which was an opportunity to talk to people. If the most vocal people out there talking up my name only say how much they hate me, I’d have no choice but to withdraw from the online world or risk never finding the inspiration for other stories. And that would make me a sad Zoe.

The other problem I see with this kind of promotion is, these haters can turn people off of me for a long, long time. Getting back to Twilight, the hate hype around the book kept me away for almost three years. It’s a good thing Ms. Meyer didn’t need my financial support, but at present, I am not doing so well. (I theorize that perhaps I might, if only my characters sparkled. Or if I was marketing my work better. That might help too. Yes.) But if a hate group created a long term boycott against me, I’m not sure the benefit of bad press could outweigh the detriments.

I would obviously prefer to have critics who are less venomous, but we can’t pick our critics and we can’t pick their noses. We can only thumb our noses at them for their bile.

In a perfect world, haters would muster the same professional behavior they demand from the people they mock. But here in the real world, they feel no such desire to be civil, and will often defend their right to be belligerent. Many will attempt a form of financial extortion on the creators who engage them: “Be nice, or I won’t buy your other products.” Yeah, because after you just ripped me a new asshole with a slew of personal slurs in your last blog post, the thing I desire now is a third asshole from you. No, at best, what you get is, I walk away and let you blather on in peace about how much you hate my guts and wish I would just give up. I’ve got better things to do with my time, but if you don’t, knock yourself out, Tiger.

And let’s be clear: I’m not talking about a book critic giving a bad book review. It’s happened to me, and I can deal. I’m a big girl. What I’m talking about is a review where it’s clear the attack is really about me, and the reviewer’s points of attack have got squat to do with the story.

Also for the sake of clarity, I want to mention that I have NEVER had a review like this. Even the bad reviews I got were civil. This post isn’t dealing with any bad review I’ve had. It has to do with the ongoing hate I’m still seeing online for the usual pop culture suspects. I’ve been seeing these names trending forever, and the sad thing is, I see the haters make a lot more noise than the fans. It’s not that I don’t see the fans making noise, or that they aren’t sometimes negative in their randomy-fandomy ways. But the fans balance their negative output with some positive vibes. Mostly, the haters just whine.

I wonder if people who spend so much time hating on others realize that they may be accomplishing the exact opposite, helping to recruit new fans rather than sending them away. I’m not one to question how people spend their free time, but I would like to make one final point. I have the free time to write a dozen novels and novellas every year, as well as read many stories from other writers. I’m always picking up new music and finding new artwork to admire online. I find time to paint, sketch, and sing as other ways to vent and relieve stress.

These are all the positive ways in which I spend my time, and the end result is my mind is expanded by my new experiences. If you’re a hater who knocks the work of others, whether you think it’s criticism earned or not, I wonder what the end result of your efforts is besides hurt feelings and wasted time.
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Zoe Whitten has had bad reviews on The Sole Survivors’ Club, Blind Rage, and Zombie Punter, and she has only sent ninja assassins after one of the three critics. (The other two remain anonymous, but Zoe has hired a hacker and will find them soon…very soon.)
Zoe lives in Milan with her husband Luciano, where they train deadly ninja assassins in their spare time. When she isn’t training lethal critic killers, she is preparing her next release, Confessions of a Zombie Lover.