Do Not Reply; April 3 2021
It’s never been easier – or more inappropriate – to tell a content creator how much you hated their work. A large part of successful marketing is being ‘relatable’, forming a connection with strangers while avoiding alienating your consumers, which is done most easily through social media.
Most content creators don’t have a publicist sitting on the other end of their Twitter, which means that your decision to slide into their Direct Messages or to tag them in your book review gets their eyes on your opinion. What this accomplishes is absolutely nothing. The writer of the movie you disliked or the book series that ended badly can’t give you back your time or money.
Possible exceptions exist, of course. If you want to inform a content creator of racism, ableism, or other harmful depictions in their work, you could maybe justify tagging them in your review. But that brings us to the thing I actually want to talk about:
Content creators replying to reviews.
Not long ago, a book blogger confided in me that an author had been vaguely tweeting about them and their review. The author was angry that a member of a marginalized community didn’t like the way they’d written about it, and had thus brought up every instance of problematic portrayal.
It would be an entirely different thing for that author to have seen this review and make a public apology/acknowledgement. Just a tweet saying that no offence was intended but future readers might want to be mindful of upsetting content. Maybe throw in a promise that you’ll try to do better in future, assuming you intend to follow through on that vow.
But no. Instead the content creator sought out reviews of their work, got angry when it wasn’t received the way they wanted it to be, and lashed out. It’s unprofessional, and never okay.
Likewise, I wrote a review on my blog criticizing a movie for its biphobia and harmful depictions of mental illness – a mental illness I have. The movie’s Twitter account promptly messaged me about it. Note that I hadn’t gotten in touch with them, sent them the review, or asked for a response to it. Thankfully, they weren’t overtly hostile with me, but that might have been because I stuck to responding to them in a public space.
Not everyone is going to like the work you do. That’s an unavoidable fact. And when you mess up and write something hurtful – which most creators will, because we’re all learning! We all come from a place of some kind of privilege or other! – the worst thing you can do is get offended! People deserve to know what they’re getting into before consuming media, and you, the creator, deserve the opportunity to learn and do better the next time around.
I’d like to conclude with a reminder to writers that sensitivity readers are a wonderful resource, and no different than paying, for example, a rocket scientist for a consult in their area of expertise. I favour Salt & Sage Books for their sensitivity readers. A reminder as well that I do sensitivity reads, myself! The best way to avoid having the Internet put you on blast is to do your research.
But if and when they do? Just close the review tab.