My story Olympus Has Chosen has recently blown up in a sense that it has been getting lot’s of views.
I’ve also noticed my fan mail has increased too but It’s causing me problems.
I’ve been getting lot’s of message’s saying that I’m copying a story called Whiskey which I’ve never even read. A lot of people are also accusing me of getting Greek Mythology wrong even though I have studied it for years and did it for my History GCSE.
I could just turn the Fan mail off but I get positive messages as well as questions from other authors.
How do I cope with the Negative comments and address the issue of copying?
Hi @southampton23!
I’m sorry you have to deal with this but I think this will never change. You can’t please everyone.
The best thing what you can do is just IGNORE. Don’t feed trolls! Unless someone gives you constructive criticism and suggested to make things better (but don’t change things if you don’t like them.) Remember about delete and report button in fanmail section and don’t take everything personally!
Congrats on Blowing up BTW (I was stalking your story you seemed to be always about 10 ranks higher, so If I found your story, I wasn’t too far behind xD)
First off, I had fanmail-phobia in which I am SO so so afraid to open fanmail because it might be like, bad.
I feel like when a story blows up, it comes with an increase of mail good and bad. I find the best way is to first reply maturely (or sassily by slamming the people who accuse you of representing Greeks Myths wrong with like a link or quote from a website.) While it does feel great to just let them have it, especially when the likely hood is that they won’t return. As mentioned above, you can’t really stop mail from coming in but you find ways to not be as hurt (or mad) when they come in. For me, ~ this was reassuring myself that I would not change my story to better the reader and if they didn’t like it, they can reader another story. ~
Moral : Don’t be hung up on hatemail, because if your story has made it to the top of the Fantasy Genre, it deserves to be there.
Honestly, even if you were getting it wrong, it wouldn’t matter. You’re allowed to say ‘inspired’ from Greek Mythology.
Best way to deal with it is to simply block the user!
You’ll often find that most negative fanmail’s are from the same people and it will come up with all of the messages they’ve sent you! (Trust me, I know )
Don’t let it get you down and reply maturely. Not everyone will like your work, that’s okay. But people should never talk to you like crap.
and don’t take everything personally!
)