Where is the unity in this community?

Hi everyone!

Creating this post since I’m fairly new to the community and I wanted to shine some light in the unfortunate things I’ve come across when meeting other authors, especially those who are bigger. I wanted to know if anyone has had an experience when they’ve gone above and beyond showing someone with support and love as a fan, and then the same author they’ve been praising turns around and treats them terribly.

I unfortunately experienced this recently as there is an author who considers themselves small, however has over 10,000 reads who I admired dearly. When this author followed me on IG it truly meant a lot to me. I told this author over and over how much I loved and admired them and how talented they were, how I loved their story and at first they seeemed really nice, but then this same author later revealed they were doing reviews, so I submitted a request for one since I was excited that they’d read my story and this person turned around and posted the review with not much of anything good to say.

When I talked to them about it they said they’d change it, said they were glad I spoke to me and worked it out, however later on that same author turned around and unfollowed me. It hurt me cause there was even a moment when this person came up with a hashtag that people were questioning and I took it upon myself to speak on their behalf and defend them.

When I noticed the unfollow, I thought to myself how could you do that to someone who claims their such a big fan and admire you, so I got a little in my feelings and unfollowed them as well lol l, then this person turned around and blocked me…this actually had me in tears…I guess maybe because I’m sensitive and I never thought that an author would actually do that to someone whose had nothing but love and respect for them.

I say this because there are many of the bigger authors who’ve unfortunately seemed to develop an ego as if they weren’t once considered small or smaller themselves when they’ve first started out. Sometimes this experience makes me a little insecure when it comes to promoting and talking to other people in this community.

This community seems to be filled with people who don’t try to look out for each other or only look out for the ones they consider to be “on the same level as them.” So I wanted to ask where is the unity?

Luckily, I’ve meant several authors, way, way bigger than me, with over 100,000 reads who are humble and down-to-earth. I wish as a community from the bigger authors to the smaller, we could all help each other and be kind. Has anyone had an experience such as this? Care to share?

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I havent experience this before, but all I could say…is that I TOTALLY AGREE with this post. We need to bring/build others up.

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I agree! Idk when I joined Episode they really seem to bug up the fact that this is a community that supports one another, but idk if that’s necessarily true lol. We do need to help each other out and be kind to one another.

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some people just get and ego fast.and i agree that this is no way to act.

just think like this. what you lost was one who did not deserve haveing you as a fan. when they are like this.

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Agreed.

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I completely agree with you. It’s unfortunate that some authors behave this way. But you’re absolutely right! It’s like is tour ego worth losing a fan or fans over. I guess I’m different but not matter how big or low my read count is I always go out of my way to a show appreciation to every single person who chooses to read my story. Thank you for the sound advice, honey! :slight_smile:

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@EmpressVanessa @PrettyEri @ChaoticDreamz @Lex2 @evieepisode in case y’all wanna vent or comment too. Lol :stuck_out_tongue_closed_eyes:

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Big point right here! I dont honestly care about the reads. What I do care, is helping others reach to a good level, so they can help others as well.

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I completely agree! I believe it’s important for people to remain humble! Thank you for your input on this! I guess it’s easy for those you’ve finally made it to forget where they’ve started or came from. I know I would never treat someone that way so it took me by surprise that someone actually behaved that way to another.

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Sad but true…but in all honesty those who are the least humble tend to fall from fame fast.

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I agree this community is so competitive that it’s crazy. We can all win if we support each other. Ranking and reads shouldn’t matter. Actions and words can actually hurt others. So be mindful of how you treat others online.

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I completely agree. Whether 1K, 10K or 100K… Even 1Million reads… I will ALWAYS show appreciation and love to ANY and EVERYONE who reads my story because at the end of the day, they did not have to. I believe it’s just common decency. We need to love and support each other, not attack and stomp on the people who you feel are “lower than you”. ALSO I would NEVER publicly post anything horrible about someones story! If they wanted feedback, I would send them a message with suggestions on how to improve. But thats just me :tipping_hand_woman:t5:

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:raised_hands:t3::sunglasses:

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Exactly. This community at times can be very toxic. I don’t understand those people who are treat others like that just because they may be smaller when the fact is they themselves were once there before.

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Say it again! LOUD AND CLEAR! :raised_hands:t3:

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Big good main POINTS!

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Yes!!! I feel the same way. It shouldn’t matter how many reads someone has, every should be treated with kindness and respect…what I don’t get is how some of these bigger authors feel like they can stomp all over people especially when they’ve introduced themself as a fan of your work, like how disgusting is that.

I’m a genuine, humble person so I always do my best to show gratitude. I don’t cate how many reads I get, that’ll never change.

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:raised_hands:t3:

I wholeheartedly agree. It’s like certain people do not want people to be on their level or share the spotlight and will go out of their way to make sure that they don’t support you so that they can stay in the spotlight. A lot of folks don’t wanna share the spotlight and it shows how selfish some folks really can be. They will mask it by doing certain good deeds but really still got an ugly way of thinking about them when it comes to uplifting others and encouraging others so that they too can get their story noticed. Let others shine too. If we all shined it would be a win because we can discover amazing new stories and get to know amazing people that you never would’ve thought shared the same passion as you which is writing amazing stories.

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I’ve had this with a couple authors too. Unfortunately it’s something that’s found literally everywhere in life, school, work, social life, family even.
But the ones you find that turn away from that kind of chauvinism are the ones you gotta keep close and truly support.

Please don’t take to heart what happened to you, become stronger for it and remember that your self worth should never be defined by anyone but yourself :smiling_face_with_three_hearts: I’m sure your story is absolutely amazing :sunglasses:

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