Ignorance Is Bliss

"Searching for yourself is a bad idea"... at least, it is if a search engine is involved.

If you find a bad review of yourself, your works, your services, look the other way. Remember those four monkeys that see no evil, speak no evil, hear no evil, and do no evil.
 

Not everyone knows about the crotch-shielding 4th monkey.

If you must employ someone to defend your reputation online, keep them on a very short leash, metaphorically speaking. Bad reviews can be hurtful, but it is best not to lash out even by proxy.

Karen Rubin, blogging for Thompson Hine LLP tells the edifying and amusing cautionary tale of a sensitive lawyer who --after his web consultant showed him a bad review-- doubled down and made matters much worse

Read the tale of legal woe here:
https://www.thelawforlawyerstoday.com/2020/12/5323/#page=1

 

Or here:
https://www.lexology.com/library/detail.aspx?g=0a593797-2811-42d0-a533-e169054eb62d

There's a sting in the tale. One cannot make it up!

For a wise and sober list of Dos and Don'ts when ones feelings are wounded by online opprobrium, follow the counsel of legal blogger  Terri Seligman who writes for the Frankfurt Kurnit Klein and Selz PC advertising law blog.

 

See here:
https://advertisinglaw.fkks.com/post/102gluy/ftc-letter-highlights-some-dos-and-donts-of-handling-customer-reviews

Or here:
https://www.lexology.com/library/detail.aspx?g=84af220a-5619-4745-a1f1-2e8cf2146c92

Finally, and apropos of nothing to do with reviews, but richly illustrative of the imagined ignorance of correspondents asking the EEOC about whether or not their boss behavior is inappropriate, legal blogger Robin Shea spoofs some Q&A about sexual harassment, discrimination and more.

https://www.constangy.com/employment-labor-insider/eeoc-to-issue-opinion-letters

All the best,

Rowena Cherry 

SPACE SNARK™ http://www.spacesnark.com/ 

 

B.Y.O.B. (On Acronyms and Metonymy)

With acronyms, one has a choice.

B.Y.O. or B.Y.O.B. traditionally suggests Bring (you own....) and the optional, final "B" could refer to Booze, Beer, or a Bottle.

And "Bottle" could mean a container of strong liquor, which is also known as Dutch Courage (or Irish Courage), or in some parts of the word "bottle" is slang for courage itself.
https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/bottle

Metonymy is a particularly useful literary device for alien romance world building, if one would like one's aliens to have their own slang.

This is an excellent starting point:
https://literarydevices.net/metonymy/

B.Y.O.B. could also stand for BUY your own BOOK.  Apparently, it is an established practice, especially among politicians.... and among writers with bread to cast on the waters.

Sarah Nicholas of Book Riot has an interesting History of Buying Books onto the Bestseller list, from how it all started up to the present day and what those little dagger signs signify on the N.Y.T. bestseller lists.
https://bookriot.com/2020/01/06/buying-books-onto-the-bestseller-list/

The article may not be quite even handed. One can be fairly confident that the counterparts of the cheating authors who were cited probably did the same thing, and may even have used taxpayer funds instead of mere campaign donations.

One might also find that Amazon will delete bad reviews for very well connected friends of Amazon, but for most authors, even bad reviews of books that have not been published, let alone sold, will stay up in all their miserable glory.

Amazon is also in the writing world news for (another) instance of rather poor quality control. "Waffle" is hardly literature, but one follows ones stream of consciousness, if only for the joy of the pun!
https://writersweekly.com/in-the-news/in-the-news-01-09-2020?utm_source=mailpoet&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=writersweekly-com-112119_67

A Canadian over Christmas showed a little too much bottle (as in "willingness to take risks") when he took to social media to lambaste his American corporate employer over their seasonal gift to him of barbecue sauce. We are not told if it is the type of sauce that comes in a bottle.

His sauciness was not appreciated, and he lost his employment.
https://www.foxbusiness.com/lifestyle/fastenal-fires-worker-who-criticized-holiday-gift-via-twitter

The American First Amendment protects one's right to speak one's mind, but does not guarantee freedom from the consequences of ill-advised speech... as CNN also discovered, and as is an object lesson to any humble participant in social media discussions of current events.
https://www.dailywire.com/news/breaking-covington-catholic-student-nick-sandmann-gets-settlement-from-cnn-after-275-million-lawsuit

While DuckDuckGo-ing "B.Y.O.B.", one notices many references to a music group by that name. This blog is not about them, but they may deserve attribution for turning the acronym to "Bring Your Own Bomb".

But, on the topic of bombs, Colin R. Jennings, Ann J. LaFrance, Garon Anthony and Ericka Johnson blogging for the law firms Squire Patton Boggs, give timely advice for all internet users on preparing for the possibility of a well-coordinated cyber attack.

Lexology link:
https://www.lexology.com/library/detail.aspx?g=e781baf6-c91e-43fd-8d99-507b520a2c2d

Original link:
https://www.squirepattonboggs.com/-/media/files/insights/publications/2020/01/why-the-threat-of-an-iranian-cyberattack-should-matter-to-your-organization/36730--giwc--why-the-threat-of-an-iranian-cyberattack-should-matter-to-your-organization--alert.pdf

While an international cyber offensive would not be directed at alien romance writers, it might sweep us up in collateral damage if we could not back up our files to our preferred cloud, use credit cards, access our banks, etc.

Write safe!

All the best,

Rowena Cherry 

SPACE SNARK™ http://www.spacesnark.com/