Streisand Effect, do your work

I am using the Streisand Effect to point to a case where someone is suing a book reviewer for libel – important case; go read it. But specifically I want to warn you of the Streisand Effect.

I say frequently that you need to be a professional. No one wants to hear about you being a crybaby because the mean reader made fun of your book. Feelings hurt? Most definitely. Unjust comments? Quite possibly. But if you are the one crying and making the fuss, you’re the one who looks like the jackass.

It makes you look bad to agents, editors, and readers. But I haven’t addressed the whole Streisand Effect, when information suppression backfires. Complain loudly enough about a bad review, or a mean agent, or an incompetent editor, then the lens of public scrutiny is going to be on YOU, not the person you’re complaining about. And everyone will know that you are trying to suppress that someone thinks your book is bad. Then they will wonder, well, how bad IS this book, anyway?

But no, you cry. The fact is that THEY are MEAN, not that my book may or may not be bad!

Nope, the world says. We want to see the book review.

Professionalism is important, but also, don’t freak out in public over bad reviews/rejections/etc because the attention on the offensive topic will increase exponentially.