Yes, you read that right, I do hate you, 99.9% of you.
You are so damned competitive that not once will you ever willingly give help to another author unless there’s something in it for you.
So many times I’ve asked for help and seldom received it and y0u sit there with a smug grin on your horsey face and think you’re better than me. Well you know what? When I’m rich and famous my memory will be awesomely accurate and I’ll remember these days and will have great pleasure in sitting on the Jimmy Kimmel show and yelling “FUCK YOU.”
Don’t y0u dare ask me for help, don’t you dare.
Rant over.
PS – JL Stratton and Brian Bigelow, this does not apply to you guys. You’re awesome.
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I fail to see why authors have to be so obstructive when faced with another author asking for help or advice. It’s not as if there’s only room for a certain number of books ‘out there.’ It’s not just me either, I’ve spoken with quite a few other authors who have experienced this same void of help when they’ve been struggling.
I’m far too long in the tooth to be patient about this now so I’m going to do what I always do; play the same game as everyone else but do it ten times better. Any author apart from the two wonderful guys mentioned above who dares ask me for help, will just get the single finger.
Merita King 
That is very understandable and Goodreads can be full of bullies. No doubt about it! Technology can be wonderful and frustrating at the same time (especially when it doesn’t work like it’s supposed to) and I have a lot of experience trying to help others understand all this stuff and help them get published! I’ve learned more about technology by blogging and being an author than any school or job I’ve ever had. That’s all part of having a skill set–teaching others and helping others. Really and truly, people who think they benefit from the lack thereof from others aren’t good stewards of their skills and don’t deserve them. I do like teaching skills–one on one as opposed to standing up in front of people and teaching a class!
Competitiveness doesn’t help. At all. Like I said, if you need a hand and Brian is busy, please don’t hesitate to ask!
Thank you so much Amanda, I will.
Hi Merita,
I know we’ve only briefly met here recently, but I couldn’t help but stop by when I saw this post in my inbox (since I’ve just recently followed your blog). Anyway, I do agree this is the majority of the mindset of a lot of authors even though the online community and the Digital Age have changed things a lot. I do feel like the little piglet who can’t get to the trough from time to time, but I just do the best I can and move on. I agree that it’s hard to find help and good help at that. I was with an author group once (which will not be named) whose founder created the group so she could build her own mega platform while exploiting everyone else and even the two cofounders–she succeeding in building her platform before her own ego made her creation implode. Those of us who were exploited still found a silver lining and made friends and relationships for life. For the most part when I started out, I was totally on my own and had to pull up my own boot straps and had to be learn things by being the fly on the wall so to speak or teaching myself. That does suck and it’s hard.
A lot of authors don’t see the value of creating relationships online with readers, bloggers, and other authors which is the whole idea behind social media. So you can say that most authors are ‘doing it wrong’. It’s more about trying to find a readership rather than being the ‘best’, number one, or ‘bestseller’. It’s just having to prove to readers one’s work doesn’t suck and getting exposed and trying to help out others along the way who stretch out the hand and ask for help.
Even when I had to be on my own, I try to do my best to help others and not expect anything in return. I feel better to give than receive. I see in your post that you were looking for help or advice–what were you looking for? Is it anything a single person can do? I am in and out of social media, so if you would like to reach out to me you can visit me at spottedeagle9780 at aol dot com.
I don’t expect anything in return. I never do. I try to be different that way since I know what it’s like to be on the receiving end in the respect you mention. I was just stubborn if that no one would teach me then I would learn/do it myself–I’ve had to do that on a lot of things outside of the author community since no one had time for me or didn’t want to bother with me. I know we don’t know each other very well right now since I was new to the Book Fair Group (if this is where the problem occurred). I may not have seen your post or what not or it may have been elsewhere where I am not, so I don’t know what you need. I do take time out for others. It’s not all about me. I am one less author asshat you have to worry about, and I am not going to step on your head to get ahead. That’s not what I am about, and neither are you from your post.
I’ve seen similar rants from other authors and book bloggers similar to yours and you are definitely not alone!
Hi Amanda I’m so delighted to see your reply and to know there’s someone willing to help when asked. Yay that makes 3 of you lol.
The fair group is fine and Brian is very helpful, even though I must drive him mad with frustration sometimes as I can be a tad thick with all this new technology. There have been so many occasions when I’ve asked for help and seldom got any and, like you, I’ve had to struggle and eventually work it out for myself. This has the advantage that it does feel a thousand times nicer afterwards, knowing you did it yourself. I do get so frustrated and I’m not that patient with all the competitiveness.
I had a problem with Goodreads and just couldn’t figure out how to add a cover shot to my book entry. Eventually Brian helped me to find the microscopically small ‘edit details’ so I could add it. What a horrible site..! Argh, this writing lark is messing with my blood pressure lol.