She’s actually 75 years old (born in 1934), according to her own website.

Still, yeah, uncool. Of course, Alice Hoffman is 57, so she should be old enough to know better.

I've been flamed on Amazon by readers when I gave three stars to their favorite books. It's crazy.

Well Kelly don’t you know that YOU MUST NOT STRAY FROM THE FLOCK of FANGIRL in other words you can not express your thoughts freely with out getting reamed by some one be it an author or the rabid fangirls………….it’s becoming kind of frightful that one can not express your own thoughts REMEMBER JOE THE PLUMBER.

“Till the day I die” rants are juvenile. Shooting a hole through the reviewer’s book in private is actually kind of funny. Posting the reviewer’s personal information is creepy stalker stuff.

Oh, and I’m not surprised that some take a C review as a pan. I’ve been flamed on Amazon by readers when I gave three stars to their favorite books. It’s crazy. I mean, if I’d hated it, I’d have given it one star. But I think a lot of reviewers at Amazon give everything either one star or five. They see anything below five, they assume you hated it. Whereas in my mind, most books are a 3 or 4, with 5 being for those “up all night reading, bawled at the end” sorts of books.

This sense of entitlement is kind of scary, is the fact that she make more money than the reviewer, that it’s makes her own rant legit ?

The email to her fangirls with the instruction to light it up is just downright evil does she not know that viruses can be sent thru an email that can fry her computer or that giving out some’s # and having ittied up with her looney fangirls is out and out crazy, and I think some what illegal.

In your world, it’s okay to post the home phone number of random people you’re angry at online and encourage people to call them and yell at them? It’s not that bad, in your opinion, to do that to an eighty-five-year-old woman?

This is revolting, inexcusable behavior, no matter how old the reviewer in question is, but especially given that Hoffman was too freaking lazy to even google her and discover that she is herself an award-winning author and is, again, an octogenarian.

Disgusting.

Inexcusable.

Hoffman behaved like a pissy little brat; like an immature seventh-grader. Her behavior was gross, and grossly inappropriate. I simply cannot fathom how anyone could defend it.

What really astounds me here is that as an Artist your bound to get bad reviews…. what do you think the first twenty rejection letters that most print authors get are? Theatre reviews are tough, harsh and cold, but you don’t see any Set Designer’s or lead actresses tweeting their offense at The New Yorker. Any time that you create anything someone is going to hate it: point and fact. Since when has it become exceptable for authors, e-publishers, or business people in general to completely ignore their sense of propriety and behave like two year olds? Maybe there is a pamplet or a seminar I forgot to attend but nothing makes readers, publishers, or humans run away screaming like a fresh dose of insanely over-reactive, anger-filled posting online.

I guess in a world of reality tv, trashy and trash-talking celebreties anyone with half a millimeter of talent and an online website can bring themselve down a peg on the evolutionary chart.

‘conveyed by her publicist, Camille McDuffie at Goldberg McDuffie Communications’

It just oozes sincerity, doesn’t it…

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/jacketcopy/2009/06/did-alice-hoffman-strike-back-or-strike-out.html

Incredible.

by Sharron McClellan June 30th, 2009 at 12:17 pm
Ya know…for once, I'd love to see an author say, “I was a D-bag. It won't happen again.” I can forgive almost anything as long as the person takes responsibility.

I would like to see anyone, whether it is an author, reader, politician, public figure or store clerk simply say “I’m sorry”. NOT I’m sorry but I was having a bad day, bad idea, bad brainstorm, or bad weather, bad karma, bad sex with my wife, bad travel arrangements, bad journalistic coverage or whatever.

Just apologize, wish the offended person or people well, accept that some won’t ever let it go and then BE DONE.
No back-peddling, no excuses. Just say ‘I’m sorry’.

aaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrgh
(oops, I’m sorry)

If I ever act this bad in public, I expect everyone here to call me out on it.

She let it be known that she was unhappy about a bad review.

Alice Hoffman went after the reviewer.
She vilified Roberta Silman and encouraged others to do so. That was tacky, but she posted Ms. Silman’s contact information for any wacko to see and act on.

And yeah, plenty of authors are guilty of bad behavior. Most of the time it just reflects on them, but in this case, she’s exposed Ms. Silman to harm. I hope Ms. Silman is not being inundated with hate email and phone calls from rabid fans, though apparently the information was inaccurate. Good thing.

Sorry, but if this is an acceptable way for people to express unhappiness–especially people more or less in the public eye– then the Mark Sanford thing is SO just a misunderstanding.

I think I can be excused.

;P

It’s not any of my business at all. I was just wondering–the change is so dramatic, and I’ve never seen her talking about it in print. Either way, I wish her good health and happiness, despite her very public tantrum.

In one of the links to this page, a former fan said she asked AH a mildly critical question at a reading, and AH ripped into her. I wish I'd known that before I recommended two AH books to my book club. Neither was selected, but still…

@Jody

Wow, I didn’t know that about AH’s response to the fan. Yipes! And you’re right, there are plenty of other, much more pleasant authors out there. Not to mention, no one told AH to act this way. No wonder some book reviewers aren’t keen on giving “negative” reviews. They’re probably afraid of the backlash.

I am bemused by Alain de Botton – he’s a philosopher, I would’ve thought he’d be used to criticism.