Five Ways To Tell You've Met An Insane Indie

In the good old days, say the nineties, before Kindle, e-book audiences, and a large ditigal marketplace, one of the premiere ways for an author to grow a following was a blog.  Okay, maybe not for this author, but for those who link to other blogs and grow a steady readership over time.  It was a golden idea then, and it has its appeal now.

It seems only natural that aspiring bloggers would elevate their names in the indie community by offering some service to fellow authors.  That was originally the idea behind this blog, and it seems to be the idea behind a more elaborate blog from a self-publisher (who apparently dislikes the term indie) who fancies himself a critic.

The only problem: this guy seems totally insane--so much so that I don't think I'd even post this if there was a chance of him reading this blog!  Luckily, he's one literary critic who admits he doesn't like to read, so I don't have any problems there.

That being said, here are five signs you've just come on an insane indie:

1.  The indie decides to run a scam, offering editorial services after threatening to post bad reviews.  When this doesn't work, said indie goes to the Kindle Boards (in a misguided attempt at validation) to admit to doing just this in the form of writing retaliatory reviews. 

2.  Said indie invokes standards for what he calls good literature and then he proceeds to violate every single one.  He does this by releasing a poorly formatted, unfocused book with pages running into one another while critiquing the format of others.  He does this by refusing to follow even the most basic of mechanics.  On his blog, one sentence doesn't even end.  It simply begins and then goes to limbo, and yet this reviewer still criticizes others (and no, not me!) for doing the same.

3. The critic actually admits, on his own blog, that he hates to read and that he doesn't even find fiction that interesting.  Even so, for reasons that remain obscure, he expects everyone else to take his reviews seriously.  This when even the average sixth grader can spell better.

4. He refuses to learn from the experience, constantly engaging in the same abusive behavior and posting about it.  If that's what he can do with the internet, one only wonders what would happen if anyone was stupid enough to hand this guy gasoline! 

5. The critic sends emails to detractors constantly, yet complains when some of the recipients of those emails don't take kindly to his spamming and retaliate against it.

I don't mean to make light of this.  I also have no vested interest.  I'm simply astonished at how anyone can be so dense.  Maybe the real reason is mental illness.  If so, I sincerely hope he gets the help he needs and that someone pries his keyboard away before he does further damage to himself.