Something happened recently that really ticked me off. I was perusing the list of various reviews I had posted on Amazon for books and other products when I ran across a comment someone had made about one of my reviews from over three years ago. The book I was reviewing was a rather large, expensive, and mostly useless compilation of publishers and literary agents.
The person who left the comment, and who did not leave his/her real name, said that I needed to polish my writing before searching for a publisher. Keep in mind that at the time I wrote my product review, I had only just begun researching how to find agents and publishers.
That little bit of unsolicited advice set my teeth on edge, because I wrote my review quickly and meant only to supply information, not to create a literary masterpiece. Now that I’ve had time to cool off, however, I’m actually glad about it. It highlighted something I’ve known for a long time but haven’t been sufficiently tuned-in to, namely that everything we write in a public forum will be scrutinized. For a writer, that is very important, because that implies that everything we write is an advertisement for our work, and it can be positive or negative.
For non-writers, the lesson here is that words mean things. Be careful what you write, even on facebook—especially on facebook. In print, you don’t have the opportunity to embellish or elaborate with voice inflections, expressions, and gesturing in order to communicate your point. People may interpret your words in a way you did not mean, and people often do. Feelings can be hurt, and your fb “friend” may decide not to be so friendly anymore. Just saying.
