Authors and their fans or about fame in general

So, one of my favorite adult (non-kids, not porn) author has recently had to remove her guest book from her blog and get a new mediator for the forums attached to her website. I guess what has been happening are folks are not only unhappy with her recent books but have been posting personal attacks to her and her family. This is wrong. I do not blame her for her reactions. I am happy she is protecting herself. The latest incident was someone (it is very unclear who/why/what etc. and they are investigating it) claimed on her PUBLIC forums that a member of her family had had a stroke and as a result someone (also unclear) tried to pull her out of an event. The author’s official response was that no, this family member was fine and they will try to press charges against the culprit if it is possible.

OK, that’s the back story, here’s my rant. Authors DO NOT OWE their fans ANY personal information. I say this because the only backlash I could find on her website forums were people COMPLAINING that she’s punishing them, by taking away direct contact to her and banning forum abusers. No one seems to care that some ass published personal family information on a public forum to strangers who had no business knowing EVEN IF IT WERE TRUE.

It is a gift to fans if a celebrity, be it author, actor, famous physicist, CHOOSES to share his or her personal life with his/her fans. It is by no means a requirement. I can’t stand hearing bullshit like “Well, they think there too good to talk to their fans” or “They’re trying to live in an ivory tower” or “We [the fans] made them. They owe us this.” or my favorite “She’s betraying us by limiting her access to us.” FUCK YOU ALL. A person’s work and a person are two separate things. Just because you love a person’s work does not give you the right to be a part of their life or invade their privacy. They have already given you the gift of their art/occupation/job, they owe you NOTHING more.

If anyone disagrees with this, let me give you a more down to earth example. I worked in a children’s bookstore. I sold books to children and their parents. I loved doing this. One night we had a family come in very late and close to closing time. Closing time came and we had to, as politely as possible, push them out the door. The father had the nerve to say to us “Think of all the money you are losing by not letting us stay”. Excuse me? We’re closed. Yes, it MAY have been good customer service to let them stay past closing and spend money (though they were ‘just browsing’) but balance that with overtime for employees staying late. Would it really have been worth the extra money the company would have had to spend to let ONE family stay and MAYBE buy something, while we turned away everyone else who saw that the lights were still on and customers were still inside? NO. Is it worth letting fans into your personal life to MAYBE gain popularity and therefore sell more whatevers? I personally don’t think it is. I love going to author signings and hearing them talk about how they got where they are, which is usually a very personal story. Do I think this gives me the right to contact them afterwards or insist that they keep a web blog detailing everyday of their lives? No, most distinctly not.

Ok, I think that's it. Needed to do that rant. I feel bad for this author, but she's being too nice. She has been too open with her fans and this is the unfortunate result. If something you once did because it brought you joy is now hurting not only you but also your family it needs to stop. You are not betraying your fans. You are hurting yourself to accommodate strangers.