I was extremely excited because when I contacted Maggie she agreed to do a Q&A with the group! It was the first time an author agreed to do one with the group. I was in heaven. I advertised it as best I could. Got the group to get excited also. Maggie decided she would do it live even. Wow. Well the month went on and we discussed the book. Maggie even joined in the discussions with the group member. Mistake #1... don't let authors join in the chat have them ONLY do the Q&A. I learned that because she was reading the reactions of the group members and the parts they didn't like this turned her off from the Q&A. She emailed me and told me she didn't really like what the group was saying and so wanted to cancel the Q&A. I was devastated. I of course didn't tell the group this was the reasoning. Though I did find out that a week later she hoped over to another YA group on goodreads and did a Q&A there. My group members found out and went over there and asked the hard questions.
Ok... so now it's years later. YEARS. I am still a little butt-hurt about it. But now I feel like maybe in my mind I was too hard on her. At the time she was a new author. Her book had only just came out. She might've had a hard time with criticism. I am sure by now she is much better. I have put off reading any more of her books because I was so bothered by the incident. Now I wonder.. am I missing some good books because my pride was hurt???? I was embarrassed by the incident at the time, but now I realize really what does it matter. The people who were group members at the time aren't even members anymore. Life went on and people love Maggie. I even tried again with authors after that and many have stopped by the group and the Q&As have gone really really well. Maybe.. just maybe I should give her books another chance.
What about you? Have you ever had a odd or uncomfortable experience with an author that made you not want to read their books?
