Link Bombs Stink

Imagine your best-case scenario. Your 1st published novel has shot to the top of the N.Y. Times Best Seller list. Years of late nights, intensive research, indecision, multiple rewrites, and plain hard work have paid off.

Here you sit at a table in Barnes and Noble Book Store, YOUR book standing open to words YOU wrote. More of those books are piled in front of you, waiting for purchase by eager readers who have come to talk to you and treasure your signature. You cannot believe this is happening to you. Excitement, nerves, and pride, fill your heart as, pen in hand, you smile and greet your first “fan”.

As you finish signing the book and hand it to the grateful buyer, you hear a commotion in the crowd. In a split second, before you have a chance to react, a stranger is pushing his way through the line with an armful of books. He plops them onto your table, pushing your books to the side. Arms outstretched, he announces to the stunned crowd, “Never mind THOSE books. You need to read MINE. He starts handing out his books to everyone, to the astonishment of you, your agent, and the Barnes and Noble managers who have arranged your book signing.

Does this sound ridiculous, improbable, and probably impossible? Maybe it is, but to me, it is the equivalent of what goes on in these Facebook writing groups all the time — LINK BOMBING.

You may not have written a N.Y. Times bestseller, and you may not be at a Barnes and Noble book signing event, but the article you have posted for everyone to read is the product of your time, effort, and hard work. You have taken a huge risk by exposing yourself and your work to the public. You have asked for comments, naturally hoping for praise, but also desiring constructive criticism that will help you improve your writing.

You see in your notifications that you have 6 comments. You eagerly open the comments to see — LINK BOMBS…No different than the interloper at the book signing. They have ignored your work and dropped theirs in its place.

Besides being rude and disrespectful, it is unnecessary. There are plenty of spaces in these groups to start a discussion about your work. There are plenty of specific spaces to post your work daily. Are Link Bombers so insecure about their work that they feel they will only be read if they squeeze themselves into someone else’s space?

I don’t expect everyone to read the work I have posted. Nor do I expect everyone to like what I have written. Not all subjects or writing styles appeal to everyone. However, if you do read my work, I rely on your comments to help me understand what subjects you like, and to help me improve my writing.

What I also expect is respect. Respect me enough to pass by my article if it doesn’t interest you and find your own space to post your article.

I have been advised by well meaning group members to stop fussing and simply ignore the “link bombers”.

If you are a link bomber, my version of “ignoring” you, is to delete your link from my comment section. I will not tolerate you pushing my books off the table. I will not allow you to detonate your link bomb in my space. I will not tolerate selfishness and disrespect. You have been warned.

Now that I have finished this rant, I would like to return to writing the content I love, and my statistics tell me you enjoy reading — whimsical, relatable blogs on everyday life; informative articles that teach you something useful; and emotional pieces from my own experience.

Thank you to all of the wonderful, supportive members of these groups who have read my work, cheered me on, and helped me improve. I have tried to reciprocate by doing the same for you.

An organized list of my categories and published work can be found here.

Note: First published on Medium