1. Silence. 

2. Silence.

3. Prepare to draft an eloquent, compassionate reply…with this caveat.  

If you just *have* to respond to this person/group who is dropping rains of drama on your happiness parade, you should totally respond in whatever way you like, but only if you do this first: 

Look up the directions to The Time Store.

If you can find this place that sells the additional seconds, minutes, hours, that you’ll need to replace the ones you’ll be using on them, then knock yourself out. Responding to them won’t be a waste of your life’s limited time at all. 

And hey, if by chance that you do find those directions, please share them with me. I could totally use some extra hours these days. 🙂

On a more personal note, I have a conspiracy theory on internet trolls & people-who-love-being-negative-behind-keyboards, so I’ll share it with you. 

I’m convinced that there’s no way in hell that people spend their time online being negative/tearing down others without a tangible reward.

Like…There’s no way people are out here doing that for FREE.

Sure, they may “earn” some followers and get a few “likes and clicks,” but since you can’t put those in the *bank*, there’s something else going on….

I’m truly convinced that some of these trolls know exactly where The Time Store is and they get their time back somehow, all while hoarding the big secret from the rest of us. 

#end of my theory#

This has nothing to do with negative book reviews. Getting those is par for the course if you’re brave enough to share your work with the world, and trust me, negative reviews sell books as much as positive ones. I highly suggest not reading those & focusing on your next book, but if you ever cave, at least do it with friends and make a fun game out of it. <3 

Until the next cup of tea,

Whitney G.

[This is from The Indie Tea, my website for awesome indie authors]