Behaving Badly Online

As a psychologist, I'm fascinated by how people behave, and I founded my academic career on researching how people behave when they are online.

Invisible Poets and several of the other poetry groups I run are online. This means I have a vested interest in understanding how poets conduct themselves in online spaces.

One of the key factors of online life is anonymity. There's a great cartoon showing two dogs at a computer screen. One says 'Nobody knows you're a dog on the internet!' 

People can, and sometimes do mask their identities online. Many don't share their real names or prefer to use noms-de-plume (as conventional writers have done for centuries), and this affords some kind of anonymity. Unfortunately some (a very few thankfully) see this as an opportunity to behave badly. 

They feel that because they are anonymous, they can behave as they like and there will be no consequences. It's similar to the abuse you might get from another motorist. The other driver feels once removed because they are safe in their own vehicle. They wouldn't dream of shouting abuse at you if you were together, face to face in one room. In psychology this is known as disinhibition. Individuals feel less socially inhibited because of their context, in this case hiding behind a fake digital avatar or persona. They think this gives them licence to act like idiots.

Bad online behaviour takes many forms, from abuse and trolling, through stalking and misogyny to masquerading as someone else. Commonly in poetry groups, the individual pretends to be interested in your work and then offers to promote or publish you. Often they are simply trying to appeal to your vanity so they can exploit you.

Others do their best to scam you out of money by pretending to be down on their luck, or in debt, or suffering a serious illness. There are also a few blatant plagiarists out there (more on this in my next blog post) who have no scruples about stealing your idea and pretending it's theirs. 

Any and all of these types of individuals are removed from my groups without a second chance. There is no strike two. And that, dear friends is how we try to keep our poetry groups safe. You can help, by calling out these bad behaviours and informing Admin if you spot them. 

Steve Wheeler 

Image used under Creative Commons License from Pexels

Beware the vanity press!

Many of my recent poetry initiatives have been focused on helping unheard poets to gain a voice, a platform, an audience...

Wheelsong Books for example, was founded on the principle that evry poet has a voice and that voice demands an audience. I deliberately set up the company to be not for profit. When authors come to me asking how much it costs to publish a book, I reply that there is no fee. 

I am both amazed and appalled at the number of publishers 'out there' that cynically exploit the heartfelt desire of a poet to be published. They charge large sums of cash to provide 'editing and publishing services' that are little short of a scam. The poor poet ends up splashing out their hard earned cash for very little. What do they receive in return? Often a poorly edited and shoddily designed book that sells just a few copies. They are left with boxes of books they have paid for, but no-one wants to buy.

Popularly, this is known as a vanity press. The people behind many of these schemes are often unfair and unprincipled. They exercise little or no quality control, and all and sundry can get to publish their work no matter how good or bad it may be. Facebook and the web are full of poets desperately advertising and plugging books that no-one is interested in buying. You should be wary of any publisher who asks you for money to publish your book!

Wheelsong Books is different. We will never charge a poet to have their work published. Instead, Wheelsong offers editing, design and copyrighting services for no cost to the poet. We even agree to give ten percent of the sales return on every copy sold to the poet as royalty payments as a standard publishing agreement. If the book does well, and sells many copies, then everyone is a winner. 

Everyone who is directly associated with Wheelsong Books works on a purely voluntary basis. Our small, but growing group of ambassadors helps to promote and market the efforts and publications of our poet family worldwide through social media, events and promotions. Each is chosen for their commitment and drive to helping make the enterprise a success for all. For example, our USA ambassador is Matt Elmore, and our UK ambassador is Charlene Phare.

If you are interested in publishing with Wheelsong Books, be assured that we will treat you with the respect you deserve. We will assess your poetry on its merits, and we will be totally honest with you about its quality, its viability as a commercial work, and any future efforts you might need to take to improve it. Any questions you may have about publishing with Wheelsong can be posted to the comments box below! The Wheelsong Books team looks forward to hearing from you.

All live Wheelsong publications can be found on the Wheelsong Books website.

Image from Pexels used under a Creative Commons licence