What to Know
Elyse Myers has always been all about sharing her genuine feelings with her massive audience online, but this time, it seems to have gotten her in a bit of hot water. After Elyse responded to a negative review of her recently released book, That’s a Great Question, I’d Love to Tell You, on social media, she’s facing backlash from people who say she broke a major rule for author etiquette.
It all started when someone who read the book, @alisonrosevintage on Threads, posted her honest thoughts about it.
She wrote, “Noooo I’m so sad I don’t like this book at all. Has anyone else tried reading it? It’s not at all like the stories she tells in her videos. I’m on the 5th essay and I think I have to stop reading it. Ugh.”
Even though she wasn’t tagged, Elyse saw the post and decided to respond.
“Instagram decided to put this in my feed as a post I might like, so now I’m here,” she replied. “I’m bummed you don’t like it, but not at all offended. Everyone has different tastes in books and that’s okay! Please feel free to return it!”
@dianarodriguezwallach BookTok- what do you think about the recent bookish drama involving Elyse Myers responding to a negative review of her book? ##booktok##booktokdrama##bookreviewers ♬ original sound – Diana Rodriguez Wallach Author
The fact that Elyse responded at all has drawn a lot of backlash, especially since she wasn’t tagged in the reader’s post to begin with.
And as TikToker and fellow author Diana Rodriguez Wallach explained in a video, the major problem with Elyse responding was that she was shining a spotlight on someone’s negative comment who doesn’t have the same audience she does, and inevitably, at least some of Elyse’s millions of followers were bound to attack the reader for sharing her honest opinion online.
There was another reason people were mad at Elyse, though, as another author pointed out on Threads:
Technically, responding to any review (good or bad) is a breach of author etiquette.
“It’s not that there’s anything particularly wrong with what you said, it’s just that it’s general author etiquette to not go into readers’ spaces if they haven’t tagged you in their post,” Megan Collins wrote to Elyse on Threads.
“Since you’re a debut author, I completely understand that you didn’t know that. But, going forward, if you see someone talking about your book who didn’t tag you, it’s best to keep scrolling by.”
While some people aren’t ready to overlook Elyse’s mistake, others are willing to grant her some grace here.
“This feels like an entire non-issue that was resolved amicably and everybody learned from it. What’s the issue?” one TikToker wrote.
Another commented, “I was expecting a lot worse tbh. I think she was respectful and meant well.”
