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Haters Gonna Hate

“I’m Worried About the Haters”

I was a friend’s birthday party the other day and he was talking about how he has lots of interesting stuff to share with the world, and that he would like to start a website or blog but that he was worried about haters because haters gonna hate, always. There are mean, sad, and unhappy people out there who hide behind the anonymity of the Internet and leave comments that they’d never have courage to say to someone’s face.

My Haters on Amazon

I totally get it. I have my share of haters too, as seen in the negative reviews over on Amazon of one of my books (but there are plenty more positive ones-yeah!). These negative reviews are not really about the flaws in the content of the book, but they seem somehow more personal.

My Haters on YouTube

I just posted up a series of videos on YouTube about getting a university job in South Korea and someone left a very cruel comment about my personal appearance and managed to be homophobic, sexist, and ableist all in the span of one short paragraph but he actually said nothing about the content of the videos.

I deleted his comment, blocked him from my channel and actually think I did him a favor since he was foolish enough to use his real name (I googled him) because what employer doesn’t do some googling for that kind of stuff before hiring someone?

ESL Teacher Haters in Korea

From my experience living in Korea for ten years, the other ESL teachers can often be pretty mean to anyone who tries to make a name or a career for themselves, doing something besides ESL teaching. I don’t know what it is exactly, but I think it has something to do with people living here, not really liking Korea that much and not really liking teaching. Then, when someone is able to effectively use their time here to transition into something else, the serious jealousy kicks in and the hate begins. Just my theory. Anyway, that’s a blog post for another day perhaps.

How to Deal With it

So, how to deal with the haters? I have no good advice to offer since I’m pretty sensitive and let it get to me, way more than I should. But, what I did hear on Self Publishing Questions Episode #10: Dealing with Negative Kindle Book Reviews was that sometimes it’s good to respond and other times it’s not. If it is constructive, it’s better to not. But, if it’s really just false, respond so that other potential buyers will know that what that person said isn’t actually true. And, if it’s really offensive and inappropriate, report it to Amazon (or ban like I did on YouTube).

I’m planning to grow my skin a bit thicker too. I’ll let everyone know now that works out.

I also think I’m going to read this book and hopefully find some insight: Dealing with Haters: Don’t let your haters prevent you from reaching your goals. So far, no negative reviews!

Readers: how do you deal with the haters? Please help me!

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