On Being Fair Game

Look, all I'm saying is, if these big stars didn't want people going through their garbage and saying they're gay, then they shouldn't have tried to express themselves creatively.

-Homer Simpson

A few weeks ago, I visited my parents in Maryland. They're aware that I'm writing for publication, and that obviously, the thought of being published and having the general public read and critique my work is a little unnerving. I told my mom about some of the absolutely scathing reviews I'd seen on Goodreads, where the reviewers seem to get a thrill out of trashing author's work. My mother said, "Well, it's because authors are considered fair game."

As often happens in my life, I related this back to a Simpsons episode, the one where Homer becomes personal assistant to Alec Baldwin and his (then) wife Kim Bassinger. He can't stand not telling his friends who he's working for and dishes their dirt to the town. When Homer says the quote above, I laughed at the time, but now as a writer hoping to have my name on the spine of a book, I can't help but shudder a bit. Writers, like even famous actors, are still people. I can't remember who said this now, but I remember a few years ago a famous actress saying that she would sit in front of her computer and cry about the horrible things people said about her. No one's really immune. You can just choose not to listen to the nay-sayers.

Being published is a double-edged sword. Work you think is amazing could be universally mocked. It could also be universally loved. One will never know unless they take that risk. The thought of being fair game used to scare the living hell out of me. I shy away from the center of attention so much that I'm still amazed that my husband and I didn't elope and we had a wedding at all!

I guess what I'm trying to say is that I've made some mistakes in my life, and I have some regrets. Not major regrets, but small regrets where I wish I would have been braver and gone for what I really wanted. Now that I'm in my thirties, I've decided that I will live my life without regret. The photo below sums up my feelings pretty well.

How do you feel about becoming 'fair game' once you're a published author/or now that you are published?