This week at least a couple of the broadsheets back home have carried reports of claims of a sustained campaign of online cyber-bullying by one author of two other authors. It’s not new news; the story has been running off and on since 2012. I won’t rehash it here. But I will include a couple of this week’s links for anyone who is interested.
http://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/jan/12/stephen-leather-cyberbullying-steve-mosby-jeremy-duns
Hachette, the publishing group that the alleged offender and one of the victims are published by, has been moved to respond.
http://www.thebookseller.com/news/hachette-responds-to-cyber-bullying-accusations-319945
Interesting stuff for all of us in the business of writing, reading and reviewing.
My reaction is this: congratulations Jeremy Duns (one of the victims).
Why? I don’t doubt any of his reporting of the incidents but his timing with releasing an update on the world AND managing to get at least two broadsheets to run with it AND getting Hachette involved to crank up the story’s newsworthiness seems, to my mind, something of a marketing masterstroke.
Guess who has a new book out tomorrow? Mr Duns.
I’m serious: brilliant timing. All that media and public attention in the week leading up to the new book’s release. I won’t say ‘free attention’ because it sounds like the man has earned it.
Mr Duns, my hat is off to you.
Oliver Tidy 
You got it, publicity is the only way. Your pet mouse gave birth to con-joined twins type story.. Thinking caps on.
Hahaha I’m going to the pet shop this afternoon. 🙂
Great point i wonder if this was part of his motivation
Someone’s been a bit clever is my take on it all. There’s no such thing as bad publicity. 🙂
Heard about this a couple of years ago and what an unpleasant affair it is. What’s happened to integrity?
I really don’t know, Pat. All seems rather silly to me.