The toxicity of rage marketing

A few days ago an author made a teary-eyed, now deleted, post on TikTok about how they’ve just been told that since they were only on the bestseller list for a week, they might be dropped by their publisher.

If this was the first time I’d encountered this person’s marketing I’d probably be sympathetic, albeit a bit confounded about the strange claim. But this particular author is known for doing rage and pity marketing. They pulled a similar tactic with the marketing of an earlier book, not to mention their all-around nefarious behavior toward reviewers. This author’s success is built on the narrative of them being under attack, their marketing strategy reliant on new enemies and fights to be had. While rage and pity marketing works in the short term, it has the negative effect of making us more jaded and less receptive to future situations with people getting hurt because of actual hate. We become weary of the situation, afraid that we’ll once again be manipulated.

The people who turn to rage bait know full well how their fanbase will act when they perceive them to be threatened. Harassment, stalking, worse….people will be victimized over and over again…

Having a fanbase means responsibility. You won’t be able to control what they do, but you can control your own output and how your behavior can effect their actions. From what I’ve seen so far, the author is well aware of their effect on their fanbase and simply doesn’t care what befalls others because of it.

I get why people turn to rage and pity marketing. It creates a temporary surge of engagement that can be turned into buys and cash. But in long term, it will 100% have a negative – slowly eating away at the empathy of the reader….

For a stitch containing the original video, see below

@alicesutherlandhawes I really hope this is savvy marketing but if not then @Piper CJ you need to run! #literaryagent #publishing #booktok ♬ original sound – Alice S-H ✨ Literary Agent