Julie Broad teaches authors how to handle online trolls without feeding them. Build a Troll Squad to respond and report abuse, use expert testimonials as a shield, defuse attacks with humor, or repurpose negative comments into content. Block and delete when you need to.
Every content creator is open to a troll attack, but authors can feel and be especially vulnerable because you've put your thoughts, expertise, experience, story out there for the world to see. And your book. It may challenge deeply held beliefs or just attract attention. Don't live in fear of a troll. But you can be ready. Here's what to do. First, assemble your crew. Let's call them the Troll Squad. Your troll squad could be friends or fans, your va, anybody that you know who is ready to respond when somebody posts a review or a comment on Social or something. And they're ready to reply kindly but firmly when false comments surface. And they also are there to report abuse where necessary. Second, build an irrefutable shield. The testimonial trump card. Nothing shuts down a troll faster than being proven wrong by an expert. A true expert. So think about who is the most credible person in your space who has irrefutable credentials and see if they will say something nice about your book. Like a Harvard professor or a Nobel Prize winner. If you got that in your niche. All right. Strategy 3 the comment sandwich make it funny. Trolls hate being laughed at. Use humor to take the sting out of their words and redirect the conversation. You can structure it like this. Humor with light sarcasm or playfulness with facts. And then a dismissal. A polite walk away. Strategy four Bait and redirect. Or another way to put this is turn trolls into content. Sometimes the best revenge is reuse. Use their hate to make great content. Turn a dumb review into a video. It disarms the troll and engages your audience. The block and bounce. Or just don't feed the fire. And while they may post on some sites you can't control, you can delete them from every site you can. And this is not censorship, it's self protection. Your platform, your rules. Trolls will come for anyone doing something bold, but if you prepare, you'll own the moment.
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