One of the more bizarre aspects of social media is that it can lead to interactions with luminaries you’ve only admired from afar. One of your favorites may like one of your very own tweets, for example! But sometimes those online interactions can turn into outright discourses, and in those instances, it’s best to defer to the people who probably know more about their own subject than you do.
It’s a valuable lesson lost on Nora Roberts fan “Debra,” who went off in the discussion board for the recently released The Awakening, the first volume in Roberts’ new fantasy-tinged trilogy, The Dragon Heart Legacy. Debra is such an ardent fan of the legendary romance novelist that she immediately began complaining about the eternity she would have to wait (a.k.a. a year) for the next volume, wailing about the cruelty of publishers keeping her from the delight of Roberts’ next release, merely to adhere to their apparently arbitrary schedules: “[N]ote that the publisher does not consider the customer in their planning. Who should be first? THE CUSTOMER!”