Ann Leckie

I just got an email from a person–who shall remain nameless–curious about why I might have blocked them on Twitter. I had a spare moment while tea was brewing and decided to reply. Having done so, I thought it might be worth linking to my blog post about Twitter and also posting my reply (without any identifying information).

[Name],
 
I don’t block people for not liking my book. In fact, I’m friends with several people (on Twitter and in real life) who don’t like my book.
 
I block people who annoy me or who strike me as potential annoyances, not just people who tweet at me. I make no apology for this–I’m on Twitter to hang with my friends, not be annoyed. And with the exception of my friends and family, no one is entitled to any more of my attention than I wish to give them, on Twitter or anywhere else, and in the past few years the number of people demanding my attention has increased tremendously. My experience of Twitter is much more pleasant for me since I began blocking very freely.
 
I don’t recognize your name, so I have no idea what you might have tweeted that would have led to my blocking you. It might easily have been a random tweet in a conversation that I happened to see while I was in a bad mood. I honestly don’t know–though your putting “award winning” in quotes in your email, as though the awards weren’t legitimate or real, suggests some possibilities to me.
 
You are, of course, perfectly entitled to whatever opinion you might have about my book and its many awards. You are also perfectly entitled to express those opinions. I have no obligation to pay attention to them.
 
May your next read be more congenial to you.
Ann Leckie

TLDR–I block people on Twitter who annoy me. If I’ve blocked you and you’re curious as to why, this is why. It might have been a trivial thing, it might have been something big, who knows? It isn’t necessarily any sort of judgement about you as a person, just me curating my twitter stream for my own use and convenience.