Who Are The Trolls?

JK Rowling says she stopped looking at stuff written about her a long time ago. After she realised that she didn't actually have to read all the unpleasant things in the media.

I'm not anywhere near her stellar league, but I already understand this. A piece in the Brighton Argus (as I said, I'm not in the Rowling universe) about the writing of my novel, Like A Flower, later went up on its website and within minutes was drawing negative comments.

People were pointing out that anyone could get published online now, and that I was just "self-publishing". The first bit is true (but is that a bad thing?) and the second bit isn't.

I'm not self-publishing. The book is being published by a reputable online publisher. I am not paying a penny to be published and (in 40 years of writing) I never have done.

My first reaction was to want to reply to the trolls, but I couldn't register on the site and in the end gave up. My second reaction was to ask for the comments to be taken down, since they seemed libellous.

My reaction now is the Rowling one. Just forget about it. But I am left wondering who on earth takes time to go onto the website of a local paper and make negative, unpleasant comments about someone they have never met whose only crime appears to be to try to do something creative, entertaining and, hopefully, a little profitable?