Attacked by a fellow author

An unfortunate story has been unraveling this past week. It all started when I reviewed a book that I did not like, so I left a 1-star review. The author then proceeded to go on Amazon and Goodreads and leave 1-star reviews under my own book from different accounts or their friends’ accounts, I do not know.

At first, I tried to be diplomatic on Twitter:

Then a bunch of 1-star ratings kept appearing on the same day, so I tweeted again, protecting the people’s identities.

I knew these people had never read my books. If you publish on KDP you know exactly how I know.

I knew exactly who that person was, but I didn’t want to engage directly, so, in an attempt to be subtle in telling them “I know who you are. I see you. What do you think you will accomplish?” I posted my review of their book on Goodreads as well. This appeared to enrage them, and new 1-star, unsubstantiated reviews started appearing under all of my books. They even went so far as revealing my true name under one of the reviews, which I reported to Amazon but they declined to remove it. Not all of them, mind you, just the one with my personal info. I do not have a problem with bad ratings, as long as they are honest, and I left the rest of them alone even though they came from the same source.

Naturally, because I am a person, I decided “screw it,” and went public, first on Twitter, and now here.

These are the unverified reviews under both of my books on Amazon from the same two people on the same days. The first one is from that author (Erica M.), and they even use the same wording in some places if you notice, like they could not bother to come up with something else.

Then this is the review one of these accounts left under my book on Goodreads:

Which is the exact same review I gave their book on Amazon:

And then there is this person who claims I gave them a free copy of my book for “networking” which, of course, I did not. I have never heard of them.

Of course, let’s not forget this person, who has an account solely to review my books and the one from his friend. They even reviewed an anthology in which I have published a short story and which has been out of print for years.

And if you need further proof, below is a list of people that left TODAY a 1-star review under a novel I unpublished 2 YEARS AGO, and therefore there is no chance they got their hands on a copy.

If you notice, most of these accounts have zero to one review, which means they did not exist before being created to “review” my book.

All of these are exactly the same accounts that left 1-star reviews under my 2 other novels, both professionally edited, one of them by the publisher Limitless Publishing, even though some of the “reviewers” claim that I have not taken advantage of the creators in the industry to help me (???).

So, finally, a shout-out to author Erica Blaque and her integrity and ability to accept criticism. I hope Aevitas Creative Management who she states as her agents on her Instagram account are proud of their client.