An Indie rallying cry
Last week (when I almost wrote this post), I stumbled across social commentary disguised as an Amazon review. I will avoid naming the book and author (it’s not my book), as well as the “reviewer.” They both know who they are. I will go so far as to cite what caught my eye, and then my ire.
The reviewer states that when they first bought their Kindle, they were warned by friends NOT to buy anything from self-published authors. The reviewer did it anyway, buying the book in question, because they saw it pop up on other books’ pages in the Customers Also Bought section. After reading some reviews, they were convinced enough to purchase it, download it, and read it.
Reportedly, it didn’t take long for the reviewer to see the error of their ways. Their friends were right. On closer inspection of the rest of the Amazon reviews—the point where their otherwise stellar judgment met its downfall—our intrepid reviewer discovered something: a friend conspiracy.
See, the author in question had so many good reviews for their book, because they had so many friends. Why? The book, in the reviewer’s opinion, was so sorely in need of an editor that anyone with half a brain and a lick of literary sense could see it, from a mile away, over the top of a hill, behind a brick wall, from within a titanium building, hidden in a lead-lined briefcase. (My words, their drift).
Apparently, however, our friend, the reviewer, was unable to determine this themselves prior to purchase by reading the sample chapters, even though they offer this in their own review as a means to determine dreck from the divine.
But I digress….
After perusing the Amazon reviews further, the reviewer determined they could divide the majority of people handing out great reviews for the book into three categories: those who had never written a review before this one; those with the title of author in their customer name; and Indie author groupies, as it were, who give five-star reviews “mostly for self-published authors.”
One is to conclude then, between the author’s true family and friends—who, apparently, are all illiterate, since they’ve never reviewed another book—the ulterior motivated and, thus, dubiously scrupled authors, and the infatuated groupies, our Indie author had it made.
Well, I didn’t look at the 50-odd reviews as intensely as our reviewer friend did, but after a dozen or so, I found similar data. There were some who had never written a review before, others who identified themselves as authors, and still more who seemed to be concentrating on reading self-published works.
However, the conclusion the reviewer drew and the one I arrived at are not the same.
I myself wrote a five-star review, which is sitting on that same book’s Amazon page. I am, in fact, a self-published author, too, though I didn’t mention that with my customer name. I wish I had. I bought the eBook, downloaded it, and read it, but apparently, that’s where the similarities between me and the reviewer end. And, that’s okay. We’re all entitled to our opinions, even when they differ so greatly that it’s as if we read entirely different books. On different planets. In different universes.
For what it’s worth, which is nothing, other than my own sense of honor, I am not a friend of the author in any way, shape, or form. I didn’t read the book with the idea of handing out an awesome review. If anything, I picked it up out of curiosity. I can’t even say I had much of an ulterior motive, since my own book isn’t likely one the other author’s readership would just pick up and read. We’ve had very little contact with each other via any medium other than to exchange the occasional pleasantries.
What can I say? I liked the book. There may very well have been grammatical or spelling errors—not as much as the reviewer contended, or at the very least, I wasn’t as bothered by them as they were. I was engrossed in the story, first wondering what was going on, then what was going to happen next, and lastly, how it was all going to resolve itself.
In my mind, I gave it a fair and honest review. I thought the book was worthy of what I gave it.
If it weren’t, truth to tell, I probably wouldn’t have written the longest review on the page, if not in all of existence, just to trash the book’s contents, while firing both barrels at my fellow reviewers. The reviewer, however, felt compelled to do so.
I’m going to direct the rest of this as if the reviewer were reading it. See if you feel it the way I do.
I can understand frustration, buddy, and you let it drip. But what you did wasn’t to warn your fellow man from the dangers of self-published books. All you did was trash the rest of us who were there, minding our own business, and giving our fairest assessments.
No, what you accomplished was the exact opposite for me. You’ve created an Indie rallying cry. This isn’t about whether the book was good. This is about whether or not self-published authors have a place. If not, you wouldn’t have started it with the warning, and you wouldn’t have gone off on the rest of the reviews. But you just had to tear us down, didn’t you? Why?
I’m sick of hearing how Indie authors don’t measure up. Personally, I’m not in this to catch the eye of a book agent or a major publisher. I’m in it because I want to be in it, and I’m doing everything I can to dot the i’s and cross the t’s.
So, I’m certainly not going to take your tantrum lying down. Criticism stings enough when it’s true and due, but I don’t have to tolerate it, nor does anyone else, when it’s pure opinion or speculation on the part of another who simply decides to dump. You come off petulant at best, complicit at worst.
For all I know, Reviewer, you’re some kind of hired rat yourself. I don’t know what kind, since I have no evidence other than your own insinuations, but my unwarranted conclusion makes about as much sense as yours does.
