One-Star Review... What to Do, What to Do?

So what do you do when the moment comes? There you are, all confused, faced with the dubious gift, which has been dropped at your doorstep (or rather, on your book page): a 1-star review. What should you do?Nothing!Nothing? But—No! No buts! The reader is your customer, and the customer is always right! Always. If she didn't understand the plot, or could not connect to your characters, it's not her fault—it's yours. So take your grief to a private place and cry and wail and shout there, until the pain subsides... Never, never, never argue with your reader! She's right, you're wrong.Never?Never! Except—Except what?Except... Do you have time? This is a long and convoluted story, which happened to me only yesterday—I'm listening.Yesterday, a 1-star rating, with no review, appeared on my book page on Goodreads (in case you don't know, this is a social network for readers, exchanging views about book.) As you can see, most of the existing reviews are 5-star rating, with a few 4-star rating. So, casting a 1-star rating is an extreme action, which should never appear without a review. Why? Because when a reader takes the opportunity to throw that fine record into utter imbalance, to degrade it really, why not include a review with some constructive criticism for the author? And why not tell other readers the reasons for your dissatisfaction?So then, what did you do?First, I looked at the other ratings this reader gave (nearly all were 5-stars) and at the kind of books she read (most of which were great literature.) Clearly, she was well read. Her name, Melodie, looked familiar, but at first I thought nothing of it. Then my eye caught the other actions she has made (listed in a log on the reader page on Goodreads) around the time she dropped this rating. And what do I see—Yes, what—She has voted for several books on a Goodreads list called Indie Book Better than 50 Shades of Gray. My book happened to shoot up to #1 on that list, exactly on the same day. Which immediately made me suspect that the bad rating was a ploy, way to draw my book down, out of some jealousy on behalf of another author. I asked myself if I should contact her—Really? I thought you said, never—Well, I reserve the right to break my own rules! And so I sent her a message on Facebook, and as I did so, I noticed that we've had an exchange of messages two months ago.Was it full of hate, of envy or something?Not at all! It was a delightful conversation, and now I remembered who she was: a great Amazon reviewer, who gave Apart From Love a glowing 5-star review, written in her articulate style! If you care to go two months back in time, you can read about her and about her review here.Now, that's strange—That's where the plot really thickens... Melodie wrote back to me, to say she was confused and concerned, because she doesn't belong to GoodReads that she knows of. The only place she has ever written reviews is on Amazon, or occasionally in Facebook comments.Then she connected to Goodreads via Facebook and was alarmed to see that she, or rather someone using her identity, has rated over 300 books!That's identity theft, isn't it?It is, and an extremely clever one at that. There were no reviews on these 300 books, only ratings. I suppose that the criminal entered most of these ratings to reflect Melodie's record on Amazon. But then, every once in a while, the criminal used Melodie's identity as a 'sock puppet' for herself. In such instances, she cast a rating that supported her own literary work, or else, to suppress her competitors—which is what happened here.Wow! If you stayed silent, if you didn't talk to Melodie, this would not have come out to the light...That is true. The rule is, walk away, never talk to a reader who gives you a 1-star rating. But the reward I got for breaking this rule is this: the rating has been stricken out from the books. Not only that, but the sock puppet is gone, too! Melodie's fake account on Goodreads has been deleted, along with its fake "history"—and now, let me finish by saying this: I hope that Goodreads identifies the criminal. It is not that hard, simply by analyzing the sock puppet's record!