Low Rating as Retaliation

[K.C.]

To help promote myself, I started reviewing books. I did a review for a book on here and gave it a 2-star. The author contacted me and politely asked me why. I responded back, politely, and informed her of my personal assessment.

Lo and behold, I receive 2-stars on two of my works. Now, I'm not upset by low ratings. I've received 1-star reviews on one of my short stories. These things are to be expected. What bothers me is that this was done in retaliation.

Is there anyway to protect against this? I'm going to continue to review honestly, and I'd rather not have to worry about low ratings just because someone can't take an honest critique.

I at least paid for and took the time to read her book.

[Harold]

Lesson learned about exchanging books and writing reviews. Don't. I did it with a woman several years ago. She reviewed my book and gave it a 4-star rating. I then reviewed her two books and gave one a 4-star rating and the other a 3-star rating. She then lowered her rating of my book to 3 stars. Not exactly a tragedy but a lesson learned. As was the realization that when you review a book you want nothing pressuring you to affect what should be your honest opinion.

[K.C.]

The funny thing is that I never asked for an exchange. The book looked interesting, so I purchased it without ever contacting the author.

And this is a part of the reason I'm so upset. There's no way she read both of my works in the 2 hours it took for her to decide to give me low ratings.

Also, thanks for your response.

[Willow]

K.C. The Goodreads community is a small world within a world. You'll find like-minded friends and followers that will far out weight the retaliation review.

I think the only important thing on GR is honesty -- give your honest opinion and let the chips fall where they will.

You can also go by my new philosophy: shite rolls down hill and it's better to be on higher ground when that happens.

Best of luck to you!

[Christine]

K.C. wrote: "The funny thing is that I never asked for an exchange. The book looked interesting, so I purchased it without ever contacting the author..."

It is a delicate balance to be an SP author and at the same time read and review honestly.

Too many authors think it is a sign of loyalty to give every other SP author top ratings. That's BS. If you want top ratings, you have to write a quality book, people want to read. Phony ratings won't help to sell crap.

You need to make sure people understand your review ethics and that NOTHING will change that. Follow all the guidelines for reviews including full disclosure. NEVER avoid the review because you have to give someone a poor rating. It's your opinion and subjective. Reviews are written for other readers, not authors. So tell them the truth and they will appreciate your honesty.

Most importantly NEVER discuss your review with the author. Ignore their messages and requests. You will always find the unprofessional and immature author who retaliates for what they consider a bad review. Ignore them, their childish behavior will only cost them in the long run. Readers are very smart and they know what goes on and how to check for this kind of crap - so don't worry about it.

Your honest reviews will be the best way to build your own reputation among readers and help you find and make friends. As for your own books, be happy when someone reads them and takes the time to write a review. Good luck!

[K.C.]

Thanks for the feedback! I've calmed down quite a bit, so now I can see this as a lesson learned. I'll probably post low reviews on my blog but keep them off of this site.

[Christine]

K.C. wrote: "I'll probably post low reviews on my blog but keep them off of this site."

Remember reviews are for readers - not authors. IMHO If you stop posting reviews because they are low ratings, you are being unfair to the readers on this site.

[Debbie's Spurts (D.A.)]

If she retaliated under her own account or contacted you by messaging on goodreads where staff can see , I'd email goodreads explaining (support @ goodreads.com). Even if not, I'd email them saying you suspected a sockpuppets of author did the rating in retaliation -- not exactly always prove-able.

Worst case scenario, the rating stands. Best case scenario, goodreads believes you and removes either because against TOS (gaming the system or a personal attack) or because violation of consumer fraud laws to when something undisclosed is behind a consumer review/rating that is not readily apparent to general public.

I don't think it would hurt to try and no reader or others here will know if you did or didn't contact support so you wouldn't get all the whiney-run-to-mommy nastiness saying "contacted support" sometimes brings.

Goodreads really needs to add a flag option to report ratings-without-reviews rather than just a flag option on reviews.

ETA: if not messaged on goodreads then screenshots of other email/messaging could help.

[Christie]

Sometimes I read a book where I kinda like it but have no profound sentiments one way or another. Then I get this page asking for a rating and a review. I prefer to write reviews when I have something to say, some insight gained or the author really impressed me, or I feel strongly (+ or -) about the book. I like the option of escaping that rating page by just clicking on the stars.

[Debbie's Spurts (D.A.)]

Christie wrote: "Sometimes I read a book where I kinda like it but have no profound sentiments one way or another. Then I get this page asking for a rating and a review. I prefer to write reviews when I have someth..."

Most readers (or authors participating as readers) do and both ratings and reviews have certain protections because considered consumer opinions.

OP wasn't upset at a presumably honestly from a reader ★☆☆☆☆ review; just with a rating that was likely a retaliation from a book review they wrote.

What OP was concerned about was that an author they reviewed had retaliated with a revenge rating (okay, so not that bad a rating since on goodreads ★★☆☆☆ means book was okay/average unlike on Amazon where ★★☆☆☆ means they disliked the book and ★★★☆☆ means okay/average) -- which gets into a grayer area of commercial speech, consumer fraud because not just a consumer's unbiased opinion with some reason behind the review not readily apparent to general public undisclosed, and conceivably against goodreads TOS.