All About YA discussion
Author Talk
>
Authors Behaving Badly
date
newest »
newest »
message 51:
by
Audryaunna
(new)
Oct 22, 2014 08:16PM
I just read and reviewed two books from an author. I loved her books, but I did not like the really long email I received. I was ripped for posting my review online. There were no rules that said the review could be public. I even said that I received this book in exchange for an honest review. After this encounter with the author I will say it makes me weary of reviewing another book.
reply
|
flag
... Why would you ask for a review and then be upset it went public? As an author, isnt that the whole friggin' point??
Denise wrote: "... Why would you ask for a review and then be upset it went public? As an author, isnt that the whole friggin' point??"Denis, that is exactly what I thought. I think it going to be a while before I R2R again.
Mod
OMG. I'm so sorry that happened to you. I've heard similar stories (but about bad reviews or the author wanting to edit the review before it's posted) from a lot of my blogging friends. I'm very picky when it comes to reviewing books because of it. But wow. I would find that author's publicist and forward the email.
Audryaunna wrote: "I just read and reviewed two books from an author. I loved her books, but I did not like the really long email I received. I was ripped for posting my review online. There were no rules that said t..."Now that is about as stupid as it gets. Did you maybe post before the release date or something? It seems really...stupid... To give you books and not want you to publish the review :|
Irene wrote: "Audryaunna wrote: "I just read and reviewed two books from an author. I loved her books, but I did not like the really long email I received. I was ripped for posting my review online. There were n..."And from the sounds of it, the reviews were probably very good. I can't even kind of imagine why the author was upset. Did you post spoilers or something? Not trying to shift blame or anything, just really trying to understand where the author is coming from. Most authors who do stuff like this, I can understand their reasoning even if I fully disagree with their actions. This one's got me scratching my head, though.
Irene wrote: "Audryaunna wrote: "I just read and reviewed two books from an author. I loved her books, but I did not like the really long email I received. I was ripped for posting my review online. There were n..."No I did not post any spoilers. I refuse I think that giving spoilers ruins the point of a book review.
Erin wrote: "Audryaunna wrote: "I just read and reviewed two books from an author. I loved her books, but I did not like the really long email I received. I was ripped for posting my review online. There were n..."Thank you Erin. I think I will let this one slide and if it does happen again I will report them. It is just not fair.
Irene wrote: "Audryaunna wrote: "I just read and reviewed two books from an author. I loved her books, but I did not like the really long email I received. I was ripped for posting my review online. There were n..."I did not think that I was reviewing an advance copy of the book. She wanted a review so I gave it to her. The only thing the author asked if I would do a cross review to Amazon so I did. I did everything the author asked of me, but ripping into me or anyone was just uncalled for in my opinion.
Mod
Not at all, especially because you wrote positive reviews. People can be so weird sometimes.
Audryaunna I am sorry that has happen to you.I admit I do give 1 stars and 2 stars but even if the book was not for me. I always say something positive about the book.
So for me 1 star is not for me, 2 is I like it, 3 is I really like, 4 is I loved it and 5 star is leave me on a deserted island with this book.
Mod
This is getting ridiculous.
To all of you good authors out there, thank you for respecting your reviewers' opinions. You seriously are some of the best. and I don't mean authors, I mean some of the best people! :)
What's really sad about all this is that a lot of book bloggers are going to get put off by all this - and stop reviewing books.Which I think would be such a shame. I know that I've found some books I love, and avoided some books I knew I would hate through Goodreads reviews.
What authors need to remember is that reader reviews are for other readers. Not the author. I mean, sure, I love getting good reviews as much as the next author, but I know that those reviews aren't about me. They are about a reader expressing their opinion - good or bad. And if authors can't see that then they might be in the wrong profession.
I for one will continue to be incredibly grateful for the reviews I get - positive or negative - and just be thankful that people out there are reading my books, regardless.
Mod
Which I think would be such a shame. I know that I've found some bo..."
A lot of the bloggers I follow have already said that they are done reviewing for a while. I know there was a review blackout when people decided not to post reviews for a week because of the Kathleen Hale incident. She definitely scared a lot of people.
What I think is sad is that Harper Collins has yet to release a statement about it and the future treatment of book bloggers. I almost don't want to read any more of their books. But I guess that's how it works when her family member is a high ranking employee there.
Just seems like bad business all the way around.
Hmm I've never thought about this issue. I have seen some nasty, rude, immature reviews on several books here on GR.
First, they were poorly written.
Second, very repetitive.
Third, the reviewer seemed to have NO consideration for the author's feelings. Ugh this makes me mad.
An author approached me asking me to review her book. I did as such, but I didn't care for the book much, but I left an honest review. Weeks later she sends me a message addressed to someone else telling me to take the review down. I asked if the message was meant for me and she says it was. She says we had an agreement for me to only post my review if it was good. She never asked that of me. I left my review up and thus far that's the only problem I've had.
Mod
I have seen some nasty, rude, immature reviews on several books here on GR.
First, they were poorly written.
Second, very repetitive.
Third, the reviewe..."
Yeah... that's another thing that needs to be stopped. I actually just posted a huge post about it on my blog.
Mod
Yeah. That will sometimes happen. It's sad when it does happen, but a lot of authors will get nasty over it.
If you never agreed on what type of review to post, you have nothing to worry about as long as the review was professionally written. If anything else happens, you could always forward your emails between you and the author to her publicist (I'm guessing who the email was addressed to him/her) so that they know you did what was asked of you.
Thanks Erin. I'll keep that in mind. I haven't sent anything else so I'm hoping the issue died.
I actually wrote a post about it cause lately this is becoming a daily thing. I've had friends banned from GR for writing a negative review or even putting a book in a shelf called NOPE. It's outrageous and immature. I even remember a troll for giving a book 5 stars. I was shocked that even liking a book could get me into trouble.http://eversomela.blogspot.com/2015/0...
You can find it there.
Mod
I wrote a post about it too. I recently got a warning for a book review for saying I wasn't interested in reading it due to author behavior. They removed it twice.
Yup that happened to like 6 of my friends for a book by Amy Spalding.
Mod
That's the book it happened to me for.
Late again *sigh* For what it's worth I have seen bad behavior on both sides of the equation. The author-reader relationship is largely symbiotic but let's be honest, in most cases the author benefits more than the reader. I suppose in some respects that puts authors under the power of their readers. We do live and die as writers by word of mouth (or twitter, FB etc) And writing a book is hard, almost as hard as the work needed to market it and build a fan base. I think some authors don't know what they're getting into to start with. None of that is an excuse for an author behaving badly. I think if you want to be taken seriously in your chosen profession, then you ought to act professionally. There are no 'bad' reviews. More positive and more negative. Reading is a deeply subjective and personal experience so holding out for universal approval is insane. Frankly I'd be worried if everyone did love my books. While a majority vote would be nice, I wrote what I wanted to write. I can't force people to love it. And that's where authors often loose track of things. Once the book is released it is public property, not just the author's personal world. There are no thought police monitoring how people read and understand your work - thank god, that's a far worse thought than a negative review. So when a book is out there, authors should be detaching their egos from it. Not easy, I know and many cannot which may explain some cases of 'author attack'. It's still no excuse. If you're going to paint pieces of your soul in words and put them out for everyone to see do it because you love it, understand that not everyone else will and expect some emotional bruising. I've been really slammed in a review on one of my first ever short stories. What made it worse was that the reviewer requested a response to some questions. I was furious - made worse by everyone else apparently living it! - so I left it a day or so, let it all settle in my head and then looked at it again. There were points of logic this reviewer was quite correct on. I'd chosen to ignore these points when writing for stylistic reasons but it clearly didn't sit well with this person. In the end, I thanked him for the review. Not because it was a pleasant experience but because it was a lesson in exactly how much you should take on board when reading any review of your work. Any form of rejection hurts, sometimes it's hard to separate a rejected story from a personal rejection. I was lucky enough to get to learn this early. The flip side is that there are a few people who genuinely love rattling the cage however. Reviewers who think it's cool to be contentious or just plain mean. Reviewers who think that being jaded and nasty makes them sound intelligent. And a very few who get their kicks by eliciting a negative reaction from someone else. I've heard of authors being trolled, twitter and FB stalke, spammed with toxic emails and letters and in some cases packages. There's no excuse for that either. I don't know how I'd handle it tbh. If it's an attaxk against me it tends to just roll off me. If it's an attack against someone else I often can't keep my mouth shut although I'm always extremely polite ;) I think authors should try to just let the negative stuff go wherever possible, after perhaps taking on board any points that are valid. Reviewers, who we depend on, should not feel that they can't be honest. Maybe not harsh or rude or toxic, but always honest, even if we don't like what we hear.
