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Wow! If You Post An Amazon Review An Author Doesn't Like this Blog Might Call You Out!
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I think that's so ridiculous. Why can't people let folks have an opinion about anything without making fun of it. I agree, Arch, it is very low of them and isn't productive at all.If someone doesn't like your book, oh well, shine them is what I say.
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The FountainPenDiva, Old school geek chick and lover of teddy bears
(new)
This kind of behavior sounds like an attempt by immature authors and their slavish fanbase to silence critcisms of bad books. The thing these people fail to realize is people who write reviews of books they may not have liked aren't trying to be mean. Some books just don't resonate. Deal with it. Amazon is slowly turning into a total joke when it comes to their review process.Hmm, I wonder if my review of Twilight is on the site, LOL.
Arch,They have a submissions section and they ask people to submit the reviews they want critiqued. It's ridiculous! All this does is give authors a bad name. I don't know where this new breed of writers come from but most of them are acting like idiots. If they don't want people to say anything about their books then they don't need to get them published. They could just write for themselves since they feel no one should have an opinion.
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So true, Arch.I think this site could be damaging to the authors who send their reviews to this place. No reviewer nor reader will probably wanna touch their stuff again. I know if I was a reviewer I wouldn't wanna review a book if the author was known to always carry on about reviews.
I wonder if this site will become popular or will just disappear into thin air. I could only see disgruntled, naive and vindictive authors stooping to criticizing reviews. If they are gonna do it why not have the guts to use their names? Here they are calling out reviewers on Amazon, names and all but not sharing who THEY are. I mean the person who is doing the blog and people sending the reviews in.
But I have a big feeling that the blog owner is the one gathering all these reviews and commenting on everything themselves because no one other than a handful of people seem to know about this blog or care to follow it.
Just seems hypocritical to me that someone would start a blog to call out people but hide without identifying themselves.
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The FountainPenDiva, Old school geek chick and lover of teddy bears
(new)
I read the review of The Bible and I wonder if the blog creator understands the meaning of satire? Probably not. Sometimes I wonder if people understand the idea of the World Wide Web--that stupid stuff life this might be seen by millions.
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You know I am shocked. I put this blog link up in one of my author's groups and some folks were defending it! Some people said, "Some reviewers are just idiots and need to be called out." I shook my head. I'm not shocked because there are a lot of authors out there that hate reviewers but I didn't think that many would agree with this blog.
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That's nothing compared to the big fight that's going on here:http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...
http://www.goodreads.com/user_status/...
These two reviews turned into an ugly war that wound up in a Twitter war and readers putting some authors on their Do Not Read List. Wow, just wow.
I think authors should just leave people alone. Let people have their opinion and move on. It isn't worth getting into a fight over.
Chaeya
@Chaeya -Yeah I've been following the random authors attacking reviewers that seems to happening a lot within the last week.
This blog sums them up
And then there is this one (cached)
They all seem to be YA authors. Is there something in the water?
I don't know, but somebody needs to say: Simma Down Na. People are way too overly sensitive, maybe it's the full moon. Chaeya
Chaeya, yeah I saw that too! What's this world coming to? I don't know why authors care about a bad review. It is not that serious. Every book gets a bad review. Bad reviews are only a matter of opinion. For everyone that didn't like your book, there are others that do. I know that I've read some books that people I know loved and I hated it and on the flipside I've read books others hated and I loved. I don't understand why authors care so much about this stuff? Bad reviews don't stop the book from selling if that's what they are worried about. Just ask Dan Brown. The man has nothing but horrible reviews attacking his work and sales gazillions. And he is not the only author who has great sales and bad reviews. Readers buy what they want. Most readers do not even read reviews or pay attention to them and if they do, it most likely doesn't influence their decision. If someone wants to check out a book, they couldn't care less what some stranger thought of it so I don't know why authors waste their time worrying about bad reviews.
Authors need to spend their time thinking about what's important and working on their next book, not what some reviewer thought. It's wasted energy if you ask me.
Some authors even track down reviewers. I couldn't care enough about some reviewer to track them down. LOL! I keep it moving.
One thing I don't know is, how do all these authors even know about all their reviews? Heck I don't know about every review I get! Sometimes people review authors' books on blogs and sometimes the publisher has initiated reviews so you often don't know what reviews you have floating around if it's not on Amazon or Goodreads but a lot of authors aren't even a member of the Goodreads community so most don't check here to see what someone says about a book or whatever.Sure authors Google ourselves every once in a while but you still might not know about a review that's out there if it's on some blog, especially if the blog isn't a popular one.
Also, some of these authors are tripping out over reviews done by people who have no influence whatsoever. We must remember not all reviews are created equally. Okay if you get a horrible review from The New York Times or USA Today, yeah you might wonder if it will influence buyers. But getting a bad review from a random review blog (especially one that isn't very popular) isn't worth going crazy about. Do authors realize how many blogs are out there and the general public hardly knows about any of them. The only people that hang out on these book review blogs are bloggers and authors. Some blogs are run by librarians and actual professional reviewers but most are by readers who wanted to critique the books they bought, not reviews for professional purposes. That's why publishers tell authors to seek out reviewers carefully because not all have clout. Publishers will tell you not to waste time with a site or reviewer that can't even get enough traffic for someone to see the review.
Shoot you get a bad review in PW and it might make you worry. If authors are gonna choose to act like fools they could at least do it when the review can generate some publicity. LOL! If you get a bad review from a popular site or famous reviewer then it will even help sell books because it's bound to create a buzz! But a bad review in general doesn't even matter so authors need to get a grip.
Then again I guess some of these authors reach out to these bloggers so that's why they'd know about those specific reviews but when you have a publisher getting reviews for you along with you, the author doesn't know who has reviewed your book most of the time unless it's by a big site or reviewer. But if you are an author all on your own having to get reviews then I could see how you'd be aware of certain reviews. But still you might not know about every review because the net is huge.
Many authors do check their review status on Amazon and here. The issue with these two reviewers were a bunch of people jumped on the bandwagon and started stating that they agree with the book and that they were going to remove it from their to-be-read files and so on. These books have been out for a while and one bad reviewer sounds off and everybody has to rally over to the dark side. It's amazing. With Leigh Fallon's book, she basically got called out that her book was an exact replica of "Twilight". That's a pretty heavy blow, but then, she's signed with HarperTeen; if her book is just like Twilight, what does that say for the publisher? Anywho, she should've just kept her mouth shut and let it die down. Like you said, one monkey doesn't a show stop. For all those people who loved Twilight, probably enjoyed the same story with a different set of characters. Writers have to remember, that once they put their name out there in public, they are basically a business, an enterprise. The ones who survive are the ones who treat their writing like it's a business. You can't please everyone and there's no sense in trying.
Chaeya
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The FountainPenDiva, Old school geek chick and lover of teddy bears
(new)
Sadly, there are a LOT of Twilight rehashes out there because big publishing still operates under the notion that if one emo-sparkly-mysterious-uber-hawt-boy is great, then a whole slew of them would equal automatic dollar signs. As a YA fan, it has become increasingly difficult to find books that aren't following the Meyer formula.I too have noticed the almost mafia-like mentality happening in the YA genre and it's as if these writers never left the mean-girl cliques they must have been a part of in high school. It's disgusting and unprofessional and I'm saddened that the agents aren't reining their clients in.
This kind of behavior just tarnishes the entire industry.
@Vixenne-I agree with your whole post. The other thing is that I believe at least one of them got their writing start in FanFic, Twilight FanFic. So there you go.
The thing that is killing me is that the reviewers are all reacting to the books -- rightly so. The authors are attacking the reviewers not the review. Bad form.
I think the fact that Leigh's book was so much like Twilight will hurt her more than even her attitude. People are calling her a plagiarist and thief and that's nothing any author wants to be called and if it really comes out that she purposely copied Twilight then her entire career can be in jeopardy. What it says for Harper Collins? That they were just so quick to jump on the Twilight bandwagon and publish something they figured would tap into the market. I mean they have to know it's just like Twilight. They read and edited the darn thing so they can't act like they don't know now that all of these accusations are surfacing.
As far as what's happening in YA, I didn't pick up that most of the authors acting out write in that genre. I am not familiar with a lot of YA authors or books because I don't read that genre but the connection is interesting.I also think some authors make a big stink out of reviews on purpose for publicity. Do you notice how whoever does it becomes a blog star for at least a week? I am sure that transfers into sales. I know several sites where they are talking about this. Leigh's book will be even more popular because of all this mess and more people are gonna buy it to see what the fuss is all about.
So once again a bad review and bad publicity might actually make sales explode for her. But what will it cost her in the long run if it's found that she really did just rip off Twilight?
Wow. I just checked out those Amazon reviews for her book. Maybe this stink won't make sales explode necessarily but I know some readers will probably check it out just to see. Then you have those folks who love Twilight so much that anything similar to it, they will read no matter if it's ripped off or not.
Now if Stephanie Meyer steps in with a suit against Leigh...oh then heck has broken loose! If she did purposely rip off Twilight, I cannot see Meyer's people just letting her get away with it.
I have Google alerts for my name and name+book titles. I'm not necessarily looking for reviews, though I do read them, I'm monitoring pirates. Unfortunately I'm pirated a lot and have to keep watch. I think it's stupid to respond to a review, period. It's a fight you can't win. When a reviewer got the facts of one of my books wrong I emailed her privately and she corrected it. When certain fans started a flame war attacking another author's books I didn't comment on the thread, but in other forumsand on my blog I made it clear that I don't appreciate such behavior. Unfortunately, I don't think many authors are ready for prime time. Most are introverts and when you add that to our innate thin-skinnedess and various neuroses it can turn into an ugly mess very quickly. Save your kvetching about reviews for PRIVATE conversations with your friends.
Mod
message 27:
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The FountainPenDiva, Old school geek chick and lover of teddy bears
(new)
My rule of thumb to ALL authors, including myself: GET OVER IT! I know that sounds callous considering that writing is such a personal thing and we put so much of ourselves into each and every word, but we have to understand that no matter how amazingly awesome WE think what we poured our blood, sweat and tears into is, not everything is going to resonate with every reader. That's just the facts of life, and going after every reviewer who gives a one-star or unflattering critique just proves that some people should not be in this game. Any agent who does not check this kind of behavior shouldn't be an agent.
Sadly in a larger sense there's an implication that sexist males can use to further cement their beliefs--that not only do women write "dreck", but that they're too immature to handle honest criticism. I wonder if any of these authors have ever considered that. Probably not.
Rosyln,I have a Google alert for my name as well but sometimes I come across a review done of one of my books on some blog I never heard of or knew about. LOL!
I don't respond to reviews either, especially customer reviews. I thank professional reviewers I reach out to before hand for agreeing to review and sometimes I will thank them if they write me and tell me they really enjoyed the work. But I usually don't respond to positive or negative reviews.
I really wanted to respond to this one professional reviewer one time who reviewed Melody. She put in a MAJOR spoiler and twist in her review. It peed me off but I left it alone. It wasn't the main twist but it was a part of the plot I wish she hadn't disclosed. Maybe I should've asked her to take that part out but didn't.
That's the only issue I have with some reviewers. I mean when you are reviewing a mystery and crime novel it's should be commonsense that you don't tell the twists and spoilers in the review. I mean, really.
One of my mystery writing buddies said she confronted this reviewer because her review was just full of spoilers. I mean it should be commonsense that if you are gonna be writing reviews, not to tell spoilers. Especially if it's a mystery where spoilers and twists are part of the plot.
Another thing I'll add to what you said Vix is there really are reviewers who do try to trash books on purpose. You have a lot of aspiring writers who review books and when you read their reviews you can tell it's in a vindictive manner because it attacks the author and belittles the writer. You can hate a book but don't make it personal. So in some instances it is the reviewer using their position to target a writer's work out of jealousy or some other personal motive. But it's obvious when this happens. I also notice most readers will tear down a reviewer quick if they feel like the reviewer is just being mean and nasty and not really giving an objective review.I agree that authors should turn the other cheek and if someone is targeting them with the intent of hurting their rep or something then they should go to their publisher or agent with these concerns. I don't mean just for a bad review but if something escalates into a serious thing where the author is being cyberstalked or they're being personally attacked everywhere by a reviewer or anyone. That has happened and it can be ugly. You shouldn't go out against the reviewer in public. There are professional ways to handle everything.
But like I said in my above posts, worrying about bad reviews is a waste of time.
I take the silence is golden approach to bad reviews. I agree with Roslyn and think it's a fight you can't win. The author almost always comes across looking unprofessional.Whenever a reader contacts me with praise for one of my books I ask them to consider leaving a review on Amazon. I figure ask and you shall receive. Hopefully those good reviews will outweigh any bad ones. I'm fairly new to this compared to most of you and getting out there to promote myself and my work is outside my comfort zone but I'm learning.
I am dumbfounded. There is now a blog where people send their Amazon reviews, and the reviewer and their review is "critiqued" or should I say, made fun of and dissed. So if an author or someone doesn't like your Amazon review of their book you might end up on this blog being ridiculed, name and all!
http://thankyouforyourreview.blogspot...
Why this seemed like a smart thing to do is beyond me. All stuff like this is gonna do is make it where no one wants to review books on Amazon anymore for fear of being picked out and publicly scrutinized on this blog.
I might be wrong but are they breaking any copyright laws for taking reviews off Amazon and posting them on a blog like this even if the author or publisher sends them to the blog? Maybe not but just seems like it.
Best Wishes!
http://www.stacy-deanne.net