Steph Sinclair > Status Update

****PLEASE DO NOT COMMENT UNTIL AFTER YOU HAVE READ THE ENTIRE THREAD. THE POINT YOU MAY WANT TO MAKE MAY HAVE ALREADY BEEN ADDRESSED.**** Thanks :)

Authors, why? Why must you insult your readers? Why can't you just understand that we *want* to like you? Why don't you get it that just because we may hate your book, it does not mean we hate you?

It must be true that they fear us. I hate to name names, but this author vs. reviewer shit has gone way too far.

There is the stupid cow from Goodreads who has been real nasty and keeps doing up really bad reviews of Carrier, then gets her friends to go in and 'like' her bad reviews so that that review will be pushed up to the top of all the lists. Now she's put it up on Amazon! She is a disgruntled old cow who doesn't like me and how I got published. There's no point in saying anything about her or responding (she loves that) but what we can do is push her review back down the list by bringing all the good reviews back to the top. How do we do this? Well at the end of each review there is a little button where you can say whether you found the review helpful. Click YES on the good reviews. The more reviews you click YES you click on the good reviews the further down the list that bitch will go. If you leave a comment on the good reviews, that helps too. She's already got over 20 of her buds to YES her review so we will need to find more people than that to YES the good reviews. There are about 8 pages of reviews (that's about 7 reviews or something like that) so we can bury this horrible toe rag down the very bottom if you help me out.


As far as I'm aware, you don't have to have bought anything on Amazon to get your vote to count. You just need to be a registered user. It only takes about 5 mins to go through all the reviews and YES the good ones. I'm not asking to dickie with the system or anything, it's just moving a horrible review from the top spot. It's so long, you have to scroll for ages until you get to the good ones. I'd really appreciated it help on his. I'd also love if you could maybe gets some friends or family to do the same.


Thanks a million, guys. You're the best.


Leigh

This feels so wrong. I mean, an author might have the right to disagree with a negative review, but calling names is just not the right path to follow.
I am sorry to hear that you have to get through a situation like this one, and I am more sorry to see that the respect between writers and reviewers is starting to fall apart :(

Skyla (Happy Go Lucky and Lost in Books) wrote: "Seriously an author called you a stupid cow? Where? and Why?"

Because she didn't like my review. And I'm not afraid to call her out on this, because it's unacceptable. I was going to continue reading her series because I thought she was a nice person. Imagine my surprise.

Leigh Fallon really did that? Do you have links to where she said it? If you need back-up on this, I'd be only too happy to help.

I can't believe an author would stoop so low! Its seriously getting messed up now! I'm so sorry you have to deal with this crap!

I don't know why she thinks I got you guys to vote on any review. I never have asked anyone to do that. If I'm being honest (and I always am), I'm surprised that review was so popular.

Stephanie, are you sure that Leigh Fallon said this? I'm concerned someone might be privately baiting you into an overreaction.

Stephanie, did the e-mail provide links to where this was said. I plan on calling out this shit publicly (only if that's okay with you, of course) but need hard evidence to really fight with.

Ceilidh wrote: "Stephanie, did the e-mail provide links to where this was said. I plan on calling out this shit publicly (only if that's okay with you, of course) but need hard evidence to really fight with."

I agree with Ceilidh. Get hard evidence and bring it to light.

Ceilidh wrote: "Leigh Fallon really did that? Do you have links to where she said it? If you need back-up on this, I'd be only too happy to help."

I received this email anonymously through someone's private profile. So I don't have any links, but I did notice yesterday that all the positive reviews on Amazon were mysteriously bumped up (even the ones that only have a few sentences) and all the negative ones bumped down. In addition, my review received a ton of 'NO' votes in a very short amount of time. The review hasn't even been up there that long.

I'm just so disgusted.

Ghirardelli wrote: "What the actual fuck. And here I thought I'd try this book. I'm so sorry you had to go through this, Stephanie.

I love the part where she says she's not asking to dickie the system when that's E..."

I feel like reporting this to Amazon. She's screwing with the system. I can't help it if others felt the same way about her book!

Do you have a screen cap on this? I just ask, because while I am definitely TEAM REVIEWER forever and ever, I just am nervous about getting my fur up without absolute concrete proof.

I'm doing some googling to see if I can find the original source but nothing's come up yet.

Stephanie wrote: "Authors, why? Why must you insult your readers? Why can't you just understand that we *want* to like you? Why don't you get it that just because we may hate your book, it does not mean we hate you?..."

...............................

Da fuck? Seriously, Leigh Fallon!?! My review was so much more scathing than yours and she's attacking you?

Your review was very thoughtful and insightful and had nothing against her at all! Seriously that woman needs to grow up.

I can screen cap the email. Hold on a sec.

From Fallon's website:

There will always be the haters, rise above them.

Excuse me while I piss myself laughing.

Okay, I just realized I do not know how to do a screen cap and upload it. Directions, please?

That sounds far too horrible and immature for it to be real. I can't believe that an author wrote that. I don't want to believe it.
Oh man, I just can't even comprehend the levels of stupid that have come out of that email.

Wow that sucks. I don't know if I would be able to stomache something like that. It seems like that kind of thing is happening more and more lately, which just plain sucks. I'm sorry that it had to be you. She obviously can't handle critism. I read both the good and bad reviews on amazon. If you can't handle critisims don't put your crap out there. Any way my rants over. I wish I could give you my hello kitty to snuggle. Just don't dwell on it too long.

Stephanie wrote: "Okay, I just realized I do not know how to do a screen cap and upload it. Directions, please?"

CTRL then PrtSC.

Print Screen then paste it in a document.

Stephanie wrote: "Okay, I just realized I do not know how to do a screen cap and upload it. Directions, please?"

Okay when you have it open, click print screen. Then open up an image program like paint, and save the image as a .jpeg. Then upload via photobucket or tiny image, or what have you. Get the URL for the image then open the box for here and type <*img src="image"*> and remove the stars and it should pop up.

Forgot to mention -- After you hit print screen, you want to paste to the image program, because hitting print screen automatically copies the image of whatever is up on your screen.

I'd like to believe it was fake but when my Amazon reviewer ranking took a few thousand point dive, I can't ignore it.

Sorry to intrude but that is an awful email. Well if there's one thing I hate is authors trying to manipulate their readers like that. I hope you're ok. Your review was spot on!

Holy crap! What is going on with authors lately? Do they want to go bankrupt and ruin their careers or something?

I'm sorry you have to go through this, Stephanie. Thank goodness yours and Cait's review prevented me from buying her book.

To be honest, I think it's someone else who sent it hence the anonymous email.

Ok, that's really small. Here is the photobucket direct link:

http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x9...

Ok, that's still small...not sure what to do about that. :/

Stephanie wrote: "I'd like to believe it was fake but when my Amazon reviewer ranking took a few thousand point dive, I can't ignore it."

Well, I went on and liked your review. Of course, I already liked your goodreads review.

Lucy wrote: "Stephanie wrote: "I'd like to believe it was fake but when my Amazon reviewer ranking took a few thousand point dive, I can't ignore it."

Well, I went on and liked your review. Of course, I alre..."

Do you see how many "NOs" it's getting all of a sudden?

Stephanie wrote: "Ok, that's really small. Here is the photobucket direct link:

http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x9..."

That's still small.

Use snipping tool. It's under accessories.

That right there is the reason why no one other than these self-important trollthors can take the YA community seriously. Because this kind of shit - PERSONAL FUCKING BULLYING - is the kind of behavior you expect to see in the playground in front of an elementary school. "Let's all gang up on these people, guys, because they don't like the same things we do! They're baaaaaad!"

This behavior is absolutely atrocious and I'm glad you're naming and shaming. Please, if I ever behave like this as an author, one or all of you shoot me in the face. I cannot understand this kind of logic - where the fuck is the merit in fabricating the public's view of your book to sell more copies? How do these people sleep at night? What is success when it's built on trampling other people down, lying and cheating? This recent author behavior is disgusting and really, I feel sorry for OTHER authors in the genre who have the ability not to behave like chimpanzees in heat yet are being lumped in with these pathetic losers.

God, this is fucking disgusting. Stephanie, I am SO sorry you've had to face this bullshit and just hope Amazon will respond and bump your review back up to where it belongs, since that's clearly where everyone else who read it wanted it to be. Maybe these authors ought to be asking themselves why a negative review of their book received so many YES votes. Could it be - DARE I FUCKING SAY IT - people just don't like your book?

Toe rag?? Her insults don't bode well for her writing.
Poor Stephanie.

Someone should let her know that the system is the way it is for a reason. It's so long, you have to scroll for ages until you get to the good ones. usually says a lot in itself.

Stephanie wrote: "Lucy wrote: "Stephanie wrote: "I'd like to believe it was fake but when my Amazon reviewer ranking took a few thousand point dive, I can't ignore it."

Well, I went on and liked your review. Of cou..."

Yes, and I saw some of the stupid, thoughtless two line reviews that are suddenly ranked above it.

Holy. shit.

Hugs, Stephanie. I am so embarrassed for authors everywhere right now.

This is really petty behaviour from an author. However, if she's saying this shit privately then I don't think we can make a song & dance about it. I'd rather an author do their bitching privately instead of pulling another "Be Nice". The organised rate up/down of reviews isn't illegal but it's definitely petty.

Someone is without a doubt flat out attacking your review. They're even disliking the comments on your review. http://www.amazon.com/review/RQVRUQYP...

Ceilidh wrote: "This is really petty behaviour from an author. However, if she's saying this shit privately then I don't think we can make a song & dance about it. I'd rather an author do their bitching privately ..."

The best you can do, Stephanie, is report what s/he's doing to Amazon, but they are notoriously on the side of positive reviews anyway. If you get solid proof you can pass it onto bookbloggers so they can make informed choices about whether or not to give this woman's trash any publicity.

I just hate how mean people can be sometimes. And how immaturely they handle criticism.

Lucy wrote: "Someone is without a doubt flat out attacking your review. They're even disliking the comments on your review. http://www.amazon.com/review/RQVRUQYP......"

Wow. And you know, I didn't even know those people. They just happened to agree...

Thank you everyone. This kind of drama makes me want to stop reviewing altogether sometimes.

Ceilidh wrote: "This is really petty behaviour from an author. However, if she's saying this shit privately then I don't think we can make a song & dance about it. I'd rather an author do their bitching privately ..."

Yeah, I thought so too. I can't get the darn image to blow up. Clearly I have no idea what I'm doing.

What always seems to be lacking knowledge with these YA authors that we're the ones who'll read what the publish. When did that stopped to matter? Does being published give you a proverbial crown? I'm appalled. Hugs to you Steph. It was a fucking brilliant review.

Oh Stephanie, don't say that. Don't let this human being who shouldn't have been allowed near a computer to begin with alter something you both love and are good at -- so agonizingly good at that s/he just can't handle your existence.

This is absolutely ridiculous. Hugs, Stephanie, because you wrote an honest review and you don't deserve this.

It seems things are just hitting YA reviewers everyday now, huh?

I don't know what a toe rag is, but I'm pretty sure you're not one.:)

Stephanie wrote: "Lucy wrote: "Someone is without a doubt flat out attacking your review. They're even disliking the comments on your review. http://www.amazon.com/review/RQVRUQYP......"

Don't you dare stop reviewing. You're a part of this community and you fucking deserve to be. Don't let this display of completely pathetic and ridiculous behavior stop you doing what you love.

Look, this is all a nasty business I am and will always be on the side of the reviewer. However, a screen shot of an anon message isn't proof. Until you have an actual email that has her address on it with a timestamp and the data that an email header contains it is all just speculation to whether she really did this or some fan of the book is yanking your chain.

Or a cow or a bitch, or anything else she said, just to be clear.