What NOT to do in publicising your fresh minted novel...

The FBI? Seriously? That's just gold.

I don't see any harm in having this story repeated in several rooms, with each forum's mix of posters adding their thoughts. We have lots of sub-communities. It's being discussed on other boards that aren't here, too.

Replying in any way whatsoever to a bad review is sometimes called the ABM: the Author's Big Mistake.


(Though if you want to see an author responding well to a bad review.... http://www.smartbitchestrashybooks....ents/pregnesia-by-carla-cassidy-guest-review/ )

This example of the ABM is being discussed all over the 'Net. If the author of the book was trying to get word of mouth started ... well, that worked.

James D. Macdonald said:

I don't see any harm in having this story repeated in several rooms, with each forum's mix of posters adding their thoughts.

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ITA. I hadn't seen this before. It's an education, and maybe it can help stop someone from making this kind of mistake.

James D. Macdonald said:

(Though if you want to see an author responding well to a bad review.... http://www.smartbitchestrashybooks....ents/pregnesia-by-carla-cassidy-guest-review/ )

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That response is sheer class.

Oh, I didn't mean to imply this thread should be moved. Just wanted to point to where the topic was already being discussed. Cross-linking, so to speak

And the SBTB one...read that awhile back, and if I ever see Pregnesia on a bookshop shelf, I'll buy it just to support the author for her grace, class, and humour. If you absolutely, positively can't refrain, that's the way to respond.

OH NOES! I have to read Pregnasia now. It sounds as corny as my book, which means there is hope of publication after all.

ROFLMAO...wondered how long it would take to hit larger news and blog sites. It is a pathetically humerous read.

Ha - I submitted this article on Fark and got a greenlight for the main page in a couple of hours. Gonna get lots of exposure now.

I can't wait to get my first bad review. Someday . . . (Just need to get published first.)

I guess it can be hard not to take it personally.

I was following the Sams debacle online with a group of fellow authors as it happened. It was like watching a train wreck.

Just. Don't.

I love the response. It's better written than the review--which isn't bad. But that is a GREAT response.

This reminds me of a funny thing I found on amazon. There's someone on amazon whose (top-1000) reviewer name is bookloversfriend. A funny thing about bookloversfriend is that he attacks everyone that posts negative reviews of Wells Earl Draughon's eleven books (fiction and non-fiction). For example, here and here.

He also reviews every book written by Draughon with glowing 5-stars, such as his 5-star review titled, "This is one book you ignore at your own risk," of the book: While America Sleeps: How Islam, Immigration and Indoctrination Are Destroying America From Within. His review concludes with: "Give a copy to everyone you love."

The titles of some of his other reviews of Draughon include:

"something for everybody"

"Don't be cheated by drive-by reviewers"

"one of the most important books you'll ever read"

But wait there's more. How did I find him? Well, I was looking at the "most helpful critical review" for Plot & Structure (Write Great Fiction Series), which was written by bookloversfriend and titled "not for everyone." In this review, the reviewer recommends three other books instead of Plot & Structure, including a book by Draughon called "Advanced Writing: Fiction and Film." The review even gives a direct text link to Draughon's book (it's the only one linked to directly). I wonder how many people like me found Draughon's book this way?

I've also found it interesting that the amazon reviewer called BookReview.com also gives 5-star reviews to most of Draughon's books (including the only three that bookloversfriend himself doesn't review), but then gives only one 3-star review here which bookloversfriend then responds to. Out of the more than a dozen reviews of Draughon by bookloversfriend and BookReview.com, that is the only one that isn't a glowing 5-star review.

Ah, check this out about BookReview.com. It looks like that's not him. That's a service that you can pay $175 for in order to have someone affiliated with that site review your book and post the review to Amazon. So Draughon likely just paid them to review a number of his books, including the only three that bookloversfriend didn't review. The only one from BookReview.com that was a 3-star review is the one bookloversfriend argued with, which was a highly political and controversial-sounding book.

Very impressed by the Carla Cassidy response. Wow. Talk about a good sport.

One day I hope to have a negative review, so I can attempt to be witty and casual in response and instead get arrested.

Normally my idea of witty though is amusingly offensive and shocking, so I have to refrain. Though I can do wide-eyed innocence:

Carla Cassidy's response definitely got her a few extra hundred or even thousand sales...
That's what I call proper PR management. And it's from the author.

Carla Cassidy has something Sams doesn't - well, two things: a sense of humour, and class. That is a wonderfully classy response, although, in fairness, the review itself is witty. Someone obviously spent time on it.

I look forward to my first negative official review - mainly because it'll mean I'm actually published.

I also look forward to the first time someone reading The Scholar (working title) comments on my 'father issues'. Because although my character has loads, I have very few - they're mainly 'nagging at me to get a job' issues, which aren't really issues at all. So it'd just be fun to see someone psychoanalyse that aspect of the novel and come out all wrong.