My Big UP and Small Down!

Ok, so this is really confusing. Obviously there's some personal issues going on.

But I have to say, in an attempt to help, that you can't respond to bad reviews. Even if they're wrong. It's going to hurt you. I'd go back and delete your comments before it spreads.

Is it possible to go back and fix the product description on Amazon? Because you've incorrectly used the apostrophe--it should be used to show possession, as in "Elmo's blankie," but you've stuck it into plurals.

Having an error like that in the description makes a bad first impression, I'm afraid. That would make me hesitate to spend money on a book by an unknown author.

I tend to ignore reviews, bad or good, unless I know the person writing the review. But mistakes right up front--I don't need someone else's review to point those out to me.

Tyler, have a seat and take a deep breath.

I have read the reviews and your responses are way off base and really not professional at all.

Reviews are not meant for the author. Reviews are for readers who might be thinking about purchasing a particular book. And the reviews I have read on your book seem to have some valid points about your punctuation and structure issues.

I don't have to read the whole book to know that those comments are valid. All I had to do was use the Amazon look inside feature and read the excerpts. They are glaring right at you...

Don't take this personal. You obviously did not have a professional editor or a proof reader go over your work before you up loaded. You really can't be mad at reviewers for pointing out flaws in your work if you have not taken professional steps to make your work shine. I mean you can, but that is not going to solve the problems.

Suggestion...stick around the water cooler. Read some threads on writing. Hell, better still, search for the sticky thread, Writing with Uncle Jim. I promise you, you go through that thread and follow his advice, and by time you finish you'll laugh at your first attempt.

Good luck and welcome to the cooler...

I know it hurts to get bad reviews, but publicly lashing back at the reader is a BIG NO NO. It shows you can't take criticism well and will be a huge turn off for people to buy. I would suggest, like Kewii mentioned, to take it down and chalk this up as a lesson learned not to do again. It only makes matters worse.

Uhm not a good atittude you have. Don't reply to the reviews it's silly.

ETA: looks like you've taken down the book.

fireluxlou said:

Uhm not a good atittude you have. Don't reply to the reviews it's silly.

ETA: looks like you've taken down the book.

Click to expand...

The story did disappear, and the original poster removed the link, but it's back today and still has the author-behaving-badly comments. So the advice still stands: remove those comments, because no matter if the reviewer is right or wrong, replying and insulting the reviewers looks bad.

...and it's worth remembering that wording something in a harsh way doesn't mean someone is wrong. If someone notes a grammar or spelling mistake, that's your chance to fix it.

I agree with Thothguard and Polenth.

It's not unreasonable for readers of any genre to expect a book they pay for to be written with standard English punctuation, grammar, spelling, and sentence structure. If a work is badly in need of editing, the reader/reviewer has every right to say so.

Responding to reviewers is a very, very, very bad idea. Publicly attacking and insulting reviewers is a death knell.