Author meltdown leads to bad reviews

There's already a thread going on this here (not the locked one). ETA: Although I do think Roundtable is a better place for it since it's sage advice for all authors, not just self-published ones.

Thanks for starting the thread -- I hadn't noticed how old the original thread was, and I'm always reluctant to start new threads on existing topics. But this particular review shows exactly "what not to do", and why.

It strikes me that some authors might be perceiving Amazon and Goodreads as their domains, as if they think it's a place for their fans to cheerlead for them, and are forgetting that these are primarily places for readers to exchange their thoughts on what they've read.

heza said:

It strikes me that some authors might be perceiving Amazon and Goodreads as their domains, as if they think it's a place for their fans to cheerlead for them, and are forgetting that these are primarily places for readers to exchange their thoughts on what they've read.

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I think that's exactly what it is. It's pretty clear with the author who had his profile pulled, as many times he referred to his page or his account and how all the bad reviews were being linked to it. Sometimes people look at those author pages like a facebook page, which is completely controllable. The difference is, Facebook is built for interaction with someone, GR and Amazon review sections aren't like that. They're for consumers.

I don't think anyone deserves to be piled on. Just ignore him. Let him have his little rant, and quit engaging him. Isn't that what we were told as kids? "If you ignore him, he'll go away."

And I have to wonder how many people who are writing reviews have actually read the book.

Most of the 1 stars that I read said they read the preview Amazon offered... and that was bad enough.

If it's true that an author's Amazon rank is determined by number of visits to our book's page, this guy's rank should get and stay decent for a while.

I want to do a serial killer/stalker novel about an author that hunts down and kills anyone that gives his book a bad review.

Seriously, all that guy's talk about the consciousness of humanity and being assaulted by evil...I think he's missing more than a few screws.

I read some of the preview, and it was cringe-worthy. Trolls notwithstanding, the author's tirade likely attracted a bunch of new readers who are giving his book honest reviews (as opposed to reviewers who were given free copies in exchange for five-star reviews, as mentioned on goodreads). I don't know if that's true, but if it is, perhaps the ratings are now starting to reflect the actual quality of the book.

Good lord.

He might be a bit-ahem-thin skinned for the writing life.

Here we go again, sadly.

First we have an author breaking the fourth wall in the worst way by arguing with a reviewer. That never ends well. It's not our job to quibble with our customers. If they don't like it, they don't like it.

Then we have the community of readers venting their displeasure by giving a rash of 1 star reviews. And while I can see why they are doing that, I do feel in theory that it's a bit harsh. However in this case ...

... RYFW makes it difficult for me to say what I thought from the Look Inside sample. Let me just say that reviewers aren't only giving it a one star rating as a punishment.

It's another car crash.

While reading his tirade, my brain is screaming, "No, No, No! Stop arguing! Take the criticism and move on!"

I'll save this up as a cautionary-tale--which, frankly, has a lot of dramatic and intriguing elements you would see in a reality TV romp.

I followed the link and read many, though not all, of the comments at Goodreads. I think one of the most heartbreaking things for me was Cait, who gave the one star review, saying she wasn't going to read any more indie authors' books because of the harassment she received from the author.

I hope she changes her mind. I hope she keeps reviewing books, indie or not. I hope others who said they also wouldn't read indie authors now change their minds. Other authors losing readers over one author's bad decision to engage is tragic to me.

Cait was way nicer than I would have been.

Oh how cringey! *shudders* *then goes back to read more*

I'm very impressed with how she handled the situation. I am fairly certain I would have been hard-pressed to manage it as well as she did.

ITA. I wondered if she (Cait) worked in customer service or something. She contained herself very well.

ViridianChick said:

Aruna just posted this link in another thread. I thought it was fantastic, but alas, the thread was years old, so it was locked.

The summary: a reviewer posted a very tame negative review. The author not only responded -- he demanded that she take the review down and began harassing her. Some highlights:






He also accuses everyone of bullying him.

Anyway, before this fiasco, the author had fairly average reviews. Now he has pages and pages of one-star reviews. I almost feel bad for him. He over-reacted, but now people are negatively reviewing his work just because of his behavior.

So what do you think? Does he deserve it?

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I saw this a while ago, and my reactions were:

What a numbnut. First off, the whole point of reviews is for readers to say what they liked and disliked. It's not an attack on the author (unless it says something like, "This man poisons puppies" or something), but yes, it's a criticism of the work. That's the point. If he wants to take negative criticism as an attack of said work, so be it. But that's how it's supposed to work.

The review was a bit terse and not terribly helpful (didn't say anything specific about what reader didn't like), but it was on the mild end of the spectrum. Something about "the blurb said that if I liked X, Y, and Z, I'd love this book, yet I love all three and hated this book." Actually, as a prospective reader, I tend to ignore reviews like this, especially if most of the others are good, since they lack any useful information that would lead me to think I would share that person's taste, rather than the larger number who liked the book.

But if an author I don't know yet goes all rabid and starts harassing reviewers, you can guarantee I won't want to read anything he's written. And if a writer I do enjoy does this, well, I might back away too. Because it's ridiculous behavior at best, and rather creepy at worse.

I can see someone making "the author's big mistake" on a bad day, when they're at a low ebb and a nasty, snarky, ridiculously ignorant review comes in, the kind that makes you wonder if the person actually read the book or just completely didn't get it. But the worst thing to do in that situation is to double down and keep at it, calling attention to your faux pas. And to take the tack of "this is my business, and bad reviews are costing me money"?

That's just unbearably and stupidly precious for words. News flash. Every other writer is in the same situation. Special snowflake alert. And he's probably floored by the fact that his tempest in a teapot on goodreads attracted a veritable hurricane of one-star reviews and negative attention that will indeed hurt his business.

I am an evil person. I'd be fighting the urge to post, 'Why yes, I want to ruin your dreams.' But it's moot, because I simply will not review writing that bad. Esp.if it is self-published.

"pretentious" seems to be the word that pissed him off but his responses are pretentious. Not to mention entitled. Accusing the reviewer of ruining his means of income? He wrote a book so he is entitled to a living from its sales? The dog pile might seem cruel, but, as my old dad used to say, anyone that plain damn dumb needs to be told about it often, daily if possible! --s6

Ambrosia said:

I followed the link and read many, though not all, of the comments at Goodreads. I think one of the most heartbreaking things for me was Cait, who gave the one star review, saying she wasn't going to read any more indie authors' books because of the harassment she received from the author.

I hope she changes her mind. I hope she keeps reviewing books, indie or not. I hope others who said they also wouldn't read indie authors now change their minds. Other authors losing readers over one author's bad decision to engage is tragic to me.

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Well, it's not just about losing 'readers', is it? Look at the threads about self-published authors who can't get review sites to touch their books with a ten-foot pole, because of too many incidents like this. "Not worth the hassle" seems to be a pretty common response, because there's not way of knowing which authors are going to freak out.
The Internet giveth the era of the independent on-line reviewer, and the Internet taketh away.

Filigree said:

I am an evil person. I'd be fighting the urge to post, 'Why yes, I want to ruin your dreams.' But it's moot, because I simply will not review writing that bad. Esp.if it is self-published.

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I agree it's tempting to poke the badger with a spoon of insults, but if you don't get to see someone actually break down then it just doesn't feel as evil, lol.
What I will give the guy credit for it using that comment section as a plug for the book itself, though I doubt that helped at all.

I looked at his book on Amazon and I saw a few people also giving him five-star reviews in order to balance out the bad ones he's getting from his meltdown.

As much as I just shake my head at these meltdowns, what really makes me want to cry is the number of people that support them. I'm a member of several groups on Facebook, and it almost physically hurts when someone posts something for everyone to read that is riddled with typos and grammar mistakes (and copyrighted/trademarked material, but that's a separate kettle of fish.) and yet, everyone jumps in and tells them it's great, amazing, and perfect.

It's just horrible to me that so many self-published authors seem to have this opinion, not that their book is specifically above reproach, but that the only thing keeping them from being billionaires is a few bad reviews.

I just.....ugh....