Sunday, September 8, 2013

Are you kidding me??? Why critical reviews are necessary, and why freaking out about them will only hurt YOU.

I'm just about ready to blow a gasket over here, people, really.

So, here's the thing. For the past couple of years, I've been following this whole reviewer/author drama nonsense, watching author after author being attacked by "reviewers" who don't even bother to read the book - who don't even bother to read any books - and instead spend all their time hunting down a nice, juicy piece of drama to blow up, call out their hordes, and descend upon said author with a fiery rain of negative reviews and shelving. I have done my best to support some authors who I felt were attacked unfairly, especially those who did not do anything of which they were accused. Recently there has been a lot of attention on this issue, and a bit of a backlash against that sort of behavior, and I hoped to see the clouds parting a bit.

Yeah, right.

Instead, the backlash has backlashed too far. A friend of mine wrote a perfectly legitimate, two-star review of a book. She did not say a word against the author, she admitted the idea was interesting, but she felt the character development was lacking and just didn't feel any connection to the book. She did not mention the bad editing. She did not mention the typos. She did not mention a number of problems with the book.  She provided a balanced, respectful critical review.

What happened?

She was immediately attacked for her review - by one of the editors of the book! So, since she's fair that way, she reread the book to see if maybe she'd just missed something.

Nope.

Now she is enduring attack after attack, people claiming she's bullying the author. People questioning her integrity, questioning if she knows anything about zombies (she's our zombie expert for goodness sake!) and generally treating her like crap. She has announced she will no longer do any reviewing, because she just cannot take being treated like this. She works hard to be fair and balanced, provide constructive criticism in a respectful way, and... she is attacked.


For having an opinion?  Really? Thanks a lot, people. You're proving the people who claim some authors are asshats right and I really, really dislike you for that. Because the author, and the author alone, is responsible for the book. He or she puts it out there, releases it to the wild, and that's all there is to it. Up until now, I've done my best to support all people from being bullied; up until now, it's mostly been authors I've noticed being attacked. Now, however, it is a reviewer, and more importantly it is my friend, and I'm on the warpath.

You don't mess with my friends.

Look, people, I have seen author-bullying. Bullying is when the reviewer hasn't read the book but posts a review anyway in which they attack, trash, and libel the author. Bullying is when a reader picks up a book they know they will hate just so they can write a mean-spirited review trashing it (and usually the author). Bullying is when these people stalk the author, screencap their Facebook and Twitter posts, go to their blogs, and then try to destroy their reputation with these "discoveries". Bullying is when someone calls up the charity for whom an author is trying to raise money and tell lies about that author's behavior just to try to cause problems. Bullying is a lot of things; I could tell you stories all day just of things I've seen as I've watched all this nonsense. I call the reviews that come from that mindset "fake" reviews, because they are very rarely written by someone who has actually bothered to read the book.

But...

The review my friend posted was no more bullying than my reviews of  Midnight or A Demon Lies Within were. My friend hadn't been asked to review that book; she had picked it up on another friend's recommendation and just decided to review it because she had read it, and because all of us know how much she loves zombies and zombie books. As a result she has been attacked at her blog, on Amazon, on Facebook... Listen, people, you can't be doing that sort of thing. If someone posts a legitimate review, even if you don't happen to agree with it, you have no right and no call to be going off and attacking people over their opinion. Especially in a case like this, where the review was constructive and well-balanced. For crying out loud! I call these "critical" reviews, and they are not only useful to a writer, they are necessary. They are useful because they can often provide you some feedback that your friends and family won't give you. They will help you improve your next book with constructive criticism. And they will give your book legitimacy. More on that below.

I don't often rant about my opinions here, but enough is enough! Authors, if you receive a negative review from someone who has obviously read the book and taken the time to provide you some constructive feedback on the book, and you throw this sort of a hissy fit, maybe you're in the wrong business. If you send your legions of rabid fans out to attack a review simply because she didn't blow unicorn-rainbows and glitter up your ass to feed your ego, then maybe you should find something new to do with your time. Maybe you could hone your craft a bit instead of wasting your time behaving like a child.

I will not blindly support you just because you are an author. If you act like a jerk, then you're a jerk in my book. And if you can't deal with some constructive criticism, where the reviewer has gone out of her way to try to phrase things as carefully and delicately as possible, and has done her best to be respectful of the work you have done, then how are you going to deal with reviews like this one?

Deserves 0 stars. This author should find another line of work.... UNEDITED, piss-poor writing and horrible character creation.... [Redacted] should be this author's LAST book, it's that BAD! It's a disgusting story... The story is truly sick.
(title and reviewer not listed to provide anonymity)

And believe me, that is a mild one. I've seen much worse.

So, what I'm saying is: suck it up, buttercup. Not everyone is going to love your book. Don't freak out about a few critical reviews. No one is going to believe a book is so wonderful that it will have nothing but 4 and 5 star reviews. Those few lower-rated reviews will actually give your book some credibility. In fact, they will do you a favor.  If you have nothing on your book but high-rated reviews, people are going to assume you bought and paid for those reviews, rather then the reviews being organic. Those legitimate, low-rated reviews mean that you have actual readers out there reading your stuff. You are not doing yourself any favors by letting your rabid fan base attack anyone with an opposing opinion. You have succeeded in being only the third author to whose books I will unequivocally say "no" simply because you are you. And you have to know, it takes a lot for me to put every single book you've ever written onto my "no" shelf.

Congratulations.

No one deserves to be treated badly. It doesn't matter who you are.

27 comments:

  1. Well said, I couldn't agree more. Although I disapprove on principle of censorship, I'm sometimes tempted to wish that there were a law prohibiting anyone from publishing anything until he is over 21, because clearly people who carry on as described above have to be 10 years old or less, right?

    Seriously. Running about whining and throwing tantrums - if you haven't outgrown that, you really shouldn't be pretending you're grownup enough to publish a book.

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    1. I contacted the author in question, just in case he had no idea this was going on, to tell him that his rabid fans running around attacking a legitimate review is going to destroy his reputation.

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    2. Update on that: the author claims he had nothing to do with the attacks on my friend. I wonder if the whole thing was orchestrated by the editor who started the whole fuss? However, the author does believe the review was hurtful and malicious, and sorry to say, but that is absolute bullshit. I've pointed him toward some truly malicious reviews. Hopefully that will open his eyes a bit.

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  2. Well said, these reviewer attacks and also author attacks are getting seriously overboard. Legit reviews are critiques, not attacks.

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    1. Exactly! I have seen actual attack reviews, and the one in question was not an attack. The fact that someone thought it was astounds me!

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  3. That sucks that this happened to your fried. I admit that I am a bit surprised that over the past couple years of following the drama, you have only witnessed authors being bullied and are just now noticing that it often happens to reviewers but only since it happened to your friend. It's funny how seeing things from the other side of the fence can give you a whole new perspective. But while you described your personal definition of bullying, I wondered if you consider what happened to your friend to have been "bullying" behavior?

    I definitely agree with you that those people who get upset about anything but glowing reviews should suck it up and get over themselves. Only editors and beta readers are obligated to provide constructive criticism, most non-professional reviews are simply readers reacting to what they read and they express that in many ways, none of which are for the author, editor, publisher etc. Those reader reactions are for other readers.

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    1. You misunderstand, I said I have mostly noticed attacks on authors rather than reviewers. I have seen a few attacks on reviewers, and those are the other two authors whose books are all on my "no" shelf. Mostly what I've seen are innocuous comments by an author taken the wrong way. I think most people understand that our life experiences will lead to different things resounding with a person differently, and that people will see things differently based upon where they are emotionally at the time they read the book. Some of the things that have been pointed out to me as attacks on reviewers, I just don't see as attacks.

      And yes, what happened to my friend was bullying, since a number of people went and flagged her blog (several innocuous posts), downvoted her review, and one of the editors of the books wrote some very insulting things on her Facebook wall, which is extremely unprofessional. Bullying causes emotional distress, and my friend was extremely emotionally distressed over that.

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    2. Oh, and also, as an editor, it is not my responsibility to provide only constructive feedback. It is my responsibility to find things that are wrong and help fix them. I strive to do so in a constructive way, but again, as an editor it is not my job to blow glitter up anyone's ass either. :-)

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  4. I'm disappointed that people feel they're entitled to behave like this, and while I'm disappointed with many self-publishers because of the way they behave, or the quality of the work they put out, sad to say this kind of behaviour seems to be right across society.

    It makes me wonder what are we teaching our kids? Whatever happened to agreeing to disagree? Or how about 'do unto others as you would have them do unto you'?

    It happens more on the internet, where anonymity seems to lend people a certain sense of security. I firmly believe if you wouldn't say it to that person's face, then don't type it up and send it off into the internet either.

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    1. I firmly believe if you wouldn't say it to that person's face, then don't type it up and send it off into the internet either.

      Exactly, Ciara. I think the anonymity of the Internet is definitely degrading our sense of fairness and kindness. People forget that there is a living person on the other side of the screen.

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  5. I have gotten over 500 reviews on Amazon, most good, some bad. Once your get enough of them no single review really does anything the the numerical rating. I have gotten some I really couldn't agree with, like the ex-Marine who gave my military scifi novel a one star because I had women in positions of authority within my fleet. The sweetest words seem to come at the end of such reviews, when the reader states they will never read another of my books (thank you, thank you, thank you). I have one novel sitting there with seven 5* reviews and nothing else, and it kind of worries me. If great reviews moved books it would be selling well, which it isn't. My best seller (14K+ sales) has over a hundred reviews and a 4.0 average, the rating worse of any of my books. Just goes to show that good enough is good enough.

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    1. This is true, Doug. Probably with the novel with all five star ratings there is a sense that "These reviews must be from friends and family members..."

      Personally, I only read reviews if I'm waffling over whether or not I want to read the book. I usually start with the three-star reviews, because I figure these people will note the sorts of things that will bother me in a book. Then the one-star reviews, because the sorts of things that tick people off tend to be the sorts of things I like! :-)

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  6. *applauds* It's like everything I wanted to get across but with kickass memes. I <3 this so much.

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    1. Oh, no, your post was WAY better, but I just had to say it.

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  7. *blinks* people actually do this? "Bullying is when someone calls up the charity for whom an author is trying to raise money and tell lies about that author's behavior just to try to cause problems." that's MADNESS!!

    I'll tell you something. I got an absolutely horrific review for EI shortly after it came out. It just murdered the book *and* me personally as a writer. You know what I did in response to it? Cried, screamed, and then let it go. Because what-the-fuck-ever, you know? Bad reviews happen. Deal with it offline and move on. Yeah, it's still with me, but you can't engage. Thinking back now, I'm wondering if for some bizarre reason this 'reviewer' wanted to start a flame war. *shrugs*

    Reviews are necessary and desired and while bad ones hurt, you *shouldn't* respond to them.

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    1. It's possible, Nancy. And yes, people do that. I'll e-mail you and tell you more of the story if you like.

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  8. Katy, I'm so sorry your friend was attacked for her honest and very well balanced review. She did not trash the book or the Author. She made it clear that this is her favorite genre, and the elements she looks for in books like these were missing. I wish all my critical reviews were as, well, actually this reasonable. Sadly reactions to legit critical reviews like these, are what makes it harder for Authors who do get bullied, to report.

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    1. If you ever are bullied via a fake review, be in touch with me. I know some people who can help. It's wrong no matter from whom it is coming from, or to whom it is directed.

      Thanks for commenting!

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  9. Great post and commentary! I've had a few one-star reviews for my work, and calmed right down after I read the books these reviewers had actually liked. Turns out I was *never* going to reach those particular reviewers, so I stopped caring about their approval.

    I've blogged before about the need for critical review in any genre, but especially in erotic romance. Without strong, reasoned reviews, this is all just a mutual appreciation society that never grows into its potential.

    I'm lucky. I learned to take and dish out constructive critiques in the commercial art world. It was only my art up for review, not my innermost soul and being.

    Crane Hana

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    1. Exactly! If you read the post I just did, I point out that "I disagree with you" does not equivocate to "I hate you" and "I don't care for your book" does not mean "I don't like you".

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  10. Good post, and excellent points. It's a shame that reviewing has gotten to this point, and you're right in that it happens on both sides of the fence. I've gotten reviews I haven't liked, but if you're an author you shake your head and forget about it. Sometimes it's difficult because you can't understand how someone could think "That" about your book. The way I deal with it is I imagine that reviewer is my wife (who doesn't like my books) and if I can love her for all these years, I can certainly tolerate a stranger who didn't like my books.

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    1. *waving* Hey ya! Hows your boar? Ralph says hi!! Sorry had to reply...

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    2. That's a pretty smart attitude. I hope I'll like your books, but if I don't, I'll still write an honest review for you, addressing any issues I see. :-)

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  11. BTW with friends like this, I really REALLY really feel sorry for my enemies! Thanks again Katy!

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    1. I'm very glad to see the follow-up post that you and the author in question have made peace. Boo to misunderstandings!

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