Monday, January 9, 2012

Reviews, Authors, and Amazon

Natalie M. Lakosil at Bradford Literary agency posted about bad book reviews and thin-skinned authors. It is becoming common for self-published authors to react, um, poorly when faced with honest reviews. In this case, the author resorted to public name-calling. Postal anyone?

Another trend is developing on Amazon. People with an agenda use the book review section as a soapbox to push their agenda. Rather than an honest review from a person who has read the book, they spout hatred of the author, the theme of the novel, or life in general. This defeats the purpose.

Sadly, this trend is creeping into GoodReads as well.

Examples:


Twilight by Stephenie Meyer: “The movie was a total waste. What a joke!”

Um, yeah. But how was the book?





Killing Lincoln by Bill O’Reilly: “O’Reilly is a jerk with a god-complex.”

Um, okay. But what about the book?





American Sniper by Chris Kyle. “This guy is a racist thug hunting poor people in other countries and is now training others to do the same in this country.”

Some of the comments on Mr. Kyle’s page are filthy beyond belief.





Rules for a book review:

  1. Read the book.
  2. Give an honest review.

How difficult is that? For the people who prefer slinging excrement, it seems there are no rules.






6 comments:

  1. You are so right about sticking to the books, being fair, and giving book buyers something they can use. Authors don't control movies or the price set by the publisher. Move along...

    Thanks, girl! :o) <3

    ReplyDelete
  2. Those are pathetic! It's bad when someone reads just a little bit and then posts a review. Another rule - don't review a book you haven't read completely.

    ReplyDelete
  3. free speech does not discriminate against morons

    and

    you are as stupid as your anonymous, uneducated comments

    smart until proven dumb

    what a shame, isnt amazon or the author allowed to delete that nonsense?

    ReplyDelete
  4. ps- my #1 reason i hesitate to self publish is what is happening to the rushers to pub b4 they are ready and wonder why the bad reviews.

    its too easy to make a fool of yourself!

    i am copying my quotes for later. thx for inspiring them!

    ReplyDelete
  5. I'm wondering if any of the idiots actually read the books. They said nothing about the story, plot, what they lacked or found interesting.

    Name calling an author does not a book reviewer make.

    Pathetic.

    ReplyDelete
  6. I've posted reviews, and they weren't totally wonderful, all the time, but I wouldn't either criticize nor praise a book I haven't read. Recently this has created a little conflict as I have read some friends' self-pubbed books and been asked to give them good reviews on GoodReads, Amazon, etc., but I can't honestly give them more than 3 stars (at best). So I'm refraining and avoiding, at the moment.

    ReplyDelete

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