Bills defend consumers’ right to leave bad reviews

Sorry I’ve been neglecting this blog but real life has been keeping me busy. Some days too damn busy. I seem to remember a group of authors and author wannabees yelping in delight when they found any article online about bills or petitions or anything that would curtail the ability of people to leave a critical review.

Here is an article in The Detroit News about just the opposite.

 

What Am I Worth?

What am I worth? What are authors worth?

Honest reviews.

I know that for some people a review needs only to be about the book but not for me. I have no interest in a book no matter how good it is if the author is a convicted of certain crimes, or books promoting sympathy for pedophiles, or authors like Anne Rice and Laurell K Hamilton who like to write long posts about how smart they are and how dumb the people who dislike their current books are.

I also do not like author who trivialize rape or the Shoah to try to make people feel sympathy for their “pain”, “pain” that is almost always caused by their own poor judgment. Getting a negative review is not like getting raped, getting several bad reviews is not like being in a concentration camp. Those authors who make these comparisons need to stop writing because they are either too thin skinned to take any criticism or they will continue offending readers until they realize they haven’t sold a book in a year and wonder why, oh Lord, why.

I also want to know who is buying their reviews from places like Fiverr, or are exchanging reviews, who has sock accounts everywhere, who has family and friends writing their first 6 or 7 five star reviews. I don’t mind the latter as long as they disclose their relationship, but to not disclose the relationship smacks of deceit and is in violation of the TOS of certain sites.

I want to know about authors who collude to vote each other’s book up to the top of lists or up vote positive reviews while down voting critical reviews, I want to know which authors try to convince, harass, or guilt reviewers into changing their ratings.

I want to know all of this because I do not want to support authors who do this kind of thing. I think any reader who wants to know about any of this or include any of this in their reviews should be able to. I believe that authors are their product to a certain extent and like I would research any person I hired to work on my house, I want to know who I am supporting by buying their books.

I don’t want to read a subpar, sloppily constructed book any more than I want a plumber who can’t figure out how to turn off the water supply. I don’t want to read a book, no matter how well written, by someone who thinks my sex makes me somehow less than he is, I threw out an electrician my contractor hired because he wouldn’t answer my questions.

I believe I should have the right to know these things, I believe I am worth more than someone who does any of the above mentioned acts. I believe that if an author does something which would prevent me from buying or recommending their book(s) then I should be able to include that in my review because I also believe I am not alone in this.

We can all say or do  or believe whatever we want and we can all choose to disagree and not support by word or finance the words, action, or beliefs of someone else.

I believe I should be able to say in my reviews exactly why I will or will not recommend any book, I believe anything less is dishonest-to myself, to the author, to anyone reading my review, and to all those other authors who however they are published who are law abiding, honest, hard working, professional, or smart enough to act that way in public.

 

 

A Better Plan than Anne Rice Has

We’ve been going about this the wrong way. We don’t need a petition to save anonymity on Amazon. No, no. We need  a petition that allows Amazon to not post reviews that are not using the reviewer’s real name on the books of certain authors.

Simple, really. Amazon creates a little button that allows authors to choose to allow all reviews or only “real name” reviews. Make it retroactive, any previous review not acceptable under the new system will be deleted.

Reviewers wishing to post or repost will be given the choice of either having their real name, if they aren’t using it, now attached to every review and comment they have ever posted on Amazon or remaining anonymous and not reviewing certain authors.

Much easier, I think, and gives both author and reviewer a choice because both groups should be free to choose, not have the choice taken from them.

So, from a “blood-sucking parasite” to the woman who is famous for writing about blood-sucking parasites, isn’t this a much better solution?

Censorship and Amazon Reviews

My deleted review on Amazon titled, In Love with the Sound of her own Voice:
When this book was pointed out to me because of ___________________and _____________________, I read the annoying blurb and thought that the story sounded interesting and was possibly something I would enjoy.

Granted the blurb was annoying in the extreme but the STORY, the story is what’s important, right? Not here, not in this book.

I struggled through the sample on Amazon and, wow, does the author NEVER just shut up and write? I was overwhelmed by a wall of pretentious verbiage that moved with the speed of a mongoose on crack (thank you MJD).

The characters and the story recede under the fast moving avalanche and stay cowering in the background too intimidated by the author’s overwhelming presence to come forward. Too bad. If Llewellyn would just stop being a WRITER and start writing the story it might be worth the time.

 

So I’m not allowed to say the author gets in the way of her own story? Guess not, and if I can’t criticize her voice/her style now what else will I be forbidden to criticize soon?