Attacking writers on their amazon pages

[Cammy May Hunnicutt]

Am I the only one who is getting this?

People putting up reviews and comments on your amazon pages to stalk and dis you?

It seems pretty crazy and stupid for a writer to do because, you know,  glass houses, payback's a bitch, instant karma, all that?

But it happens.

I have a guy right on this forum who keeps putting up posts accusing me and my publishers of all being the same people.  It's no big deal in a forum, just lame bullies passing on their nitwit rumors, but when you start taking hacks at people by posting on the book pages, it crosses a line, I would think?

Or does anybody disagree with that?

I have this Brian A. Hoffman who pestered me here, then put up an amazon post on Feb 19 (which he ADMITS) accusing me of being my publisher at Adoro.  It was removed.

Now there's a comment from him on the other publisher partner, accusing her of being me and him. 

http://www.amazon.com/review/R2LZPC88L5DQ15/ref=cm_cr_dp_cmt?ie=UTF...

OK, so maybe that's not the end of the world, but is it a good idea to take a nicey-nice attitude towards this sort of thing?   

What if you say something to irritate these fools tomorrow and get a bad review of a comment slagged?

I would think this is something writers would want to protect against.

But maybe it's just a peculiar problem from this site alone, and my own personal pet problem and nobody else had had it happen?

Any thoughts on this, or how to deal with it?

[Karen Dionne]

Oh no, I wouldn't think of trying to get the comments removed. It is what it is, and I believe intelligent people can see through the vitriol of a few folks and make up their own minds as to whether or not they want to read the book.

The thing you have to remember about putting your work out there is that you have to accept that in doing so, you've given up a measure of control. Everyone is entitled to their opinion of your work, whether it's well-founded or not, and everyone's entitled to post them - Amazon, the great equalizer. And in the big scheme of things, publishing is so fraught with letdowns and disappointments, unjustifiably bad reviews are only part of the reason a published author needs a thick skin!

[Cammy May Hunnicutt]

Rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr. I hate it when I can't just reach out and smack people when the mess up.

:-)

I like your attitude about leaving the mess lie.  It would be hard for me to do, but I have no doubt you're right.

[Karen Dionne]

Great attitude! That said, taking the high road doesn't mean we can't be pissed. ;) Nobody likes putting up with stupidity and ignorance!

[Cammy May Hunnicutt]

By co-incidence, I just got this from Shelagh Watkins, of the Published Authors Network

The "Badly Behaving Reviewers" thread on the Amazon Kindle Books forum has been deleted. The discussion has moved over to Goodreads, along with the discussion about "Badly Behaving Authors". Earlier today, on Amazon, I checked out a book written by a supporter of self-publishing, which led me to John Locke's book on how to succeed as a self-publisher. I noticed a one star review. The reviewer claimed he had given only one star because he wanted the review to be read. I checked the reviewer's other reviews. All of them had been given five stars, and all of them were about self-publishing:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/cdp/member-reviews/A2E3P6WOGALFH/ref=cm_... 

This type of warped thinking will not affect John Locke's earnings or number of books sold, but it does show how the rating system is being abused. Should Amazon find a new way for reviewers to rate books? 

[W.a. Warner]

Sorry to hear about the annoyance.  Sounds like you're handling well.  Perhaps your subject matter hit a little close to home for this reviewer.  Maybe your female protagonists should stop sticking up for themselves in your novels?  Maybe writing about men having their nuts shot off by a femme fatale makes some (*male) readers uneasy.... I dunno...

[Cammy May Hunnicutt]

Funny you should mention the male/female divide.  My "book" has 14 reviews, all 4 or 5 stars.  12 are by women.   Makes me think men might be more secure than people say.  :-)

The thing I'm griping about wasn't even on my book.  It was on a book by one of my publishers.  Accusing her of being a sock puppet for me or the other publisher or something.  Wording exactly like the previous such comment by Brian Hoffman.  As seen in that link.

This goes beyond "reviewing".  This is an attack that has nothing to do with books or their content.

Similar to what Karen describes.

Thanks for the kind words.  But I don't think it's a good idea to indicate that getting this sort of stalking/vandalism is somehow the writer's fault.

And I doubt many writers would like the idea that writers should change their writing to prevent attacks from people who don't like it.

BTW, I don't have any novels out yet.  In the works.  And I can assure you than the women in them will stick up for themselves just fine.

[Stacy]

I know it might be hard but I think the best thing is to ignore the person. People like this want attention and they get their rocks off by knowing they get to you. If you go on about your business they will soon get bored and leave you alone.

A lot of people do this online. They bother folks then move on to someone else or maybe, hopefully they get a life one day and stop bothering people altogether.

Unless this person is really crazy they'll get bored if ignored. Especially if they are bothering many folks at one time and a lot of them seem to.

I had an idiot about two years ago who used to leave vulgar and sexual messages on my website guestbook. Every time I deleted them, he'd put them back up. Then I realized after going back and forth doing this, that I was just feeding into his game. So I decided to just let him have his fun and post all he wanted. Guess what he did when I stopped erasing the messages?  He went on about his business. He got bored playing with himself just like I knew he would.

These people just want attention. Believe me, ignoring them works every time. Once they know they can't get to you, they move on.

Uh, unless they are really a nut. But let's just hope that's not the case. Most of those folks are harmless and just bored so they go around bothering people.