Those nasty, rude one star reviews!

[Jean Henry Mead]

I placed some of my out-of-print books in the Kindle Select Program and the last time around Amazon.com gave away over 10,000 copies of one of my mystery novels. Although I'd had 4 and 5 starred reviews for the book, I got several nasty, rude reviews from readers who got the book free. I reported them as abuse but Amazon won't remove them. Has anyone else experienced one starred reviews? If so, how did you handle it?

[I. J. Parker]

Actually this isn't nearly as aggravating (if it's a 5-star review) than Google appropriating a book of mine to make available a large portion, including the denouement on the Internet. Without permission from me or the publisher!

[Jean Henry Mead]

Wasn't Google sued for that reason, I.J.? There's lots of sullduggery going on in the publishing business. Years ago I found one of my nonfiction books on Amazon.com in Japan, published by a company I'd never heard of. And, of course, I never received royalties. I later learned that the company was a subsidiary of Amazon.

[I. J. Parker]

Yes, that suit.  Not settled yet. I'm not sure what my position is on this.  I protested through my agent, but my agent advised following Authors Guild's deal with Google. I still bear a good deal of resentment about this and have no respect for Authors Guild.

What an awful story about your title. I google myself regularly, but maybe I should google my titles.

[Jean Henry Mead]

Best of luck with the suit! And, yes, it's a good idea to check the Internet when you have time. I've found my photo on sites advertising products I wouild never buy, and it took months to get them removed.  ( I meant to say skullduggery and success in previous posts but have an injured hand.) :)

[Jack Getze]

IJ -- Set up an alert. Google will tell you when your name is mentioned ANYwhere.

[I. J. Parker]

Oh. Well, I might do that. But what if someone sticks their name on my book? It's been known to happen.

[Jean Henry Mead]

Eric's right. That really sucks. I think some people, with nothing better to do, delight in cutting down authors' work. They may even be "writers," themselves, with books that aren't selling.

[Debbie Bennett]

I find when authors vent on social media about their 1* reviews, all their well-meaning friends rush over and "vote-down" the review (and sometimes comment that the reviewer is wrong!).  Result: the original reviewer may never leave another review on an indie book (or may decide indie writers are just too precious about their work). And other potential reviewers may feel unable to leave an honest review so won't bother at all. Everybody loses.

[I. J. Parker]

Well, there are authors who have trained their "well-meaning friends" to promote as well as to object to bad reviews. It may be clever and productive, but all such manipulation leaves a bad taste behind.

 

As for GR et al., my disgust with them is based on reading the comments and arguments. It's not a place where I want to hang out.

[Jean Henry Mead]

Debbie, there are constructive 1 star reviews and there are downright nasty comments such as "You may think you're a great author but you're not. lol." I wouldn't ask my friends to rush over to vote down a reviewer. People who leave comments such as the above obviuosly have an axe o grind and shouldn't be reviewing books, period.

 

[Jean Henry Mead]

When a reviewer keeps changing her name so that she can repeatedly attack a book to ruin it's rating, I call that sick. An inexperienced writer might be so disgusted that she would stop writing entirely. I have a publisher, but like so many other vetenan writers, have placed my out of print books back in circulation. That doesn't mean that we're "indie writers" who feel their books are too precious to receive low ratings. After 19 books and good reviews, I find reviewers who leaves one star reviews without explanation on all an author's books on Barnes and Noble, and then one stars with nasty reviews on Amazon, a "reviewer" bent on revenge or someone who needs a shrink.

[I. J. Parker]

I assume the fact that this sick person leaves no comments on B&N is because they don't allow comments?  Yes, some of these people need to be blocked from all sites.