(no subject)

[neadods]

Dear Author isn't just one of my tags, it's a blog. (Not by me.) In this post, an author illustrates how to never get another good review in her life.

I have had someone do that to me, by the way. Not get in my face over a bad review (surprising, considering how many options there are; I'd better be wearing track shoes if I ever meet Hess... or perhaps she should be, because the problem with insulting people is sometimes they find out about it and Have Opinions In Return.) No, this is a woman who got up in my face because I objected to being handed 300+ unbound, unnumbered sheets to review and sniffed that I obviously didn't know a lot about real authors and real publishing if I was going to be THAT way.

(The garbage can was That Way over yonder, which is all I'm going to say about the fate of that one.)

Comments

[wendymr.livejournal.com]

That author's far from the only one to cause trouble on Amazon if she gets bad reviews. I remember reading through some Amazon-related blogs a few weeks ago and discovering that it's quite well-known that certain authors demand that Amazon remove negative reviews of their books. In one case, a reviewer actually got banned from the site - and, although I can't confirm this as I didn't see them myself, it was said that the reviews were reasoned and well-written, not just THIS BOOK SUX flames. Deborah McGillivray is one of the known offenders in this kind of behaviour, on her own behalf and on behalf of other writers published by the company she part-owns, Highland Press; here's a link on that same 'Dear Author' site.

[neutronjockey.livejournal.com]

Is this the same author (I believe) you posted about a while back ago? ...or is this another author being loud about their inability to handle consumer criticism?

[neadods.livejournal.com]

I'd say THE biggest offender is Anne Rice and the infamous "interrogating the text from the wrong perspective" rant, which was on Amazon. IIRC, it included such hits as "I don't need to be edited," "People with taste and brains like me just the way I am," and the ever-popular "you people are fat anyway" (no, seriously.) Not to mention adding a line to the fannish lexicon and leaving a lot of people still puzzling over what a "Dickensian principal" is anyway.

[neadods.livejournal.com]

I talked about her yes - golly, that must have been several years ago now; it was the first year I was reviewing.

[lukadreaming.livejournal.com]

Don't mind me, I'm just head-banging the desk *g*.

I've bookmarked that site. Classic.

[twistedchick]

FWIW, I agree with you re Hess, whom I saw being rude to attendees at one of the early Malices that was in Bethesda. I wasn't impressed with her then and I haven't been impressed since then. (I also wasn't impressed at that point with the reasoning for giving that year's Agatha: "well, let's give it to her because she's so nice and she hasn't gotten one yet." As opposed to giving it to someone who wrote good books...)

[neadods.livejournal.com]

She was rude right to their faces? That takes a TON of nerve, *especially* if she thinks that's going to sell her books!

[twistedchick]

Yes -- though it was in a small group, so I doubt most attendees ever noticed. Maybe (a la Anne McCaffrey) she thought it was cute.

[firebird157.livejournal.com]

Well I'm not fat any more but Anne Rice is still a crap writer.

And I wouldn't ever consider a 3 star review bad - then again I never give 5 star reviews (except to one book because I'm really sad and in no way rational when it comes to Alan Garner and Weirdstone is my childhood) because no book is perfect.

[neadods.livejournal.com]

*eyeroll* It's like that "if I insult people they'll try to work to change my mind" thing that some jerk suggests as a dating technique, perhaps? The thing is, that only works if you give a rat's ass about their opinions.