Goodreads Authors/Readers discussion

If you have time, please answer honestly (without naming names):

1. Have you personally been retaliated against for a rating/review?
2. How far did the retaliation go?
3. What sources did you enlist for help?

Thanks in advance!

Just once, and it was not on Goodreads, but luckily the retaliation just consisted of a couple of comments questioning my ability to write and calling me dishonest. After trying to explain my position once, I realized that it was not going to be a productive discussion and decided to ignore it. Eventually other readers came to my defense, but it was obvious that the person was not going to listen. I'm not sure what happened after that because I quit checking, but the retaliation never went farther than that.

I consider myself lucky, though, as many of my friends have been retaliated against and in much more derogatory ways.

readinghearts (Lyn M) wrote: "Just once, and it was not on Goodreads, but luckily the retaliation just consisted of a couple of comments questioning my ability to write and calling me dishonest. After trying to explain my posi..."

Lyn, thanks for sharing that!

---A peanut mind is a hard thing fight against---it keeps rolling away from you in weird directions.
the only time I had a negative comment was because a novella I published seemed to one reviewer to be the start of a series which irritated them---and nowhere on the book did I say that--nor had I thought of it at the time I published it....

(now--it doesn't seem like such a bad idea)

Anyway---I wanted to say I hadn't called it a series because that was not my intent---and realized---never mind---you wont be able to defend yourself anyway--they'll just think you're lying.

Let it go---and publish something else!

It has happened to me once here on GR.

I had noticed that the author started following me right after I put her book on my currently-reading-shelf, and this was an additional reason as to why I did not want to go into much detail about how crappy her book was: I wrote a rather short review, just a couple of sentences.
She wrote a blog post on her author's page calling me a troll and psychopath and started complaining about me on a group here on GR. And that's how other readers noticed it too.
I have to say that I had seen her blog post but thought it was all just a joke and so I went grocery shopping right after it... :) The next time I logged in into my account here, a couple of hours later on that day, I saw that 50 people liked my review and some of the most experienced reviewers here on GR regarding bad-author-behavior had come to my defense.

I rarely post my reviews on amazon.com, but this author gave me reason to do so. She started commenting on there as well, accusing me of not having read her book. Later it turned out I had it better memorized than her and she deleted her comments!

That was all!
But it put me off of writing reviews here for some time...

Well--that would have burnt my hand! Dang---I guess people find reviewing their own little dictatorship---they can say whatever they want and no one can say 'boo'

Katerina wrote: "It has happened to me once here on GR.

I had noticed that the author started following me right after I put her book on my currently-reading-shelf, and this was an additional reason as to why I di..."

Katerina, thanks for posting that!

I wrote a not exactly glowing review here and the author unfollowed me on Twitter and I later found I had been mysteriously booted out of a group here on GR that she supposedly moderates. Although I'm not really sure how you can moderate a group effectively when your only post in said group is a shameless plug for the same poorly written tripe that I gave a 1 star rating. This prompted me to post my review to Amazon, as well, even though I had originally planned to only post it here. No response or communication whatsoever from this "author" after I had written the honest review she had asked for. I guess that word didn't mean what she thought it meant when she used it in that manner...

the retaliations were in the form of nasty pms here or via emails when I gave a technical review and they expected something glowing awesome. I usually tell them to kindly stuff it and delete them. it's not worth arguing with idiots.

Aaron and KP--thank you!

Those who know me, know that I always try to be open minded and see both sides of the story.

As a reader who leaves honest reviews good or bad, I've seen the retaliation in the form of sarcastic rebuttals or attempts to discredit my thoughts / opinions. It doesn't feel good at all to be asked for your opinion then get bit for giving it.

As someone who tries to help promote and support SPA's often, I'm ashamed to say that in the past I've left a few rebuttal comments when someone's review felt more like a personal attack on the writer than a review of the book. I have since changed that bad behavior but won't deny that I was a baaad girl.. a really baaad girl before. :-) Lesson learned.

I have had only positive responses to my reviews so far. I'm sure my turn will come, but for now all is well.

I don't know if this counts, but I did a review for an author (on my blog, Amazon, and GR) and randomly went to her author page out of curiosity and saw a diatribe written the same day I'd sent her her review and it went live.

I never took it further, though I kind of wanted to. I mean, it's my opinion. She'd asked me to give it. Such is life.

Melissa wrote: "I don't know if this counts, but I did a review for an author (on my blog, Amazon, and GR) and randomly went to her author page out of curiosity and saw a diatribe written the same day I'd sent her..."

My rebuttal comments were always flagged and I wasn't nasty at all, just pointing out their flaws in the most tactful way possible. now I don't bother, and these days, Ihave to warn people who ask me for my review to don't hate if I don't give them a glowing 5 star review. (I give technical reviews that are on average 3 stars, and anything higher than that is a rarity).
You're right, such is life.

Robin, I'm glad you saw the error of those ways. I've cautioned authors before that sometimes the arguments started from fans will reflect badly on them, as most people assume the writer is behind it.

Melissa wrote: "I don't know if this counts, but I did a review for an author (on my blog, Amazon, and GR) and randomly went to her author page out of curiosity and saw a diatribe written the same day I'd sent her..."

Good for you, for being honest...it wouldn't have been worth it to engage further.