Ann Michelle's World: July 2016

I've spoken about reviews of books before at various times, so maybe this isn't news, but I am frustrated. Our genre is lucky to have a great many talented authors working in it. They have provided some amazing books. Unfortunately, there are people who seem intent on driving those people away.

In my time at Amazon, I have seen an incredible number of unfair reviews posted against quality authors. I've seen reviewers lie about the contents of books. I've seen them allege plagiarism where the authors made it clear they were re-writing an older book with the consent of the other author. I've seen trolls who just go down the list posting one star reviews on the books of every author they can find.

Just as bad, I've seen people leave reviews that were generally positive but then slam the book with one or two stars. I've seen reviews written by people who wanted the book to have a different ending and give out one star reviews as punishment for not getting what they wanted rather than speaking to what the book was. I've seen people attack books because they were longer or shorter than the books they normally bought, even though the page counts can be seen before purchase. I've seen people go through an author's catalog leaving one/two star reviews on book after book while complaining about how much they hate the author... so why keep buying all the books of an author you hate?

I think there are a lot of psychological problems behind much of this.

The problem is, though, that this is damaging for our entire community. How? I know two authors who have stopped writing because they got unfair negative reviews and no one seemed to stand up and post a counter review saying, "This is just not so." I know quality authors who have become indifferent to putting out more books because they know they will get slammed by someone no matter how good their book is. I know one author who wrote one of my favorite books but left our genre because this doesn't happen as much in other genres. That's our loss, not his/hers.

If we don't want to lose more amazing authors, then people need to start leaving positive reviews when they find books they like. Don't let the trolls and the people who make themselves happy by tearing others down decide for you what you can read.

Thanks for listening.