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Tonight I was going through my Goodreads page, randomly surfing the site, wasting time, all that good stuff, when I noticed that a book I'm excited for is dramatically dropping in ratings even though the book isn't coming out for another few months. That's not really normal for an unreleased book so I went and looked at the comments on the page.
Turns out someone with an arc of the book posted a bad review, along with a few other people, and the author and her publicist decided to have a mean, bashing conversation about the reviewers. They called one reviewer a bitch and everything. It was not pretty. Then they continued to hound the original reviewer. The reviewer retaliated by making sure everyone saw what was being said. There is now over a thousand comments on that review from people freaking out.
This is obviously very unprofessional (duh) and a little scary. This had been a book that I was pretty excited to read, had it marked down on my "eagerly waiting" list and all. Now I'm questioning if I even want to read this book. Do I want to take the chance of not liking it, posting a bad review and having the author/publicist/friends of said people bash me on my own blog?
I know that unprofessional authors is more common than one would hope. I've seen a lot of posts done by fellow bloggers saying that they are having or had problems with authors yelling at them on their blog because of a bad review. I, thankfully, am not one of these people. I've never been contacted in any way by an author who I gave a bad review to. I've only had comments and emails from authors saying thank you for good reviews (and I really really really love getting these).
Does hearing about these (and seeing proof of the bad behavior) affect your thoughts on a book? Will you reconsider buying/reading a book because of it? Or does it do the exact opposite? Do you end up reading it because of all the controversy that surrounds it? I personally think I will still read the book, but I definitely will not be buying it. I find myself intreagued and want to form my own opinions, though they have been tainted because of all of this.
On a side note:
I have decided to leave out the name of the book and the author from this post. I do believe that ignorance can be bliss and wish I would not have come across this review because I know myself well enough to know I will be incredibly bias towards this book. If you are dying to know what book it is, it is listed under my Upcoming Releases page. Trust me, you'll know when you find it on Goodreads if you decide to search it out.
Sunday, February 19, 2012
5 comments:
I love getting comments! I'm always checking to see if I have any new comments. It's actually pretty sad how often I check for them really. So if there is anything you want to say about a post of mine, please say it! I want feedback :)
As of lately, I'm making the blog a no-award blog. I love getting them and I'm always honored, but I don't have the time to do all the things that are required of them. Sorry :(
Also, my "reply" button does not seem to be working in my comments on my computer. I have to use a different computer to reply back so if I don't reply, it's not because I'm rude, it's just that I can't.
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I think I *know* which book are you talking about and I must admit, the whole situation left me baffled to say the least.
ReplyDeleteSuch an unprofessional behavior from both author and publicist.
I thought the premise of the book was a bit silly, but I was still willing to give it a shot. Now I'm not so sure, maybe not even my love for this certain genre of books will be enough to read it.
There's this golden rule - respect your reader. If an author can't appreciate their readers, why would the reader pick their book?
Just my thoughts here. :)
Yeah...I know what book you're talking about. I had it on my TBR list and now I'm not too sure whether I want to read it. What they did was definitely not a way to win blogger love. Honestly I like to see bloggers write negative reviews on a book every once in awhile. It's honest to not like every single book you pick up. I always tell my students that you don't have to accept other's opinions and ideas as your own, but you should respect it.
ReplyDeleteFor me, I actually removed a book from my TBR list (one that was already published, so probably not the one you're referring to) because of bad behavior on the part of the author. I don't like to be swayed like that, but if it's a new author behaving poorly, I am less likely to read their book. It's hard when you're looking at new authors, especially debut authors, and thinking of testing the waters. When bad behavior results from a bad review of THEIR BOOK (not them), it just makes me question whether I want to read their books at all.
ReplyDeleteThis bugs me too but I'm a harsh reviewer and if I can say what I want, why can't an author say what they want? Still, it's not very professional.
ReplyDeleteFor me, finding out that an author had that kind of unprofessional reaction makes me entirely likely to not read the book if I was looking forward to it already. It's a sacrifice for me, but frankly, I don't want to support anyone who'se doing to be that big of an asshat about the issue. I've already had to tackle the moral dilemma or posting reviews of books written by authors whose personal opinions clash greatly with mine (usually on the subject of human rights), but I can, for the sake of professionalism, leave that at the door when I have to. But if an author isn't willing to do the same, then they hurt nobody but themselves, and I'd refuse to give the book even what publicity a review would give.
ReplyDelete