Al gave The Greek Seaman 2 stars for this reason:
"However, odds of making that final click are slim. One reason is the spelling and grammar errors, which come so quickly that, especially in the first several chapters, it’s difficult to get into the book without being jarred back to reality as you attempt unraveling what the author meant. At times, you’ll be engrossed in the story when you’ll run across a flowery description of the emotions Katy is feeling about her situation or her husband. These are numerous and sometimes very good. Chances are one of these sections originally pulled you so deeply into Katy’s world. Then you’ll run into one that doesn’t work and get derailed again. Reading shouldn’t be that hard."
Personally, this review succeeds in explaining why Al had issue with The Greek Seaman, mainly based on spelling and grammatical errors. Instead of Jacqueline not commenting or simply saying, "sorry the book didn't work for you, but thanks for taking the time to review", she had to run off at the mouth, which caused more than a few to tweet and post this exchange on Facebook. You can only imagine how fast this was spread.
Some of Jacqueline's comments about why they review didn't work for her goes as follows:
"You obviously didn't read the second clean copy I requested you download that was also reformatted, so this is a very unfair review. My Amazon readers/reviewers give it 5 stars and 4 stars and they say they really enjoyed The Greek Seaman and thought it was well written. Maybe its just my style and being English is what you don't get. Sorry it wasn't your cup of tea, but I think I will stick to my five star and four star reviews thanks."
Then Jacqueline begins to leave those 4 and 5 starred reviews found on Amazon in the comments. Al explains again why he gave the review he did and Jacqueline comes back telling Al to take the review down because it's considered abuse. A few anonymous commenters chime in. Jacqueline continues on with her rant where she says:
"Well what should I expect of anyone associated to Big ALs snake pit and rat hole. You are a big rat and a snake with poisenous venom. Lots of luck to authors who come here and slip in that!"
Finally Jacqueline replies with "Fuck off!" and less than 20 minutes later with the same phrase.
This is where I must ask, WTF?! I've seen some bad reactions from authors over reviews in pubic, but this one takes the cake. Talk about an author having such vitriol toward reviewer that backs up his opinion on why the book didn't work for him. Yes, getting bad reviews can hurt, but suck it up and act as a professional and move on. There are more important things in life than losing your top over one person's opinion about your work.
When will authors learn YOU NEVER, EVER COMMENT ON BAD REVIEWS, and in a public forum such as blog where they end up attacking the reviewer? People will stop over and come to the reviewer's defense. And now the author, who didn't stop and take a moment to think or bitch privately to a close friend or family member or even a pet, will have to either change their pen name or find another line of work because of her unneeded emotional and again- WTF? outburst.
There are over 300 comments left there now. Some believe the reason Jacqueline acted the way she did is because she's an indie/self-published author. And because 's self-published or an indie author (which I have to be honest since I don't know what's the difference bewteen being self-published or indie. Aren't they the same?), it's not a surprise she would act this way. Seriously, it doesn't matter if you're a self-published, e-published or a traditionally published author. So please, don't think because one self-published author acts this way that all self-published authors do.
Whichever way you publish your work doesn't matter. All that does matter is the way you accept how your book is reviewed, especially when you ask them to review it. Reviews are subjective. Acting in a rude manner is not.
Yet another example of the never ending cycle of WTFckery that occurs in regards to an author's reaction to a bad review.
13 comments:
Ever reviewer likes to hear their blog described as a snake pit and a rat hole! Classic!
Oh goodness.
How can that possibly work in Ms. Howett's favor if she is to be taken seriously as an author? I've seen some arguments between authors and review sites but this one really takes the cake.
To continue on a rant then to yell "F**K OFF" (and I am quite sure she was) is clearly not the way to go.
Granted, there are some reviewers out there that can be a bit harsh but this is where an author should either take the high road or just send a private email asking what it was that didn't work for them.
That's shameful.
I was reading some of this yesterday. It is such a sad thing that an author would destroy her career in a blink of an eye.
Every indie author needs to remember that while your book is your baby and your art, the simple fact is that it is a product and you yourself are a brand. This is a business and must be handles with professionalism.
Thanks for sharing this with us.
I just went over and couldn't believe my eyes at what I was reading. She went over board on this one and really shouldn't have said anything.
I sometimes think that authors (big or small) feel as though everyone should love their books and sadly that isn't the case. What you might have loved and raved about, I might not love. Its all a matter of opinion and thats what makes us bloggers so special we all might love of book and we might not all love a book. In the end we still respect each other enough to know that.
Her comment about her sales going up might be because everyone wants to read what the whole thing is about. Remember James Frey?
I think authors need to realize that we aren't getting paid to review books and just because you sent me a book doesn't mean I will give you a glowing review if I don't like it. I thought his review was honest and not hurtful or mean.
Yikes! That's pretty embarrassing.
Self-published and indie have a lot of overlap, though they aren't necessarily the same. The bigger issue, I think, is some authors just lose their minds, whether they publish themselves or go the traditionally published route (Anne Rice would be a good example of the latter).
Regardless, it's just bad behavior, and I'm always surprised when another example pops up. You'd think authors would avoid this sort of thing out of a sense of self-preservation if not decency.
That went so ugly so quick. I feel bad for her because you know she woke up this morning thinking, "WTF did I do!?"
Heh-I find it funny my word veri is pukos. LOL
Apparently Ms. Hewitt just doesn't have any colleagues or critique partners to help her polish up act. Perhaps we could send Wendy the Superlibrarian, cape and all, to Florida to deliver a spell check program for her computer and duck tape for her hands (so she can dig her self into any more holes).
It's sad because it will be difficult to overcome this faux paux.
A few years ago I saw a workshop about author behavior and how to conduct yourself like a professional and whatnot. At first I thought it was kind of odd that there would have to be a workshop to teach people how to act professionally as to me that's just being polite, courteous, and thinking before speaking. To me this is stuff that's just hard-wired into my DNA but for some people I guess none of things are there at all.
Poorly edited books are what have given self-publishing its' bad rap for so long. In fact, I believe Amanda Hocking has said that editing has been an ongoing issue for her (though with her print publisher that may not be the case anymore).
Yeah, this went bad very fast because it was such a clear case of an author behaving badly. I mean, she cut and pasted other reviews there and then tells the reviewer to f off? Very bad. It was one of those cases where it's so surprisingly bad you get surprise giggles out of it because her comments begin to lose sense.
I don't review self-published books right now, just for time reasons, but I get very professional, sensible emails from self-published writers every so often. I wouldn't lump those writers with her.
I must admit I was getting very riled up at that authors horrifying comments. Her hubris and lack of common sense, much less professionalism, made me angry and sick. Until she devolved to the "F*** Off" comments. Those made me bust out laughing! Weird maybe but it finally made me realize no one could take her seriously except herself. And it seems those were the only grammatically correct sentences she could manage! English cannot be her first language, but that's no excuse for lack of editing and proofreading. Trying to make sense of some of the excerpts gave me a headache.
You know what I think? She did it for the publicity. Now we all know her name/book and some probably bought it to see who was right the author or the reviewer... but whoever told her bad publicity was good publicity was a moron.
if it generates into books sold and more people checking out BigAl's web page, it works for both of them. Myabe I should try that with my book? WTF a 4 out of 5 stars? F**K F**K F**K Katie lets do this thing.
Post a Comment