The HEA Cafe

I generally avoid Amazon. It’s infested with trolls and has brought new lows to the meaning of “customer service.” For starters. Be that as it may, though, when a fan points me to a thread in the romance community there, I feel obliged to at least look so I can comment on it.

What I found more interesting than the positive comment on my books was the trend taken by posters to that community that authors need to have thick skins. Now, two days ago I could have navigated you to the exact comment/thread. But two days ago my Dell desktop imploded, and two-hundred dollars and two days later, it’s in recovery mode via the Carbonite online backup service, with 38,128 files yet to go. So you’ll have to trust me that there is a thread that states that. It was in response, if memory serves me, to Amazon’s removal of certain negative reviews.

The consensus seemed to be that negative reviews are part and parcel of an author’s lot and authors needed to grow thicker skins.

I’m going to disagree and I’ll tell you why.

1 - A percentage of what’s posted on Amazon as “reviews” aren’t. They’re at best comments and at worst, the useless spewings by people with far too much time on their hands. I am not talking about those comments that are obviously reviews, posted by people associated with review sites. I’m not talking about customer comments that are mature and well thought out, even if they dislike a book. I’m talking about senseless emotional spewings and some very nonsensical postings.

2 - The fact that Amazon is infested by trolls–people whose sole interest is stirring up controversy–has been documented by bloggers and in the media. Like the “Yale-ees” who used to concoct crazy letters to try to stump Ann Landers, there are internet users out there who want to see how far they can push the envelope, and how big a brouhaha they can spawn. Amazon is only one of many places they surface.

3 - Why does being an author make you fodder for personal attack? I know books have long been reviewed publically. Again, I’m not talking about reviews. I’m talking about spewings. So why does being an author mean it’s okay for someone to spew on you? Because your work is visible?

A lot of people’s works are visible.

Let’s try this scenario. You’re a sales clerk in the jewelry department in Macy’s. You’re certainly visible to anyone who walks through the store. What if people in the store followed you around with signs that read: “This clerk is slow and stupid”? Or “This clerk doesn’t smile enough” or “This clerk smiles too much”? 

Hey, you’re in public. I’m a customer (maybe or maybe not–Amazon doesn’t require that you’ve bought the book you’re “reviewing”). I have a right to tell people what I think of your service.

Oh, let’s add another sign: “This clerk smiles too much and the jewelry she sells is ugly.”

By the end of the day, just how would you, the sales clerk, feel? Frustrated, annoyed, confused? Let’s say you ask the sign-carrier to leave. You get the store security to tell the person to leave. Next thing you know, the sign-carrier is back with ten cohorts. I’ll bet you dollars to donuts eight of the ten never bought a piece of jewelry in their lives, let alone from you, the Macy’s clerk. But now you have eleven sign-carriers: This clerk is stupid! If you buy something from this clerk you’re an idiot! Whoever taught this clerk to sell should be shot!

And so on and so forth.

Are you beginning to get my point?

Please note, I’m not saying books shouldn’t be reviewed. I’m saying authors shouldn’t be expected to like being spewed on. There is a huge difference.

A series of one-star ratings on Amazon–and gee, isn’t it something that they all show up within a day or so of each other–saying little more than “this book sucks” are yes, spewing and yes, useless. I’m also very suspicious of “reviews” where the plot is misrepresented, characters’ names are wrong and the “reviewer” can neither spell nor form a coherent sentence. I don red this book last nite and it sux is not a review.

Vendettas are also not reviews. People who think books with vampire protagonists are the work of the devil. People who think a romance plot line is disgusting. People who think author X is better than author Y, and so go to author Y’s page and load on the one-star reviews. People who dislike a reviewer and so go to every book page where that reviewer posts and start a flame war.

So how thick is your skin? Mine’s sufficiently thick but I’m not going to tolerate being a doormat for rude behavior, and I don’t think my being an author means I have to. I have no problem with constructive criticism. I do have a serious problem with people who equate internet access with the right to spew.

~Linnea
www.linneasinclair.com