Welcome back for part two!
Okay, so by the time we arrived at the GR crime scene involving the attack on Lauren Howard, the smoke had already cleared and the dust, settled. Most of the threats laid against Lauren had already been removed, but we did get a few shots of the culprits who caused the whole dust-up.
First, we will show you what’s left of the shelving of Lauren’s not-yet-released-and-now-never-to-be-released book:
Hilariously, just overnight, some well-meaning GR members have placed 75 five-star reviews on the book!
Why is this funny? Because the book isn’t even published!
Only on Goodreads!
We’re not saying what they did was wrong. It wasn’t. These GR members are making a very strong statement by placing these five-star ratings on Lauren’s book. Many of the shelves and reviews are messages of encouragement for the author and we love the fact that people have done this! So, thank you, everyone!
Now, getting back to the weasels who started this whole brouhaha, and :
If you scroll down and look at the commentary on both reviews, you’ll notice some familiar bully names. But we’ll show you some of the screenshots we got anyway.
First, from Eric’s review:
And on Derrick’s review:
Then, someone named Julie steps in to counter Derrick’s remarks and suddenly Shannon, the Holy Demon, rears her ugly head and the troll brigade swarms in.
Then, Lauren says:
To which the Holy Demon replies:
For the record, Lauren doesn’t have sock-puppets. This is something the Holy Demon made up. In fact, Lauren didn’t even know what they were. She does now.
Now, we’re posting these particular shots because we want show you what a nasty little gremlin Shannon is and how her attitude reflects the general bully attitude that permeates the site.
But mostly we just think Lauren is right. Her original question/concern in the feedback forum was perfectly legit and the fact that GR lets its readers rate and review books that aren’t even released yet is ASININE!
Not even Amazon lets its customers do this. On Amazon, even if you have an ARC of a book, you cannot leave a review of that book until the book is released and published on the site. So why does Amazon let GR’s readers do it? There really should be some consistency there.
There are others who agree. We know of many authors who are in the process or who have already emailed Jeff Bezos () and Nader Kabbani, VP of KDP () to let them know about the problems with the site. These authors have told us that they have taken their books off of Amazon in order to have their copyrighted content removed from Goodreads (for more information on that, read GR & Copyright, Part 2)
Jeff and Nader need to be aware that Amazon purchased a huge can of worms when they took over GR and if Amazon doesn’t make some major changes to the site, they will continue to see authors removing their books from the Amazon online bookstore. These two men need to know that Goodreads, as it is now, is NOT AN ASSET to Amazon. It is a LIABILITY. They need to understand what a hostile place GR is for authors and why authors are fleeing the site like passengers from a sinking ship. And the more the conflict heats up, the worse it’s going to get.
What is so mind-blowing about all of this is that it is always the SAME PEOPLE on GR who are causing the problems. And yet, GR insists on protecting these people and flat out refuses to delete their accounts. As we said in our post, Goodreads Vs. Real Professionals, the professional blog tour companies that have come recommended to us REMOVE abusive bloggers from their recipient lists. They get rid of them and have nothing further to do with them. Amazon really, really needs to do the same with the trolls who infest GR and the Amazon fora.
We applaud the authors (whom we mentioned above) for taking the initiative to email Jeff and Nader. We also encourage our readers to do the same. SEND LETTERS TO AMAZON! If enough people send in these messages, then maybe Amazon will listen and change the reviewing rules on GR, or at the very least allow authors to have their books removed from the site.
In any case, a stand needs to be taken against the bullying that goes on there. And many authors are beginning to take that stand. Case in point:
Thank you, Jamie!
We hear you. We’ve been saying the same thing for an entire year.
So, let’s all take a stand with Jamie and email Amazon. It’s high time they heard our voices.
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An addendum
We are VERY happy to see the support for Lauren keep pouring in. It looks as if some big names are jumping in and showing support as well. Not just Jamie McGuire, but E.L. James, too. Good job, ladies!
