In our previous post, we showed you an example of what not to do as an author. It was an incident that happened back in 2011 and as a result, the particular author involved experienced an incredibly harsh backlash from it. A backlash that should have never happened. This was around the same time the BBA culture began to evolve that consisted of self-appointed “author police” who take it upon themselves to “punish” authors for their so called “bad behavior”. As we have shown on our blog time and again, these people are nothing more than internet thugs and cyber bullies who delight in hurting other people for some ridiculous rule or standard they’ve created, to which they have decided to hold the entire world accountable… well, except for them and their friends.
And we’re not talking about the generally accepted rule that an author should never get into a reviewer’s face about legitimate, negative reviews of the author’s books. We’re talking about all the absolutely ridiculous rules these self-appointed “author police” have made up since the BBA culture began, like:
- Authors cannot talk to reviewers ever.
- Authors are not allowed to have an opinion of any review of any book.
- Authors are not allowed to voice their opinion about anything.
- Authors are not allowed to call out bullying when they see it.
These rules and many others like them are absurd. Authors ARE NOT second class citizens. They have a right to have an opinion and they have a right to voice that opinion.
Also, what we’ve noticed is that the case we presented in our previous post is very rare. It is on a rare occasion where we see an author go into a reviewer’s space and harass them for a bad review. What is far more common these days are bully attacks on authors who’ve either spoken out about the bullies and their behavior, like this:
Or when they speak out about something else, like a review of another author’s book or a topic about which they feel strongly… like . You all remember when Todd started his petition back in February and March of this year, right?
Well, what we want to show you today is . We’re not going to display the list here. If you want to read it, you can click on the link.
Yep, you read that right! Anna actually hunted down the names of these authors and listed them publicly. AND she put links to their Amazon profiles in a direct attempt to cause damage to these authors. She did it deliberately with malicious intent. She knew what would happen. She knew that by listing them they would automatically become targets, which they did.
And why? Was it because they harassed reviewers about bad reviews of their books? No. It was because they SIGNED TODD’S PETITION. Yep, that’s right. All they did was sign a petition. That’s it.
So, we decided to do a little research. We went down the list and checked out the books on GR by the authors listed to find the damages done to them during the time that Todd’s petition was circulating in the media and AK’s list was created. What we found was A LOT of carpet bombs and A LOT of sock puppet carpet bomber accounts, several of which were created during that time period (that we will feature on our blog shortly).
Below, we share a few screenshots we took. You will notice there is one troll who’s been on our BBG list for a long time, who pops up on almost every author.
The following are a few from one of the top author’s books:
Here are more from another author’s books:
And another:
And another:
And another:
We could continue, but we don’t want to bore you with screenshots. We think you get the point. The Amazon Fora Trolls are out to harm any author who tries to have an opinion and a voice, even if they are just signing a petition.
Shame on you Anna K.
To let our readers know, if there are any authors who have a grievance against this woman for harm she has caused and would like to serve her court papers, we know who she is and where she can be found. If you are currently pursuing this, contact us privately and we can give you that information.
In our next few posts, we will show you more examples of the AFT harming authors.
So stay tuned.
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A normal person, even if they still wanted to be anonymous on Amazon for review purposes, would never go as far as what these people have done. To try and hurt an author’s book sales and reputation. I personally would like to remain anonymous, but it’s not because I’ve left hateful reviews, by the way. I’m just a little fearful of being stalked by these trolls (and many of them authors) so obsessed with their pitiful cyber-life on Amazon, if you want to know the truth. But, that being said, I would never attack anyone who felt differently. That’s childish and maybe even a tad bit… psychotic. Obviously they want to remain anonymous so THEY can continue to hurt others. That’s their reason….
They’ve also gone after the Amazon reviews of people on that list, trying to get positive reviewers banned as “fake.” You know, because any positive reviews of anyone these people hate have to be fake.
I’ve been watching the reviewing scene for some time, and I have a feeling I know who ‘Miss M’ is. She is the evil sock puppet of a top Amazon reviewer (top 1000) and Vine Voice. This reviewerbehaves perfectly respectably under her ‘real’ name. She uses the ‘Miss M’ account to attack people on GR and on Amazon. But over time, she’s made a few small mistakes. Using her ‘good’ profile to follow Angela Horn on BL was just one of them. If you’re going to have two profiles, you don’t want the good one associated with Angela Horn in any way.
As Lisa Spangenberg likes to say, everyone has their tells.
So I just have to ask:Miss M, isn’t it time to give up this petty witch-hunting of yours? It’s not worthy of a reviewer of your stature. Go read another Susan Elia MacNeal, if you haven’t already read them all.
This is why I signed the petition with my nickname, so these people couldn’t track me down. I knew the consequences of signing. I realized that if I used my real name, I’d have to suffer some form of consequence. I knew that by signing, I would get one star reviews, bad reviews, impartial reviews, or be blacklisted. I think anytime a celebrity or author or whom ever gives an unpopular opinion they have to be ready for backlash. I’m not saying it is fair because it isn’t. We should be able to give our opinion without being hung out to dry. I look at some of the celebrities and the things that are said about them and I don’t know how they deal with it.
I also don’t care much about one star no word reviews. It’s just a star. It has no real meaning so I don’t see that as a punishment. I think real reviewers know how to spot fake ratings and reviews. Again, not saying it is right, but most people are smart and can see through the BS. I wonder if they do these things because they know they can get a reaction. It’s why I don’t react if I get a bunch of one star ratings because I think that”s what they want.
There are readers who can see through the BS and others that can’t. The reason we frown upon carpet bombing so much is not just because of the damage done to authors’ books, but also because when these people do this, they are compromising the integrity of the reviewing community and making us all look bad. They’re destroying the online review system as a whole to the point where there almost seems to be no sense in doing it anymore.
I guess maybe I do not see the point of a overall score of star ratings. It needs to be tossed. Keep the stars, but make them individualized and not give an average at the top. I’d rather read through 1-5 star reviews and make my own determination. That way, a lot of the harm can be taken away from the ratings. I think it would be very difficult to do this any other way because trying to figure out if something is a real rating is very hard. Sure, the obvious carpet bombers are easy to spot, but there are millions of users on Amazon and Goodreads.
I wanted to add but forgot. I also think that authors and readers alike need to understand that the traditional meaning of star ratings isn’t being used on Goodreads or Amazon. Their guidelines let them mark something 5 stars or any other star for any reason what so ever. I could be excited about Cassie Clare’s new book (which I am!!!) and mark it 5 stars without reading it and that is okay to do according to their guidelines. So there needs to be pressure put on these sites to change their guidelines and go back to traditional ratings and meanings. Hope that makes sense.
If it’s any comfort to Anna Karenina, I’ve found a lot of great new books thanks to her list. It used to be these people attacked unknown authors, who often weren’t very good. But ever since they’ve started widening the net to include pretty much the entire world, I’ve been making some great new discoveries.
And what I see is a few of the same names “coincidentally” one starring all the books on that list. Says a lot if you ask me. Says it’s not a coincidence.
What I find most interesting is they accuse authors of using sock reviews. Don’t they realize that those reviews would be more obvious if a real name had to be used? They should be all for this. That is unless of course, they are posting fake one star reviews from multiple accounts and don’t want themselves to be outed. But they wouldn’t do that…/sarcasm
This thread on Amazon — which is indeed a hit list — makes abundantly clear how the Amazon bullies misuse their pseudonyms to punch down against authors who use their real names. Without question these people abuse the privilege of using a pseudonym. No one connected to this petition, as far as I know, ever meant anyone any harm. It was a request, a plea, a serious suggestion. I can’t speak for everybody who signed, but I can speak for myself, and the point was to end abuse on Amazon by requiring real names. It was never to hurt any individual. —- It is obvious that many pseudonynous posters on Amazon do NOT abuse the privilege. And they write honest reviews and honest Forum posts. But sadly the majority of the Amazon bullies do abuse their pseudonyms as they “game” the Amazon system to do real tangible damage to authors. —- My hope was that Amazon, even if it maintained its current policies, would, as the result of the petition, take a hard look at abuse going on and try to do something to curb it or prevent it or stop it. —- It’s my understanding that when the petition reached about 8 thousand signatures, it was presented in writing to Amazon and also by email. We will never know what the reaction was, but given the size of the book world, and the minuscule number of people who take an interest in such matters, the 8 thousand signatures and accompanying comments were quite impressive. —- As it stands, bullies continue to use sock puppet accounts; they continue to insult and abuse others in ways they would never do to a person’s face, and they do indeed go after not only authors who use their real names but reviewers and commenters as well to do them real damage. —– These people have published out and out lies in the Amazon forum about those of us who backed the petition. It was never our desire to find out anyone’s home address or stalk them to their home or place of employment to inflict hurt. The suggestion is irresponsible and vicious. — And one has to wonder why the bullies repeatedly make this accusation. —- Is it perhaps because they themselves are so intent on inflicting financial damage on the writers they target for boycotting, blacklisting and gang negative “attack” reviews which are not reviews at all? Perhaps they cannot understand the simple constructive desire on the part of people who love books to help make Amazon a better place for those who read as well as write them. Amazon has done so much good for the book world. Its concept of the authentic customer review has been revolutionary. It’s wonderful. And I think (and I’m surely not the only one) that this concept is worth protecting. —– Obviously there are legitimate reasons for reviewers to want to hide their real names. A woman reviewing feminine hygiene products or erotic novels might not want to discuss such matters with her neighborhoods or fellow employees. A reviewer of products might not want his employer to know of his personal choices. — So I can see why Amazon adheres to its policy. But nothing justifies the abuse of anonymity to “game” the system with multi-identities, and random fake attack reviews. Let’s hope that Amazon is looking into the matter. —- Meanwhile many who signed the petition in good faith, expressing their American right to express an opinion and petition for change, have been vilely attacked by the woman who started this hit list thread and/or her cronies. They have had their books slammed with “fake” negative ratings and attacks, and ironically this thread reveals the very reasons why the petition ever came into existence. —— I refuse to give up hope that Amazon will find a way to rid the site of the abusers. —– And one last note: authors using pseudonyms is in no way comparable to bullies using them to game the system. Authors have a long and venerable history of using pseudonyms and many of them have been known and are known by both names i.e. George Elliott or Mary Ann Evans; Mark Twain or Samuel Clemons; A.N. Roquelaure or Anne Rice. Again, the intent of a pen name has never been to cheat or to hurt. —– And no one, no one to my knowledge has ever said that every pseudonymous poster on Amazon was an abuser. Some of the most beautiful reviews ever posted on Amazon have been written by “an Amazon customer.” —– I salute Amazon as the greatest bookstore in the world, and surely the greatest online bookstore in the world, and I hope and pray that it will eventually find ways to detect the subtle patterns of abuse used by the notorious Amazon bullies and abusers. And until then, authors beware: beware of these people and the dishonesty of which they are capable. Read this “hit thread.” See them for what they are. The abusers reveal themselves more vividly and truly here than in other places.