We were just recently tipped off to this Facebook post by an author who was bullied on Amazon to a degree that we haven’t yet seen. Down-rating a book to “punish” an author, calling the author a b**** or other derogatory names, or even making efforts to destroy their career are bad enough, but this is just unacceptable (we’ve blacked out certain parts to protect author identity):
Reviews such as these need to be flagged and reported to Amazon right away. This kind of author bullying should never be tolerated.
I really don’t get what people get out of reviews like these. At least leave a detailed review about the book in question.
I kid you not, the reason I’ve never even self-published is precisely because of downright scary reviews like these.
I would be curious to find out if a very particular message board was involved in any way. This kind of meanness, I haven’t found anywhere else.
One review says the author should have chosen different characters to write about: “You would think a plump Author would write about girls like herself.”
Another review, from the same person I guess, says that, on the other hand, it doesn’t matter what the author wrote, or how well she wrote it, because the author’s looks make old-fashioned considerations like that irrelevant: “I just couldn’t get into the book knowing what the author looks like:(”
These are contenders for the Most Unhelpful, Most Ridiculous Objections to a Book Ever award. These reviews make me wonder how much reading the reviewer has ever done.
Something doesn’t smell right though, these don’t seem like typical mean spirited reviews. A lot one ones I’ve read come across as people that don’t read. But these seems more planned for some reason. Like deliberately made to not have to do with the book. I mean they could be fly by night stuff. But these seems more like deliberate obfuscation.
In ufology you might have someone who shoots down and use career destroying tactics to say discredit a whistle blower. Now I’m not saying it’s that calculated in an attempt to hide anything, I’m just saying they are reviews are a more advanced scare tactic.
I want to express my personal appreciation for your doing this story. I heard reports of this as well and was horrified.
What scares is how many reviewers like this are out there? It seems like they are roaches at times, no end to them.:/
Jesus Christ! Is amazon just going to sit there and let this go on? Do they not realize they are trashing their own name by allowing jerks to post reviews such as those above? What the heck is the matter with these crazy freaking people?! I’m beginning to think amazon is harboring some trolls in it’s employment as well. Either that or they are just clueless idiots. Somebody should send Bezos a certified letter with a lawsuit attached. Maybe that would wake the dumb@## up for a few minutes.
It’s time to get the lawyers involved! There is no legitimate defense for attacking an author like that! Writing is a business, a form of self-employment, like any other business. They are not reviewing the book, these animals are attacking that author personally. THAT IS SLANDER! It’s now a legal matter. She should go after them in court with both guns blazing. I would without hesitation sue amazon and those evil-minded reviewer’s without losing a single night’s rest. This just enrages me.
Pardon me, correction to my above comment: That is LIBEL! (Libel is the written form of slander). Pardon my inaccuracy. Thanks.
I think Amazon finally took those reviews off of there. That type of thing is despicable. No one deserves that kind of mobbing! Said author has a tendency to attack other authors, so my guess is that it was a couple of disgruntled authors trying to do a pay-back–why don’t they just deal one on one (in private) instead of behaving so childishly?