As seen in a discussion regarding if authors should read reviews for their books, and if those reviews are "feedback" for the author:

"...why an author should even have a place on which readers can post reviews, if the author isn't supposed to look at them..."

I don't know if this author knows something I don't - that there are authors who have set up places for readers to post reviews, or if she is under the impression that GoodReads and Amazon (which is what we're discussing) are sites authors have set up for readers to post reviews.

Either way, I'm shaking my head.

Isn't it so nice of those authors to provide areas for us little readers to share our opinions of their books?  For author "feedback" no doubt. ;)

Before it happened, I would never have believed favorite author Kim Harrison would campaign to hide an unwanted negative review on Amazon. So saddened.

Don't believe this usually great with readers, highly successful, big five published author is now doing so? Check her Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/KimHarrisonsHollows/posts/10154480162099940 .

Tez Miller Oz has more on his booklikes posts (which brought this to my attention).

Seriously, everyone, if you don't think negative reviews and lower star ratings should be allowed -- why aren't you campaigning to just do away with the five star rating systems on Amazon and other sites?  Every review written just automatically gets a 5-star or one big smiley emoticon, a trophy, a blue ribbon or something?  So that site policies and review guidelines cannot permit any review that isn't clearly promotional?  

(That's snarky; I know why not campaigning to do away with current rating system and policies -- it's because so many actual customers/readers would stop paying attention to or writing the things.  But, get real, if the one star reviews can be buried, hidden or removed -- is it really a 5-star scale running 1-5 or would it then be only a four star scale?)

@AuthorAvaMiles has posted her "Love Letter to Mean Readers" on Facebook, whining that

When I put a book in the world, it’s like sending my child off to kindergarten.

 

 

And

But I’m deeply concerned how you as a collective contribute to other people not writing or doing something great because they see how people like you treat people like me.

 

And

Your words hurt. They’re another kind of bullying.

 

 

 

No, they are not bullying.  They may hurt, but they are not bullying.  Getting stood up for the prom hurts, too.  Are you going to write a "Love Letter to Mean Teen-aged Boys" over it?

Your books are not your children.  They just aren't.

Author Ava Miles is a best seller.  She has numerous books in print, with literally thousands of glowing reviews on Amazon.  (I didn't look anywhere else.)  She's good enough that Saint Nora Roberts allowed Miles to use her name in the title of Miles's best-selling Nora Roberts Land,  of which the Kindle edition is currently free and currently has 3,450 reviews, 84% of which are 4-5 stars, for an average of 4.3.

She has over 9,000 "likes" on her Facebook page.

But it's not enough.  It's just not enough, because someone out there, some handful of people, dared to criticize her books. They found grammatical errors, even though she's sure she didn't make as many as other people.  They didn't like the sex in her books or the curse words or whatever.

Oh.  My.  Fucking.  Goddess.  The inhumanity of it all.

I wish I had 3,450 reviews.  I wish I had 3,450 copies sold.  I wish, I wish, I wish.

I wish every author who self-published took the time to proofread.  I wish every author who self-published took the time to research.  I wish every author who self-published took the time to put out good product.

The reality is that they don't.  And some of them are going to get bad reviews.

Why am I writing this yet again?  Why am I not able to shut up and be nice/kind/gentle/silent?  I know perfectly well that my outspokenness has had a price.  I know that there are people who probably hate my guts, would never even look at one of my books, and would gladly block me on Facebook with the same glee that Goodreads banned me, and I don't care.

I don't care, because I value my integrity more than I value book sales.  (Thank you, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.)

I can't afford a professional editor; I have to rely on myself.  I can't afford a professional proofreader; I don't trust them anyway.  My cover art is digital, legally licensed from a fellow seller on Etsy; I added the text myself via Photoshop.  All that said, I wrote for my own sheer joy in writing and if someone wants to find fault, well, they have that right.  I hope they'll buy it and enjoy it and like it, but if not, well, them's the breaks.

"You takes our money, you gets our comments," as Ridley so famously said.  (Or maybe it was opinions, or reviews, but whatever; I'm close.)

When a best selling author whines about negative comments, however, I see red.  I think of the late Liberace's famous line about crying all the way to the bank.  If you don't like negative comments, don't put yourself out there in public.  Shut down your social media presence and shut your mouth.  People do indeed, as you yourself said, Ava Miles, have a right to their opinions.  And when you have a public Facebook page, when you let your private email address be known, you had better be prepared for the bad as well as the good, because you've had a very healthy dose of the good.  As in good money.

And remember when you post your whiny little wankfests that there are other writers who would give their first-born novel to have what you have.

@AuthorAvaMiles has posted her "Love Letter to Mean Readers" on Facebook, whining that

When I put a book in the world, it’s like sending my child off to kindergarten.

 

 

And

But I’m deeply concerned how you as a collective contribute to other people not writing or doing something great because they see how people like you treat people like me.

 

And

Your words hurt. They’re another kind of bullying.

 

 

 

No, they are not bullying.  They may hurt, but they are not bullying.  Getting stood up for the prom hurts, too.  Are you going to write a "Love Letter to Mean Teen-aged Boys" over it?

Your books are not your children.  They just aren't.

Author Ava Miles is a best seller.  She has numerous books in print, with literally thousands of glowing reviews on Amazon.  (I didn't look anywhere else.)  She's good enough that Saint Nora Roberts allowed Miles to use her name in the title of Miles's best-selling Nora Roberts Land,  of which the Kindle edition is currently free and currently has 3,450 reviews, 84% of which are 4-5 stars, for an average of 4.3.

She has over 9,000 "likes" on her Facebook page.

But it's not enough.  It's just not enough, because someone out there, some handful of people, dared to criticize her books. They found grammatical errors, even though she's sure she didn't make as many as other people.  They didn't like the sex in her books or the curse words or whatever.

Oh.  My.  Fucking.  Goddess.  The inhumanity of it all.

I wish I had 3,450 reviews.  I wish I had 3,450 copies sold.  I wish, I wish, I wish.

I wish every author who self-published took the time to proofread.  I wish every author who self-published took the time to research.  I wish every author who self-published took the time to put out good product.

The reality is that they don't.  And some of them are going to get bad reviews.

Why am I writing this yet again?  Why am I not able to shut up and be nice/kind/gentle/silent?  I know perfectly well that my outspokenness has had a price.  I know that there are people who probably hate my guts, would never even look at one of my books, and would gladly block me on Facebook with the same glee that Goodreads banned me, and I don't care.

I don't care, because I value my integrity more than I value book sales.  (Thank you, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.)

I can't afford a professional editor; I have to rely on myself.  I can't afford a professional proofreader; I don't trust them anyway.  My cover art is digital, legally licensed from a fellow seller on Etsy; I added the text myself via Photoshop.  All that said, I wrote for my own sheer joy in writing and if someone wants to find fault, well, they have that right.  I hope they'll buy it and enjoy it and like it, but if not, well, them's the breaks.

"You takes our money, you gets our comments," as Ridley so famously said.  (Or maybe it was opinions, or reviews, but whatever; I'm close.)

When a best selling author whines about negative comments, however, I see red.  I think of the late Liberace's famous line about crying all the way to the bank.  If you don't like negative comments, don't put yourself out there in public.  Shut down your social media presence and shut your mouth.  People do indeed, as you yourself said, Ava Miles, have a right to their opinions.  And when you have a public Facebook page, when you let your private email address be known, you had better be prepared for the bad as well as the good, because you've had a very healthy dose of the good.  As in good money.

And remember when you post your whiny little wankfests that there are other writers who would give their first-born novel to have what you have.

Ya' know, if you do this that someone, even many someones, are not going to like it. So why, oh why, would an author implore readers/followers to "diss the haterz" when said author had to know that the book would elicit this type of reaction?

How stupid does the author hope we are?

I feel a rant coming on ...