When you give a book the thumbs down, things can get cray pretty quick if the author suddenly becomes unhappy with the arrangement of your face.

Do you know this kind of situation all to well? Ever negatively review a book and come to find out the author is readying the cannons?

Share your war stories here.

I reviewed a book called 'The Northern Lights' by T Rico. Full review posted on my site, shortened versions on GR & Amazon. The writer attacked me personally on twitter and GR, I did not retaliate on a personal level, it was beneath me. Still alive though, and fighting fit.

northern-lights

Reply to post #2 (show post):
Damn, those are all sock accounts going after you. Did you report it to GR?

No, I just did what I said to him, and deleted/ignored every message he sent me afterwards. I am guessing that if I want to continue being an impartial reviewer, I need to develop a thick skin.

I have only been doing this since Sept 2013, so I am expecting more in the future.

Thank you to the 5 likes I got on that GR review, and you Karlynp.

Reply to post #4 (show post):
I reported it to GR right away. They deleted the socks who attacked you, plus three more. Did the author send you direct messages too? I assume he must have. So sorry for this!

You are right about the thick skin, but also know you are not alone. The reviewer community loves to look out for each other in times like these. ;-)

My email has alerted me to another message from 'Jamie', but I have not bothered to read it.

Reply to post #6 (show post):
Please keep copies of these, they may be important. If they are sending you more harassing emails or threats via personal email or directly to your blog, you could have steps to take against them.

Thank you Karlynp

Urthwild

Wow. It's incredible how intense some people get about getting a bad review.

As an author I do understand the pain of public ridicule. I myself have gotten a negative review and while it may have made some good points, I believe it was not a classy review in the least, as he got personal with me about things he knew nothing about and only guessed. (and was wrong none the less)

I did not respond to the review however. I think all a writer can do is hope that the people who read the review can see that the reviewer was being rude and that they will keep that in mind when judging my book.

A good rule I live by is to treat others on the internet like they are right next to you, not a thousand miles away. People tend to get carried away on the internet and forget that they are talking to people, not lines of code.

I certainly would never go out of my way to write something personal about an author. Unfortunately this author did not give me the same courtesy. He did not stop at Goodreads but took to twitter and email. I received various threats.
I think reviews should concentrate on the contents of the book itself, it is what I try to do.

I would like to think that what ever I write in my reviews, I would be happy to read to the author face to face.

I am also conscious of the fact that when I publish my book, I will be reviewed.

Too many authors believe they are Charles Dickens reincarnated.

Reply to post #10 (show post):
Unfortunately, far too many take bad reviews as a personal attack on them, but it is never OK for them to escalate it to the level this author did.

I saw this great article today and I think it is something all authors should see, IMO. No book goes without a bad review. http://www.buzzfeed.com/chrisritter16/11-beloved-books-with-shockingly-bad-reviews

2 new messages received
Northern Lights
@T_Rico1

@darknessbeckonz
if you continue to have your friends post bogus remarks on goodreads about me I will be forced to take action .

And

Northern Lights
@T_Rico1

@darknessbeckonz
i may not be a good author in your opinion but IM A FANTASTIC ATTORNEY! DELETE THE BOGUS REMARKS NOW!
_________________________________________________________
I did not bother to respond. He is delusional if he believes that I have any control over what other people post on GR.

Don't respond but keep copies, he is just threatening you. Truth is not libel, so he has no case.

BTW, I know you don't want to respond to him but you might want to just Tweet this article out to all your readers. It is very interesting, IMO.

http://www.thepassivevoice.com/04/2014/suing-e-book-reviewers-and-being-a-public-jerk-two-bad-ideas-in-one/

Well I do not expect him to get far with a libel case anyway, because to begin with we are not even in the same country or on the same continent.
There is also of course no libel committed by me, I would probably have a case against him though.

But what is quite ridiculous about this is, if he had not reacted in the way he did, he would still have a bio on GR, and yet he continues to dig. (smh)

Must admit when I started in Sept 2013, it honestly never crossed my mine that this sort of situation would occur, naive maybe.
I am astonished by the course of events.

I have tweeted that link to my followers, thank you Karlynp.
But I am going to draw the line at direct communication with that particular author, again.