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How not to react to a bad review

Equally appalling, to my mind, are the relaxed and snarky comments here in response to an article in The Guardian about Terry Goodkind's attempts to fight off piracy of his recent book. It seems there is no winning in either direction, for authors or critics. :sad:
 
John Scalzi is a voice of reason.

1. Everyone is entitled to their opinion about the things they read (or watch, or listen to, or taste, or whatever). They’re also entitled to express them online.
2. Sometimes those opinions will be ones you don’t like.
3. Sometimes those opinions won’t be very nice.
4. The people expressing those may be (but are not always) assholes.
5. However, if your solution to this “problem” is to vex, annoy, threaten or harrass them, you are almost certainly a bigger asshole.
6. You may also be twelve.
7. You are not responsible for anyone else’s actions or karma, but you are responsible for your own.
8. So leave them alone and go about your own life.

When I need your help with a negative review, I will ask for it.

If I don’t ask for it, I don’t need your help.

If I do ask for it, you should consider me temporarily out of my head and ignore me.
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Gave me a good chuckle, which was needed, because I forgot to lay puppy pads out at the normal spots, and my puppy took a huge dump where the pad should have been.
 
beer good said:
Authors Behaving Badly: How I Pissed Off Legions of Emily Giffin Fans | Corey Ann

Author publishes book; reviewer posts negative but informed review; author's husband insults reviewer; author sics Facebook friends on reviewer; reviewer gets death threats over phone; etc.
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The review by "Avid Reader" is still on Amazon and in fact is rated as the most helpful critical review. In the comments section underneath the review there has been one comment removed by Amazon and several comments that are hidden due to their low rating. All of the hidden comments were in support of Emily and her husband for attacking the bad reviews.

I've never read an Emily Giffin book, and I just filed her name in the back of my mind, because now I never will.

Danielle Steel once said during an interview that she ignores reviews of her books because they can be upsetting, and it's certainly understandable that an author could be upset by critical reviews. However, notice the difference in how Steel handles reviewers as opposed to Giffin. Steel is a class act, and the next time I'm in the mood for a romance novel, or chick lit as they now call it, I'll skip over Giffin and grab me some Steel.
 
Wow - I had heard some rumors of this type of behavior but I didn't realize to what extent!
Do these people not realize that the most popular books/series have whole groups dedicated to hate on them??
**cough**twilight**cough**

SMH - crazy peeps out there these days.
 
criticism should be carefully considered, and constructive. if in that light you read a book and have serious reasons for not liking it, say so. other people who read the reviews to decide if they want to read the book should get good information. the author
should Want to have feedback good or bad, but if the reviewer only wants to spew venom and act like a drunk in a bar, the author should consider the source. most successful people in any field admit they learned as much from their mistakes as their successes.
 
I agree that a carefully written review is more useful than one that just says "This book sucks" or "I loved this!!!1!". However, the purpose of reviewing a book on your facebook, or on Amazon, or on Goodreads, or on Book And Reader, shouldn't first and foremost be to give constructive criticism to the writer. I don't read books for the authors' sake, and I don't share my thoughts on them online to improve their next book. They should have editors and proofreaders for that.

if the reviewer only wants to spew venom and act like a drunk in a bar, the author should consider the source
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Good thing the only ones who have acted like that in the examples posted in this thread have been the authors, then.
 
beer good, I totally agree! the reviews are for the readers 1st and foremost, but any author should be interested in what they have to say, no matter who the reviewer is.
 
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