“GOODREADS Sucks!!!!(!!!!!!!!!)!!!!!!”
(Link to Video on Youtube)
This is a long post/rant, so brace yourselves. If you’re a troll reading this, I feel very sorry for you because you delight in the misery of others. You’re a pitiful individual, and you’re most definitely part of the problem in this world. What I will not do is ever pretend like your trolling behaviors are credible or justified, not even for the sake of selling books.
Intro:
When searching on some topic or another, I found a particular video that mentioned my book “The Wrythe and the Reckoning.” I was at first astonished at the deceptive post, but then I realized it wasn’t so surprising. The following is my response to that video. [Update (May 10th, 2020..two days later): I watched a few more of her videos on her Youtube channel, briefly only though because she’s malicious and downright appalling in her attempts to sabotage authors. Keep in mind she’s not even an author herself but is trying to become one (more on that later). Individuals like her are the downside of author life. They’re the bottom of the barrel for the book trolls because they lack even the slightest bit of integrity when considering another author’s work, and if exposed for their trolling behavior they’ll lie in any way whatsoever in their efforts to justify it. But what sets them apart from ordinary book trolls, what makes these particular ones worse than the regulars, is that they don’t stop merely at bashing a book with their sheisty reviews in one place. Instead, they’ll go as far as making a blog post or video in an attempt to try and prevent others from reading that book, such as if they were to search for it beyond that main platform where the trolling reviewer initially posted their sham review. In other words, it’s as though they purposely target an author in an effort to sabotage their book and author career. This happened to me before I ever made a complaint about book trolls (more on that later). Why do they do this? For now, the question remains unsolved, but beyond being malicious, I suspect the main reason they target an author is to get the author to feel so insecure and afraid that they start paying for “good reviews” (more on that later too). They begin targeting authors long before you hear about them on GoodReads. I know because I was one of the authors who was targeted with such behavior. They found me on NetGalley. I had never considered there was a “bottom of the barrel” for these individuals until I saw this person’s videos. I’ve learned to avoid any places where these trolls roam, but I visited her channel for the purpose of writing this post. It’s easy to detect them once you know their behaviors, in such a way that you can even notice them when they’re on social media pretending to be genuine reviewers interested in reading and reviewing new authors’ books. There are genuine readers out there, but some are out to get paid for “sensitivity reading” and posting “good reviews” for authors’ books. This issue is yet to be fully exposed or resolved in the author community. What I do know, based on my author experiences and the research that I’ve done on this topic, is that there’s definitely some money-grabbing sort of corruption going on there. Years ago, Anne Rice warned the author community about book trolls, and I wish I had found those articles sooner so that I would have been more aware of them. Links to a few of those articles are posted at the end of this post.] Consider this also a “How to Rant, for Authors Who Have Been Wronged by Trolling Reviewers.” This is the alternative to showing up at a troll’s front door, as another fellow author did once upon a time. That author was provoked by a troll and so were the several others who troll sympathizers (really trolls themselves) have complained about.
Trolls provoke and ruin; that’s what they do, and that’s generally why people universally hate them. But as an artist, you can rant someplace to deal with the stresses they cause, so you can keep making your art without the heaviness of their toxicity within your soul. If you’re an author who has experienced this injustice, in response to my post you may cringe, you may laugh, you may shed a tear due to feeling understood, or you may even be shocked at some of what I’m about to say. Just know that you’re not alone. There are other authors and non-literary artists who have had similar experiences. Overall, I hope that you’ll at least find this post somewhat comforting and helpful in regards to dealing with trolling reviewers. What is the key lesson here (my recommendation in this message for victimized authors and other artists)? Basically, if you’re angry and frustrated about a trolling review, for the sake of your inner peacefulness and happiness, Rant! Rant about it in a personal journal, on a blog, in a forum somewhere, or anywhere else you feel safe enough to, of course avoiding calling out any specific troll names if you can do so. The reason to do this as artists is that not only does it help to remove that toxicity from our hearts, minds, and souls, it also helps other authors and artists to deal with such individuals and to also know that they’re not alone. (Another option is to include it in your art. For me, I’d rather not.) You could also simply find posts such as these, and post your response in the comments at the end, or just read the posts and comments that are available there so you can feel better. (My commenting section is turned off because I don’t want to deal with trolls, no time for that, but there are other places online where you can post a comment.) There are plenty of posts on this topic on the internet, and it’s easy enough to find them. Anyway, so here’s my post, and yes, much of it is a rant. (This intro started out as a small paragraph, but apparently I had more to add, so it grew.) I don’t believe in harboring anger. I think it’s essential to rant to someone or somewhere about the things that upset us in general and then move on (or get professional counseling if necessary) so we can keep making our art or doing whatever other valuable things we focus our regular attentions on in life. This is one of the reasons I became a writer; there are things in this world that upset me, and I write about some of them in my stories. I could have just as easily posted this in a personal journal, but I posted it here so it can be used as a learning experience for other authors, will-be authors, and any other artists. As most of us know, art is an invaluable treasure in society partly because it conveys a valuable message to humanity. My hope regarding this post is that at least one writer after reading it won’t throw away their writing career, as several others have done, due to having been attacked by book trolls. (Remember, most of these trolls aren’t published authors. So, why value their ridicules/trolling opinions about your books as if they’re expertise? They’re not, and to put it quite simply it’s your art. Own it. If you’re passionate about it, keep making it. There are fans out there who will love it and appreciate it.) So, this is my rant, and I consider this my official rant on the issue. To make it a little easier to read, I’ve broken it up into 10 parts.
Author Rant, Part 1
There’s nothing like ranting about deceptive individuals who try to defend their corrupt ways as being perfectly okay. So, I found a video on Youtube that mentioned my book “The Wrythe and the Reckoning,” and in the video, the poster was complaining about me and several other authors who have previously complained about trolls. (Ha, ha! The irony.) It’s hilarious because in the whole video, even though the topic is on the issue of trolls, the poster didn’t refer to the unscrupulous book reviewers as “trolls” or by any other befitting name. It’s as though this individual took every mention of the word “trolls” in the articles that I and several other authors had written and exchanged it with the word “readers.” Manipulation and deception much? If this was an underage individual who had posted the video, I probably would have left it alone, because teens and young adults have it difficult enough in this world and are learning how to cope with it and how to be. But a trolling adult? I’m speaking up on it, at least this time, and only because I cared enough to. Usually, I ignore and avoid the trolls. This time, though, I had to speak up due to the toxicity of the damaging content. (Also, the video is revealing on some crucial matters. Keep in mind, too, that this video was made by an “author,” but as of the date of making this post I have yet to see any of her books on her website. In other words, “hater authors” who have likely been rejected by traditional publishing and are too proud for indie publishing (when in actuality it provides more freedom and thus potentially more value, and most of us chose it first and didn’t even bother to contact trad pub) are part of the trolling community on GR, but let’s put that aside for a moment. These trolls forget that before authors were authors, they were readers first. We love books. We love stories. That’s why we write them. AUTHORS ARE READERS. Again, AUTHORS ARE READERS. What we don’t like, pardon me, what some of us authors don’t like and are courageous enough to speak up about, are TROLLS. Trolls are savage-minded bullies with low integrity and that lack empathy. Some of us suspect that book review trolls are in actuality industry plants at most and con-artists after the dollar (from getting paid for undeserved book reviews) at the least. I don’t like trolls, and no one is ever going to convince me to like them. No one is ever going to convince me to be a troll sympathizer. So, stop trying to sway me and the entire reading and writing community into thinking that trolls are innocent readers when in actuality they freely choose when to simply be readers and when to be book sabotaging trolls. Trolls are easy enough to identify, and in the case of book reviews, they pick only at certain books, not all of them.
Author Rant, Part 2
You know what else irks me about trolls (a tell-tell sign) is that in addition to having sadistically cruel intentions, they’re comfortable with lying while in their efforts to sabotage. They see nothing wrong with being dishonest, and they can’t be convinced otherwise on that point. They’re even willing to pretend they read books when in fact they didn’t read them, at least not enough to give a genuine review. I both laughed and cringed upon reading the trolling reviews for my first book on Amazon. I didn’t even bother with reading the reviews for it on GoodReads (for the actual published book), because I know that most of the reviews there are from trolls. When I left that review section for my ARC book on GR, I didn’t turn back. Even when they try not to sound like trolls (including on Amazon), they still somehow manage to do so. This video poster probably thought she was doing some justice to her fellow shady book reviewers, but in actuality, all she did was prove our points throughout her deceptive video. The bottom line is not all book reviewers are trolls, obviously, but also not all book reviewers care about the standards of ethics when reviewing books. Some book reviewers are downright shady and corrupt. This is the underlying message in every article there is that’s complaining about GoodReads trolls. It’s funny how troll sympathizers conveniently forget that very point. You do realize that if you’re a troll sympathizer, you yourself are probably also a troll, and if you show it publically you just exposed yourself regarding that very fact. It’s very simple; read the damn book before reviewing it; Is that really so difficult for you to grasp? If you didn’t read it, then don’t review it; Is that really so hard for you to understand? If you read one chapter of a book and you don’t like it, put it down and pick up a different book. Is that really so challenging for you to muster? Must you really write a blog post about a book you barely read, a book where you don’t even know what happened in the story? A book in which you don’t even really know the characters? Oh my, I’m not about to dumb myself down and be pretentious regarding these matters, all for the sake of obtaining more sales for my books.
Also, on a couple of posts that I found on the internet, including in another video from this poster (the link is posted further below), they stated that some of my comments from Goodreads were removed. Really? Are they implying that I removed them? Because I didn’t remove a single comment that I posted to them in reply during their verbal tirade or any other comment before that. When I left the troll stampede, I never looked back, and I damn sure didn’t delete any comments from there. So, yes, another lie. The only comment I deleted from GR was on my personal author blog, which is in my author account, and it was from a troll. A troll thought she was going to come to my author account and carry on with author-bashing me underneath a blog post I had made, a blog post basically just telling any visitors who visit my author page to view the reviews for my book on NetGalley. Delete–I deleted her comment. The blog post is still there, as there was nothing wrong with it. So, if any comments were deleted from my book’s review page, and I doubt there were, perhaps it was GR who deleted them. I can’t be sure one way or another, and actually I don’t really care. Just stop trying to give the impression that I deleted comments when in fact I didn’t. It’s like the trolls wished I had said more in my replies to their attacks, something they could really use to justify their shady behaviors. I learned after studying another author’s account, who underwent the same experience, that they provoke particular authors so they can get extremely stressed and angry and in-turn say something to them that’s obviously vulgar. Then, the trolls can say “Oh, that author’s a terrible person,” in a purposeful attempt to further discredit the author and their work. Trolls will be trolls, and they love to provoke.
Author Rant, Part 3
Oh, and I love how the trolls claim I attacked reviewers. I didn’t, but I’m sure they wished I had so they could really justify their lies and cruelty. What they won’t tell you, in addition to many other things, is that the initial post that I made regarding the first two trolls who reviewed my book was in a separate section on the review page for that book, so underneath my own book—a place where anyone can ask questions. I wrote a note there regarding my book–again, not even underneath the trolling reviews. Then, at some point, months later (when I had an issue with getting my ARC book removed from GoodReads in an effort to upload my actual published book there instead, and upon there posted a message in the “Librarians” section of the discussion boards regarding that problem), somehow the trolls found the message, and from there they began attacking me with self-righteous, entitled ridicules. Basically saying, “How dare you complain about our trolling reviews? Who do you think you are? You should grovel to us and crawl on the ground we walk on, peasant author. We are the reviewers. You’re just an unknown indie author who needs our reviews in order to sell your silly little books.” I’ve summed it up here, but that’s basically how they were in their messages to me. So, yeah, me being me, I’m just gonna not say anything in return and take the bs? For what reason? Oh, yeah, so I can sell plenty of books. No thanks. At the end of the day, at least I haven’t lowered my personal morals and standards for the sake of the industry. Again, they found my message and began their attack. Then, me, alone in the wasteland of trolls, I replied to their insults, doing so in a polite but straightforward way that apparently got under their skin even more so because they became exceedingly more irate. Of course, being the deceptive beings they are, they changed it up and put the blame on me, as if I started it. That’s what they do. If I had made the initial message under their reviews, wouldn’t they have found it months before when I posted it and accordingly responded then? The initial message was polite and as I said, it wasn’t even under any of their reviews. The initial message was a general statement in response to two undeserved 1-star reviews, which were posted by two individuals who had barely read the ARC book. They didn’t even read it enough to know what happened when the main characters got to Boston. Ninety percent of the novel is set in Boston. Though I was irritated at their trolling reviews, I actually laughed a little at how little they knew about the story, but yet tried to make it seem as though their reviews were credible. One of them even made a post on her blog about it (a post about an ARC book she barely read), suggesting to potential readers that it’s not worth reading. Really? A book about social activism in the 1800s of North America and a teenage love story isn’t worth reading? Okay. Basically, my initial message was me telling potential readers to disregard their toxic reviews and to instead wait for the actual published book to come out so they can read it and decide for themselves. But little did I know that place is strangely bombarded with trolls. I found that out during this whole fiasco.
Author Rant, Part 4
This particular troll, in one of her other videos (the link posted further below), gave the impression that on NetGalley, authors always get to select who will review their books. That’s not at all true, as of this writing. Some books are made available for any and all readers on that platform. My book was one of those. I signed up for NetGalley through IBPA, and that promotional opportunity requires that the author makes their ARC book available for any reader on the NetGalley platform. So, I didn’t search and select which readers read my ARC book. I didn’t mind it, as I thought it was a great opportunity to let the book be available to everyone there who might be interested, and I still think that it was, but it does make those particular ARC books more vulnerable to being reviewed by trolls. I liked NetGalley quite a lot before this, and I still do for the value that it provides, but for the most part, I’m done with book review sites. There’s just not enough quality control there, and for the ones that I’ve found so far, the standards for reviewers aren’t high enough for them to be worthwhile. When someone finds one that is, please let me know. For the main particular one (GoodReads), it’s like a corrupt police force in that place. Not all the cops in that police department are corrupt, but there are enough there to ruin the entire precinct, thus all the similar book review sites. A few bad apples (10? 20? 50? 100?) are enough to spoil the whole bunch and also the bushels nearby. Plain and simple, if you didn’t read the book, you shouldn’t be allowed to review it. How about if you only read half of the book, you actually mention that in your review, and you mention about some of what occurred in that half of the book (with spoiler alerts) to indicate that you actually did read that much of the said book? Is that really so much to ask? Overall, in the least, how about being required to answer a few random questions (in essay format so there’s no copying) to prove that you actually did read the book before your review can be accepted in that book’s review section? Is that so much to ask?
Author Rant, Part 5
Oh, you refuse to read my book because I’ve defended myself against trolls? Yes, please do refuse, because if you’re that narrow-minded and a troll or troll/bully sympathizer, you probably wouldn’t understand my stories anyway. The main points might go completely over your head, as you’re so busily focused on what you can find in that book to cause damage, something that you may be able to twist around into something else corruptive. “Please tell me, Milady, what is the name of that exceedingly high-horse you sit on?” “Oh, there, there little peasant author. It’s called “YouNeedMeSoPutUpWithMyAbuseOtherwiseIWontPromoteYourBook.” “Oh, I see. Well, I don’t particularly like traveling on such conceited and malicious horses, as they can make the journey quite troublesome and downright dreadful. I think I’d rather walk those many miles, but thank ye, Milady, for allowing me, yer unworthy servant, this privilege to speak to ye. Good day to ye, Ms.” So, if you’re an entitled reviewer who’s refusing to read my book because I defended myself against trolls, be rest assured that your refusal to read and recommend my book doesn’t make it any less valuable than it actually is. Again, I wrote my story not for the industry but for the authentic readers, for those who value fun stories that are intelligent and relatable. My stories aren’t for everyone, and I don’t expect everyone to like them, but for those who they’re for, they’ll see them for what they truly are. They’ll see the value in them. I’m an indie artist at heart and I want to remain that way. My story was written for those who appreciate indie art, including indie literary art, and especially for those who are interested in the topics that I presented in the story. I’m really not a people pleaser, and it’s fine if you don’t like my book. It’s simply just not for you. But to pretend to have read it and then publicly trash it without substantial reasonings is absolutely unethical and trolling behavior.
Author Rant, Part 6
You’d be surprised to learn that some of the trolls are wannabe authors, hoping that by conforming to the corruption perhaps their books will get published by traditional pub. Their willingness to bow down to the injustices from trolls and even going as far as having a traitor mentality against other authors that speak up against it makes me a little nauseated and actually want to barf. It’s one thing to stay out of it if you’re an author (that’s perfectly understandable as you don’t want your books to be trashed on also), but please don’t come to my personal pages sympathizing with troll reviewers. Because if you do, not only are you enabling corrupt behavior to continue against authors, you might as well also be announcing that you’re one of the trolls. My suspicions thus far are that several of the trolls are making a living from paid book reviews (particularly in a con-artist type of organization outside of Goodreads, and I suspect too that GR doesn’t know it, and no I’m not referring to genuine influencers). The reason for my suspicion is that I received several emails requesting that I pay for book reviews, and I ignored them, because “Pardon me? What is this con-artist bull crap you’re touting?”, albeit with consequential effects. Was it a mere coincidence that I received those emails while my book was on NetGalley, and after rejecting them my book started to get stomped on by book trolls? More on that later. Again, there are genuine readers and reviewers out there, but there are also trolls. Are we supposed to pretend that there aren’t any trolls on GR and on several other reviewing platforms, even though ample evidence suggests so? If you study book reviews and pay close enough attention, you’ll notice the difference between those two types of reviewers—the genuine and the trolls. Sometimes, the trolls even try to seem genuine (“Oh, I really wanted to like this but..etc”), but within their reviews, you’ll notice their real intentions seeping through. For those particular ones, only authentic readers who’ve read the actual victimized book, and also other book trolls, can spot them. For the other types of trolls (perhaps less experienced), it’s quite obvious and we can easily spot them. And this isn’t an attack directly on traditional publishing. Some of my favorite books were published by traditional publishers. But I do feel that there are enemies in the overall book industry and that there’s been an attack lately on indie publishing. I see the same attacks in the Amazon reviews for indie books (especially for indie YA novels), and they sound as though they’re coming from editors in the traditional publishing industry. It’s like copy and paste of the ridicules from these trolling editors, and they seem to convey the same corrupting intentions. Is indie publishing a threat to traditional publishing? Hopefully not. Is there competition between the two? Hopefully not, and why should there be? Why can’t books just be books, and stories just be stories? There’ s no reason for there to be competition between the two sectors, unless of course there’s some underlying insecurity on the part of traditional pub that the rest of us don’t quite understand or know about. In general, why can’t it be that writers simply choose to go one way or the other with their publishing? Perhaps, that is the reality; I don’t really know. So, where exactly the hate is coming from for indie books, I can’t be for sure, but I do know that indie publishing will thrive on regardless. Artists were indie long before there were established companies to vouch for them.
Note: Here’s another video of hers where she’s trying to find things she can twist and turn regarding me and my book, as though it’s in an effort to give other trolls ideas of what lies they can say in their reviews, including also forming complaints about me. And don’t forget to check out the sleazy statements in the comment section of the video, more evidence of GR trolls and book trolls in general. The cringiness, and they don’t even see it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pq937pPBq6o (This is also the video I was referring to in parts 2 and 4.)
Author Rant, Part 7
You know, intentions are an interesting thing. Why are you so focused on my book, Ms. Kirkpatrick? Why are you defending trolls, troll sympathizer? Or should I say professional “author” and “editor” with an extension of .wixsite.com for your professional website (https://flyintwankie.wixsite.com/mysite), as of this writing? Yet, again, there’s no evidence of anything you’ve written, no evidence of your self-proclaimed expertise. Wow, what credibility you have. Yeah, you’re a real genuine professional. Maybe you’ll make a video of this post too, and call it “a meltdown.” Yes, please do. Please bring more attention to this page so that authors and would-be authors can be forewarned even more regarding trolls and while at it also receive some insightful information on how to deal with them and carry on with their art. I watched a few more of Ms. Kirkpatrick’s videos, including the one titled “The Case of #IStandWithCourtney VS the “Racist” RWA.” She seems to have some underlying discrimination against self-published authors, but putting that aside, I thank you, Ms. Kirkpatrick, for proving one of my points throughout your videos, that troll sympathizers are in fact trolls themselves. Maybe, when you finally get that traditional publishing deal that you’ve clearly been after, you’ll be a happier person, so you’re no longer desiring to cause damage to authors you don’t even know. It would have been far more valuable for you, though, if you focused on your writing craft instead of on bashing authors (especially indie authors) for the purpose of receiving clout/more attention on your Youtube channel. [Side Note: While I did watch a few videos from a troll’s channel, I don’t advise authors and other artists in doing so. When you come across any videos, articles, or reviews that you suspect are from trolls, steer clear. Don’t’ read them. Don’t watch them, because they don’t deserve your attention. I watched the said videos on her channel mostly for the purpose of writing this post. Before then, I didn’t even bother to go looking for any videos regarding my book. In fact, the video she made directly referring to my book, the one in the link I posted above, I found it in a recommended thumbnail after watching the main video that I’ve focused on in this post. Hey, if you find trolling content about your book or any other artwork, feel free to read it or watch it if you really want to, but I don’t recommend it.] Again, these particular videos are posted by a self-proclaimed “author” who hasn’t posted onto her website a single sample or title of any book or other literary work she’s written.
Author Rant, Part 8
Like the other authors whose books they sabotaged and then afterwards verbally attacked those authors with damaging statements, they expected me to simply take their beatings and shut up. I accepted your 1-star trolling reviews and moved on, making an independent polite post regarding them in a separate section on the review page of my book (again, not even under your reviews), but then you found my personal post and decided to verbally attack me and invite your trolling friends to join in. Oh, you don’t like me because I defended myself against your trolling insults and attacks? Well, again, rest assured I didn’t write these books for you. My writing life doesn’t revolve around you trolls as you’d like for it to, nor does it revolve around industry book reviewers. I’m an artist first and foremost. I don’t write to simply please reviewers. Sorry, hun, that ARC book that you thought was trash because of the simple ARC book cover, it was actually written by a real-life social activist—a social justice warrior. So, it’s not in me to simply put up and shut up. In other words, you trolls picked the wrong book to stomp on. If you had read my book in its entirety, you would have known that. I’m a revolutionist in my heart and soul. I quite simply can’t be anything else. I’m that underdog who survived a difficult life and became resilient in spite of it. Now, I speak up for human rights and civil rights, and one of the places I do it is through the stories that I write. You thought you scored when you saw that ARC book with the mediocre book cover that was getting good reviews on NetGalley, thinking you would get me to pay your corrupt on-the-side-scam-organization for “good book reviews” or else, but nope. You picked the wrong one. Yes, I found out about you all contacting indie authors to get them to pay for book reviews, sensitivity readers, etc, and when they reject your requests you bombard them with bad reviews so they can come crawling to you and pay you for “good reviews.” You wouldn’t have found me if I wasn’t on NetGalley. I loved the idea of NetGalley, but now I know it’s been infiltrated by trolls. Indie publishing is here to stay, despite your efforts at ruining it. We authors who take our writing seriously don’t just write books for the good reviews. We write because we have an important story to tell, an important message to convey. It was upsetting for me at first when I found out about these issues, but I’m glad that I did. It’s unfortunate that there are so many stories that readers have missed out on because of these issues, because of book trolls. I wish there was a reading platform that was for both readers and authors, a place where authors could also have a say-so. If Goodreads wants to be for readers only, fine, but please don’t pretend that it’s a place for authors too. Because, aside from a few discussion boards for authors and paid author marketing and such, I’m not convinced that GR is truly a welcoming place for authors. I hope that in the near future someone develops a site for indie books that is regulated with more professionalism. What we need is a site like Spotify, a platform where indie music is made available to an audience that simply wants authentic music that’s published independently. So, in this case, it would be a site for independently published books. Readers would simply click “like” if they like and recommend the book, and they would also say why they like and recommend it. There wouldn’t be any trolling reviews allowed, none of that sheisty chaos at all. Authors would have a chance to get their stories read without all the corruptness and sabotaging of book trolls.
Author Rant, Part 9
By the way, I didn’t write my book in the most common way that perhaps the “get-paid-for-reviews-trolls” are used to—i.e. Chapter 1-One thing happens, Chapter 2-Another thing happens, etc. Instead, several things happen in each chapter of my first book, and yet it’s efficiently organized into 24 chapters. Anyone who’s read epic-length fantasy stories knows what I’m talking about. In fact, that’s the main place where I got the idea for my book’s organization, and even though it’s not high fantasy like LOTR or Game of Thrones, it works for my story. The trouble with this is that it makes it difficult for skim-readers to really know what happens in the story unless they truly know the organization of the book. This is what tripped them up (those two reviewers), and this is how I caught them. They didn’t know what the heck happens in Boston. (Again, most of what happens in the story occurs in Boston.) Google search “TBR lists” and “paid book reviews,” then you’ll understand why the trolls skim-read. Their usual book review tricks didn’t work on this book, and they still posted their sham reviews anyway pretending to have read it. I don’t know which sector of unscrupulous reviewers these particular ones belong to, but I’ve learned that cornering authors into paying for good reviews is a common practice in the book review world. Are these two from that group? I don’t know. I can’t be for sure. And of course, not all good reviews are paid for, but for those of you who are in that crooked business, you want to get paid for posting “good book reviews?” Whatever. That’s your business, but don’t sabotage authors’ books as a means to forcing them into your sham side-business. I didn’t suspect any of this until I started receiving emails for paid book reviews soon after posting my ARC novel on NetGalley. It’s so corrupt, the idea, that it’s disturbing and actually disappointing just to think about it, and unless a reformed troll speaks up about it to the author community, we’ll never know. But no matter what, it’s recommended that authors do not pay for book reviews, and this is not the same as influencers who mostly just promote your book’s publication (or even street teams). So, anyway, irked as I was, I spoke up. It was just too obvious for me not to say something, not to warn other authors. So, I did. However, since at that time I only suspected that the email requests I had received for paid book reviews were connected to the trolling reviews I received for my book, I didn’t mention anything regarding it. I’m still not sure that they are. So, as I mentioned before, after making my post in the GR comment section of my book’s review page (actually months later), that’s when the trolls got incredibly more upset. From there, they found me on Twitter, where I had made my cautionary post forewarning other authors. Then, the trolls started pouring in on my Twitter account. At that point, being that I couldn’t delete any of their comments on Twitter (no features allowing us to do so), I was done engaging on Twitter.
Author Rant, Part 10
Again, for the millionth time, readers have the right to review books as they want to, even with one-star reviews if they genuinely feel the book deserves it. I’ve read some books myself that I was completely disgusted by for one reason or another, and believed that they were in fact dangerous to society. In particular, for me, these are especially books that promote toxic relationships. My point is, if you give a book a 1-star review, you should have a damn good reason for doing so; otherwise, you’re provoking trouble. You better have read the book in its entirety or at least enough to gather sufficient reasons; otherwise, you’re provoking trouble. Authors don’t spend years writing a book so that trolls can trash it simply because “well, she didn’t write that sentence like I would have written it.” Dear trolls, we don’t care how you would have written that sentence. We’re not you, and you’re not us. We are artists, and no reviewer or editor has the right to disparage an author because they wrote a sentence differently than how they would have written it. It’s called being a unique individual. Excuse me, but some of us take writing very seriously and we obsess over every word and sentence that we write. So, you think we would change it because you simply would have written it differently? Umm.., it’s not your artwork; make your own. It’s our artwork. You don’t like it, keep it moving, and if you don’t like the book you should have an actual good reason for why you don’t like it, because “the brush strokes that he used to paint that artwork are different than what I would have used to paint it” isn’t good enough. At that point, the reviewer comes off as being malicious and corrupt. This is the point exactly. This is where regulations and high standards are supposed to enforce integrity and professionalism. Otherwise, where’s the credibility? I’ve learned to value credibility and professionalism in this industry, and I now go only where it exists. There are few places, definitely, and I’ve searched and searched all over for them. Also, I have no desire to spend time responding to book reviews. These trolls seem to think that authors care to do such a thing as habitually respond to book reviews, but really we don’t. We would rather be writing and reading books. I decided to leave my Goodreads review section at the beginning of publishing my first novel, where the trolls and the friends of trolls were attacking me constantly, because it was just so toxic and actually quite boring. It was like they’d attack me and I’d respond. I was receiving notifications in my email every day regarding their comments. I turned those notifications off and exited that building. I thought, “Oh, I could be writing right now, or reading a book, or watching a movie, or listening to music. I’m out. See ya!” So, I left that space and I haven’t been back in that review section since. No thanks. I went back to doing what I love, writing books, and I was keeping my distance from the habitations of trolls. Then, I saw this video and had to make a response post, because oh, the dishonesty. Now I‘ve made my rant and I can get back to writing books. So, to authors and other artists whose works have experienced trolling reviews, you’re not alone. I and several other authors have learned that this is a constructive way to deal with those irksome, intentionally deceptive trolling reviews that can trouble an author/artist so much that it causes them stress and makes them want to stop doing their art altogether. You can rant about it on your blog if you wish to (or in your personal diary if you prefer), then you can keep moving forward with doing your art. Don’t even bother engaging with the trolls as I and several other authors did. Though some beneficial truths did arise from us doing so, it’s otherwise a waste of time and causes unwanted stress. (We’d rather be writing.) And actually, I recommend avoiding troll breeding grounds altogether, unless you find something absolutely valuable in those places. As for me, I refuse to engage with trolls, the deeply disturbed individuals, or to go hanging out in any of the places where they are. I’d rather be on the truly fun and happy side of author life. Rant completed. Keep writing. Keep crafting. Trolls are behind me. My writing goals are before me. #WritersGonnaWrite, #MakersGonnaMake. Much love. Peace.
One more recommendation I have regarding this post: If you’re an independent author, if you haven’t already done so, I recommend signing up with Independent Book Publishers Association (IBPA) and Alliance of Independent Authors (ALLi). They’re both excellent organizations and deserve a lot more recognition. There are several others out there. You can do some research and determine which ones to join (if any), but I know of these two and they’re invaluable to indie authors.
Videos Referred to in This Post:
(There are several others, but I referenced these two. I refuse to post the titles here because one of them is mocking and victim-blaming. Authors have the right to speak up for their rights. If I hadn’t done so, I would have likely never found a multitude of other authors who had done the same, and I would be catering to book trolls instead of writing what I want to write and focusing on the actual potential fans of my work.)
– https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gMmWz3Ercr0&t=119s
– https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pq937pPBq6o
Some Online Resources Regarding This Topic:
– “Goodreads – a Breeding Ground for Book Trolls”
https://www.matejaklaric.com/blog/goodreads-a-breeding-ground-for-book-trolls
– “Goodreads trolls getting you down? My personal story, but also a solution!”
https://readthebloodybook.com/2015/06/22/goodreads-trolls-getting-you-down-my-personal-story-but-also-a-solution/
– “Goodreads Sucks and is Not Worthwhile”
https://www.thewritingking.com/goodreads-sucks/
– “Bad Book Reviews | Why Goodreads Reviews Are the Worst”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=93RA7h56NVU&t=231s
– “ON TROLLS AND FAKE BAD REVIEWS”
https://accrispin.blogspot.com/2014/07/on-trolls-and-fake-bad-reviews.html
– “Why It’s Time To Stop The Goodreads Bullies”
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/stop-goodreads-bullies_b_1689661
(Notes: This article was written in 2012, but it shows just how bad the trolling problem has been in the past years.)
– “Anne Rice Signs Petition to Protest Bullying of Authors on Amazon”
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/mar/04/anne-rice-protests-bullying-amazon-petition
(Notes: Keep in mind this article was written in 2014. Even though Amazon has cracked down on the problem of anonymous troll reviewers, trolls do still roam and post malicious reviews on Amazon. They just do it more politely these days, including by using what appears to be a genuine username.)
– “Anne Rice Defends Authors from Online Bullying”
https://goodereader.com/blog/e-book-news/anne-rice-defends-authors-from-online-bullying
(Notes: Consider that this article, too, was written in 2014, and again, though there have been crackdowns on both sites, trolls do continue to run rampant on book review platforms, and especially to post sabotaging reviews on both GoodReads and Amazon.)
– “Amazon’s New Review Rules: Should Authors Be Worried?”
https://annerallen.com/2016/10/amazons-new-review-rules-should-authors-worry/
– “Amazon Book Review Policy Demystified for Authors”
https://www.authorimprints.com/amazon-book-review-policy-authors/
A Few Helpful Organizations for Authors:
– Independent Book Publishers Association (IBPA) –
https://www.ibpa-online.org/
– Alliance of Independent Authors (ALLi) –
https://www.allianceindependentauthors.org/
– The Authors Guild
https://www.authorsguild.org/
– National Writers Union
https://nwu.org/
