Smart Bitches Trashy Books | All of the romance, none of the bullshit.

Wow . . . I would do never do this. She might have finally proven that LKH is not alone in what I had thought of as her own little world.

I have at least one so-so/bad review on Amazon, and while I think the reviewer is way off base, she’s entitled to her opinion. What I thought was funny was that she intends to buy my next book, LOL!

I certainly wouldn’t go to Amazon and scold or belittle a reader (though if they made a statement about my making an historical error, and I was in fact correct, I might be sorelytempted to correct them on this point; with documentation of course).

You don’t respond to bad reviews.  Who wants to end up being the Anne Rice of their genre, thanks to Amazon.com?

In two ways - you don’t if it’s something you find yourself annoyed over. Or, you send a thank you because the person read your book.

An author can NEVER win by rebutting negative reviews, especially at Amazon. Have I sent an email about something I’ve seen in a review (a spoiler, something they said was incorrect and I wanted clarification, etc) -yes. But if they hate some theme in the book or they think my sex writing is the tool of the devil or they just don’t like me or my choice of words - what good could come from arguing? It’s perception - we all have it and getting into some web drama over someone not liking our books makes us look stupid.

Sometimes you can turn it around and be funny and make it work. But it’s the rare few of us who are as clever as Daisy Dexter Dobbs.

I took a course on how to deliver education in an online environment.  A *very* big point that was made was that sarcasm *never* works in an online environment where a longstanding relationship does not exist with everyone in the environment.  As an author, I’ve never had a problem with any of my reviews, even the not so great ones.  Nowhere is there a guarantee that everyone is going to be screaming “this is TEH BESTEST BOOK EVAH!!!” My reaction to the not so great ones: thanks so much for your time in reviewing this!  The readers’ advisory slut of a librarian in me usually wants to take them in hand and find another book more to their liking, no matter who wrote it ;)

Incidentally, I read the Berdoll book and thought it was okay and even intriguing on a number of levels, although her psuedo-Austenesque voice was beyond cumbersome. I gave it 3 stars, and 2 out of 4 people have indicated they found my review helpful.  I strongly suspect that one of those votes came from Ms. Berdoll herself.  ;-)

I’m sure it smarts something fierce for an author to have people criticise her work.  I can understand the emotional, knee-jerk protective instinct to respond and defend the author’s labor of love.  But this approach always seems to backfire.  The deal with Berdoll’s book—and LKH’s, for that matter, since someone mentioned her in another comment—is that a great many people are saying the same thing.  Therefore, maybe—just maybe—there’s some validity to the criticism.  Isn’t it more productive for an author to absorb the criticism and figure out a way to make it work for her and her future writing than to allow it to affect her self-worth to such an obvious and well-publicized degree? Responding specifically to “negative posts”—or “negative readers”, as in the case of LKH—just makes an author look like an insecure, whiny, egocentric nutcase and feeds the rabid masses.

As I’ve stated in a previous comment (on another thread, but heck, it was said today), I write non-fiction articles, not novels. But I get reviews and comments back all the time. Many are positive. A few are corrections or otherwise clarification requests. Some are negative. It’s all fine; you put your work out there, you should expect that not everyone will like it. In some cases with negative remarks, I’ve tried to learn from them if I thought they had a valid point. I can’t improve without feedback, and not all feedback is positive.

That said, I don’t put up with personal attacks. And the one person who falsely accused me of copyright infringement last year? I want to find her and stomp on her head.

Totally unprofessional to attack people on Amazon, though. Right there on the purchase page of your book… why not just put DON’T READ ME, I’M AN ASSHOLE! on the cover?

Holy shit!  That is brilliant!

I don’t think I would need the author to convince me I don’t want to read this book.  The quotes in the reviews are enough.

Anne Rice’s was the best author meltdown on Amazon. Hands down.
I read Darcy and Elizabeth and wasn’t very impressed by it overall. It wasn’t terrible, but not great.

I missed the Anne Rice meltdown--was it really bubbly-ooey-goooey goodness? :-)

Thanks!  I was going to ask about it also (and if anyone can point us to it).

Yes, I’m evil.

Sue me.

Hm.  I kind of like Berdoll’s books, more as a guilty pleasure than anything.  And while I try to not let authors’ behavior (or actors or whatever) influence my desire to read their books… wow.  Berdoll’s behavior sounds like a fourteen year old fanfic author responding to bad feedback.  Being an asshole to readers in a public forum like Amazon just doesn’t seem to be the smartest way to drum up interest in your books.

Regarding Rice’s rant:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/cdp/member-reviews/AB4F6UHL20U95/103-5433015-6124663?ie=UTF8&display=public&sort_by=MostRecentReview&page=4

The easiest way to find Rice’s rant, in my opinion, is to go through her reviews.  Hopefully this link will work.  The rant was in the body of a review she wrote for The Blood Canticle.  Copy and paste the addy, then scroll about halfway down the page.

It does affect my intent to buy.  Sometimes explicitly and sometimes not so explicitly.

If the behavior is something that I object to, I’ll take my book buying dollars elsewhere.  I’m not the behavior-police, and authors can do whatever they want, but I don’t need to stick around and support it.

Sometimes, if the behavior is something that leaves a bad taste in my mouth but isn’t quite so objectionable to me, then I won’t necessarily take my book buying dollars elsewhere, but it’s still an association that I have in my head.  And when I’m standing in the aisle at the bookstore trying to decide whether to purchase book A or book B, I’m going to go for the one without the bad association.

It used to be that the only thing that would turn me off an author would be the actual contents of the author’s book(s).  With easy access to every comment from an author’s mouth (fingers?) via blogs and forums and amazon reviews(?!), I now have information that I didn’t have before.  This information can affect my purchasing decision.

ferfe,

You mean to have DON’T READ ME, I’M AN ASSHOLE! on a cover?

I’d say it would work better as a 3rd person quote. So here’s the plan: Follow nora around on blogs for a while and perhaps she’d eventually put in some comment somewhere the right words which you could then pick up DON’T READ HER, SHE’S AN ASSHOLE! --Nora Roberts

If I were you, I’d aim for MJD actually.

*sigh*

All together now, can we say the word “professional”?  As in, “I am going to act like a professional because I wish to be treated like a professional?”

I don’t respond to bad reviews of my books, few as they are.[g] I did contact a reviewer once who purely by mistake put my review in the paranormal section of her site.  She quickly corrected it.

Beyond that, I move on.  I’ve got books to write.

Yes, an author’s behavior definitely affects whether or not I’ll by his or her books.  Hearing Harlan Ellison was an asshat at last year’s World Con (and his “Well what can you do?  I am who I am” response) means Harlan Ellison will be starving and homeless if he’s depending on me for his living . LKH’s apparent descent into batshitcrazy-ville means I make a wide circle around her books when I see them.  Authors attacking readers like this one is doing shoot right to the top of my “No How/No Way” list. 

My husband and I have discussed this a number of times because he has the ability to separate the art from the artist more than I can (Jeremy Piven is his glaring exception).  While I can agree that the art or the product should be judged on its own merits intellectually, I still react emotionally and allow an artist’s personal life (or at least my perception of it) to influence my purchases.  I can try to intellectualize and say that this or that piece of art could only exist because this or that specific artist created it, thus in a way the art is the artist, but I don’t know if that’s really honest.

Even worse, though, is the fact that I can cop to a having double standard at times.  The key for me seems to be when I learn about an artist’s idiocy: if I already know and love their work, I’m more likely to cut them some slack, shrug my shoulders and say, “Well, artists do have a tendency to interact with the world in ways I’ll never understand”.  But if they are new to me, it’s a black mark against them and it takes an awful lot for that black mark to get washed clean.

I can’t decide if my mixed up filtering system is a product of the fact that I’m female and thus theoretically hard-wired to react with more emotion than a man, or if this is just human nature: we make choices all of the time and not all of them are based on rational thought and a balancing of pros and cons - choices do get made due to ‘gut feeling’ by both men and women all of the time.

“What about you - does author behavior affect your intent to buy? And how would you respond to reviews of your work?”

Even if it’s a negative review, if there is a comment section I thank the reviewers for taking the time to read my book. Because heaven knows, it’s not like there were no other books to read.

But if it were a scathing critique that made me want to slit my wrists when I was done, I probably would maintain a stoic Internet silence while downing an entire carton of Breyer’s Mint Chip and crying about it to my friends. Privately.

And yes: authors who behave badly do have an effect on my purchases. If an author becomes a scary diva who acts insane, I’m not going to buy her book. I have a number of authors on my Not In A Million Years list.

Is the infamous rant still up on amazon? I thought it was all deleted back in the day…

If you want a snarky nutshell of the whole affair, you could also try:
http://www.journalfen.net/community/fandom_wank/515245.html?nc=911

I have to say, I read a couple of the comments, and was actually pretty amused by Berdoll’s responses. They’re scathing, and funny, and they do point out that “OMG! DirtyBad!” is not actually a helpful review. They’re only comments so it’s not like they show up on the main page or in the stars ratings, and I’ve certainly seen the bitches here poke similar fun at bad/incoherent reviewers everywhere. Does Berdoll lose the right to even clever, well worded rebuttals simply because it’s her own work? She didn’t attack or invalidate the opinions of any of the reviews in the comments that I read...merely pointed out that you look kind of stupid when you buy X, and then complain that it didn’t fit into category Y.

I suppose it is unwise to alienate people who’ve spent money on you in the past. But honestly, for a group of people who do spend a good portion of our time finding teh stoopid on the internets and then mocking it, you’d think we’d be a little warmer to someone who - in the face of her own work being criticized - can separate out what’s a valid complaint and what’s reader expectation, and respond in a way that’s pointed and funny. Berdoll’s responses may not be the most socially acceptable things ever, but at least they’re not “OMG my precious baby!!!” histrionics.

On authors responding to bad reviews—sit on your hands, however tempting it might be to respond. Even if a disinterested observer would consider you justified. You’ll lose.

On bad behaviour by authors influencing my reaction as a reader—there are a rare few who have gone on my do-not-give-this-person-money list as a result of their public behaviour, including explicitly using their position as Big Name Author to promote opinions I find repellent. (Note that this is not the same thing as holding such opinions and expressing them in the con suite.) It’s mostly where the behaviour is extreme enough that I do not want to send any sort of signal that I consider it acceptable. It’s not as if I don’t have a “so many books, so little time” problem, so I’m merely making a choice between books to read, not a choice between book or no book.

Merely ranting about a bad review wouldn’t be enough in itself to put me off, although the ranting might suggest other reasons to avoid their books. In the Anne Rice review rant mentioned above, the fact that she considered “no more editors, ever!” to be something to boast about was enough to put me off buying her books. Some editors do a bad job, yes, but no writer is so good that they will never receive some benefit by having a good editor.

I curious how Sourcebooks would react/is reacting to this, even behind the scenes. They used her Darcy books as the flagship, so to speak, for their new line of romances, and Bardoll’s pair of books helped secure them RWA recognition. From a publisher’s standpoint, I wonder if this looks like good or bad publicity for their fledgling new project?

does author behavior affect your intent to buy?

This is a reallyreallyreally interesting point. I do believe in principle that only a book’s contents matter. But sometimes it’s soooo hard to ignore all that extra info, eckspecially when I’m on the cusp over trying a new author.

I find lots of books on Amazon that sound great. Then I read the author’s boring as hell, begging me to like them, I’m having a tuna sandwich but I can’t taste it because I have a cold, please buy the hardcover not the paperback Amazon “plog” and I’m utterly turned off. The author’s so uncool that I fear her book will have equal amounts of verbal diarrhoea.

I don’t stop reading an author because I find out she’s an asshat, but I do decide not to try a new author if her blog bores me or desperately need an editor. It’s not a moral “I can’t support an asshat!” It’s me being a picky reader and reading a sample to judge the quality of the author’s writing/ideas.

The Anne Rice/LKH debacles are a perfect example. They don’t believe in editors? I don’t need to read their unedited mess.

Gee, Joann, seems like you got your knickers in a knot to me. Guess you told me, huh?
Sorry you didn’t like my book. I find it interesting when the occasional reader is of the delusion that their opinion alone is gospel. I hate to be the bearer of this sad news, but that is all it is - your opinion. You have your right to it, but it is no more important or valuable than mine, or anyone else’s. There are dozens of other authors who “leeched off” Jane Austen’s P&P characters. Perhaps one of those depictions will be more to your liking.
Linda

I read this comment by Berdoll on Amazon over a year ago, so I disagree with the assertion that she didn’t attack or invalidate any reader. And there are plenty more in the comments section of the page, separate from the reviews themselves.  She’s been at the rebuttal thing since April of 06, as far as I can tell, and it stopped me dead in my tracks from buying a new copy of Mr. Darcy Takes A Wife.  Being a new author to me, the first impression she made was not one of class or confidence.  That doesn’t mean she’s not a genius writer, but are comments like that really aimed at luring a new reader to her book?  IMO those comments are much more relevant to my buying decision than random rants and insults delivered on blogs. 

In general, I try really, really hard not to let an author’s online behavior influence by buying decisions, although that it easier when it comes to authors whose work I already know and like (or not, as the case may be). For example, while MJD has not been a beacon of wonderful online conduct, IMO, it wasn’t her comments around blogland that disenchanted me; it was the fact that each subsequent Betsy book was shorter and more expensive than the last, with less and less depth and freshness, IMO. 

Often what I do if an author says something that really infuriates me is buy one of her books used—that way, I don’t take it out on the work but I don’t send my money directly to the author, either.  Although this is generally my strategy for new to me authors whose work I want to evaluate separate from the online persona. 

As for Berdoll, I bought a used copy of Mr. Darcy Takes A Wife and haven’t yet been able to get through it.  I have to say that some authors whose online conduct has offended me the most have also not been those auteurs who have wowed me with a special genius, either.  Some authors who have been less than stellar online do put out books I continue to enjoy, even if I sometimes need a cooling off period between their remarks and my reading of their fiction. Talent doesn’t necessarily entail class, confidence, or kindness.  But I DO find that I’m more amenable to trying the work of an author who impresses me online and have bought quite a few books based on a classy or thoughtful comment here or there.

[is now paranoid about her Amazon plog]

“She didn’t attack or invalidate the opinions of any of the reviews in the comments that I read...”

Hm. Here’s a direct quote from one:

“..it is clear the tone over the book flew right over your head. Many, if not most, readers understand that the outrageous euphemisms and language are part of the fun. Either you get it, or you don’t.”

That sounds pretty much like both attacking and invalidating to me.

But even the “you should have researched the book before you bought it” answers seem really petty. I don’t think it’s unreasonable for people to see that the book is a “P&P” sequel and to then assume that it would be written along the same lines as the original. Seems wrong to belittle people because they bought the book based on this assumption and were subsequently disappointed or appalled once they found out the book was not what they thought it was.

I bought the book as an impulse buy because I saw it in the store and thought a “P&P” sequel sounded interesting. So, it’s MY fault that I didn’t like it because I didn’t “research” it first? Should I also be a target of Berdoll’s wrath?

Kate R,

Think MJD would do that for me?  I should ask.

So annoyed- my comment got lost.

What was I saying?...Ok. I think it’s childish to lash out that way. Austen fans are a bit nuts anyway (me included). If she was banking on the Austen craze to sell the book, then how can she be shocked by the reaction? She should have avoided Amazon like the plague. Reader reviews are for readers! The reviewers feel the way they feel. Maybe some of them aren’t very articulate but if Bardoll really wanted to read what the people who spent $$$ on her book, she shouldn’t complain if it ain’t pretty.

I haven’t read her book, I’ve heard bad things, and do not plan to now. I will enjoy the rants though!

If she got into a snit over at Amazon let’s hope she never sees this
http://www.pemberley.com/sequels/PandP/BarSinister.html

or this one lonely review
http://www.pemberley.com/sequels/PandP/DandEDaysandNights.html

my code was area13, far away from the more famous area51

DON’T READ HER, SHE’S AN ASSHOLE! --Nora Roberts

*snort!*

My first book comes out in Jan 09...Oh Nora? You interested in doing me a solid?

LOL!

I don’t know how I’ll react to my first bad review (I am sure that there will be some quiet time spent, curled up in a corner, rocking back and forth humming to myself...)but one thing I know for certain, I’ll never rebut in public. I’ll verbally (not in writing...because, I think we’ve all learned a lesson about that) rant to my closest friends, shed some tears, and gasp in outrage, but I’ll NEVER rebut in public. It is UNPROFESSIONAL. The writing can always be improved. But damaged reputation is hard to recover from…

I only read ONE of Berdoll’s replies and it was unfathomably petty. (I doubt that I’ll read any more because wow, talk about being batshit crazy. That woman is nuts.)

By the way, in the only reply of hers that I read, she wrote:
“Perhaps you were in such a snit over the chamber pot that you couldn’t read clearly.”

I think what lovelysalome said makes good sense--how do you suppose her publisher feels about her bizarre desire to inappropriately snark on people who submit critical reviews of her book?

And I saw the link posted about LKH but how was that a negative response to criticism? I know absolutely nothing about what might have gone on before the odd photos but the photos just seemed odd to me, not insane. Although I’m a big LKH fan and her books have definitely gotten a lot less sane as she’s grown in popularity but I’ll still purchase them.

Which brings me back around to the original question. I tend to separate the author’s behavior from their work. As I said, I like LKH’s books (although they are definitely NOT romance in any way) and will continue to purchase them no matter how batshit crazy she is.

Although sometimes I’ll check out a new author because I’ve read her well-reasoned and polite internet postings. I’m always looking for the next book to buy.

[is now reading your Amazon plog and thankfully sees no mention of tuna sandwiches ;]

[grin]

My LiveJournal contains ramblings about duck confit and the like, but that’s my LiveJournal, and the primary audience is my friends and others who might actually be interested recipes, daily word count, book reviews and social chit-chat about writing. I keep that stuff *off* the Amazon plog. Anything that goes on Amazon had better be something I think might actually be useful/of interest to someone who doesn’t know me from a bar of soap, but has bought one of my books or is thinking of doing so.

I think what lovelysalome said makes good sense--how do you suppose her publisher feels about her bizarre desire to inappropriately snark on people who submit critical reviews of her book?

While I found Berdoll’s comments condescending in the extreme, I do hope that publishers aren’t making professional decisions based on the personal insecurities and comments of their authors.  It creates the same kind of discomfort in me that a certain very well-known editor did in commenting that she wouldn’t work with anyone who had criticized one of her authors (that is, if she got word of such criticism—not like that would have motivated anyone to tattle).  I realize that at some point an author’s personality might be a serious liability for an editor or a publisher (like when said personality interferes with said editor and publisher’s ability to do their job), and this is probably more the case with authors who aren’t likely to break the curve with their sales, but still, it creeps me out to some degree to think of publishers and editors as concerned with whether an author is nice enough.  Although I don’t think it would be inappropriate for Berdoll’s editor to suggest to her that she looks like a flaming a-hole for making some of those comments to her *readers*.  Like over a friendly opiate-laced glass of wine (anyone else watch House?  You’ve got to give it to Wilson for sheer sneakiness).

>>Although sometimes I’ll check out a new author because I’ve read her well-reasoned and polite internet postings.<<

“Oooh!  Oooh!  Pick me! pick me!” she said, jumping up and down and waving her hand wildly.

Sorry. It was too good an opportunity to just let it slide by.[g]

And I know I should have capitalized that second “p” in “Pick”.  I wish there was a “Save me from myself!” edit button here.

“Oooh!  Oooh!  Pick me! pick me!” she said, jumping up and down and waving her hand wildly.

I already did, Darlene, but I haven’t read the book yet.

Thanks, Robin!  It’s music to my ears.  Or pixels to my eyeballs.  Or something.

I never meant that her publisher should reprimand her for what she is doing, I simply wonder how they would FEEL about it. Not what they would DO about it.

(And I thought it was great when House slipped Wilson some speed. Especially because he pulled a “Princess Bride” like switch on Wilson, deliberately offering him the unlaced espresso, knowing that Wilson would select the espresso House had chosen for himself. I love that show so very much.)

But I agree that I would not want publishers to dictate to their authors how they should, and should not, conduct themselves in public. I simply wondered how a company would feel about an independent contractor (I work in construction, so that’s the closest metaphor I could think of for the author/publisher relationship) making a bit of a fool out of herself. It’s certainly her right to do that but, again, I agree with you and think that it wouldn’t be out of line for her editor/publisher to politely tell her that maybe she’s being a bit too aggressive. And perhaps should channel all of that anger into her next book.

(And Wilson should not only get credit for sneakiness, but for actually getting one over on House for quite some time. Fooling House is no easy task.)

This is making me go out and get the book at the local library just to see how bad it is.

I’ve responded to one bad review on Amazon, merely to state that the woman had obviously read an ARC (an error she complained about was removed in line edits) and she should have mentioned that in her review.

Then I deleted it.  Because I didn’t want to sound like a crazy person.

How do I respond to a bad review? I impale myself on my pen so that I do not dishonor my name. Or my penname.

Yes,author behavior does impact my buying behavior-I can think of 2 mystery authors whose books I’ve quit buying because they actively support political positions I loathe-and several sf/f authors I won’t buy because of their behavior at conventions.
Oh,yeah,and I owe Nora 4 paperbacks-it’s my own personal rule that whenever she responds with grace and class to an asshat-I go buy another book. :)

I buy very few books, because I live in a damn expensive city in a tiny apartment and (presently) with no job. When it’s a hardback original (so, so, so rare, not just because they’re flippin’ expensive but because they take up so much space) I get them from the Strand for half off.

When it comes to something that requires a) money, b) time, and c) space in my wee apartment, I consider a lot of things, like the author’s track record and if I know anything about it, his/her behavior. If La Nora, for example, were, well, unpleasant on this site and over on Adwoff.com, I would be sad, and I’d give some serious thought to not buying her books. It’s lucky that she’s awesome, because I love those damn books. Same goes for Malcolm Gladwell, Keith Olbermann, Jon Stewart, and other people whom I let into my head. I don’t watch Fox News because I don’t like what they say and what they stand for and what their corporate parentage uses their money for. I have pretty much the same feelings about authors, actors, musicians, etc.: I don’t support them if I don’t like them, and I do if I do. Simple, right? Which is why I paid $10.50 to see the Dixie Chicks documentary in the theater.

When it comes to my writing (I’m a journalist, not a novelist, but people do take issue with things like movie reviews), and criticism thereof, I deal with it like any other rational person: obsessive Googling and quiet, profane grumbling at my computer screen. And occasional ranting on my personal blog.  And drinkin’. And sometimes, glee. The time someone sent a letter to the magazine where I used to work calling me “smug and ignorant” was one of the best days. At least they’re paying attention.

Hey, thanks for posting this!  It spurred me into getting back to work on Lady Chatterley’s Hoover.

Darlene--

Thanks SO much for plugging your books. I’ve only recently forayed into historical romance and I immediately fell in love with it. I will definitely be buying one of your pirate books (I love me some pirates).

(Sorry for the off-topic post.)

Depends on what the author behavior is.  I don’t think being obnoxious on Amazon would qualify, if I actually thought the book looked good in spite of the reviews.  And I started reading Harlan Ellison because of seeing him speak at Dragon*Con- he kind of makes me think of Lewis Black several decades and another couple of divorces later.  But I’ve finally decided I can’t tollerate Orson Scott Card any more.  I can enjoy an artist’s work without approving of the artist’s morals, but he hit the point where I don’t want to give him money any more.  If I decide any of his books that I don’t already own look good, I’ll get them from the library.

I fought a great battle to achieve a status where I did not have to put up with editors making demands on me, and I will never relinquish that status. For me, novel writing is a virtuoso performance. It is not a collaborative art.

Holy.  Fucking.  Shit.

This right here?  Would be what it takes to turn me off buying an author’s work.  I absolutely DESPISE unedited or poorly edited books.  I don’t care who you are; editors are absolutely vital to the production of excellent books.  Virtuoso or not, there is always, always, ALWAYS room for improvement, and that second (and third, counting the line editor) set of eyes will pick up errors that the author would never find on his/her own.

Yowza, the ego, it’s like Godzilla trampling Tokyo.  I’m so forwarding that quote to all of my editors on April Fools’ Day next year, and damn that I didn’t find it in time for this year.

For me, whether or not I buy an author’s book is a confirmation.  If you’re going to be a snarky nasty author, that means you’d better maintain a VERY high consistency in your books because *if* I abandon you due to bad writing, if you have an attitude, I will never revisit your books again, no matter what you do.

LKH is the classic example of this.  I stopped reading her stuff because I thought it became garbage and committed significant character assassination, even before I knew anything about her personally.  But after her actions?  She could undo all her crap books, and start focusing on plot and character development again, but the damage has been done.  I’m never reading her again, because she lost the ability to keep me addicted and I no longer want to contribute a penny to her bankroll.

To contrast, I went through a period with Stephen King where I just hated absolutely everything he wrote.  When I heard his books had gotten good again, since the man does NOT give me an asshat vibe, and instead seems decent and well humored (c’mon, ‘finish the dark tower series or the bear gets it’?) I went right back to enjoying his stuff.  No harm, no foul.

With such a huge amount of negetaive reviews I certainly wouldn’t part with cash for this book. I may have looked for in the library and try it for a quick skim, but when the Author has such negative things to say about library readers, and then makes bitchy comments to a “New Mommy” - that’s it, she’s never going to get my attention or money.

I wonder why she even bothered to write a book if she’s going to be so aggressive about it. Better if she had left it in the basement, under glass, where she can love it in a safe, secure environment away from mean people like us who would call it rubbish.

She’s acting very Jerry Springer.

I’ll tell you. There isn’t much in publishing as straightforward and uncomplicated as this.

Just don’t respond. There’s nothing to be gained from it. If Klausner someone spoils the book in a review, report it to Amazon, absolutely. But otherwise, it’s just not a good use of your time or energy.

And to whoever was quoted here saying she was a virtuoso and would never relinquish her status of being an author who can reject any and all edits (I wasn’t sure if it was Bardoll or not) - best of luck with that, babe.

Wow. The Anne Rice meltdown was serious crazy. And I’m more than a little amused by how she dressed up the bad fanfiction writer’s rant about “not needing any betas” in fancy clothes and tried to take it out on the town.

I REALLY shouldn’t have bought Blood and Gold…

*blush*

Thank you, Katie W.

Now, back to our usual bitchfest…

Never ever say you did something just because everyone else was doing it.

Am I the only one who cynically believes that some authors may actually amp up attention to negative reviews on the theory that the controversy often sells more books?

Bulletin to all authors: you don’t *have* to go looking for reviews.  Your publisher or agent will make sure you see the good ones.  Avoid the temptation to self-Google (as lovely-dirty as that sounds).  The only good reason to check Amazon is to ensure your book’s information is correct.  After that, ignore it. 

Live your life, write your books.  Stop looking in the internet mirror if you can’t handle what you see.

This has been a Public Service Announcement from the Bureau of Author Mental Health (BAMH!).

It’s not quite that simple for authors, Jeri. It can be as well to Google occasionally to check for piracy—and yes, some pirates are so blatant that they don’t even bother to keep out the search engines. And even if you tell youself don’t follow the links to reviews, the text snippets Google shows are *so* enticing....

Believe me, Jules, I know how hard it is.  Been there, done that, last week.  It’s an ongoing battle, like any addiction.

A bad review or comment, in my experience, has ten times as much power over a writer’s psyche as a good one.  It’s important to know your tolerance for these things and protect yourself accordingly. 

Don’t take out your sensitivity on the reader.  And more importantly, don’t stifle your sensitivity because someone tells you to be tough and suck it up.  Sensitivity is a strength, not a weakness, especially in a creative person.  (That’s my story and I’m stickin’ to it.)

P.S.: You can always ask a friend to Google you for piracy purposes.

Not that I’ve had to deal with sucky Amazon reviews yet, but I find that being in the Amazon author programme helps on one front. My profile page lets me indulge my rankings addiction without having to see the reviews.:-)

A note for the non-authors here—Amazon rankings addiction is a wide-spread and apparently almost incurable disease, no matter how often we tell ourselves that it *doesn’t* *matter*. So much so that people pass around the urls for various utilities that will aggregate all your rankings onto one page without showing you the reviews or average ratings.

Author behaviour does affect my intent to buy. I’ve not bought nor read an LKH book since she started ranting on her opposition. She’s human, her books are flawed, but as soon as she started telling me otherwise, I stopped reading. It was as though she was writing her books to prove her point(s). I think other authors-behaving-badly have done the same.

I understand that this is completely off topic, but was I the only one discouraged by how many of these reviewers slammed the book by calling it some variation of “trashy romance novel”? 
sigh.

Re Anne Rice: Holy block paragraphs, Batman! Is that an Amazon formatting problem, or does she just not know how to use the enter key?

As for me, an author’s conduct definitely affects how I view a book, or whether I even buy it at all. If an author is going to be a four-star jerk to a negative reviewer, that’s only one or two steps away from flaring up over constructive criticism. And when you reject concrit (as Anne Rice seems to have done with her “We don’t need no stinkin’ editors” shinola), that’s it for me. Nobody is a god of writing on their own.

Slightly OT, but the thing about not needing an editor to me just seems self-sabotaging.  We all need editors.  There’s a limit to how objective an author can be about his or her own work.

Okay, I realize I’m late to the party, but I have a question: was Bardoll NEVER in a writing workshop? Where other writers dissect your work while you sit there SILENTLY? Perhaps she would have benefited from this experience. It might have conditioned her to be less trigger happy toward negative response.

Hearing Harlan Ellison was an asshat at last year’s World Con (and his “Well what can you do?  I am who I am” response) means Harlan Ellison will be starving and homeless if he’s depending on me for his living.

I knew someone would mention Harlan Ellison.  Ok, he’s been a manic jerk since the late 50’s-- in public.  But he was at least a funny manic jerk in his collection of essays on television, The Glass Teat And I don’t pass his stories up, because he writes seriously good stories.  “Pretty Maggie Money-Eyes” has to be on the best things ever written about gambling obsession.

However, I don’t have the same tolerance for people with less talent.  So if authors want to act out they should first get an objective evaluation of their writing ability. 

I would even quit snarking at LKH if she would just rewind to Obsidian Butterfly and before. 

Spam blocker:  lay91 “Anita, is that you?”

Does author behavior affect if I buy.

YOU BET YOUR BIPPY!

I want my story, I want it good, I want it clever, and I don’t want any damn drama.

That’s all!

I require a pattern of behavior, because I think everyone is a fuckwit occasionally. An error in judgment, a moment of temper not curbed or just a spurt of asshattery. This happens to all of us.

But if there is a pattern of nastiness, or unrelenting arrogance, it will color my appreciation for the work. I’ll have a difficult time getting past it and into the story.

And, yes, there are a spare handful of writers who fall into my WNR category.

But I also believe in redemption. People can change, learn from their mistakes and/or be sincerely sorry for them. There’s that.

Oh God. I’ve just read the book. It isn’t bad *at all*, but it certainly isn’t in the Jane Austen style.

I have a sneaking suspicion that the negative reviews have nothing to do with the quality of the book and everything to do with the fact that there’s sex in it.

Now some of the sex is stupid, such as the idea that you can go out in the middle of JANUARY in DERBYSHIRE and have sex, NAKED, OUTDOORS, without freezing to death. This is a sign that the writer a) lives in Texas or Louisiana or somewhere where winter is two weeks long (and where what is laughably called “winter” would be a very warm spring to anyone else) and b) the writer didn’t research the fact that Derbyshire is in north-central England and has about three months of winter, of which January is the coldest month. But for the most part it’s good.

Looking at the timing of the reviews as well, I notice that she’s getting huge numbers of them within very short time periods, as if the reviews were being directed by some outside influence other than the book’s release.

This all makes me wonder if the plethora of negative reviews is actually some kind of organized campaign by some anti-sex group (like the old Moral Majority) to give bad reviews to the book because it contained sex. In this context, I can see why the author would be furious, but on the other hand I don’t think responding to reviewers with such ferocity helped her.

If she suspected this was some kind of campaign, she might have been advised to respond to at least the shorter negative reviews with a simple, “This review appears to have been part of a campaign by an unknown group to negatively review books solely because they contain sexually explicit content.” If I saw that in a situation like this I’d ignore the reviews.

My husband teaches freshman composition and introduction to poetry.  His job is to criticize (constructively, of course).  Occasionally, an impressively immature student fires back with a resounding “OMG you are so mean, you just don’t understand my art, I will never write for you again, so there!”

When an author answers his/her criticism in similar form, it makes me think he or she is immature personally and as awriter; makes me think that I would probably take issue with his or her writing; makes me not want to pick up one of his/her books EVER.

As a final thought, IMO, some authors seem to be missing the positive power that bad reviews can have.  Personally, I often find bad reviws more helpful than good reviews. And, on more than one occasion, have been prompted to actually purchase a book based on interest generated by a bad review (for example, the Smart Bitches’ review of Claiming the Courtesan--how could I not read it after that review?).

Catherine J: <

I thought the same thing. Hard on the eyes to read too! I loved the ‘public urinal’ comment though. It was worth reading just for that.

Yes, author behavior affects my buying patterns.

I went to RWA last year for the big literacy signing.  I met 19 authors, and all but one were friendly toward a happily gushing fan.  One author was cold and had a ‘move along’ attitude.  I didn’t quit buying that author’s books altogether, but I did switch to buying her only in paperback and only at places like Target so I can get the discount.

As for the Berdoll book, I read it.  It’s not the greatest work of literature, and has too many secondary characters to keep track of and develop them all.  But I did enjoy parts of it, and liked that she gave Darcy and Elizabeth a passionate as well as loving marriage.  YMMV.

I’m intensely shy in person, so I can’t guarantee to never misbehave should I ever get to have a signing—but I’ve *been* that gushing fangirl too often myself. And it would be a slap in the face to all the poeple who were nice about my squeeing at them to turn around and be rude to someone who was squeeing at me.

Security word perform38. Not touching that with a bargepole…

Ugh, what a snob!  Unprofessional beyond belief.  I’ll be sure to never spend any money on her books!

There’s one online review site that hates me.  I mean, ABSOLUTELY HATES ME.  They keep reviewing my books and slamming every one.  I just don’t get it, but hey, it’s all publicity, right?  I could get all bent and tell my publishers not to send them books for review--and yes, they request every one of my new releases, oddly enough--but what’s the point?  It’s not like the books are hard to come by.  If they really want to slam my latest story, they’ll get the book themselves and slam it. 

When I google myself and find another “Deer Gawd that Amelia Elias is the absolute sewer-sludge anal dandruff of utter suckage” review from this site, I fire up the IM, buzz Cat Marsters, link her to it and we pick the hell out of it.  We dissect their grammar.  We mock their phrasing.  We insult their questionable intelligence and doubtful literacy.  We write fake scenes in which the main characters of whatever book they’ve slammed stalk and kill the reviewer in particularly brutal ways.  And then we attempt to rewrite the review a la Daisy Dexter Dobbs, and fantasize about publically posting this much-trimmed, now-glowing review all over the internet.

Written in the review’s blood, even.

What I don’t do is throw a public fit.  That’s just stupid.  Besides, after the reviewer’s been repeatedly slaughtered by the foulest forms of torture Cat’s and my minds can think up, I find that I feel much, much better anyway.  (What, me, violent?  Nevah...)

In the reviewer’s blood, even.  Not the review’s.  I’m not sure those actually bleed.

In our continuing Moments in Asshattery series (now on PBS):

There’s Michael Crichton, whose “global warming is a hoax” novel got reamed by one reviewer for its bad science.  Crichton got revenge on the reviewer by naming a character after him in his next novel--a character with a freakishly small penis, so that if the reviewer made a fuss it would just embarrass him more. 

IMO, Crichton ended up looking like more of a fool than the reviewer.  But maybe I’m biased, since I agreed with that review.

...."This all makes me wonder if the plethora of negative reviews is actually some kind of organized campaign by some anti-sex group (like the old Moral Majority) to give bad reviews to the book because it contained sex. In this context, I can see why the author would be furious, but on the other hand I don’t think responding to reviewers with such ferocity helped her.

If she suspected this was some kind of campaign, she might have been advised to respond to at least the shorter negative reviews with a simple, “This review appears to have been part of a campaign by an unknown group to negatively review books solely because they contain sexually explicit content.” If I saw that in a situation like this I’d ignore the reviews.”....

Speaking just for me and a few other of my friends who’ve read the book...um...no...this is NOT a conspiracy by right-wing wackos. This seems to be a book that you either like or hate. Everyone’s taste is different, and just because there’s such a disparity between those that like the book and those that dislike the book, it doesn’t mean that those that dislike the book (like me) are part of any big conspiracy.

I disliked the book because I felt the writing sucked, not because a member of the moral majority called me up and told me I should hate it. I felt the characters were portrayed badly. Again, because I, personally, feel that way. I am in no way against a good erotic sex scene...if I was, I probably wouldn’t be here on this site. I LOVE a good sex scene. None of Berdoll’s lived up to my expectation of what a good sex scene should be. Some were really pretty gross and just not sexy at all. (sorry, I felt that having Darcy wave around his bloody, menstruation-covered fingers triumphantly was just not “sexy.” Nor was his request, in another part of the book for Elizabeth not to bathe after an encounter just before they were to host a party so that he might walk around during the party and get his jollies thinking about how his semen would be running down her legs. I mean, ew.)

But because I, and many others on Amazon disliked the way Berdoll writes her sex scenes doesn’t mean there’s a big plot against her. It simply means some people don’t like the way she writes sex scenes.

Perhaps the “clumping” of reviews is simply due to the fact that the book was re-released a few times. The last release was when I picked it up. So, I assume that with every re-release, you’ll get a new crop of people reviewing your book, good or bad. Not because there’s a conspiracy.

If I saw her answering negative reviews with a theory that there was a plot against her, I’d think she was seriously nuts. Which would probably make me want to read her books even less.

Ewwwwwwwwww ew ew ew ewwwww ew EW!

~(sorry, I felt that having Darcy wave around his bloody, menstruation-covered fingers triumphantly was just not “sexy.” Nor was his request, in another part of the book for Elizabeth not to bathe after an encounter just before they were to host a party so that he might walk around during the party and get his jollies thinking about how his semen would be running down her legs. I mean, ew.)~

Seriously?? Seriously?? Darcy? Okay, any guy, but DARCY?

Well, we all imagine in our own way. But my imagination is letting out a big, screaming, eeeewwww-blech.

I must go find a box of Brillo pads and scrub this out of my mind now.

~(sorry, I felt that having Darcy wave around his bloody, menstruation-covered fingers triumphantly was just not “sexy.” Nor was his request, in another part of the book for Elizabeth not to bathe after an encounter just before they were to host a party so that he might walk around during the party and get his jollies thinking about how his semen would be running down her legs. I mean, ew.)~

OK, I read this paragraph way too fast and came away with an image of Darcy waving around his menstruation-covered fingers triumphantly at a party.

followed by…

Chapter Ten: Mr. Darcy’s Straitjacket

I can’t understand the supposed erotic appeal of the post-sex warm wet dribble.  This isn’t the first book I’ve either read or heard of it happening in.  Even in one of Kenyon’s Dark-Hunter books, the hero tells his woman, don’t clean up, I like the look of my seed on you.

What. The. FUCK.  That’s not sexy, that’s gross!

I mean, OH MY GOD.  The first time the post-humpty dribble happened to me, I almost puked.  Why does no one ever tell their girlfriends that’s gonna happen?  Was I just completely naive not to assume it?  I can’t be the only girl who didn’t watch porn.  Jesus, someone should’ve taken me aside and told me that condoms are your friend for many reasons, and top among them is the prevention of hot spooge running down your ass-crack.

... Hmm.  I might’ve just over-shared.

I have no problem with warm wet dribble. (It’s intimate, it’s slippery, it cools the sheets on a warm night.) But I have a problem with Mr Darcy saying that.

I had a mixed reaction to the Berdoll book. As a book in the style of Jane Austen it’s terrible. As a smut read it’s on the squicky side (not just the menstrual juiciness either). Overall the writing was OK, not the best but it had interesting characters… though it was weird and wrong that they shared the names of Austen characters. None of whom they resembled. At all.

I decided not to write an Amazon review. It would be too easy to sound like an uptight “that’s not Austen!” or a judgmental “ew! sex!” review. Both of those have already been said, many times. I think it’s an OK book. It would be a better book (though likely less popular/controversial) if Berdoll had tossed the Austen theme and let her characters stand on their own.

<< Nor was his request, in another part of the book for Elizabeth not to bathe after an encounter just before they were to host a party so that he might walk around during the party and get his jollies thinking about how his semen would be running down her legs. I mean, ew.)>>

Eww eww eww ewww

Darcy? C’mon. That would NOT turn me on. Yuck! Know your audience!!!

Now I just watched Jane Eyre (2006) DVD and there is a part where Rochester does his best to tempt Jane to stay. Can I say that I would not have left, if he did that to me!! Now that’s sexy.

If I’d read an excerpt from the book in question, which I should’ve done before lipping off, I’d know exactly where I fell on this issue. 

I couldn’t care less what’s dribbling down whose leg under what circumstances...as long as the story is cohesive and engaging, the use of language is masterful, and the characters are sensibly developed.  Flat or overwrought or club-to-the-knee prose turns me off faster than a diva can say, “Fuck you if you don’t adore me.”

I’ve managed to persist in reading (and end up admiring) some truly bizarro fiction--from Faulkner to Barbara Vine and even H. P. Lovecraft...and earlier...and later--in large part because certain writers, no matter how “squicky” the subject matter, know their way around the language and can even be stylistically enchanting.  Regardless of how plump with promise the kernel of a story might be, if it feels insipid and is rendered the way Quasimodo would dance a quadrille, it’s chicken scratch.  (Should I add some dumbass shorthand like IMHO?  No.)

So now I suppose I’d better read me a bit of this Austenesque romp and decide for myself if it’s merde or magic.

..."Darcy? C’mon. That would NOT turn me on. Yuck! Know your audience!!!”

Exactly. And I think that’s one of the reasons why the book is getting such scathing reviews from some people. Not because there’s some kind of “moral majority” plot against books with sex in them, but because often Austen readers are different than those who read erotica. Many of them expect that if it’s an Austen themed book, it will read much like Austen. It didn’t. And while some people were ok with that, some weren’t.

Given that, I have to say I can understand why some were so shocked, and reviewed it so badly. It’s a book that looked like an Austen book but was in fact totally different from the style they like and were expecting.

Having said that, I think the author should have some understanding of why the book just didn’t do it for some people, and react to those reviews accordingly. She’s said before that she knew what she was writing would be a big departure from typical Austen writing, so why get so uptight when people complain about that very thing?

It would be like me writing a “fan fic” type book...say a sequel to the “In Death” series (had to use that as an example as a small tribute to Nora) then putting no Eve & Roarke sex at all in it. Or..have them get a divorce or something. I’d expect people would give me some seriously bad reviews.

Which is why I would never attempt it. Ever.

OMG, my head hurts reading her responses. First I will answer as an author and say, suck it up. Not everyone is going to like you. I have had some horrible reviews, one complained I had too much plot, but that is their opinion and if you are going to stick it out there, you have to accept those comments. Any kind of mention of your book, good or bad, is still publicity for you. The thing authors shouldn’t do is act unprofessionally in public, and AMAZON is public. I think some people are confused about the Internet. Yes you can scrub some sites, but once it is there, snippets are emailed, and sometimes people will save a screen shot. I have also been appalled on private publisher/author loops, where authors plead for people to write to amazon on their behalf and get reviews removed. There are some who post with malice, but what are you going to do? And just because someone bought your book and hated it, well, there isn’t much you can do about it other than be bigger than they are. And one thing I have done on some private blogs is offer a free copy of one of my books for review if they did not like the first one(they usually pick my first contracted work to review which after 20 short stories, novellas and novels, I have MUCH improved, lol). Since the private bloggers many times buy the book, at least they are offered a free one, although they may hate that one too, ha.
As a reader(and I have the over 500 paperbacks and hardbacks to prove it and an ever expanding ebook collection), there are people I will NEVER buy again because the way they behaved in public and especially toward readers. Geez, I do not understand biting the hand that feeds you. In fact there is one in particular I LOVE that I will not because of the big RWA blowup a couple years ago. It kills me, but I cannot abide people lying and she did a lot of it during that mess. Truthfully, if you want to write popular fiction, you are going to be in the spotlight a lot, and you just have to accept you have a public personality and a private one. As Amelia said, go off in private with a friend bitch to your heart’s content, that is acceptable, but attacking people is not the way to go.
As everyone said, it looks like the woman did not understand the market and Austen readers are particular about their books. I love Austen but I doubt I would pick up this book based on the fact I HATE when other authors use other people’s characters.

[...] certain writers, no matter how “squicky” the subject matter, know their way around the language and can even be stylistically enchanting.

I may get laughed at, but I feel this way about some of Stephen King’s work.  Yes, his descriptions of horrific things are, well, horrific, but I can become lost in them.  Not only do you “see” the evil monster grab the unfortunate victim, you smell its breath.  You see the texture of its skin and feel its clammy grip.  When the victim draws in a breath to scream, you, the reader, taste the fetid air. 

Maybe King’s not the world’s best at description; I’m not going to hazard a guess on that because others are so much more widely read than I am and I’m not into the who’s-best game.  (Clearly, I’m best.  Duh.) But his books were the first ones that really clued me in to using all the senses, and did so in such a vivid way that I had nightmares for weeks. 

May I someday write such powerful, unforgetable descriptions!

Ugh.  After reading some of these comments that talk about Darcy waving his menstruation-covered fingers around triumphantly, I’ll pass for sure.  I wouldn’t buy her work anyway.  It’s fanfiction of a work that is now in public domain, nothing more.  There is plenty of FREE, much better written P&P fanfic out there for reader consumption.

As for responding to a bad review?  Don’t.  There are times when silence is golden.  This is one of them.  It’s a natural human reaction to defend yourself and defend your work.  But, a person’s reading taste, what turns them on or turns them off, is very subjective and not something really up for debate.  That, and I’ve yet to see an author who confronts a reviewer over a negative reviewer come out looking anything but silly, hysterical or suffering from sour grapes.

My buying habits for authors behaving badly?  Depends on the author and their work.  I keep in mind a friend’s comment.  She loved the work of a particular author.  The author was an auto-buy for her.  Then my friend witnessed a nasty flame war on a site or blog, where the author was hip deep in it and making a complete ass of herself.  My friend said that was the moment she went from horrified fan to empowered consumer.  She hasn’t bought anything from that author again. 

This is a business that has adapted to the increasingly small space made by the Internet.  The product’s selling power is very much affected by presentation.  That can be from the book cover and back blurb to the author’s public behavior.

To quote another poster here, I’m not the behavior police, but I will be more reluctant to put money in the pocket of an asshat author.  I’d much rather spend it on an author who may write as well but understands what professional demeanor is.