Abusive Reviews

All right, so, every few months or so I gather my courage & strength, I dive into Amazon.com, Nook, Smashwords, and GoodReads to check my reviews. Admittedly, when I first started out on this road I was checking them nearly every day. Then I realized things don’t change every day and psyching myself that way probably wasn’t good for me. I also learned to gracefully take the good with the bad. Sometimes a ‘bad review’ has very good points. Not as a general rule, of course, but occasionally it does happen. As a General Rule they’re full of drivel, spite, crap, and idiocy.

So, I went over to Amazon.com today mostly to check and see if “The Heart of War” has been taken off this unsanctioned “sale” yet…it has not. I have no idea why they lowered the price when I have kept to their rules for ‘Kindle Select’ and “Heart” is NOT available anywhere else for a lower price or…any price at all.

**Side Note–I will NEVER enroll ANY book of mine in the ‘Kindle Select Program’ again until the damn gets a good overhaul. The first month was a great experience but after that it’s been absolute crap.**

OK, so while checking that I noticed the number of reviews for “Heart” had gone up. Thankfully the little star rating hadn’t gone down, or at least not considerably. BUT I was treated to a few “gems”. Most notably, this one:

1.0 out of 5 stars WARNING to non-Kindle users: contains DRM, May 6, 2012
By Aarann K “A.K.” (Oklahoma City, Oklahoma United States) – See all my reviews
Amazon Verified Purchase(What’s this?)
This review is from: The Heart of War (Kindle Edition)
I actually can’t review this book because I can’t read it. I don’t own a Kindle or a smart phone and I refuse to read a whole book on my computer. I do own an e-Reader from another manufacturer, and usually I can use a program to convert the book to a format I can put on my e-Reader. Unfortunately, as seems to be happening more and more on Amazon (this has now happened 3 times in a row), this book has DRM, which blocks the conversion, ostensibly to prevent piracy, but I think it is more to convince frustrated people like me to purchase Kindles. Sad as it makes me because there are many books I can’t get anywhere else, this will be the last e-book I purchase on Amazon. I’m a legitimate purchaser – I don’t buy or steal books – and I shouldn’t be punished for something that doesn’t really prevent piracy in the first place.

Done reading? Good. Explain…what does this have to do with MY book? Anything? Anything at all?

This person emailed me over this issue and I wrote back explaining to them that the book was a ‘Kindle Select’ until 6/5. If they had problems reading it they could: Buy a Kindle, download a FREE Kindle App, or (Heaven forbid!) buy a paperback, the price is reduced until 6/5. They never answered me. If you go over and check out all 3 of their ‘reviews’ you’ll notice, for some inexplicable reason, I am the only one they picked on in this manner.

Really, is it MY fault that this person is so damn dumb they can’t download a FREE APP to read the book they (supposedly) paid for? I think not. I reported it as “abuse” and hope to see it taken down in the near future.

And here’s another one. I did NOT report this one but I did leave a comment.

2.0 out of 5 stars Not really what I expected., April 11, 2012
By
This Mama Loves Books – See all my reviews
Amazon Verified Purchase(What’s this?)
This review is from: The Heart of War (Kindle Edition)
I dont like to leave bad reviews and I usually try to keep reading a book I dont care for, just to see if maybe it will change, pick up pace or get better. I have read many books of all different genres with an open mind, but I finally had to stop reading because of the over the top and graphic sex! It made me more than uncomfortable.

They don’t like leaving bad reviews, yet they opted to. They don’t like leaving bad reviews yet they’ve only left 2 reviews on Amazon to begin with.

The above is extremely typical of the type of ‘bad review’ I receive.

My reply to them was simple and public: It does come with a warning in bold type reading it before the book might have been a good idea.

Do you think that’s fair?

Do people even READ the blurb at all?

The blurb for “Heart” on Amazon/Kindle has ALWAYS begun:

Product Description
WARNING: This novel is intended for Adults Only. It is NOT recommended for the faint of heart. This novel contains several scenes of graphic sex and violence.

Yes, it is BOLD type. How can you miss it? If you do or if you think I’m just bullshitting you, how can you turn around and leave a bad review based on what you were warned about before you ever even read the damn thing!

I’m telling you people are stupid, rude, petty, and downright full of themselves along with a heavy dose of shit.

Getting bad reviews is part and parcel of the game and I have to take my knocks along with my accolades, that’s fine with me. I’ll take knocks for things I DID, not for things I DID NOT do. I’ll take my knocks for “bad writing” but NOT for others’ stupidity and inability to read a BLURB. How do they expect to read/enjoy/comprehend a book…any book…if they can’t do the same for the lousy blurb?