I just recently read a blog post about reviewer comments to a novel on the Amazon.com website. Apparently an author felt a reader's review was mean-spirited and had Amazon take down the review. I gather the reader really didn't enjoy the book. If that's all it takes to be considered mean-spirited than the movie critics shouldn't even have jobs. Come on people. Not everyone is going to enjoy everything you do. I mean scroll down my blog to my favorites movies and check out my "Garfield" spot. A lot of people thought that movie stunk, but as I said I personally loved it. In the end it all comes down to taste and asking someone to pull a review because of that is to me a form of censorship.
People should have the right to say what they think of what you have done. As long as they are not insulting you as a person or using vulgar language, they should have the riht to express themselves. One of my favorite authors, Mary Janice Davidson does a great vampire series. Her "Undead" series. I love this series but I have to admit that her third book in the series disappointed me. Did I stop reading because of that? NOOOOO. I just won't reread that particular book. But I know from reviews a lot of people did like that book in the series. It all comes down to personal taste.
So stop crying in your notebooks authors. You are never going to make every single reader happy. That's unrealistic. Be thankful for those who do love what you wrote and just shrug offf the critics. And for heaven's sake, don't have their reviews dropped just because they didn't like what you wrote. Get a backbone people.
3 comments:
Hi Kathy! We really enjoyed Garfield--at least, the parts with the animals. Bill Murray is always awesome, and that dog was amazing.
I don't think customer reviews should be pulled unless they attack the writer personally or if the review gives away a major spoiler, which are both against Amazon's rules. Unfortunately, sometimes bad reviews are a sign you need to write a better book. I think customers are pretty savvy about which reviews should be taken seriously, just by the way they're written. Are they specific about what they liked or didn't like, or are they simply trashing or gushing over the book?
From what I've seen of others' opinions, I think you're in the main line of thought regarding the third MJD book. I, however, thought it was better than #2, which was a disappointment after #1. I liked the darker stuff in #3 with the Book of the Dead and Betsy finally acting like a bad girl for at least a little while. However, I didn't pay the hardcover price for it: I got it from the library.
Hey my first comment. How cool.:-) As for the Undead's, yeah the first was awesome. But I really liked the last one, Undead and Unreturnable. It was nice to see Eric getting into trouble for a change. It's usually Betsy who's up to her ears in mayhem.:-)
I did buy the hardcopy of the third book. While I won't re-read it I will keep it because I can say I have the whole collection when she's done.:-) I do the same with the Luna books. I have every single one that is out so far. I also belong to the Luna book club so I get it the first of each month. But only one. If they release 2 books in a single month I have to wait to see which of the 2 Luna sends me then buy the other one outright. I am MAJORLY looking forward to yours Jeri.
P.S. Garfield 2 comes out this summer. It's called "Garfield A Tale Of Two Kitties" and has Garfield travel to England where he gets mistaken for a royal cat. Looks great.
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