Review the Reviewer 3

The Thrill Has Gone

Hi Folks

I've had a bad week on Kindle. A couple of recent posts regarding 'Memoirs of a Vending Machine' had lifted my spirits recently. But the last one... I had asked readers to hold off a little on negative reviews as there were more than enough posted to go around. So... little miss stick-the-knife-in-a-little-further-and-twist-it decides to ping me with a one star rating and a super negative review intended to really kick me in the teeth rather than critique what she had read. This follows an email I sent to Kindle regarding the electronic merry-go-round of quotes from reviews that give snippets of what reviewers have to say. None of the positive reviews was represented so I asked Kindle about this. The email reply explained that the negative reviews were randomly selected electronically and none of them broke the terms of the agreements that Kindle had in place. Great, so you actively discourage readers from buying a cheap read denying your company a cut of the fee, cutting the author out completely. 

Don't get me wrong, I have taken the criticisms on board and have edited, re-written and commissioned a copy edit to address the concerns. The problem is that the initial negative reviews are unable to represent changes and stay there, discouraging readers. It's a self destruct cycle so matter what you do, the reviewers feel that they have a license to 'bag you out' and see an opportunity to hone their  savage instincts by practicing their negative review techniques on an unsuspecting author no matter what is done to right the wrongs an inexperienced writer may make. 

My advice - stick with smashwords it's a much more enlightened and encouraging forum.

I can't say my experience with Kindle has been a positive one and I have had enough - the thrill has gone and I no longer am enjoying participating on their forum. I have unpublished and will soon un-publish the others. Memoirs is now available for free on smashwords and there I will leave things for a while until a time comes when I feel creative and positive again. Having had the guts kicked out of my ego completely, this may take a while. I am still working on another book - the band story - and will post this when I finish it.

By for now

Beerubaraoyaji