More on Bad Reviews

A comment on my post Reviews, Sales and Marketing got me thinking a bit more about bad reviews.  While lousy feedback can  be based on people’s honest opinions,  there’s the potential for another ugly problem: Internet trolls.

According to Wikipedia, an Internet troll “is a person who sows discord on the Internet by starting arguments or upsetting people.”  I’ve seen them firsthand, and sometimes they can be pretty scary.

In response to yesterday’s post, Melanie wrote:

I often see authors who get bad reviews go into a whirlwind of depression. They don’t realize that a bit of “controversy” and dissension about their book can actually fuel sales.

Fifty Shades of Grey has loads of 5-star reviews and loads of dissenting votes … this serves to keep the conversation open and actually gets people “curious” and therefore “buying.”

Of course, if ALL you have is 1-stars, you are in trouble!

My first reaction was to agree with Melanie.  Sure, an author who has only garnered one- and two-star reviews must be pretty bad.  But then, I remembered the tale of Tom Lucas, who was discovered by a group of trolls on Goodreads.

While it’s easy to say that this is an isolated incident that happened to just one guy, I can say with certainty that there are people out there who make it their mission in life to hurt others online.  If you do a Google search for the keywords bad review trolls, you’ll find a lot of stuff.  Here are just a few examples:

• On Trolls and Fake Bad Reviews – Victoria Strauss
• This Man has Written 276 Negative Amazon Reviews – Death and Taxes
• Am I Being Catfished? – The Guardian

I personally know people who have been the target of trolls.  I’ve known bloggers who were active for years who quit writing and killed their blogs because the harassment got to be too much.  I even have my own alarming tale from a few years back.  It resulted in a change of address for my family, the installation of a home security system, and calls to local law enforcement and the FBI.

Yes, it was that scary.

Now the point of today’s post isn’t to carry on about online creeps.  They are a fact of life, and there’s not much one can do to stop them.  The real point I’m trying to make is this: bad reviews are not necessarily an accurate reflection of the book being criticized.

With this in mind, I have a couple of pieces of advice:

For readers — When you look at the Amazon reviews for a title, look at the reviews tagged as “most helpful.”  Take a look at the positive and the negative.  You’ll be able to tell whether the negative remarks are based on real criticism, or are basic bad-mouthing.

For authors — As hard as it is, don’t take the content of reviews personally, good or bad.  Sure, I know how easy it is to ride that emotional rollercoaster once the feedback starts coming.  It’s best if you close your eyes and ignore the crazy.  Instead, get a trusted friend or advisor to tell you about the comments that you need to hear, and let everything else slide.

And finally?  Never, ever respond to a troll.  Let ’em rant.  If you don’t engage, eventually they’ll get bored and find someone else.