If there are two hundred people in a room and one of them doesn’t like me, I’ve got to get out.
—Marlon Brando
I must admit, I always cringe a little whenever I’m listening to a podcast and hear an actor or director or comedian say, “I’m writing a book.”
I want to scream, “No! There are too many books already. Leave the books to the authors.” But I understand the impetus.
Why does anyone want to write a book? Why did early man write on the walls of caves? It’s not only the compulsion to tell stories. It’s also a recognition of mortality, an acknowledgment that we’d like someone to know that we were here even after we’re long gone.
Unfortunately, as readers here may already know, anyone can leave a nasty review on Amazon—whether or not they’ve read the book (or consumed the product) in question. And guess what? I’ve gotten two, count ’em, one-star reviews from people who absolutely did not read those books.
How would I know they didn’t read them? You may ask, and I shall explain. You see, I’m the publisher as well as the author, and I didn’t sell any copies of those books via Amazon during the months in question. Also, these one-star reviews appeared shortly after the “reviewers” had disagreements with me on social media platforms. They were both petty and vindictive enough to almost immediately look me up on Amazon and post their B.S.
Now, did I lose sleep over these comments dragging my overall ratings down? No. However, unfortunately for me, I have a good enough memory that even today I still recall much of the verbiage of these so-called reviews. One person even went back to revise and expand their panning of the book they hadn’t read. Good times!
Thankfully, I have plenty of other, wonderful reviews from wonderful people. Would I have been better off not reading any of my reviews, and thus knowing nothing of these revenge reviews? It’s possible. Think it over.
