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| Courtesy: zcool.com.cn |
How would you react if you received an email from an author whose book you recently reviewed?- Be curious? Wonder to no end why s/he would be writing to you?
What would you think if the author proclaimed that strangers have taken out a vendetta and given low reviews to the book?
What if s/he went a step further to declare the reviews as malicious and the reviewers (Btw whom s/he doesn't even know) are evil enough to force people to mark their reviews as useful thus bringing down the overall rating?
What would you say if the author now requested you to negate those low reviews (by marking them as unhelpful) so the book would only have raving reviews showing up at the top?
Each reader is entitled to their own opinion or so I thought till this mail came in… The book lover in me is unable to digest and believe that “doctoring” of ratings is possible. Disheartened, I cringe as I write this…as words betray me I choose to ignore the mail…
What would you do?
Oh dear god! Whose book was that and what review?
ReplyDeleteIt's quite unfortunate and immature of the author to behave like this.
V- I had left a decent review and hence was asked to negate the ones which were low. A debutante author, check my good reads reviews and you will know
ReplyDeleteHad you given a bad review?
ReplyDeleteHey its your opinion, and well you dragged the author in it simply cos the book was reviewed.
If you enjoy a duel of words, then you could go ahead and provide a response, else just enjoy that your review was noticed.
Had i not written a decent review the author wouldnt have mailed me.The premise of this post is more to think about the doctoring done of ratings, that it does happen.
ReplyDeleteThanks Phoenix for stopping by. :-)
What we write as review is up to us. A book's author/publisher or movie's director/producer may not agree with our view.
ReplyDeleteDoctoring is prevalent everywhere- starting from daily conversations to facts presented...in all fields!
The author might be spending more time marketing than focusing on his/her work...
ReplyDelete@Anita- very true. I know it is prevalent but I guess it hurts more when you see it happening with something you love.. books in this case :)
ReplyDelete@ Wooster- probably, lets just hope we do not see too many of those around :)
That leaves me thinking, I have agreed to do some reviews for authors.
ReplyDeleteHmmm... i will choose to ignore the mail.
@Indrani- somebody requesting a review and we providing those is perfectly normal... when an Author requests you to negate a low review the book has got.. that I find hard to go with..:|
ReplyDeleteIgnore the email, shouldn't the author focus on improving the quality of the his/her future works rather than asking you to do negate bad reviews.
ReplyDeleteJust wondering or maybe the author does not plan to write any more books.
@ Swats- hehehe.. or probably this attempt to bump up his ratings is in the hope that oblivious readers will gobble down his next book just going by the previous one's rating ;-)
ReplyDeleteNo author should ever reply to a reviewer, unless it is a simple thankyou note.
ReplyDeleteThis author's behavior is absolutely unprofessional.
@Damyanti- I couldnt agree more
ReplyDeleteNo surprise. This happens all the time, and in every industry. Bad food is reviewed as different and good, case studies are made out of failed projects, celebrities promote fashion that strains your eyes. I think the person knows for themselves if its good or bad, but they would not want a third party to influence a fourth party.
ReplyDeleteoh my god, even you have put approval on your blog ... gives you the ability to disapprove negative posts .... ironic :)
ReplyDeleteKartik- loved your case study example! ;-) And the point about moderating comments as well :P
ReplyDeleteWell, the reason I do it is explained in my post about Facebook.. invading privacy- I come across a lot of nosy individuals who post irrelevant/personal things on my posts...anything relevant (positive or negative) gets published :)
Precisely the reason, I don't review books. People want not reviews but 'Good Reviews' and I can't lie. I think ignoring the mail is the best option.
ReplyDelete@saru, thankfully the more renowned authors don't stoop this low, it's the newbies that I have seen this problem with.
ReplyDeleteI liked your blog. I have nominated you for the Liebster award. Here is the link: http://sajeevkmenon.wordpress.com/2013/10/12/liebster-award/
ReplyDelete