Their one-star bombs were nasty and relentless?landing at a rate of five a day. My characters were undeveloped, my structure sloppy, my prose trite. There were complaints of money and time wasted and of friends never again to be trusted. Some hated the book so much they were forced to put it down. One argued that Christopher was, in fact, “too dull to hate.” And each review was headlined in bold capital letters?things like “SUCH A DISAPPOINTMENT” and “YAWN!” And, to make matters worse, above each bad review was a landslide of endorsements: “18 of 18 people found the following review helpful.” And above the old, positive reviews the numbers had changed overnight: “20 of 68 people found the following review helpful.” Within a few days Christopher’s review average had fallen to a mediocre three stars. —Allison Burnett —I Was Stalked on Amazon.com (Media Bistro)
It sure looks like one nasty person sank the sales of a book that 20 other people thought was five-star good. But sending out e-mail to 200 people to log onto Amazon.com and correct an opinion that you don’t agree with is a bit risky. Why not be content that 20 out of 21 reviews were glowing? And who really has 200 friends? Apparently about 198 of them treated the request as Spam.
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Allyson, thanks for the clarification. I've often been stung online when something I wrote with tongue firmly planted in cheek was taken seriously.
I wrote the Amazon piece. The "200 closest friends" was meant to be funny, facetious. I actually just sent it to some friends, because it was the first bad review of any kind the book had received -- including the mainstream press. I did not tell them to click unhelpful. A few bothered to go to the site and click unhelpful. And that triggered the nightmare that followed. If only I had known.... If you read the book, please write to me and give me your review.