It began when I commented on one of her post that it wasn't worth it for me as a writer to have my books show up on sites like Goodreads and Amazon because such sites aren't obligated to uphold the very guidelines they set for posting "reviews" and leaving comments. Authors are openly bashed to the point where they go off and set up private groups which is fine until one considers that no author has a choice about whether they end up on these sites. The second an ISBN goes on a book, an author is open prey.
Ms. Rice's response on her Fan Page on Facebook directed to me:
--- I hear you. There is a lot of hatred and hate negative review campaigning on sites like Amazon where people use authors as punching bags. It is quite horrible. But I do think we are doing something positive here on this page, and by posting articles about books that are responsible and informative I am fighting back against the darkness of the internet. Maybe we should discuss a little more the kind of libelous hate that swirls out there and what we can do about it.
She added in another comment directed toward me that
"--- . . . I've put up with campaign reviewers on Amazon for years who treat me like a video game. It's nonsense really all the garbage these people spew. And I can imagine how these kinds of people hurt other authors. So let's talk about it a bit. Let's see if we can generate some interest. I'm pondering how to do it. I might publish some "negative" reviews of my books from Amazon and open the topic. . ."
Ms. Rice's suggested some steps that could immediately improve the site[Amazon] such as (in her own words)
"make reviews carry not only "a real name" but an email. Nobody should be able to "strike" on the web without an email to hear a response. Most of the really hateful and ugly and unfair reviews I see are by "anonymous" people or people with made up names and profiles. So again, first make it "real name" situation and make an email part of it. That might be hard to police but Amazon could do it. If you aren't willing to use your own name and your own email (the email through which Amazon contacts you, etc.) then you don't get to post a review, or post in the viewer discussions."
But Amazon is a retailer and it seems like other retailers, they "skimp" on the capital it takes to create a system to protect authors from the "hate negative review campaigning" that takes place. Their primary interest is of course, their readers. No retail site that encourages "anyone" to leave reviews is willing to monitor such things or to "police" policies already in place or so it seems. An author should therefore suit up in their thickest armor and wait for the inevitable.
One solution for an author, to keep from showing up on such sites to begin with, is to not assign an ISBN to their work. They could simply sell their books through their publisher's site or a site of their making. Of course, large bookstores won't carry a book with no ISBN but then they won't carry any publisher's books or self-published book unless one plays by the "hang-by-the-neck-until-dead-industry-standard-non-industry-standard-return-policy" game.
You may find these comments and more on Anne Rice's Fan Page on Facebook, one of the few, if not only, large published authors/legends who actually takes the time to talk with her fans--personally. Love me some Anne Rice.
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