Authors shitting themselves over negative reviews

[lindsayfan]

Is there enough interest in this subject to justify a thread? I suppose only Time Will Tell.

One of my favorite online spectacles is watching hack authors shit themselves because someone criticized their books. As with most forms of internet criticism, the only way to "win" is not to engage, but many writers, especially ones who are dumb, can't resist going in guns blazing on people who dare to criticize their output.

I submit as an example Dylan Saccoccio, who self-publishes generically unreadable fantasy novels. Alas for Dylan, someone tried to actually read one of his books, and shared her opinion on GoodReads, calling the tome "unnecessarily wordy and pretentious." Dylan fired back with with great vengeance and furious anger, was consequently heavily gangstalked by other GoodReads nabobs, and a whole 500-plus-post shitstorm ensued in which Dylan angrily and haughtily dug himself into a deeper and deeper hole while scaling the loftiest possible heights of unwarranted self-importance.

Watching an arrogant person self-destruct can be very satisfying. Dylan has since deleted many of his posts but some can be seen here: http://archive.is/rFgtE

Spoiler: Samples of Dylan Saccoccio shitting himself

[GALLERY=media, 311]Tale-of-onononononora by lindsayfan posted Jun 8, 2015 at 1:22 AM[/GALLERY]

"There is an assault on my work by Cait S and since this began her cohorts have left a string of other ratings to drop my book's rating on Goodreads even more. And as my work is being assaulted, and now me, you are allowing it to happen, and could not care less. You are condoning it. Just like all of the other evil in this world."

My sincere condonences to any readers previously unaware they were responsible for all the evil in the world. Now you know.

 

[Some JERK]

Oh man, I've seen this exact thing happen on Amazon. There's one author who sticks out in my mind. Matthew Bracken wrote some masturbatory tea-party anti-government fiction about how the gun owning public rises up and starts murdering ATF agents or some shit. (I don't know all the details since I pretty much stopped reading it after page 20.)

The interesting thing isn't that he wrote such delusional fiction where the gun owning public are patriotic saints and the ATF agents are freedom-hating, caricature villains. What's interesting is that he personally attacks anyone who deigns to give his book a negative review (most of his attacks are deleted by now), despite the fact that it still has 4.5 stars overall on Amazon. Which makes sense, since most people who even pick this book up are probably already sympathetic to the authors views.

Some gems from the author where he spergs about The Obama administration and his lack of respect for anyone who reviews books on amazon because it's not as hard as writing shitty books:

Spoiler

I'd like to add for the record that this review was posted during a 4-day Kindle free run, when thousands of bed-wetting, government-adoring hoplophobic liberals downloaded EFAD for free, and were probably shocked and horrified to discover that folks who support the 2nd amendment are the good guys, and a small group of rogue ATF agents are the villains. Sourosh probably never heard of Operation Fast and Furious, where Obama and AG Holder deliberately sent thousands of semi-automatic rifles directly to the Mexican drug cartels, leading to the murders of hundreds of innocent Mexicans, in order to trash and smear American gun rights. Obama called this "gun control under the radar" in a conversation with Sarah Brady while Operation Fast and Furious was still ongoing in secret.

Patricia, I'm sorry that you don't like most long books. I'm pretty sure that if it wasn't a free Kindle download, you would never pick up such a long book from a shelf. Yes, my novels are political, that's my point in writing them. It would be a lot easier to write down-the-middle genre thrillers, and not ruffle the feathers of liberals, but I believe our nation's freedom is in peril, so I try to make political points in order to affect the ongoing debate. So if your basic setting is to the left, you might object. In that context, I do understand your one-star review. I just want to make sure that other readers put your review into the context of a political slam, and not a legitimate literary critique. "You went way off course as a fiction writer and went into pontificating." Well, sorry, my novels DO have a political purpose. And yes, it's still America and we are entitled to our opinions. You have posted your political opinion about my novel, (without being honest enough to come out directly and admit it plainly), and I am entitled to point out to other readers that your review was political, and not literary. In my opinion, which I also have the right to express. And also for the record, when I see compulsive reviewers, with 100s of very shallow reviews, many for books they did not finish, then I consider them to be reviewers as a hobby. "Look at me! I'm an Amazon top reviewer!" Wow, Patricia! That's really hard! Now, let's see you write a full-length novel on any subject, and have over 100,000 people read it. Then I'll have some respect for your opinions.

 

[Meeko]

I came on here to post about this guy as well. I'd say that he's just fucking with people but well... there are entire threads devoted to stuff like this.

 

[ChurchOfGodBear]

How the hell do people manage to reach adulthood thinking that they can do something in public and never get negative reactions? Isn't one of the first lessons kids learn in life "You can't please everyone?"

Yeah, you released your work on a website that's reachable to over five billion people... but not a single one of them is going to dislike it. Okay.

 

[Meeko]

I remember there was a group called Stop The Goodreads Bullies that used to shit themselves whenever an author did this, since they'd quickly try to defend whatever the author said or did. Regardless of what the author said or did.

In one case there was an author by the name of Caroll Bryant that went crazy because he sent copies of his books out to various blogs and didn't receive any reviews from them. He threatened to create a list of said blogs and named a few of them, only for several of them to come forward and say that they'd never interacted with him. Essentially he made the list up. Then it came out that he'd been having a LDR with a 14/15 year old in Mexico and got her pregnant and made her get an abortion or something to that effect. I think he even told her to go kill herself, although I'll admit that I don't remember all of what was going on. STGRB defended him throughout all of this, which was pretty unbelievable.

Apparently they also claim that Wikipedia was denouncing Goodreads, which is hilarious since the page was pretty obviously edited by people aligned with STGRB.

 

[ChurchOfGodBear]

I remember there was a group called Stop The Goodreads Bullies that used to shit themselves whenever an author did this, since they'd quickly try to defend whatever the author said or did. Regardless of what the author said or did.

In one case there was an author by the name of Caroll Bryant that went crazy because he sent copies of his books out to various blogs and didn't receive any reviews from them. He threatened to create a list of said blogs and named a few of them, only for several of them to come forward and say that they'd never interacted with him. Essentially he made the list up. Then it came out that he'd been having a LDR with a 14/15 year old in Mexico and got her pregnant and made her get an abortion or something to that effect. I think he even told her to go kill herself, although I'll admit that I don't remember all of what was going on. STGRB defended him throughout all of this, which was pretty unbelievable.

Apparently they also claim that Wikipedia was denouncing Goodreads, which is hilarious since the page was pretty obviously edited by people aligned with STGRB.

I think a lot of people hear "controversy breeds sales" and "there's no such thing as bad publicity" and just hit the gas.

 

[Dudeofteenage]

Oh man, I've seen this exact thing happen on Amazon. There's one author who sticks out in my mind. Matthew Bracken wrote some masturbatory tea-party anti-government fiction about how the gun owning public rises up and starts murdering ATF agents or some shit.

I like how he defends the legitimacy of writing books with political goals, but then says that political criticisms of his books are illegitimate.

 

[Meeko]

I think a lot of people hear "controversy breeds sales" and "there's no such thing as bad publicity" and just hit the gas.

I can only figure that maybe the Saccoccio guy figured that this would increase sales for his books.

Is it terrible that I want to see him write a book with that Maradonia girl? The smug level of that book would be astronomical.

 

[shinimasu]

Good old robert Stanek is a well documented case in addition to being a sockpuppeting fanatic.

http://conjugalfelicity.com/robert-stanek/

I keep hearing things about Ann Rice having chimped out in the past over negative reviews. I do know she didn't like the idea of fanfiction.

http://www.themarysue.com/anne-rice-poor-review/

 

[DuskEngine]

Oh man that author description.

Dylan Saccoccio grew up in Boston, MA and Providence, Rhode Island before moving to Manhattan at eighteen years old to pursue his career as an actor. He grew up playing every sport, fishing, sailing, and breaking rules. He's been writing for as long as he's been acting, and playing guitar for twelve years in the style of John Frusciante and Jimi Hendrix. He moved to Los Angeles at twenty years old temporarily before moving there permanently the following year. In his never-ending journey to attain his highest and best self, he explored many different avenues. The 2008 crash jolted him to awaken from the American Nightmare of being a gangster for capitalism. Among the many screenplays he wrote, his magnum opus is The Tale of Onora, a series that is a metaphorical tale of his life. For every thousand people hacking at the branches of evil, only one is hacking at the root of it. In The Boy and the Peddler of Death, every conscious solution to today's collectivist problems is blended into a fantasy tale that tells the story of us all, for there is no great story that did not dance with the truth.

So many red flags, so obviously self-written.

 

[ln18]

Then it came out that he'd been having a LDR with a 14/15 year old in Mexico and got her pregnant and made her get an abortion or something to that effect. I think he even told her to go kill herself, although I'll admit that I don't remember all of what was going on. STGRB defended him throughout all of this, which was pretty unbelievable.

DAMN DIRTY JBs!

 

[AnOminous]

Oh man that author description.



So many red flags, so obviously self-written.

Holy shit. I've seen better descriptions of edgy Mary Sue OCs written by 12 year olds about the red and black hedgehog OCs from their fanfic.

 

[bradsternum]

How the hell do people manage to reach adulthood thinking that they can do something in public and never get negative reactions? Isn't one of the first lessons kids learn in life "You can't please everyone?"

No, actually, the first lesson you learn these days is "You're a genius, everything you do is amazing, and everyone who doesn't like it is a hater."

 

[The Knife]

Long story short: author becomes obsessed with a particular negative critic, stalks her to her home and workplace, publishes "tee-hee, I'm so bad!" article about her stalking adventures to the Guardian (and incidentally hella exaggerates the critic's engagement to make her look like the obsessed one). http://www.theguardian.com/books/20...author-confronts-her-number-one-online-critic

Author Laurell K. Hamilton posts thousands of words about how verra, verra much she doesn't care about negative criticism of her books; suggests that such critics are prudes who are uncomfortable with the amount of sex in her novels. https://web.archive.org/web/2015041...llkhamilton.org/2006/12/dear-negative-reader/ (ETA: updated this to working link. Weird thing: when I posted the original link two days ago, I swear it worked. I wish I could take credit for her deleting it, but it's more likely a glitch in the Matrix).

ENTIRE WEBSITE devoted to denouncing people who say "I really didn't like this book" as bullies. This site oozes lolcows from both sides and if it doesn't already have a thread on this board, I will be very surprised. http://www.stopthegrbullies.com/

 

[Ruin]

No, actually, the first lesson you learn these days is "You're a genius, everything you do is amazing, and everyone who doesn't like it is a hater."

Fucking this. Pushing "you're special" in elementary schools was a massive mistake. That little social experiment brought us Tumblr and the sjw movement.

 

[AnOminous]

ENTIRE WEBSITE devoted to denouncing people who say "I really didn't like this book" as bullies. This site oozes lolcows from both sides and if it doesn't already have a thread on this board, I will be very surprised. http://www.stopthegrbullies.com/

My feelings on this (and Anne Rice's chimping in general) is mixed. Some authors are just oversensitive and should basically ignore online critics (especially ones like Anne Rice who are hugely wealthy). However, there really are gangs of shitty "reviewers," often SJWs like Randwhale, who basically gang up to write shitty reviews, often of books they haven't even read, because they've decided the author is "problematic."

And there's also this piece of shit, Requires Hate.

 

[GREEDY FIREMAN]

Kiwis, I am disappoint. How could you have forgotten the most accomplished &/or maligned writer of our time?

Spoiler: Behold!

 

[Slowboat to China]

Author Laurell K. Hamilton posts thousands of words about how verra, verra much she doesn't not care about negative criticism of her books; suggests that such critics are prudes who are uncomfortable with the amount of sex in her novels. http://www.laurellkhamilton.org/2006/12/dear-negative-reader/

I came here specifically to mention the "Dear Negative Reader" rant. It's not the most insane or hateful author rant ever, but it's stunning both in its pretentiousness and utter lack of introspection. Right from the first few paragraphs, you know you're in for a ride:

There are books with less sex in them, God knows. There are books that don’t make you think that hard. Books that don’t push you past that comfortable envelope of the mundane. If you want to be comforted, don’t read my books. They aren’t comfortable books. They are books that push my character and me to the edge and beyond of our comfort zones. If that’s not want you want, then stop reading. Put my books away with other things that frighten and confuse or just piss you off.

 

[DykesDykesChina]

There's a German "author" calling herself Simone Kaplan who self-publishes ebooks the orthography, grammar and plotlines of which make Gloria Tesch look like Charlotte Brontë in comparison.

She has a novel dedicated to people who rate her "1 star" (nearly everyone) on Amazon: Der Hobbykritiker ("The Amateur Critic")

In this novel we learn that people who criticize her work do so because of jealousy and erectile dysfunction. (...yep...)

 

[DrJonesHat]

My feelings on this (and Anne Rice's chimping in general) is mixed. Some authors are just oversensitive and should basically ignore online critics (especially ones like Anne Rice who are hugely wealthy). However, there really are gangs of shitty "reviewers," often SJWs like Randwhale, who basically gang up to write shitty reviews, often of books they haven't even read, because they've decided the author is "problematic."

And there's also this piece of shit, Requires Hate.

I remember her. If someone's misrepresenting your work, that's one thing to post a correction. But we've grown into a society where negative comments, or criticism of any kind, is seen as evil, even if the criticism is justified.