There’s long been complaints about the Amazon reviews system. Most recently Paul Carr at Tech Crunch addresses the issue after a segment of readers began to mark books as one star solely because the publisher hadn’t yet made a Kindle version available. This decision is completely out of the control of the author, so it does seem sort of dirty to punish the author for the publisher’s policies.

But this isn’t the first case, or first kind of review/rating manipulation to plague amazon. Any writer and author, particularly in the small press can tell you about the author who begs people to give them 5 star review only, encourages their friends and family to rate books they’ve never read, or even make multiple accounts (called “sock puppets) themselves to bump up their own rating. Likewise there are authors who reward fans for posting 5 star reviews, but not 3 or 4 stars. And authors who routinely post 1 star reviews to the books of people they see as competition, or people who they have personal grudges against.

Not to mention the occasional flare up of authors against bad and not so bad reviews and the people who post them (and worse, in this case, is the time Amazon actually banned the reviewer when the author campaigned against her 3 star review to the point where the author posted the reviewer’s home address. Remember, Amazon “fixed” this problem by BANNING THE REVIEWER.)

Over at agent Nathan Bransford’s digital place a discussion is going on on how to fix this. The first idea thrown out is to limit reviews to people who have bought the book from Amazon. This is a valid idea, however, it’s far too punishing, in my opinion.

See, I post almost all my reviews to Amazon, but I buy very little from Amazon. It’s common practice for authors and publishers to give out free copies, print or electronic, before publication, or just after, all to create a “buzz” of consumer interest in the book. Amazon already restricts reviews from being posted before the launch dates (even thought they’ve been known to ship books before the launch date.) And while cutting out people who buy books at competitors would be the exact kind of thing I’d expect from Amazon, it would also reduce Amazon’s usefulness to publishers (which in turn would make Amazon’s temper tantrums and  buy button removals less effective).

So why not a wikipedia style policy, where certain books are “locked” when “digital vandalism” occurs?

Well, if you want to know why not: It’s because amazon thrives on the loading of their ratings by authors and sock puppets, and the controversy of revenge fueled low ratings. It gets people going to Amazon, which is kind enough to suggest books the person might have forgotten about. The hardest part of business is getting people into your business and that’s what this level of community and interaction does for Amazon. It gets people looking, and you can’t sell if nothing’s bringing them in. Authors slant their Amazon reviews in the hopes that those 5 stars bring more sales, and Amazon encourages poor reviewer behavior because it helps put Amazon in a position to be irreplaceable.

So bad behavior will continue to be rewarded, especially the bad behavior of readers penalizing publishers for not having Kindle versions. Because, how can Amazon take over the ebook world if publishers keep resisting?

After much consideration I’ve decided to split BookLove into two. All reviews of adult books will continue to appear at BookLove. My reviews of kid books, as well as kids’ reviews of kids books, will appear at the new site Kid Tails which remain PG rated so that if kids surf onto the review site they won’t find Coraline reviewed side by side with a paranormal erotica novel.

Kid Tails is also open to submissions (unpaid) of reviews from kids and grown ups alike (especially from teachers and librarian and classes who want to talk about their favorite books). Here’s the dish:

Kid Tails is a book journal site for kids and kid books! By focusing only on kids and kids books we can keep our site clean and kid friendly.

We are looking for YOUR opinion about books. We accept reviews from all ages (including grown ups), from students, parents, teachers, librarians and whole classes!

We will try to post a new review every Monday (and increase our rate as we get more reviews). You can email reviews to ZombieMichele@gmail.com  Please include your name & age (for children’s reviews), name (for adult review), the site the review first appeared on (if the review is a reprint), or your teacher’s name and class (if it’s a class review).

All books reviewed should be for Young Adult audiences or younger. We would like at least two to three lines for a review telling us what the book is about, whether you liked it or not and what the best part was (also please tell us if this book has a theme, like Christmas, or spring, or vampires). Adults are welcome to add comments about the appropriateness of the book for young audiences and how well it could be integrated into teaching plans or parent-child reading sessions.

We will also post reviews of books we have already reviewed (because this will give different opinions or show grown ups which books kids like the best).

Questions and comments can be sent to ZombieMichele@gmail.com.

Thanks and we look forward to reading with you!

*I found this lost in my drafts.

Congrats to all the nominees!!

The 2009 Stoker Awards Final Ballot has been released:

Superior Achievement in a Novel

Audrey’s Door, Sarah Langan (Harper)
Patient Zero, Jonathan Maberry (St. Martin’s Griffin)
Quarantined, Joe McKinney (Lachesis)
Cursed, Jeremy Shipp (Raw Dog Screaming Press)

Superior Achievement in a First Novel

Breathers, S. G. Browne (Broadway Books)
Solomon’s Grave, Daniel G. Keohane (Dragon Moon Press)
Damnable, Hank Schwaeble (Jove)
The Little Sleep, Paul Tremblay (Henry Holt)

Superior Achievement in Long Fiction

Dreaming Robot Monster, Mort Castle (Mighty Unclean)
The Hunger of Empty Vessels, Scott Edelman (Bad Moon)
The Lucid Dreaming, Lisa Morton (Bad Moon)
Doc Good’s Traveling Show, Gene O’Neill (Bad Moon)

Superior Achievement in Short Fiction

“Keeping Watch”, Nate Kenyon (Monstrous: 20 Tales of Giant Creature Terror)
“The Crossing of Aldo Ray”, Weston Ochse (The Dead That Walk)
“In the Porches of My Ears”, Norman Prentiss (Postscripts 18)
“The Night Nurse”, Harry Shannon (Horror Drive-In 7/09)

Superior Achievement in an Anthology

He Is Legend: An Anthology Celebrating Richard Matheson, Christopher Conlon, ed. (Gauntlet)
Lovecraft Unbound, Ellen Datlow, ed. (Dark Horse)
Poe, Ellen Datlow, ed. (Solaris)
Midnight Walk, Lisa Morton, ed. (Dark House)

Superior Achievement in a Fiction Collection

Martyrs and Monsters, Robert Dunbar (DarkHart)
Got to Kill Them All and Other Stories, Dennis Etchison (Cemetery Dance)
A Taste of Tenderloin, Gene O’Neill (Apex)
In the Closet, Under the Bed, Lee Thomas (Dark Scribe)

Superior Achievement in Non-fiction

Writers Workshop of Horror, Michael Knost (Woodland)
Cinema Knife Fight, L.L. Soares & Michael Arruda (Fearzone)
The Stephen King Illustrated Companion, Bev Vincent (Fall River)
Stephen King: The Non-Fiction, Rocky Wood & Justin Brook (Cemetery Dance)

Superior Achievement in a Poetry Collection

Double Visions, Bruce Boston (Dark Regions)
North Left of Earth, Bruce Boston (Sam’s Dot)
Barfodder, Rain Graves (Cemetery Dance)
Chimeric Machines, Lucy A. Snyder (Creative Guy)

…but then the author did it for me. This is exactly why you should NOT EVER snap back at a reviewer. There just is no way to do it without looking like you’re throwing a fit.

My review (which I absolutely stand behind):

“…She needed a man. Hell, maybe if she bothered to drop down below 220 lbs she might find one. That, and she’d have to not talk. Basically she’d have to become an anorexic mute and then she could possibly attract the attention of a blind man with no sense of smell.”

Want another excerpt?

“Oh, and this book is self published, so there will be typos. Oh yes, there will be typos. Think of them as easter eggs. Happy hunting!”

Under is the tale of two bad tempered middle aged office workers who are one small town’s only defense against cannibal creatures who are getting ready for a feast. Quinn tells the truth, there are plenty of typos to “hunt” for, mixed in with formatting errors, like words printed on top of each other. (Note: This refers to the original edition. In the revised edition these are supposedly fixed.) There’s plenty of violence and profanity, along with sexist and racist comments and female characters who are lined up like pigs for a slaughter.

Jacob, the lead character, is very hard to relate to, and framing him not with some kind of amateur knowledge that saves the day, but instead with a load of cops and state troopers who are bumbling idiots and jerks leads to this book feeling like a poorly spun Rambo fantasy. The lack of editing, the -ist jokes and complete stereotyping of every character who isn’t the hero leads to Under reading like a first draft, or first novel attempt that’s not quite there.

Horror is no longer and excuse for sexism, racism and homophobia and self publishing isn’t an excuse for typos and a complete lack of consideration for the money readers might spend on a book. Take your chances on this one, if you wish, but be forewarned it doesn’t have much to offer.

And the public response from the author from GoodReads, available here (behind the cut):

Continue reading

Two snow days and a bout of some sort of sickness later and it’s time to get back to work.

Agent Rachelle Gardner has an excellent post up. I wanted to blog about it, but she really puts it as simply as need be.

You’ve been told that the published-author life isn’t glamorous and in fact can get pretty stressful when you’re trying to write one book, while doing revisions on another, and maybe even marketing another. And you might think, “This is CRAZY, how am I expected to do this?” But I want you to remember all the times you read on blogs that it would be difficult. And I want you to tell yourself, “Okay, this is what I signed up for. They said it would be difficult, and this is what difficult looks like. I can do this.”

I was thinking of this last night, when I realized I’d wanted to up my daily word goal this week, and instead due to the snow days and the head cold hadn’t written a thing in that time. Another agent, Nathan Brandsford, is asking what keeps us writing, and I’m struggling to find a way to set more boundaries and stick to them, so that people around me know that this isn’t just me playing on the computer. I have a goal (not a deadline, but good practice for one). I have to put in the work. I have to keep the momentum going and take advantage of the opportunities I’ve been given. I’ve had my first taste of success and sitting back on my haunches and enjoying it is all fine and good, but to really use it I have to keep working and transition the momentum from one project to the next, and the next, and the next, to build the cohesive whole I’m looking for.

This is the work, folks. And Rachelle is right, it is harder that I expected. I knew it would take time. I knew it is a process, not just a choice. I knew about slush stats and how to get an agent and how the fight was won. I just didn’t expect it to take this much work.

But this is what this blog always was about. And the light blogging, or lack of deep meaningful stuff (or personal at least), is just part of the process as I focus what time and drive I have on making the most of the connections I’ve made and the accomplishments I can now list.

None of this happened over night for me. Go back, read my archives. Keep in mind that’s not where I started, that’s just where I started on WordPress. Before that I kept a blogger blog, and before that I was writing and submitting and just hoping to have my name recognized at some point.

When I first started out all I had to reference were a small handful of authors who were miles away from where I am now in my career, and I cried more than once because I knew I couldn’t do what they did. Years later I’m not trying to follow in their footsteps anymore, but to make my own way, which, let me tell you, is longer and harder that following anyway. But infinitely more satisfying.

So I share too much here. Or I seem to be a bipolar mess of unstable emotions and tiny victories. But, that’s what the work looks like. This is how it starts, and I want the writers coming up behind and around me to have far more realistic expectations that I had.

This is why they tell you to write every day. It’s not just habit, or practice, it’s how these things linger at a point of nothing, then suddenly (suddenly as in over a few months) snowball into a massive slide of accomplishment. It’s because whether you realize it or not working at it every day is creating a push against the wall and obstacles in your path that leads to the things you want (contracts, readers, books!) coming to be.