Read Lovely Books
The more people your work offends, the more likely it is that you’ve written something important
There was no indication that the book had actually been purchased
It’s the digital equivalent of a big, glowing middle finger
There was a time when seeing something like this would have ruined my day
No, I’m not happy about it, but that’s the absurd world we live in
Whether you knew it or not, this is what you signed up for when you decided to
A single one-star review is not an instance of review bombing
Review bombing happens when a group of people leave thousands of hostile reviews that typically have nothing
The person he was feuding with had a large internet following
My friend had a large following too, so the review bombing didn’t necessarily hurt the sales
Fake reviews aren’t supposed to have that big of an impact, but you still have to
Publisher: “Why does your book have a thousand one-star reviews?”
Most likely, your publisher isn’t going to want to have to deal with that kind of
At the onset, it seemed like a great idea to give everyone a voice
Well, what started out as an episode of Ozzie and Harriet has turned into the latest installation
Remember those death threats I mentioned before? There are some people who will say that represents “free
Unfortunately, a great way to quickly accumulate a huge amount of influence is to tell only lies
I’ve had a lot of writers tell me that I need to “tone it down
” They tell me that I have to be careful “not to offend anyone
” Then they show me examples of their own inoffensive writing
For some reason, it isn’t considered valid to argue that there’s no way to please
I feel a responsibility to offend people who exploit children
I think we should offend the oppressors who reap the rewards of corrupt systems
As far as I’m concerned, if you’re not offending somebody you’re not trying hard
In my opinion, the people with the money are usually the ones most likely to be offended
On that day, I’ll stand up and do a little dance because it will mean that
When I first started writing, I was aware that once a manuscript was out in the world
However, I didn’t know that large groups of people might become unified with a malicious intent
Review bombing most commonly occurs because somebody did something like cast a black actor in a traditionally
I always thought a thick skin was necessary in order to properly interpret painful constructive criticism
It turns out, you need thick skin to ward off the dishonest and malicious attacks
We used to condition writers to put aside their emotions and seek out the truth in criticism
Today, all writers must take three additional steps: First, a writer must determine if the author of
Getting review bombed means that some entity is scared of you
Some entity knows that you’re being read, and they’re launching a counter-measure to wrest back
People might leave a negative book review because an author humiliated them on a comment thread
However, even if you are courteous you aren’t protected from retaliatory negative reviews
For example, maybe they thought you could really charge a cell phone by putting it in the
If you don’t correct this kind of misinformation, somebody might burn their house down
You can’t go through life censoring what you choose to write about because you’re afraid
You might end up review bombed for something you thought was completely innocent
Perhaps the best thing you can do is leave your own honest reviews
Don’t sit on the sidelines and let the trolls argue among themselves
Maybe the silver lining is that the reading public is slowly developing an awareness that reviews can’
As far as I’m concerned, if that’s the next step in our evolution, we can’