vassilissa

Author Phil Torcivia (I infer from his blog title that 'Author' is his first name) is very upset that he has received a 2-star review from another writer. Which review has now mysteriously vanished from Amazon.

No, he's not just upset, that's normal. He's outraged on ethical grounds. He thinks that of all people, authors should realise that other authors need to eat. And if he lets this go, she might do it to other writers too. She might write more 2-star reviews!

Let's take this one at a time.

1. If he'd been around the block before, he'd realise that bad reviews don't necessarily hurt sales. Sometimes they increase sales.

2. There is nothing unethical, or even novel, about a writer reviewing another writer's work. Who else is better qualified? It's been done since reviews existed.

3. Is this prohibition something that only applies to fellow artistes, or does he expect that supermarket chains shouldn't criticise other supermarket chains they're competing with too? After all, supermarkets should know that supermarkets need to eat.

4. How stupid does he think the reading public are? He said that she should have allowed for differing preferences. Does he think readers don't, when they read reviews?

5. The book that got panned (actually the review was not in the least a panning) is a parody of 50 Shades of Grey. So he's not concerned about E.L. James's livelihood?

6. Here's the actual review:
I love a good parody - and parts of this are actually funny. I found the story started smack bang in the middle of all the action and it was a bit daunting working out who everyone was and even who was talking at any given time since there is a lot of talking brackets and not so many ‘Bea said’ and ’ Mormon said’ etc. Once I’d settled into the style, there were a few laugh out loud moments - most of these occurring when the actual Fifty Shades characters were sliced into the story line. This books does show some potential.

7. The cost of free speech is that someone might say something you might not like.

8. Cry more.

9. LOL, n00b.

10. Edited to add: I just realised. This is his first book, correct? Or at any rate, fairly early in his career. So why does he need the sales in order to eat? Did he QUIT HIS DAY JOB? D:

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