Obviously book reviewers speak their minds (ahem), and for authors, a negative review on Amazon can't be a particularly nice thing. However, when most take the criticism the mature way and put it down to the fact that you simply can't please everyone, others are...well, NOT so grown up about it.Romance author Candace Sams made the news this week when she threatened to report unhappy reviewers to the FBI via Amazon. Yes, really.
According to The Bookseller, after a site user dubbed her book (Electra Galaxy's Mr Interstellar Fella), 'a sad excuse for romance, mystery and humour', Sams took to the forum under a different name and started the heated discussion, which gained more than 400 posts.
Sams said: "Authors rarely have full editorial control; rarely do they have even 'scant' control over their covers or the language used in dialogue or even sequencing of scenes: love scenes, kissing scenes, scenes of violence, etc. These are ultimately controlled by editorial staff...very rarely the author alone."
"It might behoove them to understand that all romances will not read they way they think they should; romances should 'not' be cookie-cutters of one another. This has been the biggest complaint about romance on the whole - that they all sound alike. Apparently 'some' reviewers 'want' them to sound alike. When they don't, they aren't able to handle the material."
Needless to say, the comments were later deleted (but worry not! You can take a lookie over here...).
