Wednesday, 13 July 2011

Badly behaved authors

Badly behaved authors


A poem by Martin Niemöller

 

When the Nazis came for the communists,
I remained silent;
I was not a communist.

When they locked up the social democrats,
I remained silent;
I was not a social democrat.

When they came for the trade unionists,
I did not speak out;
I was not a trade unionist.

When they came for the Jews,
I remained silent;
I wasn't a Jew.

When they came for me,
there was no one left to speak out.

Bertrand Russell said ....

If a man is offered a fact which goes against his instincts, he will scrutinize it closely, and unless the evidence is overwhelming, he will refuse to believe it. If, on the other hand, he is offered something which affords a reason for acting in accordance to his instincts, he will accept it even on the slightest evidence. The origin of myths is explained in this way.

Martin Luther King Jr said ....

The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.


D. A. M.

The stories about my first Amazon nemesis, together with some interesting links, are to be found in D. A. M..

"C. H."

"C. H."'s blog posts are gone, but I've preserved them here for posterity. Blogger only removes personal attacks in response to court orders, as an inspection of their terms and conditions proves. Therefore, she must have deleted them voluntarily although the timing (so soon after posting about me) seems odd. Maybe she suddenly realized that her blog posts worked against her. Some of the posts were extremely offensive while others were only mildly so. My purpose in saving the contents here is to show how nasty she was.

"C. H."
On Amazon
Amazon profile page
Blog posts - text saved by me
The truth about the scam at Amazon and blogs
All hail Reba Belle
Grains of the hourglass
Faux writer has pique attack
Peter Durward Harris

The reviewer racketeer guide was posted under a different account but was almost certainly written by the same person.

V. L.

V. L.
Deleted by V. L., text saved by me
Thicker skin...
The pen IS mightier than the sword...
Living in a world of crazies...
On the "Romance readers" forum
V. L. on her official website
Your comments? V. L. column
V. L. blog entries
On the "Dear Author" blog
Does psychic V. L. foresee lawsuit in her future?
V. L. sends blogger threats from a lawyer
Wherein Jane sends email to V. L.’s editor
Unsubstantiated cease and desist letters under scrutiny
On the "Novel reads" blog by ChariDee
Authors getting even
More thoughts on authors getting even
Authors getting even - update
Where in ChariDee is threatened by an author that wanted revenges attorney...
In the immortal words of Tom Petty...
The Grouchy Ladybug by Eric Carle
On the "Genrewonk" blog
How to be an asshat, literary edition
Spoof on the "Pickled cupid" blog
Author's death ruled an "act of God"

Other interesting links

Some related web pages that may be of interest.

Other links
On the "Dear Author" blog
Top ten things authors should not do at Amazon
What is wrong with the C review?
On "Smart bitches, trashy books"
Harriet haters
Reviews for sale
Disappearing reviews for "Fearless Fourteen" on BN.com
On the Amazon customer reviews discussion board
Amazon book reviewer lawsuit dismissed
"New York Times" Freakonomics blog
Why do people post reviews on Amazon?
What does a politician do after he leaves office?: write Amazon reviews
Who is Loyd Eskildson, and why does he game the Amazon.com review system?
An earthquake hits Amazon’s sales ranking
More Amazon shenanigans?
Authors discuss one-star reviews of their own books
Mmmm… one star-rific! (John Scalzi)
One star?! Say it ain't so! (Kristy Kiernan)
Rogues' gallery (Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child)
Taking up John Scalzi's 1-star challenge! (Rachel Caine)
The one star challenge (Ericka Lutz)
Other pages that might be of interest
A guide to ethical self-promotion
Who Is Grady Harp?
The Preditors and Editors poll: What’s the point of them?
Cyber-stalking and harassment FAQ
Reviews on Amazon: caveat emptor!
An ex-Amazon employee to all who are complaining about reviews being taken down
On professionalism
In which the author obsesses over potshots by amateur critics on Amazon.com. (Chris Bohjalian, writing in the Washington Post)


Romance readers forum

As already indicated, the romance readers forum was set up by a group of people who decided that they no longer wished to participate in Amazon's romance books forum. It was a great idea and, despite some early problems, it's got off to a great start. I'd recommend it to any romance book readers out there, although if they are supporters of D. A. M., they might be wise to keep quiet about it. Because of my involvement in the Reba Belle case, I was invited to participate in the forum, along with another person who had been involved the case but who, like me, isn't a romance book reader. The idea was that I should join in the fun threads (in the off-topic section of the forum) while also contributing to the section devoted to Amazon issues. Because of the divisions in the campaign against D. A. M., I was reluctant to accept. I sensed that intractable differences over Amazon issues would cause more trouble than my participation was worth, but ultimately the issues were resolved in a way that allowed me to be an active participant until I decided to move on to other things.

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