Apr 29 2008
One Star Challenge Roundup, Part the First
Last Thursday, you may recall, I posted a bunch of my one-star Amazon reviews and challenged other authors to do the same, the idea being, you know, that there are worse things in life than a negative Amazon review. And what do you know, authors have begun taking me up on the challenge, posting choice one and two star reviews they have received. How very healthy of them. Here’s a baker’s dozen of these brave souls, in no particular order:
World Fantasy and Campbell Award winner Jo Walton
Nebula, Tiptree, World Fantasy and Lambda Literary Award winner Nicola Griffith
See, you other writers? All the cool kids are doing it. Don’t you want to do it too? Sure you do. Post your one-star (or otherwise negative) Amazon reviews on your blog/LJ/whatever and let folks know you can handle criticism just fine, thanks (and then come back here and leave a link, because it makes it easier for me to find them). Also, feel free to steal the graphic up at the top of the entry. I spent five whole minutes on it!
So, who’s next?
I'm the Creative Consultant for this television show, appearing Fridays on Syfy. Miss a week? For US residents, 
I’d be delighted to post my one-star reviews if I had any. That’s not bragging, actually. My books have so few reviews on Amazon that I guess you could argue I’m blessed not to have one-star reviews.
Tell you what, folks. Go buy all my books, then give them one-star reviews. I’ll post them on my blog. Go ahead. I dare ya.
Awesome logo. It just needs a small subtitle “Thank you for your valuable input.”
Love that Kim Werker is on your list. The two parts of my brain collide! I love it when that happens.
I’ve got a zinger! I thought it was damn funny when I read it.
***begin review***
Sutable for Starting Fires and No More, April 30, 2006
This book is a waste of money, time, and paper. A book with step by step instructions and screen shots would be a great way to learn to use XP, if XP were worth using. However, when you try to go step by step you will find that your XP does not have the same screen as shown in the book and you can not get there using this book’s instructions. This book is total garbage.
***end review***
Whoops — coffee hasn’t kicked in yet. Forgot to add the LJ link: http://miketo.livejournal.com.
Who reads reviews? WTH! If we all followed the “reviews”, we’d all be reading the wrong stuff. Except wine reviews. Now that is critical!!!!!!! John, you need to start a wine review.
Chris
Viabaja:
Inasmuch as I don’t drink alcohol at all, that would be interesting.
Reposting this since it may have gotten lost in the comments on the first post: I collected a quartet of my one-star reviews on my blog.
My favorite lines are RE: my book Teek.
SAS:
Damn, I knew I missed someone in the roundup. Sorry about that.
Thanks for the link! We crafty types love sci-fi. Mind if I add your badge to my blog?
(I left my copy of OMW with my dad. It’s the first sci-fi book I’ve recommended to him, after a lifetime of pulling books off his full shelves. Thanks for that, too!)
While he hasn’t gone to the Amazon reviews, Peter Watts does happily post both Pro and Con on his site:
http://www.rifters.com/real/blurbs_blindsight.htm
D
Kim:
By all means, please use it, and you’re welcome!
Okay, I’m playing. Here’s the link to my post of my one-star review (where the reviewer says it’s worse than a soap opera and she was praying for it to end. The book, not the review.)
http://notafraidofthefword.blogspot.com/2008/04/cmon-kids-buck-it-up-and-play-along.html#links
I thought I wouldn’t get to play, but found one for an anthology I’m in.
“The title of this book clearly tries to capitualize on the popular sci-fi motion picture “Solaris” and the underlying work, but nothing could be further from the truth. These stories at are best second rate, and most are third rate. The plots are often interesting but the prose is pedestrian, the charaters are wooden, and the outcomes are guessed a mile in advance. Save your money for the Tessaracts series”
I did it. It sort of sucked. I had forgotten how ruthless people can be!
http://www.tayarijones.com/blog/archives/2008/04/dare_i_take_the.html
I’m in. http://paulskemp.livejournal.com/174506.html
Coincidentally, I posted a one-star review of my book on my blog today.
“I think “Party Like a Rock Star” should have been named “Party like an Egocentric Sociopath Who Thinks Laws Don’t Exist for Him.”"
Blog entry here:
http://www.alcademics.com/2008/04/recession-reading.html
Thank you, John, this is a great idea. I am a nobody author but this has helped me, I think, all the more. I posted my one-star Amazon review here
Of all my books, the worst reviews I could find were two, 2-star reviews on Amazon, both of which made liberal use of the word “disappointing.” I posted them in full over at (my friend) Kim Werker’s blog. Hurrah!
I don’t mean to be nit-picky (OK, maybe), but I noticed something in nearly all the one- and two-star reviews I read. It seemed there was one in nearly all of the links you posted. Most of these negative reviews contain typos. Nothing major, just leaving the “e” off the word “one”, but I think if you’re going to blast someone else’s writing, you should have the decency to spell it all correctly.
It sounded like a lark, so I just put mine up. Here.
I’m not an sf writer, but garner one-star reviews nonetheless — here’s one:
http://www.lisjobs.com/blog/?p=299
Love this idea John!
Here’s one of the one stars I got for my last novel THE REINCARNATIONIST – the book isn’t a conspiracy/coverup Catholic/pope basher in the slightest but this reader wanted it to be so simply said it was.
I put the book down after so many pages when I realized that it was probably going to have just another Roman Catholic/Pope conspiracy cover-up theme. How tedious. There is a great book out there that should be read by all of the anti-Catholic authors titled How the Catholic Church Built Western Civilization. Now there is a refreshing thought.
And here’s the link at my blog: http://mjroseblog.typepad.com/buzz_balls_hype/2008/04/take-the-challe.html
“I taught myself how to speed read to get through the dross.”
Best review ever!
Your graphic made me laugh SO hard. That was a well-spent five minutes.
I look forward to the day when I have a collection of one-star reviews. So far my first book (now long out of print) has gotten exactly one review each on Amazon and Library Thing.
OK, here’s mine. And a Link to my blog post about them.
Excellent idea. Posted mine to my LiveJournal. I’d have also posted it to a group blog I’m a member of, but Blogger is not talking to me this week. One of the other members may post it for me later today.
Well, I can kind of play. The reviewer gave the anthology I’m in two stars, but he was quite negative. The review is titled, “Very Lame Erotica.”
Maybe he meant to click one star. ;)
Need more male authors on list. :)
Well I’m not sure if this counts as “owning” my one-star review, but I used it as the basis of a (hopefully funny) YouTube promo film:
You can view it by clicking here.