It seems unlikely that the person in question has read all the books - why would you read so many books by authors you're clearly not enjoying, or go to the trouble of tracking down some fairly obscure titles to do so? Which makes me wonder why anyone would go to the trouble to be so negative, none of the answers I come up with are particularly encouraging.
I've followed Scott's blog for a while now, and enjoy his enthusiasm as well as his general taste in books, I've followed Dean street Press for even longer - they seem like nice people - so I want to add my voice in praise for what they're doing.
Any publisher who wants to devote themselves to rescuing long forgotten titles, especially when they're helping restore the easily lost voices of generations of women, get my thanks and praise. If it's not your cup of tea it's easy to ignore these books - they're not piled high in every bookshop, it seems unlikely that they're having any noticeable impact on sales for hard up contemporary authors, but for those of us who are interested it's great to have easy access to these books.
I bought a couple of titles (e versions, they're on my phone, it will take me forever to get round to reading them because I rarely do e books, but it was the end of an expensive month and the cheap option) but they look good, and like Simon I want to balance the negativity of those reviews with a moment of positivity.
Not that I have an issue with negative reviews, certainly not when they're specific as to the issues the writer has with the book (and I'm confident that the reviewer actually read the book) but in this case they aren't in any way helpful - and have hopefully, thanks to Simon, had the opposite effect to the one intended.
I agree. The person with the ever-changing name posted the reviews on the day of publication so had obviously not read the books & has a problem with either Scott or DSP. Fortunately leaving spiteful, unhelpful reviews on Amazon is pretty pointless as it's so obvious that the "reviewer" hadn't read the books & had nothing constructive to say.
ReplyDeleteI've been told that reviews mean your book is more likely to appear on recommended lists, assuming the number of stars impacts on this too. It looks like it has been pointless this time because enough people have noticed and are leaving better reviews. I can't imagine anyone is making a fortune out of this project but there's some interesting titles and the whole thing has annoyed me enough to spend some money (which is tight at the moment) and to want to be proactively supportive of the project.
DeleteI've read a lot of the Dean Street Press recent mysteries, and while I find some of them rather dated (Annie Haynes) they are always well plotted and well written as well as beautifully produced and printed. I am SO grateful to have the option of finding more of my dearly beloved Golden Age British mysteries. Someone must be a real arse to leave negative comments in such a fashion. Spiteful and jealous! They need to grow up and stop acting like petulant kids.
ReplyDeleteThat's exactly it, I love having the opportunity to explore more of these books. They're not all going to appeal to me, some age better than others, but they're interesting for so many reasons.
DeleteI cannot understand why people have to be so negative and then to share that view. If I don't like something, I simply ignore it; I would hate to be rude to anyone.
ReplyDeleteWhen it comes to books that's very much my stance, if I'm not enjoying it I stop reading it, and see no reason to write about it. Constructive negative reviews are useful, but these aren't, and look like some sort of personal vendetta which is unpleasant. Happily and thanks to Simon for drawing attention to the issue, it seems to have backfired.
ReplyDeleteWell said, Hayley! I really can't understand what drives someone to leave such negative and unconstructive thoughts but it's lovely to see her sliding down the page as others weigh in with more positive and helpful responses.
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