I experienced some grotesque threats on Goodreads. They put horrific personal attacks and tried to extort money for reviews on the comment section of my GR blog and Ask the Author section. Once I turned off those features it stopped. What a hot mess!!
Your final paragraph is right on point. My novel (my 6th) is now being bombed by dozens of anti-Semites.--prior to its 1/30/24 release. It is a concerted attack that is being egged on on TikTok and Instagram, using GoodReads as the convenient platform to air their hatred-- anonymously. The ferocity of the attack on my upcoming novel has drawn media attention in an article published this week in the Forward. GoodReads removed one 1-star "review" but allows 15 to remain. The problem is that ratings without text cannot be flagged, and there are over 50 such 1-star ratings for my book that hasn't yet been published, and clearly these people had not received an ARC.
GoodReads hasn't even acted in light of this weeks media write-up about it.
I am late to the comments here (I was just gifted a subscription!) but here is my Goodreads dilemma: I LOVE Goodreads AS A READER. I have been on Goodreads for 10 years now and I don't know how anyone keeps track of their books otherwise. As an as-yet- unpublished author I do wonder how to balance that. Do I keep my Goodreads unknown/ private and just use it as a reader? Have two accounts? Not have an author account at all?
With my first book coming out in May I’m trying real hard not to look at Goodreads. Can’t say I’m always successful 😆 I just joined StoryGraph as I’m hearing a lot of positives about that platform (and as a reader, I really like it!)
Good article and I needed to read this. My little books get lost, I mean they are out in the forest on Amazon. I self published on the kdp platform and it is nice to have this opportunity. I Thank You for your encouragement on staying positive. tinabethchapman.com
We need to stop thinking that platforms with investors have anything in mind other than profit. There is no such place on the internet that exists just for the greater good.
I have my books on goodreads, but I haven't paid attention since I saw people giving books one-stars and admitting to not reading it because 'a friend said it was horrible.' Broken site due to Amazon's hands-off moderation letting every form of malicious intent run rampant. I appreciate your care for the mental health of the authors involved, who do care and rely heavily on feedback there.
Thank you for this. I'm new to Goodreads--been mainly using it as a research tool--but immediately noted a significant quantity of negative-to-hateful content. I'd considered doing an eBook giveway in support of my spring pub. date. After reading this, I'll steer clear.
It makes me so sad that a platform that united others through something as wholesome as books is being used against those whose voices need to be heard the most. Thank you for writing such a great article.
Thank you for saying this. I had a malicious 1-star GoodReads review when one of my recent releases came out and it destroyed me for a day. What do you know? The sales continued to come in, more 5- and 4-star reviews piled on top of it, and all that really mattered was my Amazon review score anyway. Whenever I go on GoodReads I have a horrible sinking feeling even before I click on the book cover to go and read what people are saying. Maybe you're right about not reading them anymore.
I've only ever used Goodreads as a record keeping device, a way to remember what I've read, and to keep a list of stuff that looks interesting. That's it. I've never paid any attention to reviews by the great unwashed for anything from books to movies to TV to restaurants to travel, as I've always been suspicious of review bombing driven by rivalry or politics or naivete or something else of no relevance to me for the purpose.
Feeling very seen by this. (First thing I did when I arrived on Substack was write a cathartic essay about my Goodreads experience as a debut author - https://katebrook.substack.com/p/not-quite-shakespearean ). Everyone has the right to dislike a book, but internet reviewers seem to hold a disproportionate amount of power over that book's chances. It takes years of energy, care and attention to write a book and five minutes to write a careless review that can do genuine damage.
Is this sentence in the second-to-last paragraph missing a word or am I missing something? "One simple fix would be to allow reviews for books that have not yet been published."
I experienced some grotesque threats on Goodreads. They put horrific personal attacks and tried to extort money for reviews on the comment section of my GR blog and Ask the Author section. Once I turned off those features it stopped. What a hot mess!!
Your final paragraph is right on point. My novel (my 6th) is now being bombed by dozens of anti-Semites.--prior to its 1/30/24 release. It is a concerted attack that is being egged on on TikTok and Instagram, using GoodReads as the convenient platform to air their hatred-- anonymously. The ferocity of the attack on my upcoming novel has drawn media attention in an article published this week in the Forward. GoodReads removed one 1-star "review" but allows 15 to remain. The problem is that ratings without text cannot be flagged, and there are over 50 such 1-star ratings for my book that hasn't yet been published, and clearly these people had not received an ARC.
GoodReads hasn't even acted in light of this weeks media write-up about it.
I am late to the comments here (I was just gifted a subscription!) but here is my Goodreads dilemma: I LOVE Goodreads AS A READER. I have been on Goodreads for 10 years now and I don't know how anyone keeps track of their books otherwise. As an as-yet- unpublished author I do wonder how to balance that. Do I keep my Goodreads unknown/ private and just use it as a reader? Have two accounts? Not have an author account at all?
With my first book coming out in May I’m trying real hard not to look at Goodreads. Can’t say I’m always successful 😆 I just joined StoryGraph as I’m hearing a lot of positives about that platform (and as a reader, I really like it!)
Good article and I needed to read this. My little books get lost, I mean they are out in the forest on Amazon. I self published on the kdp platform and it is nice to have this opportunity. I Thank You for your encouragement on staying positive. tinabethchapman.com
I knew it was bad, but hadn't realised how bad.
Unfortunately unless there's any ROI for them I can't see Bezos investing in any improvements.
I've tried Storygraph, but I don't think it's reached critical mass yet of users for people to want to make the switch.
What would you advise? I'm an indie author.
We need to stop thinking that platforms with investors have anything in mind other than profit. There is no such place on the internet that exists just for the greater good.
I have my books on goodreads, but I haven't paid attention since I saw people giving books one-stars and admitting to not reading it because 'a friend said it was horrible.' Broken site due to Amazon's hands-off moderation letting every form of malicious intent run rampant. I appreciate your care for the mental health of the authors involved, who do care and rely heavily on feedback there.
Thank you for this. I'm new to Goodreads--been mainly using it as a research tool--but immediately noted a significant quantity of negative-to-hateful content. I'd considered doing an eBook giveway in support of my spring pub. date. After reading this, I'll steer clear.
It makes me so sad that a platform that united others through something as wholesome as books is being used against those whose voices need to be heard the most. Thank you for writing such a great article.
Thank you for reading it.
Couldn't help myself. You're a great writer.
Thank you for saying this. I had a malicious 1-star GoodReads review when one of my recent releases came out and it destroyed me for a day. What do you know? The sales continued to come in, more 5- and 4-star reviews piled on top of it, and all that really mattered was my Amazon review score anyway. Whenever I go on GoodReads I have a horrible sinking feeling even before I click on the book cover to go and read what people are saying. Maybe you're right about not reading them anymore.
I've only ever used Goodreads as a record keeping device, a way to remember what I've read, and to keep a list of stuff that looks interesting. That's it. I've never paid any attention to reviews by the great unwashed for anything from books to movies to TV to restaurants to travel, as I've always been suspicious of review bombing driven by rivalry or politics or naivete or something else of no relevance to me for the purpose.
New subscriber here. I love your 4-step plan for the day after publication. Self-care appointment and Grace are good call outs. 🙏
Feeling very seen by this. (First thing I did when I arrived on Substack was write a cathartic essay about my Goodreads experience as a debut author - https://katebrook.substack.com/p/not-quite-shakespearean ). Everyone has the right to dislike a book, but internet reviewers seem to hold a disproportionate amount of power over that book's chances. It takes years of energy, care and attention to write a book and five minutes to write a careless review that can do genuine damage.
Is this sentence in the second-to-last paragraph missing a word or am I missing something? "One simple fix would be to allow reviews for books that have not yet been published."
It’s “disallow.”
I see it's been corrected. Thanks!
Never knew this at all. Thank you, so much. I depend on reviews so much. Need to be more vigilant now.