Is the problem the anonymity? Does it make a difference if I trash your book and sign my name?

I think a lot of people are worried by anonymous reviews, but like you, I don't really get it. What's the big deal? I have other issues with an anonymous review mindset (see below), but truth to tell, I'm far more aggravated by the fact that at a publication like PW, which unlike the occasional "reader from West Armpit" a bad review can break a writer, the reviews are handed off to a pool of anonymous reviewers. They can do a metric ton of damage, and they very often do. Yet a positive review doesn't necessarily help sales at all.

But speaking just for me, I personally don't understand why anyone genuinely reviewing a book, with no agenda other than to voice an opinion, would want to remain anonymous. Shit, I've been a book reviewer, and I can't imagine not signing my name. So, sign your name. You're brave enough, or feel strongly enough, to have written a scathing or glowing review? Why be afraid to say who you are? I just don't get that. It seems passive-aggressive in the extreme.

I see a very weird attitude a lot on readerville, where I'm a semi-regular: a writer will get an anonymous review that trashes their book, and every other author up there will spring into the fray: it must be someone you know. A former student? A girl you went to high school with? Someone who wrote a book with a similar theme that didn't get published?

The one thing no one seems willing to concede is that maybe, just maybe, someone genuinely didn't like the book.

But everything to do with that story really did creep me out.

I personally don't understand why anyone genuinely reviewing a book, with no agenda other than to voice an opinion, would want to remain anonymous.

Simple. On a very public forum like Amazon, I don't want thousands of strangers knowing my name and address.

See, that would be my first thought, not who I pissed off.

I don't want thousands of strangers knowing my name and address.

Ayup. I don't use my full name on the public internet, period. So any review by me is going to look like a pseud anyway.

Betsy, is there any reason you can't use an pseud? The objection from me is to "a reader from...."

I don't want thousands of strangers knowing my address either. But if I'm going to go to the trouble of writing and posting a review, it's presumably because I have a strong opinion about the work in question. And "a reader from a city in which there are eight million other readers and you'll never know who I am, neener" really does strike me as p/a. Why post the opinion in the first place? I don't understand the split in the mindset between "I have strong opinions and want the world to know about them" and "I don't want anyone to know who I am."

But that's just my own mindset. I really don't get it.

Anonymous reviews also don't get their email addresses harvested by spambots.

is there any reason you can't use an pseud? The objection from me is to "a reader from...."

As far as I know, your only options are the full name Amazon knows you by or "a reader from...". I could be wrong.

I'm piling up a shocking number of pseuds. "peaches" the fangirl, "chicating" for fanfic, and "Angela Frandina"(which I guess I could use on Amazon...and get even more e-mail saying "You don't really DO that, do you?" No. Hence the irony. Get it?

Betsy, I have at least two obvious pseuds who have posted reviews of Weaver at Amazon; one good, one so-so. I have no problem with a pseud; I might even search and see what else they've reviewed.

I don't want thousands of strangers knowing my address either. But if I'm going to go to the trouble of writing and posting a review, it's presumably because I have a strong opinion about the work in question. And "a reader from a city in which there are eight million other readers and you'll never know who I am, neener" really does strike me as p/a. Why post the opinion in the first place? I don't understand the split in the mindset between "I have strong opinions and want the world to know about them" and "I don't want anyone to know who I am."

What's the difference between "A Reader From Seattle, Washington" and "Samantha Rodriguez From Seattle, Washington"? What value does "Samantha Rodriguez" add to the review?