I tell you I have this theory. It goes where, you're the one who's not my sister. Cuz mom adopted you from a shoe box full of baby howler monkeys, and never told you cuz it could hurt your delicate baby feelings.

Dawn ,'Selfless'


We're Literary 2: To Read Makes Our Speaking English Good  

There's more to life than watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer! No. Really, there is! Honestly! Here's a place for Buffistas to come and discuss what it is they're reading, their favorite authors and poets. "Geez. Crack a book sometime."


Susan W. - Feb 16, 2004 12:38:38 pm PST #870 of 10002
Good Trouble and Righteous Fights

So, I'm assuming you want Ms Bestseller and Ms Wellknown to pay attention to your reviews, even though you don't want them identifying you as (insert real name here).

Well, like I said before, I've never reviewed on Amazon, for various reasons, foremost of which is that I'd rather talk books in a community. All my comments on books have been in places like here or All About Romance, where I've used a consistent pseud. But, like Betsy says, I'm not commenting for the author--except in rare occasions like knowing you're here, or knowing Jo Beverley, Carla Kelly, and a few others are on AAR, it never even occurs to me that the author might see what I say. I'm writing for other readers, either to say, "You really should read X, and here's why," or, "I found Y poorly written and/or downright offensive, and here's why, so you'll know not to waste your money." It's just like when I comment on the shows here--I'm writing for Buffistas, not for Joss or Fury or whoever.

It's just that now I'm in a weird place where I'm trying to decide what I want my public persona to be, now that I've got a business website with my full name prominently displayed, and am trying to sell a novel under that same name. I would NEVER, I repeat, NEVER, go around anonymously slamming another author's work, especially not with intention of raising myself at her expense, because that's just too unethical. I do, however, wish I'd been either a little more circumspect about a variety of things, most of them not even related to the specific topic at hand, or made a greater effort to keep my online and RL identities separate, back before it occurred to me that I'd ever have a public persona.


Strix - Feb 16, 2004 12:41:24 pm PST #871 of 10002
A dress should be tight enough to show you're a woman but loose enough to flee from zombies. — Ginger

It's just that now I'm in a weird place where I'm trying to decide what I want my public persona to be, now that I've got a business website with my full name prominently displayed, and am trying to sell a novel under that same name.

Me, too, Susan, and it's not to do with writing, really; if I should ever write anything and get published, I don't give a flaming damn. BUT as a soon to be teacher...well, I still don't give a flaming damn, but it's also something that I would rather not have to defend, you know? So where I used to not qualm about giving my whole name, I don't anymore.

Which has nothing to do with reviews, but still.


deborah grabien - Feb 16, 2004 12:42:57 pm PST #872 of 10002
It really doesn't matter. It's just an opinion. Don't worry about it. Not worth the hassle.

it never even occurs to me that the author might see what I say

Well - now you know. Our dirty little secret, she is officially out: we have to read Amazon reviews, because our editors and agents read Amazon reviews. Some of us read them because we're interested in what the people who are shelling out for our books, or taking them out of the library, have to say; some of us read compulsively; some of us read because, when crap like Lauren's editor's reaction goes down, we realise just how freaking naive it would be to pretend that Amazon exists in some sort of reader-only vaccuum.

So, thinking about it? I think maybe I am coming around to understanding why writers get so fired up about it, even if I think they're probably overreacting.


Susan W. - Feb 16, 2004 12:53:12 pm PST #873 of 10002
Good Trouble and Righteous Fights

I get that. I just don't think that makes it inappropriate to write a review as a reader, for readers, without feeling obligated to worry about who else might happen to see it. I'm more careful about what I say now only because I have a foot in both camps. Like I said, I've never reviewed on Amazon and don't especially plan to, but I don't think it was wrong of me to criticize books on various fora as a reader writing for readers, and I don't see how it matters whether I did so as Susan W. whose identity is easy to find, as Ms. Fluffybunny with an anonymous yahoo account, or as Anonymous. (For the record, I'm pretty sure I've never been purely anonymous online.)


Susan W. - Feb 16, 2004 1:03:36 pm PST #874 of 10002
Good Trouble and Righteous Fights

(And just to be really clear, I'm still sitting cheerfully on the fence. I can see both sides. If nothing else, maybe this amazon.ca fiasco will make editors realize that Amazon reviews are too easy to rig to be relevant feedback. But I still think it's valid for readers to be able to post comments intended for the consumption of other readers, and to be as identifiable or anonymous as their own comfort zone for online privacy allows them.)


deborah grabien - Feb 16, 2004 1:11:10 pm PST #875 of 10002
It really doesn't matter. It's just an opinion. Don't worry about it. Not worth the hassle.

I just don't think that makes it inappropriate to write a review as a reader, for readers, without feeling obligated to worry about who else might happen to see it.

Well, I'm coming from a different place - I have a thing, all mine and belonging entirely to me, no mutual ownership of anything express or implied, in which knowing that what I'm doing has other consequences forces me to look at those consequences, as well - and it doesn't necessarily have anything to do with Amazon or reviews. Let us agree to disagree.

And so, as I honestly desperately tried to do earlier?

Taking a moment, and moving on. In fact, moving offline entirely - this headache is now a steady determined series of painful starbursts and I need to get some work done, headache, editors, Amazon and all.


meara - Feb 16, 2004 5:42:33 pm PST #876 of 10002

On an entirely different note:

So, earlier today, at the art museum, I found a book I really really want. Had to talk myself down from buying for $60 in the gift shop. (It's a big coffee table hardback color photos of art book). I can get it on Amazon new for $42, but there are also a number of used copies, for about $30, from Powells. Now, that's not that much a difference, but I also can't believe I'm considering spending this much on a book I probably won't look at very often (voices in my head: "But we wants it! our precioussss!"). Can anyone let me know what a condition of "good" means, to Powells? So I can judge if the "new" is worth the extra cash?


msbelle - Feb 16, 2004 6:17:06 pm PST #877 of 10002
I remember the crazy days. 500 posts an hour. Nubmer! Natgbsb

book-buying spree. Found a 50% sale at a used bookstore this weekend. End up with:

Baltimore Blues, In Big Trouble by Laura Lippman
Fast Women by Jennifer Crusie
A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole
The Divine Comedy 1950 Modern Library
Leaves of Grass by Whitman 1921 Modern Library
Fortitude by Hugh Walpole 1930 Modern Library
Victory by Joseph Conrad 1921 Modern Library
The Young Adventurer by Horatio Alger pulp undated
Hardy Boys #s 2,6,41 1950s-60s
Nancy Drew #s 1,2,4 1950s
The Bobbsey Twins in Tulip Land 1949
The Long Winter by Laura Ingalls Wilder
The Cloisters and The Hearth by Charles Reade undated Junior Classics series by Greystone Press
Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe undated Junior Classics series by Greystone Press
The Joy of Cooking 1943
Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook 1930


amyparker - Feb 16, 2004 6:20:33 pm PST #878 of 10002
You've got friends to have good times with. When you need to share the trauma of a badly-written book with someone, that's when you go to family.

Oh, a good edition of Joy of Cooking! With the instructions for doing in lobsters!


Susan W. - Feb 16, 2004 7:18:24 pm PST #879 of 10002
Good Trouble and Righteous Fights

My mother has a Joy of Cooking dated around 1952, and given to her as a wedding present that year. It's falling apart at the seams, but I covet it anyway.