I read a article today about how a woman's one star review that she gave to a book on Goodreads got the attention of the author himself. He felt compelled to reply ...
Goodreads Author Meltdown
It all started with one woman's Goodreads review of "The Boy and the Peddler of Death" by Dylan Saccoccio. She rated it a one star, and her book review is as stated below.
This was just ... so unnecessarily wordy and pretentious. I just did not enjoy it at all. Which makes me sad because the summary says it's for fans of Harry Potter, Game of Thrones, and World of Warcraft. Aka three of my favorite things. So how did I loathe this so entirely from page one? I don't know.
The author responded with the following.
Sorry that my book evoked such a horrible response. May I ask how you discovered it? I'm an indie author. I work over 100 hours a week to get my books to succeed so that I don't have to be a slave anymore. This review is not good for my business, so unless your desire is to ruin my dreams, it would mean a great deal if you could remove this review from my work and forget about it. But if it's your desire to hurt me financially and ruin my business, then it's understandable why you would post such a harmful review. I'm just curious as to how you discovered the book, as most of my sales are made through people I meet on social media.
Best,
Dylan Saccoccio
The reviewer is obviously out to ruin the author, both financially, and apparently emotionally. Snuff out his dreams and crush him. Why else would someone not love his book? The author is right to assume that she hates him, with a vengeance. She is evil in it's strongest form.
She responds. Her response is agreeable and she even offers to rephrase her review. His response is:
Do you have empathy? Do you know what it's like to make something for a living? Are you human? Or do you just look at other people like they're automatons that you can slander as though your actions don't manifest consequences? Trust this. Me confronting someone that defaces my work says nothing about me other then the fact that I address it when someone goes out of his/her way to do so. But you left a 1 star review on someone's life work, someone who is trying to warn people what's going on in this world so that they can protect themselves and help others, and think that this is a moral action. 400,000 children go missing each year in the US alone. Do you know where they're going? Do you know who's behind it? Do you know why the media is silent about it? Do you know how much a person risks to confront the evil that's running amok in this world? YOU don't know right from wrong. And that's what a review like this says about the person that wrote it.
To write a one star review of Saccoccio's book is to demonstrate that you are not human. Saccoccio is fighting evil. He is a one man, evil fighting machine. I have no idea where the children abductions came from, but apparently people who write one star reviews are contributing to this problem.
I'm not embarrassed at all. And all of you who are taking Cait S's side, what you're doing in the bigger picture is waging war on the consciousness of humanity. The end. If this interaction prevents you from reading my work, it's okay. I'm not offended. I don't want your money, nor do I want you having a bad experience by reading my books. What bothers me is when people that operated at a low level of consciousness defame the work of people that are trying to help humanity, and no one helps humanity better then artists.
People who don't like Saccoccio's book are raging war on the consciousness of humanity. Remember, he is saving the world. Open your eyes, read his book and rate it five stars, or you're be killing the planet! Oh, and don't read his book if you are stupid. I almost forgot that part.
Now the random capitalization comes into play.
NO. I don't want you to do anything because you're immoral. Leave this up so every person henceforth can see ALL OF YOU for what YOU ARE. DESTRUCTIVE to consciousness and humanity. What you've done to me, you do to YOURSELF, because if you KNEW anything about anything, you'd know we were all connected to each other, and instead of destroying each other's work, you'd be supporting each other, which is why I will NEVER behave like ANY of you immoral people, and I won't go seeing what you've written or done in the world so I can destroy that. No, I will only defend my work against EVIL.
And today, all of you see why EVIL IS KICKING HUMANITY'S ASS, and why the human condition is SLAVERY.
THAT'S what The Tale of Onora is about, and if you can't grasp that, then BE GONE!
A serial killer in the making perhaps?
You know less then nothing about my book. And SHE DID attack my book. That's what a 1 star review IS. Her reviews POST TO MY PAGE. It attaches itself to me whether I like it or not. What is wrong with your POISONED WORLDVIEW where you cannot understand the damage that that does??? So again, please, DON'T read my book. I didn't engage this interaction. But you can bet that I'll defend myself for as long as I'm alive, and if that turns you off, then get as offended as YOU WANT to about it.
I'm sorry Saccoccio, but you just did far more damage to your book then that one star review ever could have done ...
I am unable to fully disclose this entire conversation for obvious reasons, but you can view it for yourself by clicking on the link located up at the top of the page. I highly recommend it. Not only is it a back and fourth between the reviewer and the author, but many other Goodread members also chimed in on it. None agreeing with the author, for very apparent reasons. I am not entirely unsympathetic to the viewpoint of the author, but his erratic behavior left me with very little sympathy, if any.
If it was the goal of the author to become famous, then mission accomplished, as everyone is now discussing him and his book. But there is good attention, and bad attention, and this author is now getting some bad attention. I feel like he destroyed himself, and his books, by alienating his readers and getting caught up in the drama. Authors should refrain from commenting on their readers reviews, positively or negatively. Readers should feel free to express themselves, and not have to worry about being attacked by a deranged author, or to feel like the author is lurking in the shadows breathing hot, garlic smelling breath down the back of your neck as you type out your opinion on said book. I have not read, nor do I plan to read, this book. If I wasn't interested before, I definitely am not interested now. I hesitate to say this, but the book was also self published. Although I have read some magnificent books that started out as self published ("Wool" by Hugh Howey), self published is, technically speaking, a accomplishment that anyone can obtain. Just because he paid to have his book published, does not mean that his book is good.
In the end he was banned from Goodreads, not only because of his temper tantrum, but I also heard that it was in part because he was also 'buying' off five star ratings for his book. You get a free book in return for a raving five star review.
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