Pretty disturbing, how can authors do this?!

I've been following a thread on Amazon, deletion of negative reviews, in the romance forum there and I'm aghast at how an author could resort to manipulating the review system to delete negative reviews. In addition to that, to bullying and harassing a reader that submitted a negative review of her book.

The author in question is Deborah MacGillivray and apparently, the Amazon forums is not the only place where people are talking about this.

I'm not sure how to insert a link, but I'll give the address and you can see for yourself!

http://www.amazon.com/tag/romance/forum/ref=cm_cd_dp_rt_tft_tp?%5Fencoding=UTF8&...

Check out this blog, and read the comments section. Nora Roberts is one of the authors that commented and spoke out against MacGillivray's tactics:

http://dearauthor.com/wordpress/2008/04/07/highland-press-warnings/

Another blog about this at smartbitchestrashybooks.com:

http://www.smartbitchestrashybooks.com/index.php/weblog/playing_the_amazon_game_...

I know that there is a thread on paperbackswap.com that has people talking about this fiasco as well.

I am appalled that an author could resort to such tactics. I will never purchase one of MacGillivray's books and wanted to pass the word along.

I had seen the thread when it first started but didn't know or it hadn't gotten to the part about the bullying thing. The thread is so huge now I'm not sure when I'd have time to go through the whole thing. However, I can't believe any author would bully someone about a negative review! Horrible!!

Yeah, it's pretty horrible. There were yahoo groups this author and her cohorts were involved in, a "you scratch my back, I'll scratch yours" mentality.

When negative reviews were posted for the books, an e-mail would be sent out or a message posted on this yahoo board to go "click" unhelpful to get the negative review deleted. Pretty shady practices if you ask me.

From: DeborahAnne MacGillivray
To: HPauthors@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Monday, July 23, 2007 3:42 PM
Subject: Re: HPauthors BME

EVERYONE!!! we have to write to get this taken down

readerreview@book.com

email there - identify yourself as the author of one of the stories, and that this review is NOT a review and needs to be taken down.

DeborahAnne

(readerreview@book.com is a barnes and noble address)

—

To: The_Ladies_in_Waiting@yahoogroups.com ; HPauthors@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Tuesday, March 04, 2008 5:38 AM
Subject: HPauthors Clicks requested for xxxxxx

Thanks in advance for any clicks!

—

To: HPauthors@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Tuesday, December 04, 2007 11:07 AM
Subject: Re: HPauthors Clicks Please

Thanks, all you chicks — er, clicks.

—

To: The_Ladies_in_Waiting@yahoogroups.com ; HPauthors@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Wednesday, October 24, 2007 1:19 PM
Subject: HPauthors Clicks for my review of xxxxxx

May I have some Clicks please? J thanks a bunch!

This one deals with one particular reviewer that gave her book a 3 star rating on Amazon. It's quite scary, especially when you read the very end.

From: The_Ladies_in_Waiting@yahoogroups.com
mailto:The_Ladies_in_Waiting@yahoogroups.comOn Behalf Of DeborahAnneMacGillivray

Sent: Tuesday, August 21, 2007 7:58 PM
To: The_Ladies_in_Waiting@yahoogroups.com
Subject: The_Ladies_in_Waitingvote down this bitch please

HYPERLINK
“http://www.amazon.com/tag/romance/forum/ref=cm_cd_et_up_redir/104-4730808-1
059121?%5Fencoding=UTF8&cdForum=FxM42D5QN2YZ1D&cdPage=1&cdThread=Tx1KTAKNGJY
4AJ8&displayType=tagsDetail&newContentID=MxEFXWGIMKK03C#MxEFXWGIMKK03C”http:
//www.amazon.com/tag/romance/forum/ref=cm_cd_et_up_redir/104-4730808-1059121
?%5Fencoding=UTF8&cdForum=FxM42D5QN2YZ1D&cdPage=1&cdThread=Tx1KTAKNGJY4AJ8&d
isplayType=tagsDetail&newContentID=MxEFXWGIMKK03C#MxEFXWGIMKK03C

vote no, on this and vote abuse.

“Reba Belle says:
When I saw this I had to see what bad books folks were reading and make
sure
I didn’t have any of them in my stack of books to read! LOL LOL
But, when I saw the post about authors acting childish when you post a
badreview, I had to write! No kidding. My little fingers were itching to
writethis story. LOL
I have a review “out there” for In Her Bed, author is Deborah something
or other.
Anyway, I reviewed that book and gave it positive points, but stated my
reasons for giving it 3 stars. Frankly, I thought that was
overgenerous…
She keeps having my review taken down and Amazon keeps putting it back
up (as is).
I think its sad for her that most of the reviews for that book are by
fellow authors and what appear to be clones (because they have read the samebooks).
That’s c l o n e s not c l o w n s. LOL
Really that book was far from 5 star material and to hear the rave
reviews written about it you would think it would be up for the next “Great American Novel Award.” wholly smokes! LOL LOL LOL LOL
A great man once said, “Anybody who is great at anything does it for
their own approval, not someone elses.”

Reba

No virus found in this incoming message.
Checked by AVG Free Edition.
Version: 7.5.484 / Virus Database: 269.12.1/963 - Release Date:
8/20/2007
5:44 PM

Messages in this topic (10)

2c. Re: vote down this bitch please
Posted by: “DeborahAnne MacGillivray”
writer@DeborahMacGIllivray.co.uk scotladywriter
Date: Tue Aug 21, 2007 10:17 pm ((PDT))
Well, thanks to XXXXXX our PI , we now have her name, her husband’s
name, her chidrens’ names, her grannies and great grannies name. Her
address phone number and email
lol…quite interesting.

Well, I read her book In Her Bed and it sucked big time. I put it out of its misery and it was reborn as an airborn missile (as in headed for the garbage can), although I did remove the cover first. It was the only worthwhile part of the whole book.

Meg, sorry but there is no correct touchstone for this book. I tried! :)

CC

I've never even heard of this nutjob, but she's sure on my 'never buy' list now!

Sara,

That's why I created the thread. To give people a heads up just in case they happened to come across this author's books. Even if her books were good (and according to CC, they aren't!LOL), I wouldn't support an author that does things like this.

CC, could you change the touchtone for 'In Her Bed'? Right now it brings up a Janet Chapman book, and I don't want people to get confused. JC has some good books. Deborah MacGillivray is the touchtone for the author under discussion.

I've been reading the threads for, omg, has it been THREE HOURS? I feel like I'm watching a bad soap opera! I feel for the authors who've had to put up with that kind of abuse. I think the writers have a case for harassment - threats, abuse and profanity create an "hostile" work environment, and should be investigated.

cynthia,

I know, it's like a train wreck! D. MacGillivray did this to herself by resorting to such tactics and so she has no one to blame but herself.

She gives authors a bad name, thankfully, there were other romance authors that have spoken out so we should not think all are like MacGillivray. I think it's awesome Nora Roberts voiced her opinion, it's always helpful when a big-name author like her speaks out against these unethical behaviors. I think it helps others be brave in coming out with their stories of what has been happening a lot of us readers don't know about.

I rather hope that her publisher and distributor Kensington will not let her actions go unpunished. It's one thing to click a few 'unhelpful' buttons yourself in response to a negative review. It's quite another to browbeat other authors and your friends into doing this on your behalf, attacking people for writing negative reviews about your books, and making vaguely threatening comments about a reviewer's family.

What is even worse, and which makes the author seem so much more pathetic, is that amazon does not seem to me to be one of the most powerful arbiters of taste. Deborah MacGillivray has been frying the smallest fish, IMO.

I was just thinking, think she'll pop up here and defend herself under an assumed name? Is it possible to defend her actions?

Someone play devil's advocate and tell me why it would be ok to do something like that.

Maybe she took her cues about appropriate adult behavior from Lori Drew?

adeptmagic,

I know, it's disgusting to see adults behaving in this fashion. I was watching a lifetime movie last night called Odd Girl Out and it reminded me of this author's antics. In that movie, a sweet girl is bullied and harassed by her former friends, online, text messages, and at school to the point that she overdosed on sleeping pills and almost died. In the end, she became stronger and stood up to her bullying high school friends.

Although the movie was only fiction, it is based on what really happens to girls in high school. The sad thing is, there are immature and childish adults who still behave like this such as MacGillivray and her kind.