Grief over a review

[Gabapentin]

In my opinion, you have a serious conflict of interest if this is the case. You should choose to do one or the other.

I'm led to agree with your assessment. In retrospect it was likely a mistake to review a product I had any affiliation with whatsoever. I've made the determination that I will never write a review for something I'm even remotely involved in. I appreciate the admonishment from those who have given it, its a valuable lesson.

@Hellhound: regarding putting less weight into the review. That's precisely why I put the disclaimer. Its also why I didn't go all fanboy and just look at the positives. I honestly think the book in question is very very good, but I don't think I'd give a '5' to more than a handful of books out there. The publisher disagreed with this stance.

Anyway, as Morrus said, he's leaving the review up. I guess I consider it a closed matter. I'll have to deal with the publisher personally, although I'm still not sure what exactly I'm going to do. However, with the review staying up they may dictate my actions for me. I guess we'll see. Again, thank you all very much for the very valuable insight you've provided. I really appreciate it.

 

[HellHound]

The publisher disagreed with this stance.

The same publisher also said similar things to another reviewer I know. Sent some negative emails to him, accused him of being in the process of destroying the company, banned him from their site and message boards and blacklisted him from receiving new review product.

And once again, this was over a 4/5 review. From one of the more respected reviewers on the scene who almost never gives 5/5 reviews.

Bah.

While their products ARE good, their professional conduct is beyond "lacking".

 

[Arnix]

From a Publisher's Point of View

Reviews can hurt your feelings. Sometimes they feel like a personal affront, but its just business. You aren't calling my mother names; you are just disagreeing with my style. If I hadn't learned that lesson, I never would have made it through English 101 in college.

I know that when we got our first reviews, we looked at it, and said "what did we do wrong that we can fix". We went through the review line by line, item by item. Things that could be fixed, such as bookmarks, hyperlinking, or even the misspellings, we added immediately and a new version was sent to all of our customers and reviewers. Some things such as someone not liking our editing style, that couldn't really be helped for that product.

Every review should be a learning process. Even a 5/5 or 10/10 should teach you something. Always remember however, you can not please all of the people all of the time. One of our products has a 4/5 to 5/5 from most of our customers' reviews, except for one person who gave us a 1/5. It happens.

Reviewers should be accepted as feedback, especially from a small publisher. Small publishers should be happy that they even got reviewed. I know we are.


Pardon the rambling. I hope it helped someone. Perhaps they should have spent time correcting the problem and possibly asking for a corrected review reflecting a corrected product.

*edit*
Gabapentin: Fire me an e-mail if you have time for reviews. We love to find reviewers who actually write reviews of products. Most of the time, we send out a copy and it never gets a write-up.

 

[Cergorach]

The same publisher also said similar things to another reviewer I know. Sent some negative emails to him, accused him of being in the process of destroying the company, banned him from their site and message boards and blacklisted him from receiving new review product.

And once again, this was over a 4/5 review. From one of the more respected reviewers on the scene who almost never gives 5/5 reviews.

Bah.

While their products ARE good, their professional conduct is beyond "lacking".

*wanders over to the review section*
Let's see...
*jaw drops*
Those guys pull this kind of crap!?!? As a future customer i would like an explanation why they think that they can bully people, 'friends', like that! This is worse then a certain gun nut writer that posted really bad reviews of competing gun nut publishers! *blows off some steam*

You know what really hurts is that the release of the reviewed book made me curious, curious enough to retake a look at the other products that the unspoken company published. The product line actually made it onto the "need to order from UK distributor" list (i have a regular distributor in the netherlands), this review might have gotten me to order sooner, the 'disgusting' publisher attitude definately made me reconsider it's place on the order list...

My attitude might get the reviewer in more trouble, i certainly don't hope so, it isn't my intention. But i just can't stand people and companies like that, so i'll make a stand and vote with my wallet *just like all the anti DRM opeople are doing).

 

[trancejeremy]

Well, I read the review in question, and you seemed completely honest about your impressions of the product. That's all that can be asked of you, IMHO, from both review readers and the company.

But bear in mind, smaller publishers, like in this case, often depend on the success of their current book for their company to stay aloat and put out their next book. So they can be a bit touchy, because a whole lot is riding on their book.

 

[Old Fezziwig]

But bear in mind, smaller publishers, like in this case, often depend on the success of their current book for their company to stay aloat and put out their next book. So they can be a bit touchy, because a whole lot is riding on their book.

That's a fair point, but I'm not sure it justifies the behavior described by Gabapentin. I've read the review, too, and was considering the product when I got more money, mostly because they've been around a while now and seem to be releasing interesting stuff that's pretty sound mechanically. This review certainly wouldn't have changed my mind.

Nick

 

[Joshua Randall]

Why are we pussyfooting around here? Which publisher was this, and which product?

 

[jaerdaph]

Why are we pussyfooting around here? Which publisher was this, and which product?

Because the review author asked to remain anonymous, and people are trying to respect that.

Not that it takes a rocket scientist to figure out which review it is.

Personally, I don't know what to think, or if this will even change my mind not to buy. If it's like their other products, I know it's going to be very good. On the other hand, this isn't acceptable behavior from a publisher. On the other, other hand, I only have one side of the story....

 

[Joshua Randall]

Someone could PM me or e-mail me with the link, saving me several minutes of my valuable time.

 

[Cergorach]

On the other, other hand, I only have one side of the story....

Normally i would agree with you, but... *points at hellhound's and Morrus's post* That's two hombres i believe, so i have more sides to a moreway story. It doesn't take a rocket scientist (although it would help if you where) to figure out to figure out that something's fishy, and it ain't me...