Bottled Imp Games said:
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I knew the reviewer here was not going to give such a good review (he had previously informed me of such), so I suggested that he send it to me first. I guess I was guilty of judging him by my own standards, as although I didn’t expect a five star review, I know I would never post critically on the book of a friend or a colleague. Were I reviewing it, I would comment on the good (and indeed, I have done just that in several reviews)…
The LAST thing you want is to have someone close to you comment on your failings. There are three columns in the prestige classes in Zombies that have incorrect information in them. Believe me, no one is punishing themselves more than I am for that f*ck up. I absolutely hate getting stuff like that wrong.
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I would like to say that I don’t feel I in any way badgered or pressured the reviewer to retract his review. I merely said that I felt that on top of the other review, pointing out the holes was less than favorable and that it would be best if he removed it. It’s nearly impossible to put yourself in that situation, because, well, hearing bad things about your books is so unbelievably hurtful. I suppose I never developed a skin thick enough to deflect it.
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I would like to say to the reviewer that I said that if it was a toss up between a 4 and a 5 on a review and there were no halfway marks, that I would always round up for a friend. I’m not entirely sure how that got misconstrued, but I think that would be only reasonable for anyone to expect that from a friend. I would expect a lower mark from a professional reviewer, but from a colleague or writing partner, I think I’m allowed to be disappointed.
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I’d like to finish by saying that I think raising this issue here was extremely unfair, because this was a private issue and had nothing to do with anyone but the reviewer and myself.
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Stuart
First oof, let me say that I understand your emotion here, as I writer I too feel too attached to things at times. However, I must comment on a few things you said. Actually I think you are doing the people who read reviews a huge diservice here. A review is for the consumer, to help them make a fair and balanced decision on purchasing a product. If you agree to be a reviewers then you are agreeing to uphold certain ideals and honor by giving it a fair, unbiased, review. Or, at the least, openly claiming your bias so that the reader knows. By giving friends better marks than you would give anyone else you are breeching that compact between you and the reader. You are not giving them what a reviewer is supposed to give, honesty. You say that you would always round up for a friend, but you should not treat friends any differently than anyone else. In fact, most of my friends demand harder standards from me than from strangers because they know that I am doing it to truly *help* them and not just slander them. If I say something bad in a review then they know that it was honestly lacking and it was not just some guy having a bad day. *That,* sir, is what honor is all about.
I understand the hurt and the anguish of a bad review, lord knows I have gotten enough for my short stories and poetry, but as long as the bad review was honest, then it is for the best, ALWAYS, because it helps me grow. A 5/5 is almost a sacred reward, it is meant only for those creators who have truly gone above and beyond all expectations and pulled off something grand. Mistakes that could have been caught in one more round of editing do taint that overall picture. Now, understand, I am not getting on you for missing the tables, it is a human mistake and you have said, we are all human, but it does lessen the quality of the work. Now if you fixed that table and rereleased it (I know that may not be an option for you, just stating an example) then it may very well deserve a 5/5 and get one.
Also, you state airing your laundry, basically, on here was unfair. I hate to point this out but when you are in a business, very little about that business is private. The reviewer asked for help in handling a situation and came here. From what I have gathered he is not the only person to have this problem, whether warranted or not, and that takes it from a private issue to a public one. Not to mention that he wrote a public review. When you are in the business world you will find very little is "private" any longer and that bugs a lot of people, which makes them decide to not go public and for which I understand. I just want it known that I, for one, think that the reviewer was well within his right to bring this to the public eye. He did keep it tight to his chest for as long as it was prudent, which is a lot more than he was required to do. If this same thing had happened with a major magazine reviewer you would have seen the review reposted, along with your email and a long scathing column on it. Thsi reviewer did not do that and even defended your work at numerous points.
Just my two cents
