A Critique on Critiques: The Absurdity of Amazon’s Book Reviews
Amazon, the e-commerce monolith, has been the death and life of publishing, the grim reaper, and the nurturing cradle in one fell swoop. A prime venue (pun intended) for independent authors to sidestep traditional gatekeepers, Amazon has opened doors previously barricaded by the old guards of publishing. Yet, it’s also home to a perplexing phenomenon — a proverbial battleground of intellectual discourse, littered with the casualties of illogical, and at times, absurd book reviews.
I recently moderated a six-author panel at the St. Louis Public Library and most of the authors agreed: they rarely read their reviews. I peek at mine here and there, but less and less as I write more books. Why? Well, because there’s nothing you can do about a reader’s opinion. Especially when the opinion is irrational.
Stephen King sums up a thought many a writer has had in the face of bad or just plain unfair reviews:
“I have spent a good many years since―too many, I think―being ashamed about what I write. I think I was forty before I realized that almost every writer of fiction or poetry who has ever published a line has been accused by someone of wasting his or her God-given talent. If you write (or paint or dance or sculpt or sing, I suppose), someone will try to make you feel lousy about it, that’s…
