Okay, we just saw the weirdest thing happen today. We’ve been getting several messages about an article written by Jonathon Gunson titled, Why Every Author Must Be on Goodreads in 2013.
The article goes on to tell the reader exactly why, talking about the recent membership explosion and the “sales power of reviews”, etc. etc.
Then at the bottom, readers left all kinds of comments praising Goodreads, praising Jonathon’s post and praising his success as a bestselling author.
Okay, so, this isn’t what was weird. What was weird was what happened shortly after. Other visitors left comments warning him and other authors about the dangers of GR – about the personal attacks on authors, the trolling, the fake reviews, the toxic environment etc. None of the comments were incendiary or defamatory or “personal” as Jonathon claimed. They were just stating an opinion and warning others.
Then, we were tipped off by Goronwy that Anna Karenina, a well-known BBG, stepped into it:
Whoa! I see Anna Karenina has responded to the critics and defended Goodreads! Does she work for Goodreads?
After that, there were some exchanges (you can imagine) and like Digital Book World, Jonathon started removing the nasty comments. But he didn’t stop there. He kept removing comments, even the comments that had originally been there. The comments that were warning people about GR. The only one he left up was this one:
Then, someone named Jon confronted him about deleting comments and he said:
It was obvious this was BS because the comments that had been there were definitely legit. Dissenting but legit. A few minutes later, we got this message from MT:
I’m a bit confused about Mr. Gunson’s Goodreads post. I looked up his author account on Goodreads of which he speaks so highly of, and I found his profile and book listings questionable. He has not updated any of his info or has made any posts. He has not uploaded product, author, or book links at all. His books don’t even have cover art. Given he recommended Goodreads without any understanding of how it works says a bit about his practice. I think his post was basically an attempt to gain buyers for his how to use twitter books and his goodreads post is to help qualify him as an professional. That’s my take on him. I think your link back to his website completely derailed his attempts to gain more readers. lol. I’m sure he just landed himself a blip on the BBA radar.
And then MT left this:
Correction. He hasn’t even joined goodreads under an author account. WTF.
And then this:
I know… I almost wish I didn’t look now. Not only does he NOT have a Goodreads account, NONE of his How to Twitter for Author books are listed on Goodreads nor his FREE Author Guide… The WTF’s just keep coming.
So we went to Jonathon’s GR author page and found that MT was exactly right:
We doubled checked to see if it was the same Jonathon Gunson and found this on his FB page:
You see. Definitely the same guy.
So… so… I guess every author must be on Goodreads, except Jonathon Gunson? Huh? *scratches head*
But hold on because that’s not all. We went back to Jonathon’s article and found these two comments that were left:
Guess what. That’s right! These two comments are no longer there.
Hmm… wonder what this guy’s afraid of.
Now, when I asked Athena if I could write a post about this, she said yes, but on one condition. That I make it clear to everyone that STGRB sees Goodreads as a good place for authors if they know who to avoid and what to look out for. If an author already knows the territory, they can have a positive experience there. But if they don’t know (as most new authors don’t), it can be a hell. And we all agree that GR would be a great place if the GR bullies didn’t exist (and the sexual content that we just learned about recently from Carroll.) In fact, if these two things were suddenly wiped off the face of GR (the bullies and the harmful content for kids), we would agree with Jonathon wholeheartedly. In that case, every author would definitely need to be on GR.
Is there any chance that Gunson’s article is some kind of advertorial? I noticed that for the initial, positive comments, he answers each one individually and gives helpful tips on dealing with specific issues.It doesn’t sound like a typical opinion piece.
Yeah, that could be, but someone doing an advertorial for Goodreads, in particular, a best-selling author doing it, should at least have an account on Goodreads himself. Don’t you think?
Hmm. Here’s the product description of ‘The Merlin Mystery’ on Amazon:
Can you solve Merlin’s mystery? If you can, you’ll be richly rewarded. The Merlin Mystery rekindles the fervor that swept readers of Masquerade in the 1980s by offering an intricately detailed, bejeweled wand and a substantial cash prize to the first person to solve the Alchemist’s Spell. Lavishly illustrated with elaborate paintings and symbols, The Merlin Mystery wraps its intricate, MENSA-certified puzzle in a story of the great wizard Merlin and his lover, the water sprite Nimue, who fight a dark sorcerer in magical settings. From glittering caves to magic cottages, the Arthurian cast of characters, which includes an owl, a cat, and a talking crystal ball, seek the Pendragon Alchemy. But they can’t find it without putting all the clues together… that’s where you come in! It’s possible that this puzzle will be solved by some expert logician somewhere, but it’s equally likely to be solved by a clever, persistent kid without adult blinders on. Either way, The Merlin Mystery has a distinct advantage over Masquerade: once you solve the puzzle, you mail in your answer rather than digging up the countryside. There’s also a companion CD, with new-age Celtic music to get you in the mood for solving.
****[end of quote]
The ‘cash prize’ part sounds odd.
And the guy is a former creative director for McCann Erickson. Maybe he’s gone back to advertising.
Perhaps he was paid to write it?
That’s what Athena said. He probably was.
That would explain why he was deleting valid comments.
To be honest, Goodreads baffles me slightly. I know that as a marketing tool many authors see it as invaluable but as a pro-writer myself, it doesn’t really seem to work for me. Possibly because I don’t spend hour upon hour trawling through discussions and trying to get people to like me. I’d much rather be writing and giving my readers more material.
That said, as your post suggests, it seems to be just as fertile a ground for bitter trolls as Amazon and who needs any more of that?
So …. if Goodreads did pay this guy (speculation at this point) wouldn’t that be in the same ball park as say … an author paying for reviews?
Discuss …..
He says in the article that Goodreads is better for fiction, which is likely why he has not listed his non-fiction works. Many authors are very busy and perhaps he just hasn’t had the time to update everything. As for why he deleted the comments, perhaps he’s trying to teach professional authors what goodreads is about. The bad stuf doesn’t apply to them because they are not getting on goodreads looking for trouble. I’ve been on goodreads for a year now and I have never had a problem with an author or a reviewer-mainly because I don’t go looking for trouble.
Ruby, if you’re an author who is going to write a promotional article for GR like this, you better have your books and your account set up on GR or else you just look stupid, in my not-so-humble opinion. The reason he deleted the comments is clear. GR paid him to do this. The comments warning authors about the dangers of having an account on the site are valid. We’ve given several examples of authors who weren’t looking for trouble but trouble found them anyway as it often does on GR because the troublemakers go looking for authors to attack. You’ve been lucky, but just because you haven’t been targeted so far, doesn’t mean you won’t be put on some shitlist in the future. So good luck!
Well, if I did end up on a shitlist, (Which I wouldn’t, because I don’t reply to or acknowledge bad reviews) I wouldn’t make a huge deal of it and make it worse by replying to these bullies. I’d simply let it go, because that is what separates professionals from children who fight online. When you look at this issue as a whole it’s really all about professionalism. When you write a book, you have to expect that it might take off and you could potentially become famous. Famous people get picked on and it’s all about how you handle it. Sure, the authors mentioned on this site are not exactly “famous” but like I said, as someone who puts themselves in the public eye, you have to be ready for cruel comments and attacks that don’t seem fair. Movie stars get the same treatment, but no one is crying, “bully” on the media that does this to them.
Hi Ruby. A couple things here. You’re assuming that authors are only put on BBA lists because they respond to bad reviews. This is a wrong assumption. We’ve seen and given examples of targeted authors who were not looking for trouble and who were not even responding to reviews at all and yet they were labeled BBA by the bullies. One author we know of, for example, was targeted just because he posted a question about free books. Another one was targeted because she simply left a comment on another author’s blog, an author who happened to be targeted by the bullies at the time. You see, there is so rhyme or reason to the bullies’ behaviour. These people don’t seem to operate using logic or common sense. They behave much like a pack of ravenous wolves, targeting whichever author they happen to come across.
You say that if you were ever targeted and labeled BBA, you wouldn’t respond and that’s good! That’s exactly what we counsel targeted authors to do on our Do’s and Don’t’s page:
http://www.stopthegrbullies.com/learn-more/dos-and-donts-for-victims/
The only time we ever counsel an author to act and seek an attorney is when the bullies cross the line into criminal behaviour and we’ve seen them do that.
Now as for the public’s treatment of famous people, we don’t follow your line of thinking. First of all, you’re assuming that all authors on GR are famous and they’re not. Many of them, mostly unknown authors, come to GR for that reason – just so they can get their names and their books some exposure.
Secondly, even if an author is famous, that doesn’t mean that they should automatically be a target for abuse and that they are required just to sit back and take it. Yes, many famous people are picked on, targeted, and abused by the media. Does the simple fact that this happens make it right? No. And when we follow this line of thinking, where do we draw the line? Johnny mentioned Charles Manson when he addressed Kat Kennedy’s similar argument. Should Charles Manson have been freed from his crime of conspiring to kill Sharon Tate simply because she was a famous actress and thus deserved to be stalked and killed? You know, because famous people are just “picked on” all the time and they just need to learn how to take it?
Lastly, when you say that famous people don’t respond to public bullying, you’re wrong there, too. There have been many lawsuits filed because of the kind of abuse you’re referring to. A few names come to mind: Jennifer Aniston, Tom Cruise, Prince William and Kate, et cetera, et cetera.
Ain’t that the truth. And contrary to what they say, the bullies never accept apologies. Look at the recent Eve Thomas incident.