Goodreads Actually Did Something For Me

 (NOT an accurate depiction of Goodreads librarians)

After I wrote about reviews and whether authors should read them, I took a quick scan of my novel's review average on Goodreads. As I noted in my previous post, I only read new reviews if I notice my average staying the same or increasing (again, that last point is unlikely). 

I'd gotten three new reviews for Running From Herself, with no change to its overall rating, so why not look? Well. A one-star had snuck its way in. One star? Come on! That's unnecessarily harsh.

Then I read it. It was a nonsensical statement from a guy who wrote something to the effect of, "They can't even find their Amazon ratings." What? At first, I tried to suss out how that connected to my book. Who's "they"? I'm aware that spam is everywhere, but it's generally simply a link that only imbeciles would ever click on. I get notification of comments like that on my various websites a lot, but I've smartly chosen to moderate comments. This guy actually seemed to be trying to convey something, albeit something only his psychotic brain understood.

Then I noticed a "report this review" button. Has Goodreads always had that? I'm not a big utilizer of the site, but I'm thinking that it may have finally started paying attention to all the critical articles floating around the internet.

I'm not someone who constantly demands to see the manager. I've gotten my share of less-than-glowing reviews for a few of my books. But the one star, combined with gibberish, seemed worthy of reporting. My note was something like, "I don't think this is a review of my book (or any book?)", adding that it read as nonsense.

I pulled up the site today, and while I'd gotten no response from Goodreads, the review is gone! I wonder if they've had to hire a dedicated person just to clear out all the trash comments, because I'm sure I'm not alone. It almost makes me want to take a look at the reviews for my other books, but...nah.

It's possible the guy was drunk. He's a real user who's reviewed maybe ten other books, although all of them are from two specific authors. Maybe those two authors are him (hmmm). Dang, I should have read those reviews. Maybe he was not only drunk, but despondent over his two nom de plumes' lack of publishing success, and "their" inability to find their Amazon rankings, because he'd just drowned his sorrows in a quart of Jim Beam and he could barely find his way to the bathroom, much less his Amazon numbers. I bet he gave all "their" books five stars, while he was still able to jab his finger at his screen...right before he passed out.

The actual point of this post (before it veered off into non-drunk nonsense) is that I'm shocked (shocked!) that Goodreads did something for me.  

Maybe there's hope for it yet.