Apparently it bears repeating:

PEOPLE

PLEASE, for the Love of All That Is Good & True & Right in This Universe, in This Year of Our RBG 2024,

DO NOT give a book low stars simply because there is something physically wrong with your copy.

The vendor that sold you the copy is not going to read your review. You are not harming the vendor by low-starring the book.

YOU ARE HARMING THE AUTHOR of the book, who has zero control over the physical condition of the book you have received.

1/

If there's an issue with the physical copy of your book, you must take it up with the vendor directly. Initiate a return procedure. Write an email screed. Something -- but NOT a bad review of the book!

That's all.

#OnlineVendors
#books
#reviews

2/2

@courtcan Totally agree. That said, when I see a bad review because of book quality, I disregard that review.
@courtcan I have to keep reminding myself DO NOT SUCCUMB TO THE REFLEX OF SUBMITTING TYPO CORRECTIONS (to ebooks)

The author probably has no way to respond or correct it, and the publisher most likely won't.

@zakalwe As an indiepub/selfpub author, I can say that I'm not against receiving typo corrections from readers.... But whether I have time or not to address any of those is a completely different matter. If it comes to choosing between fixing an old book or working on a new one, I will most likely choose the new one every time!

But yeah, traditionally published authors definitely have zero recourse for correcting errors in their books.

@courtcan Yeah, I'm with you, I absolutely will fix errors in my books if they're pointed out to me. (I need to get more beta readers, actually.)
@courtcan my one personal exception is an ebook last year that, I can only assume, was an unauthorized scan and dump. Robert L. Forward’s Starquake popped up on Kindle to my excitement and was the worst scan: Cover obviously from a used copy, formatting problems all over, etc. i reviewed it and it disappeared the next day. I think I even got a refund.
@courtcan I guess this IS what I saw coming in the 1999 Borders books and music party. 😎🥰✊️
@courtcan This. I got a 1 star review for my book because a big online retailer had sent someone a copy with a biro mark on the cover. They literally judged the book by its cover.

@courtcan
"Arrived one day later than advertised, one star. Haven't read it yet."

People rate their purchase experience. I wish the platform vendors sorted this out better.

@courtcan Honestly, I don’t disagree, but my Storm of Swords copy had 2 sections just repeated (pages 150-300). I hate George RR Martin and no one can convince me otherwise.

@courtcan

These are the same people that post 1-star app reviews that say only “it should be free” or “I can’t log in.”

@courtcan I've been screaming at Amazon for years to separate book reviews from condition reviews. Especially for Kindle editions, which are often riddled with typos.