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Hi Blog,
Long before _Cancel Culture_ became a mainstream idea, and a full time job for those living in their parents’ basements…
It was alive and growing on the pages of Amazon…
in the form of book reviews collectively distinguished by the always anonymous “Amazon Customer.”
These _Book Justice Warriors_ spend their time bad mouthing books on Amazon for sport.
I realize there do exist some accurate reviews of books out there, and reviews play an important role for purchasers…
but I am on a roll, so let me continue…
There is a subset of the people who have nothing better to do that try to tear down those who create things (especially authors).
These are the cancelers, 1-star reviewers, trolls, etc…
who many times haven’t even read the book, and definitely haven’t tried to understand anything.
Sometimes they are even other authors who anonymously try to beat their competition by leaving bad reviews for competing books.
When I first started out, I remember not being able to sleep at night when I received a bad review.
I would dwell on thoughts like…
_They are taking that out of context._
_How did they not get that?_
_They clearly didn’t even read it._
_This seems more like a personal attack._
Sometimes they were right. Many times they were just mean spirited.
Almost all of them anonymous.
It is pretty easy when you have read enough reviews to know which reviews are meant to help buyers, and those that are meant solely to bully.
Unfortunately, Amazon’s algorithm doesn’t know, or just doesn’t care.
BUT IF YOU WERE EVER A CHILD (MOST OF US HAVE BEEN), AND DEALT WITH A BULLY, YOU WILL NOTICE THEY ALL HAVE ONE THING IN COMMON.
They would much rather go after individuals than groups.
This concept is especially true for authors.
I was recently looking at one of my anthology books, _The Success Code_, which now has over 100 reviews with a 4.6 star average.
There are very few 1 – 3 star reviews, and none of those have any text associated with them.
This is highly unusual, as most of the time these types of reviewers 1-3 star givers) like to say what they think.
But it is a little different with an anthology, because in order to criticize one author, they have to be willing to criticize them all.
AND REMEMBER, BULLIES DON’T LIKE TO DO THAT.
That is why it is nice to occasionally participate in anthologies. There is safety in numbers and it gives you a solid additional book for your Amazon Author page.
If you are just starting out, this can be very appealing, because fear of bad reviews almost always slows new and solo authors in their tracks.
_Leap. Love. Grow._
RAY BREHM
P.S. Want to join our group for your next book?
Our latest anthology THE ENTREPRENEUR CODE is open for enrollment this week. You can learn more here: HTTPS://WWW.CO-AUTHOR.ME [https://raybrehm.krtra.com/c/bRZId05axeXc/DGoV]
Ray Brehm 