Bull's-eye for amateur book critics

An author warms up to her bad reviews on Amazon.com.

By A.B. Curtiss

from the May 29, 2007 edition

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Escondido, Calif. - My first negative review on Amazon.com felt like a dagger to the heart. As the author of nine books, I was used to letters from readers who said nice things like, "Your book saved my life," or "Thank you for writing this."

Now, with the advent of Amazon.com, I now get something else as well: Insults!

Before Amazon, those who didn't take a fancy to something you said didn't go to the trouble of putting pen to paper and stamp to envelope to tell you so.

The ease of firing off a sentence or two on the Web has spawned a new species of vilipendious critics just itching to skewer your ten-year authorial effort in five seconds.

I'm not alone. Not even bestselling authors can escape being maligned by amateur critics whose time has come.

Tom Clancy's 168 Amazon reviews for Patriot Games fairly explode with enthusiasm: "one of Clancy's best"; "an intense thrill ride"; "this book will keep you at the edge of your seat."

Then a reviewer named Mr. Druitt, of Munfordville, Ky., weighed in: "I have never expected too much from Tom Clancy.... Patriot Games is surely the most ridiculous novel written in many years, but its unintended hilarity almost redeems the insipid dialogue and flat characters."

Thank you for sharing, Mr. Druitt! Thanks to Amazon, everybody sees themselves as bona fide literary critics – whether they've read the book or not. Here's P. Burke's review of my book, "Depression is a Choice": "First off, since I haven't READ the book (I refuse to pay for something that I can't even stand the title to), my review may be off-base." You think?

I'm a board-certified cognitive behavioral therapist. I wrote the book to help people get out of depression without drugs. It doesn't have the greatest title, I admit. (It was my publishers' choice.)

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