I’ve spent some time looking at Amazon reviews of other self-published authors and I stumbled onto a few bizarre ones. I won’t post them here because I don’t want to give them specific attention. Now, I have a friend who does Amazon reviews and he can be pretty harsh, but he’s also fair, concise, and isn’t insulting. Unless the author comes after him and then the gloves come off, but that’s another story better told by him while you’re eating popcorn and wearing a large foam finger on your head.
Anyway, I saw some reviewers who went for cheap or free ebooks with the intention of giving them a bad review. I know this because they openly admitted to it in their review, which I think hurts their argument. If a person knows that a reviewer is being a jackass on purpose, why would anybody listen to them? I’m not counting people who were interested in the book and simply didn’t like it. That’s a fair and well-earned opinion. I’m talking about the people who never gave the book a shot and bought the book only to tear it apart. Yes, everyone is entitled to their opinion and we have freedom of speech. Yet, I don’t see what a person gains from tossing out a hurtful opinion that they had started developing before reading the book.
My question is simple: what is the point of doing this? Maybe I have too much of an interest in the why of human action, but in the grand scheme of things it doesn’t matter.
Legends of Windemere 
It seems a completely pointless exercise to me too. I review a fair few books..but frankly I don’t have time or energy to bother writing a negative one anyway. That is not to say i won’t put a point or opinion cross… but it would have to be offensively bad for me to take up a pen to write that I simply didn’t care for a book!
LikeLike
I agree. I can see if it’s so horribly written or offensive that you feel you have to warn people. Yet, you still start out giving the book a chance. The people that go ‘I want to give this book a 1-star review’ and THEN buy it are the ones that I simply don’t get. They could use that time reading a book they enjoy or learning a new skill like medical coding or macrame.
LikeLike
I see no logic to it at all. Perhaps .. no.. I give up on that one.
LikeLike
The online world is littered with trolls. I suppose these people are “book review trolls”. They live to create discord. Ignore em. “Don’t feed the trolls.”
LikeLike
Very true. Though, the trolls in my story to offense to the term. They’d like to meet with these internet trolls and ‘discuss’ things over ‘dinner’. 😉
LikeLike
My guess is they’re doing it for attention or because they just enjoy being negative.. there unfortunately are people who get a thrill out of making others miserable. Personally, I try not to have any expectations when I go into reading books (hence why i don’t read synopsis or do any research before I read something), and if I do, I usually don’t post those expectations unless they were thoroughly thwarted – because it provides a good contrast to the praise I’m giving…. I can’t imagine ever picking up a book I knew I wouldn’t like, reading it, and then complaining about it on top. Why would you even pick it up if you knew you weren’t going to like it? It baffles me.
LikeLike
I actually never thought of someone that would do it for the simple act of being negative. That’s just wrong.
LikeLike
one thing i’ve learned from the internet : some people just enjoy being trolls.
I don’t understand why, but it seems to be true. It’s like those little kids that missbehave to get a reaction out of their parents.
LikeLike
I’ve noticed that. I think this version of it feels more destructive than a person bad-mouthing a celebrity on IMDB or a politician on a Yahoo forum. Guess I’ll have to deal until my telepathic powers appear and I can put images of fluffy bunnies in their minds.
LikeLike
haha somehow the image of you stuffing fluffy bunnies in people’s head is ridiculously awesome.
LikeLike
The trick is to put them in feet first. 😉 If that fails, throw a character in and nature will take care of the rest.
LikeLike
Too much free time?
LikeLike
Good point. Idle hands are a terrible thing.
LikeLike
I think it’s a type of bullying. It’s a relatively risk free environment in which to bully and practise bullying tactics. It’s cowardly as is all bullying and it deserves nothing but contempt. Anyone has the right to an informed opinion about a book (informed = has read it) and state that opinion. However, these numbnuts have only one aim to cause as much enturbulation as possible to as many people as possible. We do best to totally blank them. Quality work provides its own reviews.
LikeLike
It’s definitely bullying without the risk of actual punishment. Though, I’ve met a few people who bring this mentality into the real world.
LikeLike