About a week ago a new author on Goodreads, Twitter & her blog showed her lack of understanding on how Goodreads, NetGalley and…how the internet works. In the old days she would have been booted off the site.
Now on Goodreads?
Granted Goodreads Author while she was still trying to bully a Goodreads Author and blogger.
Just checking the total rating on her book ( around 1.69 at the time, although it has dropped further) should have alerted staff to a problem.
I checked a previous spectacular case from 2015, where the author tantrum went on for days/pages. Author booted off Goodreads. I’m not going to name him, as I presume he has moved on with his life.
Just saying.

Hi Carol, love your blog!
I’m a GR friend, Boadicea, and think that there is an issue with GR authors who rate their own books 5*(what a surprise!)but there’s no other reviews, although may be other ratings from unknown individuals. This completely negates and falsifies the system, IMHO. It really annoys me as I’m a reader, that’s what I signed up for, and that’s what Goodreads was supposedly about. However, it just seems to have been corrupted as another version of the publishing industry.
Sorry, rant over!
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Hey Boadicea, good to see you here. I don’t mind authors rating their own books so much, but I really don’t like it when they use their review space as an advertising billboard! Just looks tacky.
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Thanks for your reply. I still maintain that you’re either an author, or a reader but you can’t be both. It’s like saying white’s black and black’s white. Or in a painting setting, either a painter who’s created a work, or the person who’s only viewed it. Yes, the common denominator is being human but that is all. I realise that’s being completely rigid in my belief system but it’s no different from the host on Air B n B rating their own experience of staying as “guest” at their own lodging. You cannot critically perform that function without a huge amount of bias and indeed this site would prevent that occurring. I cannot see why Goodreads is any different? However, given the domination by its owner, Amazon, clearly could be taken as the reason for its disinterest. I can understand when people get upset and leave even without the shenanigans of name-calling and bullying that you allude to in your review. At times it feels that Goodreads is only useful for readers to be exposed to a quasi-marketing tool rather than a forum for widening literary exposure and debate and that’s why Amazon has become its owner.
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