Crazy one star reviewer problem - crazy isn't the word.

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Hi, I've been writing for a couple of years, but only short works. During this time, I made the mistake of posting on the KDP Amazon Forum, there I attracted the failed old timer trolls who never amounted to anything who still brag as if they are "successful." I personally don't care if another writer is better than me.

There is one individual, who is constantly one starring everything I published, has saved all of my public blog posts to paste them everywhere it pleases, and has even created a subreddit just to slander me...reddit wouldn't take it down when I asked.

This person won't stop stalking my social media platforms where I promote my works that I've had to shut down my old name everyone knows. I can't tag anything in Word Press in fear this crazy loon will find my new professional blog.

Can you still write/publish stories with a crazy one star reviewer on your tail slandering and impersonating you?

Has anyone else dealt with this before and if so how did you resolve it? This person has been harassing me for 6+ years. I've tried to track it down to sue it and to send a cease and desist letter, but it spoofs its IP addresses.

The person slandering managed to have Amazon believe its lies that Amazon shut down my account instead of that person's. I will not give my business to Amazon due to this mistreatment.

How can I get this person off my back when it sits there googling me every minute of the day? I'm not exaggerating about this, either. This person won't leave me alone no matter if I ignore it or respond to it. I don't know who it is...just came out of the woodwork after I started posting on the Amazon KDP Writing Forum.

No one listens to its obvious slander, but its still irritating that I can't publish anything without this loser being the first one to leave a one star review. I'm not even famous yet and I already have this nut case on my tail.

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Type: Question • Score: 2 • Views: 4,541 • Replies: 8

@CocoaB,

I gotta run but I am also an indie author - will be back - unfortunately, there are vindictive nuts out there. Hang in there.

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@CocoaB,

I guess you could attempt to sort out who it actually is and have a lawyer send a letter.

I'd just ignore him/her though, act as if they don't exist. Or you could start making short replies to their FIRST post (don't get drawn into a conversation) that are overly kind and thankful for their opinions and time they took to read your work.

Trolls troll because they enjoy getting a rise out of people. Kill him/her with kindness and he/she will probably go away since you're taking the fun out of it.

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@CocoaB,

A few things, in no particular order:

Is it possible that anything this person is saying is correct? If it's just stars, then that's one thing. But are they saying (even if they're being mean about it) that the works need more editing, or better word choice, or more research, or the like? If that's the case, then the cure is, at least in part, to go back to beta reading. Even a troll might be right, so don't discount that immediately.
I know it can feel really hurtful (I've been there). One thing to keep in mind is that nobody can please every single audience out there. Some people hate JK Rowling, or Stephen King (I am not a fan, but I can appreciate his crafting and his ability to hit his target audience/readership squarely. Those are good qualities to have), etc.
Are these your only reviews, or do you have others? If they are your only ones, then do some proactive work. Contact book bloggers and writer or editor or reader friends. Give them a free copy (yep, this costs you some money) and ask them to give you an honest review. And you mean honest, so if they also give it one star, then them's the breaks.
Join writing groups if you haven't already. So that's within KDP but it can also be Wattpad or NaNoWriMo or Scribophile or various Facebook writing groups. Find your tribe and you'll meet people who have had similar run-ins. It helps to not be alone. Personally, I like a NaNo group on Facebook. I'm also on Wattpad but I tend to use it more for fanfiction so it's not quite the right niche for me.
Bad reviews can sometimes help newer indies more than good ones. Why? Because consistent five star reviews for brand-new authors can really look suspect to a potential buyer. While a one star review stinks (and I won't tell you otherwise), it can be helpful to counter against friends and family perhaps being overly enthusiastic. Your pals might think they are helping you, but if they overrate you, it doesn't do you or your potential readers any bit of good.
Keep reporting the slander, and maybe even hire a lawyer for the sole purpose of sending a letter to Amazon to get them to get off their duffs and look closer at what is going on. It'll help a lot if that person is harassing other people, so be prepared to get screenshots and the like even if you are not the target.

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Without beating about the bush, to cut a long story short, in a nutshell, I submitted my magnum opus for review, and, not to put too fine a point on it, some insensitive clod said I was "too fond of clichés and hackneyed phrases". Well, I ask you. Wild horses could not drag out of me who it was. My lips are sealed. But they must be a troll.

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@centrox,

This person is stalking my personal information and even saving the few public pictures I had to spam it, so yes, it is a troll not just a one star reviewer...did you forget to read the part where it saved all of my blog posts I had published on Word Press? It's not a one star reviewer, it's just a nuisance troll.

People who leave one star reviews, leave one and be on their merry way. They don't stick around and stay stuck to someone like glue for 6+ years.

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@jespah,

Well, whenever the person would leave a one star review, it would make up things that didn't even happen in my short stories so it's just a wannabe hater. Anyone who actually went on to click and read my short stories would see that the person wrote a fake review. It's not helpful to the reader or author.

I tried WattPad and wrote for free for years on there as well, but now I want to get paid.

You do make a good point. It would look suspect that all my stuff had one star reviews and only one star reviews. Yes, that's my only review that's why this individual is irritating. All it does is takes jabs at me as a person, doesn't really talk about my writing and Amazon won't remove it. Amazon wouldn't do anything for the person to stop. I've even reached Jeff B myself, and he did nothing. I deleted all its slander elsewhere and the only thing I have as evidence of that person slandering me is the subreddit it created just to personally bash me. It's pathetic, honestly...and I'm suspecting this is a long time failed author with too much time on its hands.

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@jespah,

I also forgot to mention that my readers see this one individual obsessed with me like crazy so that anonymous troll has managed to scare my readers into not leaving any reviews because it will create fake accounts to mass down vote and get any positive reviews I have deleted. This person I kid you not sits there and writes scripts to harass me and tamper with the stats on my blog.

I'm like there's no way this person can keep doing this for the rest of my life. It's got to stop some time. I'm trying to gather enough slander to build a case against it, but because I responded to it in a similar manner people might be fooled to think I was the one bothering it which is what the troll wants, to fool people saying I "started" it.

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@CocoaB,

CocoaB wrote:

I'm trying to gather enough slander to build a case against it

Slander is the action or crime of making a false spoken statement damaging to a person's reputation. I don't believe you can sue someone for slander just for publishing or posting low opinions of your writing or other creative output, even if you believe those low ratings are given out of malice. It might be slander if someone paid you to deliver 10,000 words about something and you delivered the work on time, and they went online to say you didn't. As it is, we only have your side of this story so far. We don't know what your writing is like. It might be exceptionally good; it might be annoyingly bad; it might be somewhere in between.

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Crazy one star reviewer problem - crazy isn't the word.

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