Quote:
Originally Posted by starrigger
Jack McDevitt is a terrific guy and a fine writer, and it's a shame his books got caught in the works of careless and incompetent production. I winced a little when I saw that you'd left a 1-star review because of the poor production quality. That's likely to hurt Jack more than it hurts the publisher. Even if you explained the reason in your review, the net effect is to drag down the overall star-rating on the book--possibly carried over onto the rating for the paper edition--and that's apt to get noticed more than your stated reasons. I have no doubt that Jack wants the best for his readers, but I doubt that he has any control over the ebook production.
I don't know how many stars you would have given the book if the production had been impeccable. But I wonder if a better solution, if you want to note displeasure with bad production on a good book, wouldn't be to reduce the rating by one star, with an explanation of the reason. You could make your point without killing the author. (And writing a letter, of course, is always a good idea.)
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I know authors tend to be sensitive about their Amazon ratings, but physical presentation is also a part of the product. If the book falls apart after one reading, that's reason enough, in my eyes, to leave a derogatory rating. When a failing in one factor kills the reading experience, rate it as such. It's equally offensive in my eyes to leave 5 star ratings for a product simply doing what it's supposed to; that should really be reserved for products that go above and beyond. If you rate everything as 5 stars, what is left for the one product that really blows you away?
Maybe authors will stop whining about being powerless and get on their publishers asses once they realize the publishers are actively driving away sales.