Damn... First review for Duty is one star?

[PS Power]

I... Is it that bad? If so, let me know and I won't write anything else. Fudge.

I work too hard on these things to put out things that are going to be sabotaged in the first day! If it's bad though, let me know and I'll pull it and just find something else to do, I guess.

I thought that people seemed to like it. I ASKED, just to make sure. I can't afford to have a months work taken away in moments though.

So, yeah. If anyone has a thought on this, let me know? Is this a personal hate review or just an a**hole who isn't getting it?

This is pretty bad.

[PS Power]

Even worse, this person seems to have a dummy account. About 45 reviews, all one or two stars, with five star reviews for occasional books... Without buying the books at all!

Claims they got it on kindle select, but that shows as a verified purchase... So I get to have my hard work sabotaged in the first day, due to someone else doing something that's against the rules anyway. (They do this, give out random one star reviews, because it makes them seem "real" without having to do any work.)

There is nothing I can do about it either. Amazon won't take down fake one star reviews unless they are defamatory. Even then, they tend to leave them.

So, I get screwed out of anything I might have made on this, because Amazon won't do their freaking job? If I complain too much, and ask to get out of select over it, they'll close down the entire account. So I end up eating the entire loss of a series, because some guy (or gal) in India or Russia wants to make five bucks putting up fake reviews for other people.

*To clarify, these people don't get paid to give one star reviews. They run a hundred accounts, which if they have too many fake five stars and nothing else, get taken down. This kind of thing is likely the cover operation.

**They couldn't even wait for me to have have a chance to succeed first. If I get twenty five star reviews and one bad sucker punch like this, then it's a lot easier to weather. So, this might well mean that I can't finish the trilogy at the very least. A month of work, wasted in moments!

***Yes, I find this slightly annoying.

[MarciaA]

Well I just gave you 5 stars, and shared my review on Facebook.
Stinks that someone gave such a poor review, I thought the book was awesome!

[David]

Yup, me too, five stars I mean, though it’s under review, hopefully it won’t take long to post... I hope others will jump on the bandwagon, that review was crap.

I’ve had a book or two get hit like this as well right out of the gate, it sucks, but don’t let the bastards win. That hit piece will get balanced out.

[PS Power]

Thanks. I know... But it's so damaging. People don't really understand what this kind of thing can do to sales. I'm just sitting back and hoping it works out, instead of just trashing the entire run for the book.

I've noticed that a lot of interaction, book engagement and so forth has dropped off in the last months. I'd thought it might just be that I picked a poor topic for the last three books... But if it's bigger than that, then I need to be doing something else, right?

I'll wait though. If this works itself out (fingers crossed) then I'll try to keep going. If not... Well, that's for another day, hopefully.

[PS Power]

The email/newsletter (that's the wrong term, advertisement?) has been sent out on this. It's the only practical hope for improvement after the sabotaged sales. To keep everyone in the loop, that one disruption has led to the worst sales ever, for a P.S. Power novel so far. (Including the early ones. Even Unrelenting Terror did better than this!)

I thank everyone for your aid in correcting that. The timing on it was nearly perfect however, to prevent this from taking off in the system. There is, now, one chance to correct that, if enough people buy it all at once today.

It's a Saturday, which is a wild card as far as things like that go, so, fingers crossed?

I'm going dark, as to online presence for a week or two, while looking to correct this kind of thing, so it can't easily happen in the future. I'm also planning to diversify my work, so that I'm not all in on Amazon. That will mean not doing kindle select for many titles. (You have to be exclusive with Amazon to be in that program, so if I want to go anywhere else, that specific work can't be borrowed that way.)

I haven't worked out the fine points for that, however.

If anyone needs to reach me for the next, call it two weeks, they can do so at power_dale@yahoo.com which I will check once a day, probably in the morning, Pacific Time.

Otherwise I'm not looking at any news, social media (which I have already let go of, some time ago) or anything like that.

Then I'll be back. Hopefully with a vengeance. Meet me here in two weeks. Things are going to be changing, and fast!

Dale

[tommy91]

I LOVE the Young Ancient series! And This one I read in 24 hours couldn't put the thing down! The idiot trying sabotage you won't win. We won't let them.