Last week, Susi from The HEA Society and Bookloversinc tweeted that a review she posted on goodreads @mentioned the author of the book she just read. The same thing happened at Wickedlilpixie, whose update for a book she had just read was tweeted straight after she posted an update on her Goodreads account.
Luckily both reviews were positive, and there was no problems that came out of this. However if they were negative reviews, and authors were unaware that they were not from the reviewers but from an automatic feed that connects to the author’s account on Goodreads, I could see a kerfuffle or two about this. And the real problem is that it’s not the reviewer or even the author’s fault because they would feel that their noses are being rubbed in with new feature.
This new feature has been added without no notification, and no opt in by Goodreads, and add the fact that if any author responds to a negative review on Goodreads, they will be removed due to past incidents that ended in flamewars. BUT SERIOUSLY, Goodreads, if you are going to lecture and warn authors not to respond to reviews of their own books, with the red box of doom, could you at least do an opt in feature for the tweet @mention thing?
So if any authors/bloggers reading this aren’t aware of this new change, please change your twitter details or don’t tweet your review when you post it on Goodreads.
To authors/reviewers who are members on Goodreads, you can comment here about this new change and hopefully they will be able to make it an opt in option.
I know Goodreads is a place for readers to discuss books, but their recent changes are beginning to make me feel like its anti-authors and that is a very bad thing because without authors there is no readers.
UPDATE: Apparently Goodreads have stated this will only affect positive reviews – 4/5 stars only. But authors and reviewers were caught unaware of this new feature.
8/6/ UPDATE: Goodreads have rolled back and removed this feature after listening to user’s feedback. So glad they listened.
Ug, I guess I’m going to goodreads to check my settings and if my twitter account is linked.
Well at least it’s only positive reviews, but still so uncool
I am going to untick now the twitter options because – unless I feel comfortable tweeting that review to the author even if its positive. I don’t like doing this with all of my reviews. AND I REALLY HATE this automatic opt in thing – and this is definitely not a good idea. I hope goodreads change it.
Wow… You;d think they’d have sent an email update or SOMETHING!
@Bookish Brunette – I KNOW and I don’t think anyone is pleased by this just looking at the comments in that thread and on my twitter stream. I hate the fact more and more social sites are adding opts ins without notifying users and the fact they are very annoying or problematic. I blame Facebook – they set a precedent in this type of thing 😛
Even a 4 star review can say things an author may not want to hear. I know I tend to discuss the reasons I didn’t like the book enough to give it 5 stars. These usually tend to be things like gender issues, social issues, characterisations and structure – all things the author probably doesn’t want to see hashed out again. A 4 star to me means I enjoyed the read, not that it was a good book. I state that on my profile, but authors may expect a nicer review for 4 stars *shrugs* I guess I could unconnect my twitter from my goodreads, but I am lazy and use it to sign in using one click. Sorry authors. I’ll just have to be quick with the delete button. Goodreads was very rude not to send out an email about the changes though. Or add a disclaimer on login.
Whoa – good thing you warned us anyway! Kind of a scary development. It’s one thing if they maybe stumble upon it – another if they think you directed it to them!