[emilydowns]

A user, I won't mention names, claimed to have read my book and then decided to get a refund. She also gave it a one star review. The puzzling thing about all of this is she has posted and sent me emails with big blocks of text from my work. How is she getting large quotes from my work seemingly at will if she has already claimed a refund?

She sent me a message here at kindle boards with quoted passages of my work.
Can kindle users copy and paste text? What is going on with this?

Here is part of the message she sent me that is in my kindleboard message box.

----

How can you say I didn't buy your book? Are you telling me the following is in your sample?

    The drive is long. I want something to drink. The convenience store is empty, I lumber around the aisles. Looking at everything and nothing. Packaged boxes of food with no shelf life. Bright colors that will last forever.

 

[RJ Keller]

professional (adjective): (1): characterized by or conforming to the technical or ethical standards of a profession (2): exhibiting a courteous, conscientious, and generally businesslike manner in the workplace.

 

[Addie]

professional (adjective): (1): characterized by or conforming to the technical or ethical standards of a profession (2): exhibiting a courteous, conscientious, and generally businesslike manner in the workplace.

I agree.

Really, Emily? Is it really necessary to go down this road again? There has already been one thread deleted, one locked and now this one will probably soon be locked.

I really don't think there's any reason to continue this. On another thread people have tried to give you advice on how to clean up your grammar and spelling. You go from saying you want help to being completely offended the next minute. You go on the offensive so many times that it discourages people trying to help you.

I've got to say this isn't going to help book sales. All you're doing is bringing more attention to the negative. Please try to stay positive. Thank you.

As far as the text: maybe she wrote a review for it, added examples to back up her claim and then returned it?

 

[Chad Winters]

paranoia:  –noun
...
2. baseless or excessive suspicion of the motives of others.

 

[pidgeon92]

When you promote a product in a place that is designed for commenting, you are going to get comments. Lots of comments. Good, bad, and indifferent.

If you are unwilling - or unable - to accept criticism, do not put your work out in the public arena.

 

[wilsondm2]

I agree - if you put your work out in the public view, especially for sale, be prepared to be critiqued. It is quite thin-skinned of you to criticize someone for voicing their honest opinion from a learned point of view.

Your responses have guaranteed I will not sample your work nor give you my $.99.  Your professionalism has been seriously damaged by your responses and I do not care for your attitude.

My .02 and my opinion.

 

[ladyknight33]

I had seen this book in another thread. From the brief description it was not a book I was willing to buy. I have seen the posts back and forth and decided to sample the book.

I can say it's not my type of book. There were a couple of misspelled words in the sample. lead vs led. Even though the word went thru spell check as correct it was not the proper word.

I don't write reviews on amazon.  I have posted in threads here about books that I loved.

Just my .02 ~ my observation is that the kindle boards supports all indie authors. 

 

[Ann in Arlington]

Emily. . . .I read your snippet in the 'snippet challenge' thread.  I admit does not make me want to buy the book.  But I also admit I did not notice any egregious errors. . .such slight mis-usages as there were could be chalked up to style and the fact that the characters are, I gather, a bunch of adolescent, or younger, boys.  The subject matter is of zero interest to me.

I may sample your book, just to see what all the fuss is about. . . .but your obvious defensiveness is not endearing.  It is inappropriate, in a public forum, to accuse someone of fraud. . . .which is,essentially, what you are doing by suggesting the reviewer did not, in fact, read or buy your book.  

Bottom line:  some folks will like your book.  Some won't.  It is not in your interest to get all over emotional about either the rave reviews or the pans, or to take them too personally, because you'll drive yourself to an early grave or need a therapist or something!  Not everyone likes the same thing.  If you are happy with what you've written and the way you wrote it, that's fine.  If others don't like it, then you have to accept that they have a different opinion.  I know it's hard:  your work is like your child.  But, as a responsible author, you ought to weigh their input and decide if there is any validity to what they say.  But not HERE.  I would hope that you would be able to discern quality constructive criticism and use it appropriately in future work or in editing your current work.  

 

[Lynn McNamee]

As for your question, Emily:

While you are reading a kindle book, you can highlight items which will be moved into a "My Clippings" folder. You cannot highlight from page to page, so it would be difficult to highlight an entire book, even your short story would take awhile.  

When you return a book, it does not delete your "My Clippings" folder as highlights from many books could be contained there.

So, the person who sent you the e-mail may have gotten that quote from their "My Clippings" folder.

Also, at one time, you requested, quite emphatically, that people give you specific examples of the errors found in your books because you said everyone was lying and didn't read it.

One person put that particular quote up as an example of your 'inability to write a complete sentence' (their words, not mine).

So, at this later date, the could have pulled up that thread and copied and pasted that quote again, as only your posts were deleted, not everyone else's.

 

[Betsy the Quilter]

Folks, and this goes to the OP too....

Could we leave, as much as possible, what happens at Amazon, at Amazon? If I want to read about things on Amazon, I know how to get there.

If someone has issues with something that has happened here at KindleBoards, that's a different matter, but let's not re-plow the same furrows here.

Just an overall request, not aimed at any one incident.

Otherwise, continue (almost) as you were.

Betsy

 

[Lynn McNamee]

My apologies. I edited my post to take out a certain phrase.

I really was just trying to answer the OP's question as to how the person obtained the quote after returning the 'book'.

It seemed like others were responding to the FACT that she posted rather than answering the actual question.

I wanted to also allay the fears of other authors who might be worried about others coying and pasting their books from the Kindle.

 

[LeeGoldberg]

Emily,

Let me just say, as a man who has been a published author for over twenty years, you are providing a lesson to other aspiring authors in how *not* to behave if you want to succeed in this business. You really need to rethink your approach...and if your books are full of errors, the proper and professional response is to apologize for the mistakes, correct the errors, and thank the readers for bringing them to your attention

Lee