Friday, March 07, 2014

Anne Rice Signs Petition Against 'Gangster Bullies' on Amazon

Shelf Awareness

Anne Rice has joined nearly 3,000 people who have signed a petition asking Amazon.com to "protect users and indie publishing authors from bullying and harassment by removing anonymity and requiring identity verification for reviewing and forum participation."

The petition, launched by Todd Barselow, seeks to bring attention to "the lack of oversight and or control in the Amazon system regarding product reviewing--in particular book reviewing--and in the participation of the many forums on Amazon." He plans to deliver the petition to Amazon.

Rice told the Guardian that the anonymous "anti-author gangsters" who attack and threaten writers online have "worked their way into the Amazon system as parasites, posting largely under pseudonyms, lecturing, bullying, seeking to discipline authors whom they see as their special prey. They're all about power. They clearly organize, use multiple identities and brag about their ability to down vote an author's works if the author doesn't 'behave' as they dictate."

Good E-Reader noted that "what is more interesting than the same battle that has been circulating since groups on Goodreads and a grassroots effort called Stop The Goodreads Bullies first began waging organized warfare on authors or reviewers is that Rice is no casual observer of the issue. Apart from lending her famous name to the petition by signing, Rice has posted a fair amount of commentary on the issue on her Facebook page, much of it in response to people who are taking the argument--and their derision of the issue--to the comments section of her page."

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