With the changes in the publishing world, more and more the reader is becoming king. Never has the reader had so much power in what becomes hot or not than now in the age of online reviews for writing. And with the rise in self-publishing where the gatekeeping is now directly in the hands of readers, authors rely on their ability to review in order to be discovered and to gain momentum.

Goodreads has been at the heart of controversy for a few weeks now due to the much publicized case of Lauren Pippa. I wrote about the situation but withheld her information and links due to what seemed like a mass attack. Further inspection showed that Lauren, who has now decided to publish under a different name and closed down her website, made some rookie mistakes in dealing with her difficulties. Because of those mistakes, such as addressing reviewers…