Thanks to @paul_a_smith for this tweet:

http://twitter.com/#!/paul_a_smith/status/53055458499510272

pointing to this review on BigAl’s Books and Pals Kindle review site:

http://booksandpals.blogspot.com/2011/03/greek-seaman-jacqueline-howett.html

It’s a classic example of how not to respond to a negative review.

Jacqueline Howett seems to have suffered a meltdown or the red mist was descending when she decided to respond to the review. Instead of responding in a professional manner she decided to attack Big Al’s negative review, instead of exercising humility and good grace thanking  him for his review and taking away pointers for how to improve her next book. She decided to take a wrecking ball to her writing career.

At one point she resorted to telling one commenter to “Fuck Off”. Big nail in the coffin at that point. Before the comments were closed on the blog, she could have comeback after cooling down and apologise for comments.

She could have used other avenues to make an apology, for example on twitter, facebook or on her own blog if she has one.

Never respond when the red mist is falling, it can take years to build a reputation and just a few seconds to destroy it.