This stopped me cold. As angry as I was, I did not feel like creating an account at Amazon just to try to rain all over these people's parade or get drawn into a protracted message board melee. They can have their flat-prosed novel, I thought, and left it at that.

I'm still turning over in my head what the significance of my encounter was. It certainly illustrates how people react with products and brands online. In this case, the positive word of mouth around this particular novel was entrenched at Amazon and I didn't feel like invading it. Maybe if I had been really, REALLY mad, I would have, but in this case, I simply didn't like the book, wanted to tell someone, and shut my mouth instead.

“What can I learn from that?” I asked myself.

• First, it reinforces the idea of doing this kind of outreach, of empowering people to express themselves about the brands they like.
  
• Second, it shows that when something like a review is put online, it doesn't go away.
  
• Third, Amazon didn't come to me, I came to Amazon — I went looking for info on this book, looking with one intention, and was persuaded by its counter-message instead; that's powerful.

I'm now almost done with the book — a friend loaned it to me, and I try never to give back books unread — and what's even more unnerving is that it has gotten better, even enjoyable, and I'm not sure why that is. Is it because the action in the story has picked up? Or is it because my encounter with its followers at Amazon convinced me, even on a subconscious level, to give it another try?

Either way I think it lends credence to the kind of work we do, once again reminding us all of the sustained power of online communication and how that can benefit our clients.