Spaç and stress

Hello subscribers!

Following the previous Blog post about Tirana, I’ve now uploaded another Albania-themed post, this time about the remote former prison complex of Spaç in the mountains in northern Albania that I took a day return excursion to last month. It comes with 17 quite atmospheric photos such as the wide-angle one above (urbexers in particular will like the post) … do take a look.
  

Last weekend I was in for a shock discovery – and that’s what gave me the stress indicated in the second part of this Newsletter’s heading. I occasionally check the relevant Amazon page for my book Atlas of Dark Destinations to see if there are any more reviews, and the newest one I discovered, posted last Friday (the 13th! … how fitting!!), turned out to be the most damning one so far – by quite a margin. Here’s a screenshot of it:

Not only is this a right character assassination attempt, it is also totally unfair in repeatedly criticizing my book for not being what it doesn’t even want to be. So I drafted this point-by-point response to the “review” and put it on my main website (linked from a general reviews page, which is also new). Have a look.

I actually know the person who wrote this review, Dr Phillip R Stone of the Institute for Dark Tourism Research (iDTR) in Preston. I met him at the launch conference of the iDTR back in 2012, and have had a few email exchanges with him since. I’ve long had a slight suspicion that for some reason he’s just got it in for me. Now I have written proof.

I don’t know why he did this, why he thought he had to discredit me in such an unprofessional manner, but what seems to have riled him is the publishers’ (note: not me!) referring to me as a “world authority on dark tourism”. That was in the press release, which Amazon also copied.

But the publishers did NOT want an academic book. It was my expertise in the actual practice of dark tourism, my wealth of first-hand experience, that made them contact me and commission the Atlas from me. And that alone should say something.

With his vicious “review” Stone has naturally succeeded in docking the overall ratings score of my book on Amazon by a couple of percentage points, and there’s little that one could do about it … EXCEPT: getting more positive reviews!

And this is where you could help. If you have a copy of the book, like it, are entitled to rate and review on Amazon (apparently it depends on the number of recent purchases) and haven’t already done so, then please help countering this negative review with positive ones. You don’t even have to write a review text, you can just rate the book without a review. That alone would help. And only draft a review if you feel confident and comfortable doing so. I know not everybody finds it an easy task. But just rating is easy for everybody.

This whole saga, and with me writing that point-by-point response, has been a bit of a distraction these past few days, but I’m now trying to get back in the groove and concentrate on my website and blog writing. And as you saw, one new blog post is already out.
  

The possibility of a German version of my book (to be prepared by myself) is also not quite as dead in the water as I had presumed. According to my main contact at the publishers’ base in London, some Swiss/German publishing house is still considering it. I should know more by July. The latest news is that a Japanese version has just been licensed. That was nice to hear!
  

But that’s it for this time.

All the best,

Peter