Snark away! We're big girls.
In this case the publishers promoted and marketed something different than what was eventually sold. It's like expecting Cinderalla's ball gown and getting repurposed jeans in your bag. The fan base is huge and she hit #1 before the book was on the shelf. So there was no time to review the work in advance. Girls (and in our town, grown women) stood in line at midnight to get their pre-paid copies. In order to get into the early "pool" for the book signing for Host you had to preorder BD
When the reviews came out negative SM could have just sloughed it off (like most authors). You don't see other authors going out on a post-review media blitz to counter the negative comments the way she is. And as the negative responses increased, so did the media's need to do more interviews (MTV, 10-part interview on EW, a bizarre interview with the Wall Street Journal, etc.) (Although somewhere else on these boards someone posted a funny YouTube video from an author who got negative reviews - done by the author).
As I read some of the other boards - the comment that seemed to touch off the BD firestorm was "The Rob Effect." Even many fans saw it as condescending. She said if people read her work again they would love it. Then Publishers Weekly printed an editorial claiming that the problem was teen-aged girls, unrealistic expectations and "caveat emptor" and got skewered by grown women and subscribers.
If you watch any reality show - you know people have to defend their work. They know the minute they appear in front of the camera that is the "game." She's done three books, so this isn't news to her.
Do I think most authors do - or should defend their work? Nope.
But SM did, and still does, and in doing so, made things worse. She had a choice to explain or not explain her "vision" and the inconsistencies inherent in the work. She chose the former and in doing so, put herself in a worse position than if she had just chosen to slough it off.
IMHO.
BTW - I'm with Publisher's Weekly caveat. We won't buy her books on the release date anymore. We're still fans - for now - but trust in the product is at a premium especially since we support Independent bookstores, pay full price, and buy multiple copies of popular books so we don't have to deal with the "sharing."
It doesn't have to be a good book. I own a lot of books I didn't like. But after three books it at least has to come close the the prior three. BD read and felt like it was written by someone who had not read the previous installments. She should be able to write whatever she wants. But she shouldn't blame the reviewers and fans for noticing.
Okay - off my soap box too!