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I see basically three possible responses:
(a) Write a rebuttal ranting that this person is a jerk and his criticisms are totally unfair and that he isn't worthy to be spit upon by a great author like yourself, etc. Let's say we rule that out.
(b) Do nothing. Take your lumps.
(c) Write a rebuttal pointing out factual errors, but keep it as reasoned and non-argumentative as possible.
Perhaps I should say that in my case, I wrote a non-fiction book on a somewhat controversial subject, and someone with different beliefs posted a review on Amazon attacking my book that included assertions I consider inaccurate. (I'm thinking that I don't want to be more specific than that to avoid biasing answers by whether or not you agree with me. I'm trying to keep it general.) Perhaps I should add that the book has only gotten 3 reviews -- I'm far from a best-selling author -- and Amazon deleted a very positive review for some reason, so now I've got one positive review and one negative review.
Any thoughts on the above responses, or do you have other ideas? Does the fact that the book is on a controversial subject lead you to give a different answer than if it was, say, a light adventure novel?
Addendum *
I posted this question over a year ago but someone just posted a new answer, so let me take this opportunity to offer a clarifying comment. (Not saying the new answer indicates a misunderstanding, just that it brought my attention back to this question.)
Bear in mind that I'm talking here about non-fiction books. This is not the same as what I would say about fiction.
If someone posts a review saying that the writing style is poor, like "the logic isn't clear" or "the explanations were difficult to understand", I don't think there's much point to a rebuttal. You can say, "My text is perfectly clear and if you don't understand that's because you're stupid", but that's unlikely to be productive.
But suppose a reviewer says, "Dr Jones 1953 book, 'About Stuff', completely refuted the writer's conclusions." The author might well want to reply that he discussed Dr Jones arguments extensively in chapter 6 and that Dr Smith presented compelling evidence in 1982 that Dr Jones was wrong, and that the reviewer is simply ignoring this. That's the kind of claim made in a negative review that I'm talking about: Not, the writing style is poor, which is largely a matter of opinion and not objectively debatable. But, the writer said X, when in fact I didn't say X. Or, the writer said X which is not true, when in fact I can make a good argument that X is true in a couple of sentences.
I've gotten other negative reviews since and I haven't replied to any of them because, frankly, I don't want to sound like I'm whining about a bad review.
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Another approach would be, on your own website or blog - is to write a veiled rebuttal. I wouldn't directly mention the bad review, but just write as if you are clarifying some issues or points for current/future readers. But of course this blog post would address the issues that the bad review got factually wrong, and even address some of the other issues the review raises.
In my experience, a response always legitimizes a critique, so unless a) you have a policy of responding to all reviews, b) you yourself actually think the criticisms are legitimate, or c) the reviewer already has a position of legitimacy higher than yours (i.e. "Top Reviewer" status), responding is intrinsically counterproductive.
I highly suggest you do nothing. A) is a very bad idea - it will tarnish your reputation as argumentative and rude. C) could easily be construed as doing A) -- even with the best intentions, someone could take it out of context -- so it's also best to avoid that. As for if my answer would change for a different type of novel, definitely no. This is good advice for anyone.
The best guidelines I've seen about this come from Goodreads on author reviews:
Please do not comment on negative reviews of your book, even if it's just to correct an inaccuracy in the review. Previous experience has shown repeatedly that the only positive reaction to a negative review is to ignore it.
Many studies have show that a few negative reviews are actually helpful, as they lend validity to the positive reviews on the book's page.
In a different place on their site:
Don’t engage with people who give you negative reviews. We cannot stress this enough. The number one mistake new authors make is to respond to negative reviews. Engaging with people who don’t like your book is not likely to win you any new readers and could lead to members deciding not to read your book. [...] other readers will see a reaction from the author and interpret it as hostile regardless of how carefully the response was crafted. A single negative interaction is often enough to turn a reader off an author permanently.
It's best to just move on and focus on the positive reviews. :)
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