Today, I have a special guest post by the awesome Katie French. Lately there's been a lot of talk about reviews and sock puppets. If you've been following the drama then you know what sock puppet means, if not, read on...
Reviews
have caused quite a stink in the writing community lately. In the span of a few
weeks there were two scandals. The first involved Todd Rutherford of the former
GettingBookReviews.com and his paid reviews system. The article in the New York Times
went on to claim that one third of all reviews on Amazon were fake,
bought and paid for, leaving everyone to wonder if any customer review should
be trusted ever again.
The
backlash to this caused many customers to believe only the lowest reviews,
surmising that because it is a bad review it has to be correct. However, the
next scandal put that theory to test when E.J. Elroy was exposed for using “sock puppets” or pseudonyms
on Amazon and other reviews sites to bash his opponents and praise his own
work. Elroy, a bestselling British author, admitted the act and apologized, but
the backlash to this dishonesty has just dumped more doubt on Amazon reviews
across the board. How many authors used this tactic and just haven’t been
caught? How can we believe any review we read ever again?
Katie
French
Amazon is reacting, clamping down on its policies--
advertising when someone uses their real name, letting us know that they have a
confirmed purchase of a book. However, those will not stop someone determined
to trick the system. So, what can a book buying fanatic like myself do? How can
we deal with the rampant lies slathered across our Amazon review pages? How
will we ever know if a book is good enough to purchase? My personal opinion is we do absolutely
nothing.
I’ve
spend a lot of time perusing Amazon books in the genre in which I write. Almost
all of them carry a rating of around 4 to 4.5 star rating. All of them. So the
star ratings don’t sway me. The number of reviews may peek my interest, letting
me know that many have purchased this book instead of few, but usually that
means little as well. I may read a few of the top reviews (even though I have no
idea if they were written by the author’s mother or an honest reviewer) or I
may not. What I mainly consider is if I like the cover and the blurb, if the
story calls to me in some deep down, gut wrenching way, if the characters seem
to pop off the page and if the setting is spellbinding. If those things are
there, then I’ll buy it, reviews be damned.
There
will always be rule breakers. There will always be those who try to cheat the
system. I don’t think Amazon can create a filter that will stop the pin heads
of the world. But in the end, giving yourself good reviews can’t make you
write. That takes grit, determination and thousands of hours at the keyboard.
No sock puppet will get you there.
Katie French is the author of the debut book The Breeders, a YA dystopian adventure available now on
Amazon. She is also the co-creator and contributor with Underground Book Reviews,
a site that seeks to promote quality unpaid book reviews to self-published and
independent writers. Her passions are her family and her work with at-risk
teens. You can find her at www.KatieFrenchBooks.com
or on facebook.
GIVEAWAY ALERT! We're also giving away an ebook of Katie's YA debut, THE BREEDERS. All you have to do to enter is leave a comment and include your email address. For 5 extra entries tweet this ready-made tweet:
Read Katie French's thoughts on the recent book review drama and enter to #win her #ya debut, THE BREEDERS. http://karenamandahooper.blogspot.com/2012/10/v-behaviorurldefaultvmlo.html
GIVEAWAY ALERT! We're also giving away an ebook of Katie's YA debut, THE BREEDERS. All you have to do to enter is leave a comment and include your email address. For 5 extra entries tweet this ready-made tweet:
Read Katie French's thoughts on the recent book review drama and enter to #win her #ya debut, THE BREEDERS. http://karenamandahooper.blogspot.com/2012/10/v-behaviorurldefaultvmlo.html
Even knowing that sock puppets exist, I still read reviews. When i find a consistent thread running through them, I believe that to be the truth. For some reason, it doesn't bother me that authors do this. Just like how most of the public doesn't know that publishers pay for endcaps and face out and books getting their own stand in the front of stores. :)
ReplyDeleteGreat to meet you, Katie. The Breeders sounds good. =)
ReplyDeleteI find that people's reviews and ratings on amazon and goodreads dont realy affect wether or not i read a book. I make my book choices by the blurb, recommendations from people i know, reviews by bloggers i trust, and by the cover (I know i probably shouldn't judge books by their covers but in my experience the best books have the best covers). Despite sock-puppets not affecting what books i will read they still realy annoy me, i just hate dishonesty.
ReplyDeleteThe Breeders sounds realy great by the way, the cover looks so intriguing :)
lauramaycarter@gmail.com
Even before all the drama about reviews I never paid much attention to them. I knew that I may feel differently about a book so there was little reason to let someone else's opinion on the book influence my decision much.
ReplyDeleteEvery profession has its dirty secrets. Honestly, the sock puppet thing seems to be a vanity. I don't think I could stop blushing guiltily long enough to post a review for myself.
ReplyDeleteAs for reviews, I read them when I'm on the fence about buying a book (often when it's for my Kindle). I read the back cover, feel I could go either way, and check out three who loved it and three who hated it (if there are that many for each). I weigh their reasoning (because sometimes a negative review is so silly, as Karen would know...they get hung up on the dumbest little thing and miss an awesome book) and then I purchase, or move on.
I wasn't on the fence for 'Tangled Tides'. That one was an automatic buy. Didn't see reviews until I went back to add my own, and then I laughed at the negative ones. Silly people.
*Steps off soapbox, not realizing how long she'd been on there*