What is with fake reviews on Amazon?!!
My paperback for my second book, 'Hunt for White Gold', is released tomorrow so being in a good mood I decided to check out reviews on Amazon. Now I don't check reviews normally as no news is good news and I'm one of those who would rather not know. All OK, so I decided (just for wasting time) to check out some reviews for authors I know personally and others as my clicks just kept leading me from one to another.
Now we all know that there are reviews that give glowing Oscar-like speeches about how wonderful the book is and if you're a savvy Amazon cruiser you normally click 'See all my reviews' and notice that the reviewer has only reviewed that book and go, 'Oh, aye. That's funny. You must be related or a friend,' and discount it. But then I started to think a bit deeper about what this means.
First off, I noticed a pattern, (and I'm not just talking about indie authors I'm talking about traditional books as well; from people I know) often following a rave review there would be a comment or low star review about it along the lines of 'I don't know what book you were reading but,' or 'I wrote this review because I bought this book based on the glowing reviews and,' and generally these people are upset and disappointed.
The other pattern was that a lot of these five-star reviews had clearly not read the book. By that I mean that a genuine review seems to talk about the book in specific terms. They mention characters names, talk about certain plots, talk of parts that moved them or what their experience of it was and even point out why some people might not like it in order to strengthen their recommendation and not mislead. This is almost certain true of a bad review (which often follows) where the reader has blown the book apart. But at least they read it!
You can fill in the blanks yourself but they all follow a similar style:
'Couldn't put it down! Blew me away! Fantastic characterisation!(who? Why?) A real page-turner! Sensational plot! (what's it about other than the blurb above? This is usually where they insert a synopsis of the exact blurb) Kept me on the edge of my seat! (about what?) A roller-coaster ride of thrills and tension! (about what?! Tell me!)'
See what I mean? Now the thing that annoys me about this is that this is often driven by the author either directly or indirectly and supposes that your prospective audience is an idiot.
'If you give me a five-star review people will buy it! Then I'll have their money, ha, ha!'
But what you're actually doing is selling a book that sets itself up to be a disappointment. You're trying to snake-oil people into buying your book. And once you've hoodwinked them once why would they buy your second?
The other disturbing trend I noticed was in clicking on the comments. Often people took the time to write things along the lines of 'I have tried to give this book a bad review but it keeps getting removed.' This may be because of two things. The author reports the review as abuse and asks twenty people to do the same so the review gets removed or, surprise, surprise, Amazon are in the business of selling books and will find any excuse to remove it.
The bottom line is I spent a considerable time checking one author's forty-plus five stars reviews only to discover that two-thirds of them were written by people who had only ever reviewed that item and none of whom showed any sign of actually reading the book other than regurgitating (love that word) the hook of the book.
Personally I do check reviews if I'm intrigued by a book that I wouldn't normally buy and I always use the criteria above to see whether I trust that review or not. To me the reprehensible thing is rather than try to build loyalty with readers through your writing or genuine word of mouth you'd rather bamboozle people into buying your book.
There's an old adage about selling cars that highlights this. 'You don't sell a guy one car. You sell him five cars over fifteen years because he trusts you.'
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12 Comments
http://writing-community.writersworkshop.co.uk/forum/topic/5723
Good luck with your book and I agree - I'd rather have no reviews than all those fake ones. I did rather hope that people had caught on by now and that the days of "I'll buy you a pint if you stick a 5* review on amazon" were over, but it seems not. It does reflect badly on the author.
SecretSpi thanks for the link, I'll have a look.
Just saying.
Seriously, I wouldn't want anyone to get the idea that all reviews on amazon are tosh, just to be aware that reams of 5* non-specific but glowing reviews are suspect, especially if they are the only review the reviewer has made.
My reviewing is mostly self-motivated: I find that it's a help in my writing and it's also great to have a record of everything I've read in the last few years. If my reviews help , interest or entertain others, that's an extra bonus!
Oh, Spi. I have come across one or two of your reviews.
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