The Scary World of Book Reviews

I bought an ebook to take with me on my recent writing retreat. The description made it sound great. The top reviews were great. The small sample I ordered looked great. I paid my $3.99, drove to my island retreat, and started to read.



It was awful. Grrr. What an idiot I was.



I am so naive, and behind the times, when it comes to book reviews written by 'customers' on amazon.com. I knew that some authors asked friends to write reviews. These are usually easy to spot because they're all posted within a few days of each other, and they're glowing, often encouraging the reader to "buy this book!" Of the thirty reviews of my memoir, Sheepish, I only recognized one name, and I didn't ask her to write a review. I feel good that all 30 reviews were unsolicited.



But it's gotten much worse than friends and family writing glowing reviews. I just read that authors are posting their own reviews of their own books, under assumed names, of course. This practice even has a name: sock-puppeting. Ha. It's dumb and pathetic.



But wait. Things are even worse than that. The NY Times recently reported that self-published authors pay companies to post positive reviews on amazon.com and other sites. Holy @#$%. Seriously?



So when I returned home, I got back onto barnesandnoble.com and read the reviews more closely. The first 20 or so were 5-star. They were error-free. Not even a dropped apostrophe. Not even a misspelling. Not even one exclamation mark!!! The reviewers were entertaining, articulate, and often spoke in general terms rather than specifically about the book. They could have all been written by the same person.



These reviews must have been purchased. What a sad, sad thing. Cornell University is actually studying how to identify deceptive reviews.



Soon readers, including me, will be too wary to buy anything but big-name authors published by major publishers. This means the "mid-list" authors---published and edited, but not selling 100,000s of copies---will get squeezed out. Unless you know enough about publishers to recognize published from self-published, you'll be cautious.



Here's the link to the NYTimes article:  http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/26/business/book-reviewers-for-hire-meet-a-demand-for-online-raves.html?pagewanted=all



The book I'd purchased was horrible. The sample was well-written, but the author probably got lots of feedback at writing workshops, etc. Most people can write a tight first 10 pages. It's sustaining it that separates authors.



I've not read Fifty Shades of Grey (I'm not into BDSM), but friends who've tried tell me the writing is horrific. Yet 10 million copies sold in 6 weeks. If we, as readers, buy crap, then soon that's all that will be available.



Heads up, everyone. Do your research. Not all self-published books are bad, but many are put out there by people with enough money to pay $1000s of dollars for reviews. They cast suspicion on all books, and on all reviews, which hurts all authors.



Okay. Climbing down off my soapbox now. I feel better for ranting. Thanks for listening!