Amazon Reviews Deleted in a Purge Aimed at Manipulation

A few days before Christmas, the New York Times posted an article about Amazon deleting more book reviews .   As if fake reviews are a surprise to anyone.  Although this came to light a few months ago, I never commented on it, merely reported it.   I'm disappointed to know that authors have used "sock puppet" Amazon accounts to leave praising reviews for their own books and damaging reviews for competing authors. 

If you have enough confidence in the quality of your own writing, you would not feel the need to undermine another author.  That tells me that the other author has probably produced a better book or series and you feel threatened by it.  Rather than either support them or just leave them alone, your insecurity and envy leads you to try and destroy them even in some small way.  Your time would be better spent improving your craft or just quitting altogether.

Thanks to Howard Weinstein for sending this article to me this morning!