puzzled by a reviewer using other reviewer's words?

[John]

This is probably normal, but being new to being an author here, I'm confuzzled that one of my 4 reviews, is someone who appears to have just cut and pasted another person's review, verbatim.
OR its possible this is a way for someone to RT (retweet in twitter parlance) someone else's review? Can anyone tell me which this is? Or some other third thing?

[Debbie's Spurts (D.A.)]

I'd send the details to support (the contact form under help topics or email support@goodreads.com).

I'm guessing either someone copied another's work or slipped up on their own sockpuppet accounts.

Goodreads considers reviews as belonging to the reviewer. Not sure how that meshes with not censoring reviews, but, contacting support or staff commenting here is all that might address the issue.

[Debbie's Spurts (D.A.)]

Not on topic and better suited to librarians group — but, since I'm here, I'm creating a series for your book and add ing he paperback edition. Let me know if anything needs editing.

[John]

Thanks Debbie, very organized of you to offer that! That way people can know its part of a series (working on volume 2 right now).

and about the review thing: I am not sure, but I think its more of someone accidentally copied the other review, because its not only verbatim, its the same star rating....but who knows? It doesn't harm anything, I don't think.

[Grampy]

John - I just wrote a long treatise on why you might see the same review under different names, then lost it before I posted it! So here's an abbreviated version.

I write reviews on a number of different sites. I use basically 4 or 5 different usernames on those sites. I have personal reasons for doing this, but it is NOT done to deceive anybody. It's like an author who writes under one name if it's a Romance, and under a different name if it's a Horror, and a third name if it's a Children's Book.

In some cases I have no choice; the website may already have someone using my preferred name. At least two websites require me to use my legal name (which I'd rather not do, again for personal reasons).

Anyway, the bottom line is, when I read a good book I want to help the AUTHOR sell more copies, and I want to help the READER find a book I thought was worth reading. But when I write my initial review on any given site, I will cut and paste it to other sites, where I might have a different username. I'm not trying to con anybody, and quite frankly it never occurred to me that someone might construe this practice as being unethical in any way. That was never my intent.

I'm sure I'm not the only person on the internet using more than one username. I'm also sure there ARE people who are liable to "borrow" someone else's review, but the only reason I can see anybody doing that is because the original review states the exact impression the second reviewer had, in a more concise or accurate manner than the second reviewer could say it. If it's a good review, great. But in my case I am only cutting and pasting my own review on different sites.

I don't like using my real name. It just makes me nervous, for some reason, if people I happen to know might see my name associated with a review. First, I don't want to be bothered with someone getting in my face because I liked the book, and they thought it sucked. Everybody is entitled to an opinion, but that doesn't mean I want or need to hear it! Using an assumed username helps to avoid that scenario. Second, I'd hate for someone to specifically NOT buy a book because they personally do not like me, and therefore believe I don't know what I'm talking about. There are other reasons, too, including some I'm probably not even aware of.

But the bottom line is, ONE reason you may be seeing the same review associated with different names is because the same person wrote it, but has different usernames on the sites where you noticed the apparent plagiarism. I've personally written over 600 reviews on GoodReads, and MOST of them I have also copied over to other sites. I just want to maximize the number of people who may subsequently buy a book because I gave it a good review.

BTW, I do NOT post poor reviews. If I don't like a book, I recognize that other people may love it, so I will NOT attempt to persuade them to NOT buy it. I just won't say anything.

One final note: I plan to get your book, read it, and post reviews, assuming I like it. In that case, you WILL find the same review on at least one or two other sites, and they might have a different name associated with them on those other sites. I'm just trying to help you and your potential readers.

I hope this helps to explain one possible reason you are seeing apparent cases of plagiarism. I'm not saying it never happens, but when you see two identical reviews under different names, it doesn't necessarily mean anything untoward is going on.

I'm looking forward to reading your book!

[John]

Grampy wrote: "the only reason I can see anybody doing that is because the original review states the exact impression the second reviewer had, in a more concise or accurate manner than the second reviewer could say it. "

I hadn't considered that, that makes a great deal of sense, now that you've suggested it.

And thanks for wanting to check my book! I hope you enjoy it. I would love to know which story you enjoyed the most, the least, etc.

[Grampy]

John wrote: "Grampy wrote: "the only reason I can see anybody doing that is because the original review states the exact impression the second reviewer had, in a more concise or accurate manner than the second ..."

Well, I've already enjoyed "Cerberus", and can't wait to read the rest of them!

[Patrick]

Copying your review to other sites is fine, but just to clarify, nobody should be posting the same review twice to Goodreads.

[Grampy]

Patrick wrote: "Copying your review to other sites is fine, but just to clarify, nobody should be posting the same review twice to Goodreads."

I don't even think that's possible, but there would be no legitimate reason for doing so that I can think of.

[Debbie's Spurts (D.A.)]

There's a difference between copying your own review and ripping off another person's review. It is suspicious if two exactly the same detailed reviews appear on goodreads for a book (obviously not reviews that say nothing other than "I loved it!" but reviews with at least a few sentences shouldn't be repeating).

Even if reviewers had the exact same opinion, doesn't mean okay for one to copy verbatim and repost as their own. (I have occasionally said things in a review along the lines of "I agree with a previous reviewer who said..." — but I wasn't claiming their work as my own).

[John]

this situation has resolved, btw, the duplicate review is no longer there. Not sure what happened, but I feel better now.