How Authors Can Use Public Relations Principles to Work with Amazon

I get ideas about stuff to talk about in unexpected places. I assume that is not unique to my writing experience, but today something popped up in Facebook Memories feature I just couldn't resist passing along to my blogger friends. I think the major lesson to me (and from me! Ha!)  is that we can love to hate Amazon and other entities all we want, but it's more useful to our writing careers--both successes and enjoyment of them--if we don't listen to all the rumors of entities in the publishing world and find out for ourselves. In this case it is Amazon, but I constantly run into experiences even after decades of writing experience in several different disciplines (journalism, PR, marketing, blogging, and publishing in a variety of genres, etc.) that nudge me away from all the griping we hear on the web and elsewhere and onto doing what the basics of good marketing departments at great universities tell us to do. That is, make friends, network, and explore new possibilities. 

Sooo, I had heard from several fairly reliable sources that Amazon wouldn't remove old editions of a book from their sales pages but decided to try one more time using the email feature at their Author Central to reach someone to ask for help. Here is my experience as posted on Facebook way back then--in probably about 2011. 

"I just had the nicest telephone conversation with Amazon's Author Central. I had worked for two years trying to get the old edition of my The Frugal Book Promoter removed from Amazon via e-mail (I thought it would make it easier if they had all the ISBNs, etc in writing! Silly me! And, I admit to hating confrontation and avoiding it like the plague! ) 

"So the conversation goes like this:

"ME: "I understand I can't have the first edition of my The Frugal Book Promoter removed from Amazon even though it's outdated--by about a decade--but that I can add a new widget to that page to direct my readers to the new one."

"DANA THE WONDERFUL (At Amazon!):  "I'd be happy to do that for you." 

"ME: Some chitchat including thank yous as she works. Then some magic words! "Too bad we can't just hide the old edition and get all 128 of the old reviews transferred to the multi award-winning second edition!" (Were "multi award-winning" the magic words?"

"DANA THE WONDERFUL: "Oh, we can do that!" Typing noises. "It may take 72 hours for that to happen but it's done."

"ME: "Really?"

"DANA THE WONDERFUL: "Really." 

"ME: Happy Dance. Huge Thank yous.

"Note: It obviously is worth the time waiting for a real person on the Author Connect (Author Central)  hotline!  Wish I had a recording of the conversation for you!"

Here's a disclaimer.  This is 2021,  NOT 2011. Amazon changes policies all the time as needed (or as they think are needed--I have seen them change back again). So if you are having this particular problem, try my method. But the real point of this post is to try it no matter what it is you want or need. In the past, I have had them...

1. Add several widgets to point to several of my books that were published in later editions.

2. To move reviews from earlier editions to later editions.

3. To remove early editions of e-books, but not paper books. Removing paper books interferes with their second market feature. 

4. To fix or update metadata.

5. To get blatantly biases reviews removed. Amazon doesn't like this either and is working mightily to avoid it. There are all kinds of scammy approaches to reviews. In fact, I wrote a big, fat how-to book on reviews that includes a case study of sorts of Amazon vs. Scammy reviews.  We don't like to believe it, but there are actually fellow writers out there with an agenda and somehow believe that dissing their competition's books will be good for their own.  It is the third in my multi award-winning #HowToDoItFrugally Series of books for writers,  How to Get Great Book Reviews Frugally and Ethically at  https://bit.ly/GreatBkReviews.

6. It seems they have recently changed a wonderful feature they had where #authors and #publishers could add all kinds of helpful information to their buy page--everything from professional reviews to notes from the author. I told you they change all the time, but keep checking. Better still, keep asking. You might even run into my "Dana the Wonderful!" 

MORE ABOUT THE BLOGGER Howard-Johnson is the multi award-wining author of fiction, creative nonfiction, and poetry. She is also a marketing consultant, editor, and author of the multi award-winning HowToDoItFrugally Series of books for writers including the multi award-winning The Frugal Book Promoter (http://bit.ly/FrugalBookPromoIII), now offered by Modern History Press in its third edition. Carolyn's latest is in the #HowToDoItFrugally Series of books for writers is How to Get Great Book Reviews Frugally and Ethically. She has two booklets in the #HowToDoItFrugally Series, both in their second editions from Modern History Press. Great Little Last Minute Editing Tips for Writers (http://bit.ly/LastMinuteEditsII) and The Great First Impression Book Proposal (http://bit.ly/BookProposalsII) are career boosters in mini doses and both make ideal thank you gifts for authors. The Frugal Editor (http://bit.ly/FrugalEditor), now in its second edition, is the winningest book in the series. Carolyn also has three frugal books for retailers including one she encourages authors to read because it helps them convince retailers to host their workshops, presentations, and signings. It is A Retailer’s Guide to Frugal In-Store Promotions: How To Increase Profits and Spit in the Eyes of Economic Downturns with Thrifty Events and Sales Techniques (http://bit.ly/RetailersGuide). In addition to this blog, Carolyn helps writers extend the exposure of their favorite reviews at TheNewBookReview.blogspot.com. She also blogs at all things editing--grammar, formatting and more--at The Frugal, Smart, and Tuned-In Editor (http://TheFrugalEditor.blogspot.com). Learn more and follow for news on her new releases direct from Amazon: http://bit.ly/CarolynsAmznProfile.

My Take on New Amazon Review Policy

Amazon is trying—once again—to keep reviewers honest (meaning to keep them more credible, more trustworthy) and (possibly) to boost book sales on Amazon. But let’s give them credit for the more altruistic goal, huh?

In the note I received directly from them they say,

“Shoppers consistently tell us that they value reviews from other shoppers who they know have purchased the product on Amazon. As a result, we are introducing a policy change around customer reviews. Customers can now only submit a limited number of non-Amazon Verified Purchase reviews each week. The count is calculated each week from Sunday at 12:00am UTC through Saturday 11:59pm UTC. Your ability to submit Amazon Verified Purchase reviews will not be impacted. This policy also does not apply to Vine reviews or reviews on digital and physical books, music, and video.”

This is how readers can identify an Amazon Verified Purchase review: 

•  There will be an Amazon Verified Purchase badge near the review. They hope that helps assure readers that the review represents a “typical customer experience with that product.” It may, but there is no guarantee of that. On the other hand, it may make it easier for readers to identify authors with an agenda who try to undermine their competition with bad reviews. Yes, this cn happen.

•They also say “ Reviews that are not marked “Amazon Verified Purchase” are valuable as well, but we either can’t confirm that the product was purchased at Amazon or the customer did not pay a price available to most Amazon shoppers."

For more details, please see our Amazon’s guidelines  at https://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=201929730.

So, you see, as an author who reviews, it is highly unlikely that you will review that many products or books within a short period of time. As an author who wants to get as many reviews as possible, it his highly unlikely that the readers you ask to review your book will have exceeded that maximum either!

And, if you want to increase the number of reviews on your amazon buy page (and you should!), my new How To Get Great Book Reviews Frugally and Ethically: The ins and outs of using free reviews to build and sustain a writing career will help you with that process. I promise you it will! You’ll find all kinds of ways to make your reviews work harder for you, too. 

MORE ABOUT THE BLOGGER

 Carolyn Howard-Johnson is the author of fiction, creative nonfiction, and poetry. She is also a marketing consultant, editor, and author of the multi award-winning HowToDoItFrugally Series of books for writers including the award-winning second editions of The Frugal Book Promoter and The Frugal Editor. Her latest is in the series is How to Get Great Book Reviews Frugally and Ethically. Learn more on her Amazon profile page, http://bit.ly/CarolynsAmznProfile. Great Little Last Minute Editing Tips for Writers is one of her booklets--perfect for inexpensive gift giving--and The Great First Impression Book Proposal, another booklet, helps writers who want to be traditionally published. She has three FRUGAL books for retailers including one she encourages authors to read because it will help them convince retailers to host their workshops, presentations, and signings. It is A Retailer’s Guide to Frugal In-Store Promotions: How To Increase Profits and Spit in the Eyes of Economic Downturns with Thrifty Events and Sales Techniques. In addition to this blog, she helps writers extend the exposure of their favorite reviews at TheNewBookReview.blogspot.com. She also blogs at all things editing--grammar, formatting and more--at The Frugal, Smart,and Tuned-In Editor (http://TheFrugalEditor.blogspot.com)

Getting Great Book Reviews and Making Them Work Harder for You

Just thinking you'd like a peek at my brand new release on getting reviews. If you would like an excerpt or related article for your blog, just ask! (-:  
Happy writing and promoting,
Carolyn

Off-The-Wall -Alternatives

Making Your Reviews Into Workhorses

By Carolyn Howard-Johnson.

Excerpted (and adapted) from Carolyn’s new How To Get Great Book Reviews Frugally and Ethically: The ins and outs of using free reviews to build and sustain a writing career to be released this fall.

Authors rarely get the most of their reviews. Surprised? I think it’s either that they are so excited about the review or that the idea of extending a review’s value doesn’t occur to them. Or it’s because so many reviews these days come from readers. They aren’t professionals, so they have no idea how to distribute content beyond posting their review on Amazon.

One of the ways they can get more mileage from their reviews is to get them reprinted in more venues than the reviewer ever planned. Or you do it for them. And, no, it isn’t stealing or plagiarism if you get permission from the reviewer first. In fact, it can benefit the reviewer. 

When you get further distribute reviews you already have, it’s like getting a little marketing bonus. Here’s how to do that:

• If your reviewer doesn’t normally write reviews (these reviewers are often called reader reviewers), suggest she send her review or the link to her review to her friends as a recommendation.
• If your reviewer lives in a town with a small daily or weekly newspaper, she could send her review to them. She may realize the thrill of being published the first time. 

• Ask your reviewer—even one who writes for a review journal—to post her review on Amazon.com, BN.com, and other online booksellers that have reader-review features. I have never had a reviewer decline my suggestion. It is ethical for a reviewer to do it or give you permission to reuse the review as long as she holds the copyright for the review. (Most reviewers do not sign copyright-limiting agreements with the medium who hires them.) Get more information on Amazon’s often misrepresented review policies in Chapter Eleven, “Managing Your Amazon Reviews.”
• After you have permission from the reviewer to reprint the review, post it on your blog, on your Web site, and in your newsletter. Use quotations from the reviews to give credibility to selected media releases and queries.
• Once you have permission to use reviews, send copies of good ones to bookstore buyers and event directors as part of your campaign to do book signings, to speak, or do workshops in their stores. Go to (midwestbookreview.com/links/bookstor.htm) for a starter list of bookstores.
• Send quotations (blurbs) from the reviews you get to librarians, especially the ones in your home town or cities you plan to visit during book tours. Include order information. Try Midwest for a list of libraries (midwestbookreview.com/links/library.htm). 
• Use snippets from positive reviews as blurbs in everything from your stationery to your blog. (Use your e-reader’s find function to search for other ideas for using your blurbs in this book.)
• If your reviewer doesn’t respond to your request to post the review on Amazon, excerpt blurbs from them and post them on your Amazon buy page using Amazon’s Author Connect or Author Central features. They will appear on your Amazon sales page. 
• Include the crème de la crème of your reviews on the Praise Page of your media kit and inside the front cover of the next edition (perhaps a mass market edition like the pocket paperbacks sold in grocery stores?). See my multi award-winning The Frugal Book Promoter (bit.ly/FrugalBookPromo) for the complete—and I do mean complete—lowdown on media kits. 

Hint: Occasionally authors get reviews on Amazon that, shall we say…don’t thrill them. Reviews like that can be minimized by asking others for reviews. As new reviews are added, the old ones tend to get buried in the lineup of reviews. We can also (pleasantly!) refute a position a reviewer takes using the comment feature—or thank them for bringing something to our attention. We can also dispute their validity with Amazon, though that rarely works.

You can use some of these suggestions as part of your keeping-in-communication-with-reviewers effort after her review has been published.

Coming up in the newest release in my multi award-winning HowToDoItFrugally series of books, How To Get Great Book Reviews Frugally and Ethically: The ins and outs of using free reviews to build and sustain a writing career to be released this fall is more on how Amazon can helps authors early in their review-getting process. I mean, as long as it’s nearly impossible to do without Amazon and still have a successful book campaign, we might was well get them to return the loyalty we show them in as many ways as possible. 

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Carolyn Howard-Johnson brings her experience as a publicist, journalist, marketer, and retailer to the advice she gives in her HowToDoItFrugally series of books for writers and the many classes she taught for nearly a decade as instructor for UCLA Extension’s world-renown Writers’ Program. The books in her HowToDoItFrugally Series of books for writers have won multiple awards. That series includes both the first and second editions of The Frugal Book Promoter and The Frugal Editor won awards from USA Book News, Readers’ Views Literary Award, the marketing award from Next Generation Indie Books and others including the coveted Irwin award. Her next book in the HowToDoItFrugally series for writers will be How To Get Great Book Reviews Frugally and Ethically.

The author loves to travel. She has visited eighty-nine countries and has studied writing at Cambridge University in the United Kingdom; Herzen University in St. Petersburg, Russia; and Charles University, Prague. She admits to carrying a pen and journal wherever she goes. Her Web site is www.howtodoitfrugally.com. 

Seond Edition Headaches: I Don't Want to Lose My Amazon Reviews

I sometimes run Q and A a la Ann Landers columns in my SharingwithWriters newsletter using questions that my clients ask me or that subscribers send to me. This is one of my favorites because involves two subjects that seem to interest authors most--Amazon sales and getting reviews. 

Q&A A La Ann Landers

Wahh! I Don’t Want to Lose All My Amazon Reviews

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QUESTION:
Do you lose your Amazon reviews when you publish a second edition of your book?

ANSWER
You can get Amazon to post reviews from the first edition to the second through Author Connect. and, you can get Amazon to put a referral widget from the first edition to the second. They tend to move this widget around, but it's always been near the top of the first edition buy page (though not as prominent as I'd like to see it!). 

You can see what it looks like on this page for the first edition of The Frugal Book Promoter (http://www.amazon.com/Frugal-Book-Promoter-What-Publisher/dp/193299310X/ref=sr_1_15?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1452289798&sr=1-15&keywords=carolyn+howard-johnson). But please don't buy the first edition! The second edition is expanded, updated and, if I do say so, lots prettier! (-:

Do know that Amazon only transfers all of the reviews; you can't pick and choose. So if something in the first edition has been criticized and you fixed it in the second edition, they won’t discard that earlier review. Your only recourse is to use the comment feature that is found at the end of each review to dispute the claim—maybe with a thank you to the reviewer for helping you correct that in the second edition.

Just an extra here: If you just update your old edition rather than publish a new one, you may be losing more marketing opportunities than you ever dreamed of.  Of course,  a second edition should have something new about the cover (like the words second edition) or a whole new cover and at least 10% new content).

PS: Watch for the August-September release of my newest book in the multi award-winning series of HowToDoItFrugally Series of books for writers. It is Getting Great Reviews Frugally and Ethically.   

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 Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of This Is the Place; Harkening: A Collection of Stories Remembered; Tracings, a chapbook of poetry; and how to books for writers including the award-winning second edition of, The Frugal Book Promoter: How to get nearly free publicity on your own or by partnering with your publisher; The multi award-winning second edition of The Frugal Editor; and Great Little Last Minute Editing Tips for Writers . The Great First Impression Book Proposal is her newest booklet for writers. She has three FRUGAL books for retailers including A Retailer’s Guide to Frugal In-Store Promotions: How To Increase Profits and Spit in the Eyes of Economic Downturns with Thrifty Events and Sales Techniques. Some of her other blogs are TheNewBookReview.blogspot.com, a blog where authors can recycle their favorite reviews. She also blogs at all things editing, grammar, formatting and more at The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor .

Amazon Again: The Ins and Outs of Going After Fake Reviews

Amazon Attacks Fake Reviews and Reviewers

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According to the LA Times, Amazon is suing more than 1,000 writers for selling recommendations (and reviews!) for books (and other items) they didn’t buy.

If you have read The Frugal Book Promoter, you know that I recommend writing reviews of other authors’ books as a way to network and as a way to give back to the industry that makes books possible. In fact, a free and unbiased review is the nicest thing you can give to an author as a token of appreciation. And one of the best places you can post your review is on Amazon where it has the best chance of being read by thousands of readers. There are, of course, other places to post them including your own blog, Goodreads, and other sites. You can also volunteer to review for sites like BookPleasures, MyShelf and Midwest Book Review that depend on those who love to read to keep their sites going even when profit margins are slim.

It is reported that Amazon sees reviews that are too glowing as a danger sign. That’s fair. Professional reviews can be rave reviews, but no book is perfect. In fact, a review is more trustworthy (and therefore sells more books--proved by studies over the years!) if it does point out places where the book is weak. Such critiques needn’t be snarky. They can be tactful, firm, and helpful to readers and authors alike.

Perhaps it was the offers on Fiverr.com that finally ticked Amazon off enough to do this. Many offered reviews for $5. And some of those promised five-star reviews. And, yes, this is—to put it mildly—unethical. You’ve probably seen me discourage authors and publishers from paying for reviews in the past because they aren’t credible even if they are honest.  People like bookstore owners, librarians, and other publishing industry professionals generally know they have been paid for even if they come from Publishers Weekly or Kirkus. In fact, those magazines put their paid-for reviews in a separate place or mark them differently so their readers will know! Reviews that aren’t credible are a waste of money and time. And, did I mention unethical? Ahem!

Some of these reviews offer to post reviews using multiple accounts and IP addresses. I say, go after them Amazon!  This kind of thing ruins the process for everyone. 

Nevertheless, I’ve seen Amazon pull reviews based on flimsy excuses in the past and so I worry.

The trouble with pulling reviews too aggressively is how they make the decision to do so. They use logarithms that tell them if a reviewer purchased the book. That seems like a good idea at first, but their site is not the only one that sells an item so if their logarithms are picking up reviews of items not purchased from them, they may be wrong, terribly wrong.

Here is why:

•   It is a publishing tradition that publishers and writers provide books at no cost--often special review copies (ARCs)  or galleys-- to those who write reviews of their book (s). These books would not show up as sales anywhere.
• Many who write reviews of a book or product may have received the book as a gift for their birthday or a holiday. 
• Many write reviews of books or products that they buy at a bookstore or any other retail outlet.
• Some may write reviews of books they borrow from the library or buy from secondhand bookstores. 

So are the bulleted review tracks above indications they are fake reviews? I don’t know how Amazon is selecting those people it will sue, (and I know they have plenty of money to waste if their selection is off base and they lose!), but I think they are once again on very shaky ground.

In the meantime, if you review for Amazon (and you should), be liberal with disclaimers like this:

“Disclaimer: This reviewer received a book in exchange for an unbiased and fair review. No fee was charged either the author or the publisher.”

And do avoid touting your own book in the review. The link used in the review (the one that Amazon provides) takes readers back to your profile page. That, dear author/reviewer should be enough for you. Offering this to authors and reviewers is indeed a gift from Amazon and we should not abuse the hand that feeds us.

Note: For more on this topic see the LA Times’ Technology page in their business section, Thursday, October 2, 2015.

.N

No                                                  

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Carolyn Howard-Johnson is the author of the multi award-winning HowToDoItFrugally books for writers as well as a novelist and poet. She is working on the third major book in the HowToDoItFrugally series of books called Getting Great Reviews Frugally and Ethically and she just published a book of poetry perfect for this silly political season. It is Imperfect Echoes, http://bit.ly/ImperfectEchoes . Her Web site is http://howtodoitfrugally.com 

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 Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of This Is the Place; Harkening: A Collection of Stories Remembered; Tracings, a chapbook of poetry; and how to books for writers including the award-winning second edition of, The Frugal Book Promoter: How to get nearly free publicity on your own or by partnering with your publisher; The multi award-winning second edition of The Frugal Editor; and Great Little Last Minute Editing Tips for Writers . The Great First Impression Book Proposal is her newest booklet for writers. She has three FRUGAL books for retailers including A Retailer’s Guide to Frugal In-Store Promotions: How To Increase Profits and Spit in the Eyes of Economic Downturns with Thrifty Events and Sales Techniques. Some of her other blogs are TheNewBookReview.blogspot.com, a blog where authors can recycle their favorite reviews. She also blogs at all things editing, grammar, formatting and more at The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor .

Amazon's Author Pages Around The World

I sometimes pass along news from Amazon because too often authors either don't receive it or they ignore it--perhaps because they don't realize how important Amazon is for book sales around the world. 

Amazon’s Newsletter for authors with e-books is out and they say that our AuthorCentral profiles (or author pages) can now be seen in India. “Seen” for Amazon means linked to everywhere on amazon your name appears! That might include your reviews of books that might interest readers who would also be interested in your book, your author profile, any comments you may have made, etc.

 If my SharingwithWriters blog subscribers and visitors haven’t installed a profile with AuthorCentral, let me know what your very good reason for not doing so is! I can’t think of one ‘cause Amazon is now in the UK, Japan, Germany, Italy, even Mexico and India now and people around the world speak (and read)  English as second and third languages. And that isn’t a complete list! Here is what Amazon says:

 “Author Central is excited to announce the launch of Author Pages on http://Amazon.in . Customers on Amazon.in can search and browse your author page, seeing the same profile picture, images, videos, and more as you have on your Amazon.com Author Page. Author Pages on Amazon.in are managed from http://authorcentral.amazon.com .

Author Pages help readers connect with you, find books they will love, and keep up with your latest news.

Visit Author Central today.

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Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of This Is the Place; Harkening: A Collection of Stories Remembered; Tracings, a chapbook of poetry; and how to books for writers including the award-winning second edition of, The Frugal Book Promoter: How to get nearly free publicity on your own or by partnering with your publisher; The multi award-winning second edition of The Frugal Editor; and Great Little Last Minute Editing Tips for Writers . The Great First Impression Book Proposal is her newest booklet for writers. She has three FRUGAL books for retailers including A Retailer’s Guide to Frugal In-Store Promotions: How To Increase Profits and Spit in the Eyes of Economic Downturns with Thrifty Events and Sales Techniques. Some of her other blogs are TheNewBookReview.blogspot.com, a blog where authors can recycle their favorite reviews. She also blogs at all things editing, grammar, formatting and more at The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor .

On Bestseller Lists, Book Ratings and Ethics

A few years ago, author David A. Vise riled industry insiders when he bought thousands of his own book from Barnes&Noble.com to sign and resell on his own Web site. He said he was simply promoting the book. I was a new author and could see how he might not have understood the ethical ramifications.

David Vise didn't do anything that hasn't been done since Joseph P. Kennedy "bought" John F. Kennedy's Profiles in Courage a top place on The New York Times Best Sellers List. Vise didn't do anything that many authors haven't done; writers often buy their books from one of the online bookstores because they get service faster from the web booksellers than from their own publishers.

Some may say "two wrongs don't make a right."

And I'd agree.

Trouble is, what is "right?" Is The New York Times list always "fair," anyway? I've heard people (indeed, experts!) say the data-gathering for that list is skewed by the accuracy of reporting stores, the frequency of an author's events, the idea that publisher reports don't consider the number of books returned and a whole lot more.

We all know that the entire publishing industry system is one of favoritism. It ignores books because they are published on a particular kind of press The very process that publishers use for selecting titles panders to sales rather than literary quality. I think it's wonderful that under such a system so many really good books do get the attention they deserve and saddened that so many deserve better than they get. It just doesn't seem fair.  

What about book clubs that only consider books published by big publishers? Is that fair?

 

What about paid-for book reviews? Can they be trusted?

 

What about online book launches that encourage people to buy books within a certain time period to see if they can make a book a #1 bestseller?

What is fair in the book industry these days?

 

I am not defending David Vise's actions. But as a novelist and poet who is just trying to see that her book gets exposure and that she is paid royalties on books that are sold to those who read them, I constantly see ideas and offers that reek of "unethical" to me—or border on it. After some years at looking at so many manipulating the already corrupt system any way they can, here's where I've decided I must ethically draw the line:

I've decided that I can legitimately buy the books I send to reviewers and to the media directly from Amazon.com (their prices are generally lower than B&N's). This process does a couple of things for me. Amazon ships my orders faster than some of my publishers. It keeps an online record of the addresses of these important media folks for future reference. It's almost as cheap as ordering from my publisher, especially when I factor in freight. And yes, it edges Amazon's ratings in my favor, though ever so slightly. But is sure won't rig those ratings enough to shoot my books to bestsellerdom—on Amazon's list or any other.

 

I also often buy my own books from online bookstores when I send them as gifts. Again, it's a thrifty and convenient not to have to pay shipping twice on the same book. And the numbers are small. The intent isn't to rig the system.

 

If Vise bought 17,000 books and put a match to them, he was probably trying to tamper with the Best Seller list. That he bought 17,000 and resold them becomes problematic. So many things that have to do with ethics boil down to motivation. And maybe quantity. I can see why he was tempted. All of us should give our great promotion ideas a quick once over to see if they pass the ethics test. And only we can truly judge our own motives.

 

If Vise had bought 17,000 books that were then donated to libraries, the homeless, etc., would that have worked for some ethicists? Doing what he did doesn't seem fair to those authors who haven't the means to play the same game, but then--as I said before--what is fair?

 

By now most authors have gotten used to a whole lot of things that are unfair.

 

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Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of This Is the Place; Harkening: A Collection of Stories Remembered; Tracings, a chapbook of poetry; and how to books for writers including the award-winning second edition of, The Frugal Book Promoter: How to get nearly free publicity on your own or by partnering with your publisher; The Frugal Editor: Put Your Best Book Forward to Avoid Humiliation and Ensure Success; and Great Little Last Minute Editing Tips for Writers . The Great First Impression Book Proposal is her newest booklet for writers. She has three FRUGAL books for retailers including A Retailer’s Guide to Frugal In-Store Promotions: How To Increase Profits and Spit in the Eyes of Economic Downturns with Thrifty Events and Sales Techniques. Some of her other blogs are TheNewBookReview.blogspot.com, a blog where authors can recycle their favorite reviews. She also blogs at all things editing, grammar, formatting and more at The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor . If your followers at Twitter would benefit from this blog post, please use the little Green widget to let them know about this blog: