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.

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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 .

Making the Most of Book Reviews

Recently someone on one of the forums I frequent expressed the idea that readers are impressed by any review--good or bad. I responded to that “good or bad” aspect of reviews with a bit of a how-to on making the best of reviews--good or bad:

I've seen some authors weigh in on positive reviews with negative comments because they're sure the reviewer has an agenda (And that's a really stupid approach to marketing, if I do say so). I've also seen them dispute negative reviews and that isn't a much better tactic in terms of public relations.

 I’ve also seen them pay for reviews, apparently unaware that librarians and bookstore buyers don't give either paid-for review or Amazon reviews much—if any--weight. They may also be unaware that there are other ways to get reviews. Namely by asking their readers for them. Or asking bloggers for them. Or using alternative online review sites (like my http://TheNewBookReview.blogspot.com where you’ll find guidelines for submission in the left column).

That said, we all need good reviews and we can even make the bad ones work for us. We should keep the gems in any review to use in media kits, on our Web sites, etc. Yes, even negative reviews can sometimes be excerpted to find little jewel soundbites.

And as long as we're on the subject, I've heard that a good review on Amazon can up sales by 10%. I don't remember the source. I  suspect that reviews also help with Amazon's logarithms and whatever formula Amazon uses takes hold, they start sending out your book in their mass e-mails for suggested reading--obviously a very targeted advertising campaign we should all aim to be part of.

I also encourage authors to post reviews of others’ books on Amazon. It’s a lovely gift for a fellow writer in 2014.

Here’s a real upside to reviews. Since they have (mostly) moved from the pages of literary journals into the hands of amateur reviewers (meaning—sadly—readers!), we authors have more power over getting reviews for our books. We also can more easily determine how effectively good reviews can be used. There is always a risk factor with reviews, but even ones we might consider bad can be learning tools.

One technique I like is picking up little positive soundbites from a review. Say even a bad reviewer says the characters are dazzling. The author can then quote that one little tidbit in their media kit, their newsletter, their Website. It would look like this:

 "...dazzling..." ~ Kirkus Review

The ads for movies do this all the time. You can, too. 

So have at making the most of reviews. Just don’t pay for them.

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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 .

Carolyn's Scam Alert

Now even the big publishers are culpable in scamming authors. When you read this post, keep in mind that all the scams they list are also available—cheaper—from others, but they're still usually scams. I wrote The Frugal Book Promoter (http://budurl.com/FrugalBkPromo) to help authors avoid this kind of thing. Most scams are based on promotions people can do themselves or for very little money. 

http://davidgaughran.wordpress.com/2013/07/16/penguin-random-house-merger-helps-author-solutions-exploit-writers/

I think that often authors get taken in because they think of themselves—or the topic of their books—as exceptional. I've seen writer friends and clients spend money on scams because they're sure the "service" will work for their books--even though they've just been told that it didn't work for many others.

 

By the way, anyone falling for paid reviews? Even Kirkus offers them and they certainly don't fool bookstore buyers, librarians, or any other knowledgeable person in the industry. They're also journalistically unethical. If you want more detail on why paid-for-reviews aren’t such a good idea check out this post on this SharingwithWriters blog:  http://sharingwithwriters.blogspot.com/2010/04/paid-for-reviews-should-you-buckle-down.html

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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 .

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: