Especially authors like me.
This Forbes Magazine article, by David Vinjamuri, expresses my concerns about the problem of sock puppet reviews - DO CONSUMER REVIEWS HAVE A FUTURE? WHY AMAZON’S SOCK PUPPET SCANDAL IS BIGGER THAN IT APPEARS.
Several days ago, I read Joe Konrath’s article and code of ethics regarding phony reviews wherein he stated- and I paraphrase- I wouldn’t do it, but it ain’t all that bad. I admire Mr. Konrath and I respect his personal code of ethics, but I was disappointed. I agree with Mr. Vinjamuri, this is moral relativism- I wouldn’t do it, but well, you do what you gotta do. Mr. Konrath says since there is no way to effectively police the system we must, as consumers, accept varying degrees of dishonesty. In other words, there is dishonesty and there is dishonesty.
He does have a point, but let me ask you this… When my husband prevaricates regarding a certain pair of jeans and my butt, is this the same as deliberately attempting to fool the public in order to make money and/or stick it to one’s competition?
While I believe a lie is acceptable on certain occasions- like, say, when your life is threatened or as in the above case involving jeans and my butt- if a certain percentage of book reviews are sock puppet reviews, by definition that makes every review suspect and therefore, worthless.
Here’s an obvious understatement for you- Fraudulent reviews distort the original intent of review sites. Duh.
It’s easy as pie to create sock puppet identities in order to scam consumers. At its least offensive this practice is misleading and annoying, at worst it’s flat out fraud.
Mr. Vinjamuri points out in his article that David Wagner, writing for the Atlantic Wire, intimates (perhaps with tongue in cheek) it’s easy to spot the fakes. I beg to differ. I’m really smart (I sound like Homer Simpson - “I am so smart! I am so smart! S-M-R-T! I mean S-M-A-R-T!”) and while I discount what I call rah-rah yay-yay reviews as well as spiteful, vitriolic reviews, I doubt I could identify your run of the mill phony review.
Frankly, the practice of using sock puppets to write fraudulent reviews pisses the hell out of me.
As a consumer I want to read honest reviews.
As an author, no matter how hard it is to sit on my hands, my job is to tell the story, write the best book I can, put it out there and let the chips fall where they may. I know damn well the decision has cost me in terms of sales. Even knowing that, I will still do the right thing.
No sock puppets here.
I do not read reviews. For my books. For anyone else’s books. For products. Movies…
For a long time now, I’ve written them off, one and all. I used to be naive. Now, I just write and hope/pray/cross my fingers that someone will read the result.
Good philosophy, Anny.
Mixed feelings on this issue. On the one hand, I don’t really care about book reviews. I rarely read them-my own or anyone else’s. To my way of thinking, reviews are about the reviewer-their tastes, preferences and biases-and precious little about the books themselves. I’ve never purchased a book because of reviews. Nor have I ever NOT read something because of reviews. There are a few book bloggers whose taste coincides with mine, and I’ve purchased books based on their recommendations. But a stranger? Pfft. They have no credibility with me.
On the other hand, the dishonesty of it sits ill with me. I won’t review a book I’ve had any connection to-editorially or production. I might discuss it on my blog, but those aren’t reviews-those are about me and how different books affect me. I only do it for it books in which I actually have something to say in a far bigger sense than merely: “Buy this book.” I won’t leave a review for it on Amazon or Goodreads. Nor will I accept free copies in exchange for reviews. I don’t want to be beholden.
One way Amazon could nip this problem in the bud is to get rid of the star rating system. If people want to leave their opinions, fine, but make them work to make a point rather than a sorry shortcut like a star.
Hey Jaye. Reviews matter to me. I might not agree with a reviewer, but they still matter. I may hear about a book on NPR, for instance, or read an interview with an author. If my interest is piqued I want more information. First I check reviews, if I’m still interested I’ll upload a sample of the book - which is a great selling point for the Kindle.
Amazon does make you actually write a review. You can’t simply rate the book. Goodreads, on the other hand, does allow you to rate a book without leaving a review.
I’m with you - the dishonesty does not sit well. I’ve never been a fan of The Big Lie approach- Tell a lie often enough and people will believe it to be the truth.
I don’t read reviews or more importantly let a review decide if I’ll buy a book.
I don’t read reviews, but it’s disappointing that the reason I don’t is because of rampant unreliability and dishonesty. I don’t hold with Konrath’s view - to take his point of view to the extreme ‘I wouldn’t murder someone, but you do what you gotta do’? Patently preposterous. ‘You do what you gotta do’ is just a means for people to excuse their own conscience and, having once crossed that line, do it again and again. You might kill someone in defence of your life (although I note that, then, isn’t even murder anyway), but I can’t imagine a realistic scenario where one has to fake book reviews. People who fake book reviews don’t have to - they WANT to. It used to be people took pride in being an honest man or woman. Now honesty is just another coin for trade.
While I review honestly, I try to find some good in every book. Plus, I have to respect that since I am not reviewing using classical standards of literary criticism, I am reviewing from an extremely subjective POV.
Aside from my pet peeves unsubstantiated lust, purple prose, and a lack of proofreading, some people might love what I don’t. I figure that on blogs what people are looking for is whether people they perceive as similar to themselves, or funny or smart like a book or not. And, the stuff you won’t read in a formal review, for example: are there enough lumberjacks with beards.
I don’t let reviews decide for me either, Amber, but I’ve noticed my daughters depend upon Yelp for restaurants - and Yelp has become notoriously unreliable due to sock puppet reviews.
Ciara, I could not agree more. Well said.
Yes, Steph, I do think when searching blogs readers are looking for bloggers with similar tastes. Book blogging with a particular, consistent identity is entirely different from writing a sock puppet review unless you are being paid to write a review to the exact specifications of the author or publisher - or you are the author or publisher pretending to be a book blogger.
I know you try to find good in everything you read, which is also why I know when you post a negative review the book was REALLY AWFUL.
I agree with you totally. It is so frustrating knowing that there are fraudulent reviews out there. I’ve been thinking a lot about the reviews I give on goodreads. Most have been 4 or 5 stars. But then again, I am so selective about the books I read, that I don’t read many that are not worthy of that kind of review. However, having said that, I am currently reading a book that is a bit of a slog and I will give this one 3 stars, but you know, as a writer, I feel bad about that. I don’t want to hurt the author’s sales, not that my opinion matters, but it might.
I don’t see the point of fraudulent reviews. Consumers will only feel tricked or skeptical later.
XXOO Kat
That’s if the consumer finds out, Kat. I personally know restaurant owners who pay friends to write fraudulent reviews on Yelp - positive for their restaurant, negative for other restaurants. So bogus! People reading Yelp for restaurant reviews (Yelp is one example, not trying to single them out) have no idea which reviews are phony and which are genuine.
Hi Diana. I agree with you. I simply don’t review much. If a book is really bad, rather than write a lousy review I just keep my mouth shut- because I’m an author and someone might think I have an agenda.
It’s a matter of integrity. Some folks have it, some don’t, and evidently some don’t care about the issue.
The bottom line is that if your book is not 5-stars, and you get a bunch of 5-star reviews, then you will be sniffed out and exposed soon enough. Because consumers don’t like to get ripped off and they’re not complete idiots.
I find it extremely depressing that anyone is saying “what’s so bad about a little fraud?” A lot is wrong. A hell of a lot.
The most valid reviews should satisfy one of these criteria:
1. A trusted source. Someone who you follow and whose opinion you hold in high regard.
2. From a vendor that only accepts reviews from people who have purchased the book and caps the number of reviews per month at a reasonable number (like 4/month).
There is a sucker born every minute or so they say so if people want to spend their hard earned bucks on dubious books based on even more dubious reviews, well what are ya gonna do? Life isn’t fair. OK, that is enough cliches for one comment.
I agree, Pen. There’s a lot wrong with a little fraud. Unfortunately a ‘little’ fraud seems to be the norm in the U.S. these days. Perhaps we need to legislate an ‘acceptable limit’ of fraud.
Good point, Yoshi. And yes, a sucker is born every minute. P.T. Barnum. Life isn’t fair but then neither is fraud…
I read that article on JA Konrath’s blog a few days ago and I was disappointed also. I got the impression he was friends with the authors or one of them and didn’t want to appear to not be a good friend by disagreeing. I could be wrong, but I just didn’t understand his reasoning for thinking fake reviews aren’t all that bad. They are. I’ve stopped looking at reviews on Amazon or Goodreads. I believe there are too many ‘agenda’ type reviews out there. It’s weird. Also, I will never buy a book that only has five star reviews. I can’t. I need to know the good, the bad and the mediocre about the book before I make a purchase, unless it’s a favorite author which most likely I purchase based on blurb alone.
Good point, Delilah. I hadn’t thought of that, but you’re right. He is probably friends with many of the authors writing sock puppet reviews. I must be very naive. We share the same philosophy. I will never buy a book with only 5 star reviews - and I always look to see if a reviewer has a history. If the reviewer has only written a single review, and it’s one 5 star review for a particular book, I assume it’s a friend, family member, sock puppet…
As someone who does a fair number of reviews, fraudulent reviews pretty much figuratively hit right where I live. And they annoy me. I spend a fair amount of time trying to deliver well-executed reviews, and for someone else to cast a pallor on the entirety of my work is annoying.
Aaron, if I was a reviewer I’d be furious. Phony reviews are a slap in the face to reviewers with integrity.
I’ve never allowed a review of a book or movie or whatever (well, I do read reviews on vacuum cleaners!) sway my decision. So, while I think we need reviews (or word of mouth) to help sell books, I don’t read reviews and allow them to affect me. Who cares what other people think (unless it’s about vacuums)? Form your own decisions. (While that may make finding a good book more difficult, you won’t have anyone else’s OPINION influencing you.)
More on topic, I do think writing any kind of fraudulent review is wrong. But I believe there are both fraudulent good reviews AND bad. Unfortunately.
Hi Krystal. Thanks for stopping by. I totally agree there are good fraudulent reviews and bad fraudulent reviews. Both are intended to affect buying decisions. Many many readers do make purchases based upon reviews. While I have never looked upon reviews as gospel, I have been fooled by phony restaurant reviews and phony book reviews.
I think honesty is a good policy - and that means if you read a book and you think it’s lousy you have a perfect right to post a lousy review. Honest negative opinions are every bit as important as honest positive opinions.