Gaming Amazon?
Apr 8th, 2008 by Lynne
I’ve mistrusted Amazon book reviews for years. I mean, you read a book that’s sucky by pretty much any objective standard, and then when you look at its Amazon reviews, they’re all 5-star fangirl squees? Uhh, yeah. Like that happened legitimately.
Well, apparently there are gangs of writers and their fans who live for voting negative Amazon reviews as “unhelpful” or even reporting them as inappropriate content so that the reviews will be automatically deleted. Rumors about these tactics have been floating around the blogoverse for a few years now, but the most recent reports document a much more coordinated campaign.
That’s why I trust people like Mrs. Giggles to give it to me straight. I may not agree with every one of her reviews, but you know what you’re getting is her honest opinion. Gaming Amazon reviews is tantamount to fraud, in my opinion.
Oh, wow. That’s disturbing.
Hiya, Kate! I’m pretty much to the point now that I start wondering if there’s something actually *wrong* with the book when it appears that the author has overcompensated by having a bunch of writer pals do 5-star reviews.
I don’t do formal reviews for friends or on books where I’ve provided critiques. It just seems like a conflict of interest to me, and if a reader found out about my connection to the author, my credibility — and the review’s — would be absolutely zilch.