Are Publishers Faking It?

According to a rather interesting article Matt Shoard on the blog meandmybigmouth, even big publishers are trolling Amazon and Goodreads to post natural sounding reviews in an effort to jack up sales of books. According to a former industry inside (who was named in that post), it isn’t uncommon for marketing people to have anonymous logins on Amazon which they use to post glowing reviews of the book they’re promoting.

It Pays To Keep An Eye On Your Amazon Review

When Stephen Leather checked out his one-starred review for Dreamer’s Cat, the reviewer said, and I quote, “This is not a review as such, as I haven’t read the book and unfortunately won’t do so. Why? Because it’s written in the present tense which, in my opinion (and I stress that it is only my opinion), simply doesn’t work for a full length novel.

I’ve read other Stephen Leather novels and as far as I can remember he’s always written in the past tense. Please return to your former technique, Stephen!”

Leather sent a polite email to Amazon’s customer support. The review came down right away.

Why follow up is important – a single one-starred review will drag down your average rating.

What not to do (Any one remember the Big Al/ Jacqueline Howett /The Greek Seaman fiasco. Click here if you don’t)? Never, never respond to a bad review. On the internet, things stay around for ever.

Courtesy: The Taleist