Ask the Readers: How Do You Feel About Interference with Reviews?

Here's the cover for the sixth and final episode of my Master of the Opera e-Serial. The first one comes out January 2 and the series finishes with this one, on March 20. What's cool to me about this cover is the opal ring. It's EXACTLY how I described it in the story, which is just way cool to see. You can see about all of them here.

So, this is Ask the Readers week in the bordello - where we ask you all those questions we *really* wonder about. Imagine yourselves up on the panel at the front of the room and we're sitting in those crowded-too-close conference chairs.

This is my long-winded question:

For me, what's on my mind is the ongoing kerfuffle on reviews and review sites. It seems to be heating up and becoming more complex as the retailers get more involved. The growing force of self-published authors is also having an effect, because they bring an entrepreneurial fervor to the mix, with an "anything goes" attitude that's markedly different from the more old-fashioned literary world.

For example, this article about John Locke buying reviews was posted a year ago, but bubbled up in my feed again this morning, due to the recent Goodreads changes. For those not in the know, Goodreads has been a great site for listing books, reviewing them, posting progress in reading a book and having conversations about them. Goodreads has come under fire because some readers have targeted authors they feel treat readers or other people badly. By that I mean, they use the "bookshelf" function to list authors they will never support. Recently, Amazon bought Goodreads. And, at the end of last week, all of the "anti-author" shelves and reviews were summarily deleted.

Has, a reviewer from The Bookpushers book review blog, has an excellent summary here.

Even more interesting, while Goodreads has decided to take sweeping control of what reviewers post, they've added this bit to the author pages:

Hey, you have some reviews! That’s great news. Goodreads reviews help readers decide to read your book. Read more about reviews.

Looking to get more reviews? Try a free giveaway.
For more suggestions of great ways to use Goodreads, please see our author guidelines.
For more about how our reviews work, please see our review guidelines.

If you see a review you feel violates our guidelines, please flag it to bring it to our attention. You’ll see a flag icon when you mouse over the bottom right-hand side of a review.

Which, is not only insulting to me, as a professional author. *Ahem, I know what a review is* - it's also a red flag for the days to come.We've already been through Facebook's ever-increasing attempts to get authors to pay to promote, to reach the readers already following us. Seems to me like Goodreads isn't far behind. Just guessing here.

After all, tons of authors are willing to pay. That's the point of that article on John Locke. He wrote a book called How I Sold 1 Million eBooks in 5 Months, though he left out the "secret" that he did it mainly by 1) paying people to buy his books and 2) paying for reviews. Some choice tidbits:

Potential reviewers were told that if they felt they could not give a book a five-star review, they should say so and would still be paid half their fee…As you might guess, this hardly ever happened.

That’s the New York Times’ David Streitfeld quoting Todd Jason Rutherford, who, Streitfeld reports, commissioned 4,531 glowing and completely bogus book reviews at the now-inactive GettingBookReviews.com.

and

If you’re a self-published author who is still struggling to get noticed, now might be the time to swallow the rest of your pride, jettison your code of ethics, and start buying reviews. (Hey, everyone is doing it.)

and

He also asked that the reviewers make their book purchases directly from Amazon, which would then show up as an “Amazon verified purchase” and increase the review’s credibility.

and

The “democratizing” of content on the Internet, as it’s touted by some, suddenly looks less attractive when users realize they’re the victims of ruthless, orchestrated, profiteering liars.

and

Amazon has a dilemma. So far the system has been working, but what happens when players out themselves? Even last year, detractors were calling it Spamazon. Could there be a tipping point of credibility?

So, that's my question for you readers - where is the tipping point of credibility? How do YOU feel about all of this??

PAYING FOR IT (putting the go in your algorithm)

The blogosphere has been all afire over the recent revelation of some authors paying for reviews.

It happens.

I know some of you are like: "So what's the big deal?"

Well, here's the big deal. The main bookselling website is Amazon. This is where the majority of books are bought in the world. That's not an exaggeration, it's just the fact. Amazon is also where the majority of reviews are placed.

Well, the thing you should know about Amazon is that they have this nifty little thing called an algorithm. We all know what it is conceptually, but no one who doesn't work at Amazon understands it fully. It's the Matrix. It's the ghost in the machine. It is the Wizard in the Oz. It is the selling peanut butter to your buying jelly.

You've been on Amazon. You've seen the items they recommend for you to buy. You get their emails suggesting books. This is all the work of the faceless, all-knowing, mysterious and strange algorithm.

There is one thing we know about the algorithm. It is driven in part by reviews.

Because the algorithm assumes honesty it actually weights reviews pretty heavily in its ranking and recommendation system. So when some asshat comes along and buys a ton of reviews they are gaming the system. They are pulling a shell game on you. They are feeding you a lie masked by your trust of the Amazon system.

If you buy their book based on the recommendation or the paid for reviews, then they are STEALING YOUR MONEY.

Now you might try their book and like it. If so, then win win. But I find that if you have to pay for it, then it's because you know you can't get it on your own.

So rest assured loyal readers. I have not and will not pay for a review. The reviews you see on my books are honestly given by folks who either liked (Yay!) or disliked (Boo!) my writing.

Now that being said. IF YOU LIKE AN AUTHOR THEN PLEASE GO REVIEW THEIR BOOK.

It really does mean the world to them and it could be the tipping point for them to get a boost in the algorithm's arcane machinations. It is the single best way you can support the writers you like besides buying their books.