I don’t know how many of you noticed recent articles in The Sunday Times on how to game Amazon’s
book review system to fake a bestseller. Link
to article. Apparently the newspaper hired a ghostwriter to write a fake
book about bonsai trees, and then hired reviewers to push it to the top of
Amazon’s bestseller charts.
This article certainly generated a lot of interest, and
although it wasn’t stated directly, the reference to self-publishing eg “An undercover investigation by this
newspaper into the robustness of Amazon’s safeguards with regard to
self-published books was mounted . . .” made the inference that it is only
self-publishers who employ these unsavoury tactics.
However, one of the biggest scandals in the past few years
involved a bestselling author published by one of the big six publishers. Check
out the article Sock Puppetry and Fake
Reviews: Publish and be Damned published in 2004 by The Guardian. Link
to article. The article also mentions other traditionally published
authors, and I am sure there must have been many more who were never found out.
Looking at the issue of fake reviews, it seems to me that The Sunday Times deliberately sought out
reviewers who promised five star reviews for a fee. I don’t see any reference
to reviewers who promise to supply ‘honest reviews’. So, by selecting their
reviewers in this manner, they have also cast aspersions on the many reviewers
who supply reviews with or without a fee. If the fee is the criteria used for
pinpointing a fake review then that will make every review you see in the newspapers
and magazines, fake. I used to review for the Scots Magazine and I was always
paid for these reviews. It never affected my ability to review honestly.
No doubt there are dishonest people in the book world, as
there is in any other area of production, whether that be books, cowboy
tradesmen, theatre tickets, you name it, there will always be people who want
to make easy money. But to draw generalisations against a whole industry of
self-published books is unfair. To also suggest Amazon are culpable, despite
what any of us think of Amazon, is also unfair. You just have to read this
article on Marketing Land to realise
Amazon are aware of the problem and are doing something about it. The article
is titled Amazon Sues 1,114 Fiverr Users
for Offering too Write Fake Product Reviews. Link
to the article. Another thing Amazon has been doing for a long time is to
remove reviews they deem to be fake, although unfortunately they don’t always
get this right, and many genuine reviews have been removed in the process.
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| Amazon bestselling chart comparisons |
There is another issue with this article. Most people who
read it will be unfamiliar with Amazon’s bestselling ranks. They will assume
that this fake book became Amazon’s number one bestseller. Not so. It was a
free book and came top of the Gardening
and Horticulture bestselling chart, a very small chart in relation to the
number of books Amazon sells. If you search for the category All Books on the Amazon website, it
throws up 1,137,731 books – that’s right, over a million books. The bestseller
list the fake book topped Free Garden and
Horticulture only has 1,325 books. Now, I’m not a mathematician, but even I
can see that the percentage of fake books sold would have been extremely small.
If my books were competing with this number of books, I’d be top of the
bestseller list for evermore. But there is much more competition in my field.
In any case, what makes a bestseller? Michael N Marcus in
his article Opinion: Why Amazon
Bestsellers Don’t Impress my Dog puts forward several suggestions. Link
to article. According to him any book can achieve bestseller status,
although that is often more to do with a strong marketing push than good
writing. If your book is a niche book, like the fake book above, it is easy to
become a bestseller because the competition is less. But a bestselling book may
only be a bestseller for a week while the marketing push is on, but that is
sufficient for the label to apply for evermore. Offering free copies may also
push a book up the charts, there are loads of ways to achieve bestselling
status. Read the article it will give you food for thought.
As for me, I don’t believe in gimmicks, nor do I offer free
books as a ploy to push them up the charts. My marketing and promotion is sporadic
at best. But as long as my sales are steady and people enjoy reading my books,
I won’t ask for anything more. And I won’t lose sleep wondering how I can climb
up the charts to prove I’m a bestseller.
Chris Longmuir
Amazon
Apple iBooks
5 comments:
This is an eye opener for me - fakes reviews? It amazes me how one's morals can be so easily corrupted, mostly for the sake of ego and social status. Okay, yes, and money. I've received feedback from readers that they don't trust book reviews as much as recommendations from friends. What a relief. People, in general, are smart and often can spot lies and liars. For those who post fake reviews, you may sway some of the readers some of the time. It takes only once for a reader to be totally disappointed in a book you highly recommended. Like all liars, there'll come the day your reputation as an author and/or book reviewer, and human being, will go on the skids. Good riddance.
I don't think the people who game the system by providing fake reviews are overly worried about their reputation. If you read the sock puppet article or even the Sunday Times one you will realise that most of these are posted under names as fake as the reviews. Likewise, most of the authors I know would never dream of buying fake reviews, but as I said in the article, there are always a few people who think by gaming the system they will acquire fame and fortune. I regret to say I believe they are sadly deluded.
I've been following this story, Chris and I think it's worth pointing out that it is not only about fake book reviews. I know that's what concerns us as authors but Amazon is trying to stop the fake reviews on all products they sell from electronic gadgetry to garden chairs.
That's interesting. I suppose being authors we are more focused on what's happening with book reviews. But these people who try to game the system give all reviews a bad name, and it makes people suspicious of all five star reviews.
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