Talking about fake Amazon reviews on your own website

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Arpeggio

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There is already a wealth of news items, blogs and so on about the subject of fake online reviews, many about Amazons.

To me Amazon reviews look like a dodgy ground to rely on. The audacity of some of the 5 star “reviewers” of my competitors, give me reason to believe they would have no qualms in posting negative reviews of my books, were I to get genuine positive ones and a boost in sales, and I’d bet it would get voted “unhelpful” before you can say “Todd Jason Rutherford” or “Fiverr”. Besides, with the growing publicity and outrage, perhaps genuine positive reviews may in time become questionable by association.

Having looked around, I have seen that some authors do talk about the subject on their own blogs, authors who also have their books on Amazon, and there seems to be no repercussion or fear of.

As I see making sales by other means as more secure in the long term than Amazon “customer reviews” I was wondering what anyone’s thoughts are on talking about this on ones own website as a marketing strategy? A simple page with an article of information and links to other sources such as…..

http://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007%2F978-3-642-29873-8_5

…..that I have communicated as best as possible what my books are about, expressing my interest in customers who think for themselves rather than those who let someone else think for them. I’m not a hypocrite so I will of course ask not to rely on online customer reviews of my own books whether they are 1 star or 5 star.

When I say “marketing strategy” I don’t see that as ulterior motive because whatever the intentions, it is fair, and the subject I’d talk about is certainly not.

For anyone interested: Below are just 3 of the things I go by that make me suspect reviews, although there are more factors, these are just the things I have noticed in particular…

1. There’s the possibility that a person will only have ever reviewed one item on Amazon and given it a 5 star review. Also that more than one person will have done this. It’s just that when it happens to be the same book, often several of the 5 star reviewers are like this for the same book.

2. I have read on the “How to spot fake reviews on Amazon” guides that another sign is when reviewers have posted a bunch of other reviews of other things all on the same date to make it look genuine. However it could just be that a person, one day, decided to do some reviews of the things they had bought and just did more than one on the same day. Then after looking around I noticed that these types of reviewers tended to be found via the 5 star reviews of the same book, more than one reviewer with this same pattern.

3. I noticed that in the run up to Christmas there tended to be more 5 star reviews posted. If looking at the dates of all reviews on a particular book with this habit, it’s often pretty bare for the whole year until that time. Call me cynical but I would expect there to be more reviews in general after the 25th December, but there seems to be a correlation between people who open their presents before the 25th December and posting 5 star reviews.
 

AnneGlynn

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I use reviews to see if I'd like to download a sample of a story. I use the sample to see if I'll buy the story. Bottom line, I think honest reviews are crucial in my buying decisions.

So it sucks that there are fakes out there. Sucks, too, that no one reviews my stuff but at least I don't have any five star phonies out there.
 

Mutive

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Just from a reader's perspective, I'm only really interested in reviews that are fairly detailed and honest.

It's of no interest to me whatsoever that someone says, "I loved this! It was the bestest book ever!" I want to hear about what the reviewer liked and disliked to get a feel as to whether it's worth reading the sample.

I'd guess that most readers are fairly sophisticated - at least enough so to ignore reviews that feel like "grudge" reviews or mindless gush.
 

Arpeggio

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So it sucks that there are fakes out there. Sucks, too, that no one reviews my stuff but at least I don't have any five star phonies out there.
I believe that the vast majority of customers simply do not post reviews it’s not in their nature. Once someone has something and they are happy with it, to post a review can only be altruistic, to inform and help other customers.

If Amazon had 121 million customers worldwide (as of 2010 apparently) and just 1% of them posted one single genuine review that’s 1.21 million reviews. Let’s say 10% of Amazons business is selling books, that’s 121,000 honest reviews for its books.

Yet John Locke’s mere 300 paid for reviews (and similar), gets coverage and outrage, because the above paragraph is a fantasy, which if true, they wouldn’t stand out anywhere near as much (or succeed).


Just from a reader's perspective, I'm only really interested in reviews that are fairly detailed and honest.

It's of no interest to me whatsoever that someone says, "I loved this! It was the bestest book ever!" I want to hear about what the reviewer liked and disliked to get a feel as to whether it's worth reading the sample.

I'd guess that most readers are fairly sophisticated - at least enough so to ignore reviews that feel like "grudge" reviews or mindless gush.

On threads like this and comments of blogs etc. I see people such as yourself with the intelligence and discernment to filter reviews, but I could only wish that was the majority. Sales rank says fake reviews work. Customers care about cheap prices (how badly a company treats its staff is rarely an issue), and “convenience is king”; the concept that online customer reviews might be fake is a whole new kettle of fish that flies against “convenience is king”. A case in point:

“Consumers Don’t Trust Reviews But They’re Swayed by Them Anyway”.

http://www.marketingpilgrim.com/201...reviews-but-theyre-swayed-by-them-anyway.html

I am keen on the 22% that apparently don’t base their purchase decision on what a stranger says on the internet. It seems like others are covering this, the subject is getting a lot of coverage in news, blogs etc. It's insane and would drive me nuts if I intended to rely on it, it's a huge problem for most online businesses.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2013/jan/26/fake-reviews-plague-consumer-websites
 
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JournoWriter

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I don't see how an author is going to sell any more books by discussing fake or questionable reviews. What exactly do you mean by "marketing strategy"?
 

merrihiatt

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I glance at reviews to get a general idea of what people thought of a book, but I rely on reading a portion of the book to see if I like the writing style before buying. It usually doesn't take long to separate wheat from chaff.
 

kaitie

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Honestly, I've seen more than one author decrying fake reviews that, to me, don't look fake at all, and that makes me a little wary. If I saw an author commenting on it, fair or unfair, I have to admit that my first instinct would be a rather cynical one--I'd assume that the author got a review he/she didn't like and felt the need to try to convince people to ignore it.

As others said, fake reviews are often obvious, and I've seen far more positive than negative ones. For any review, negative or positive, to have much value, it needs to have details, and fake reviews don't do that.

I honestly don't think the majority of writers need to fear a great backlash of fake reviews designed to destroy careers. The only ones I think would be big enough to warrant that are probably also getting plenty of positive ones to balance it out.

I don't mind an author talking about fake reviews in a general sense. I recently bought a carpet cleaner, and figuring out which reviews should be trusted was difficult. I don't think it really benefits anyone for an author to talk about fake book reviews, though. It comes too close to sounding like sour grapes.
 

Sanoe SC

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I think worrying about this is a great way to drive yourself crazy while accomplishing nothing.

I think pointing out reviews you consider fake is an awesome way to make yourself look unprofessional and arrogant. My reaction will always be that you think your work is above reproach, not that the reviewer is part of a secret cabal attempting to discredit the your work.
 

Arpeggio

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Honestly, I've seen more than one author decrying fake reviews that, to me, don't look fake at all, and that makes me a little wary. If I saw an author commenting on it, fair or unfair, I have to admit that my first instinct would be a rather cynical one--I'd assume that the author got a review he/she didn't like and felt the need to try to convince people to ignore it.

As others said, fake reviews are often obvious, and I've seen far more positive than negative ones. For any review, negative or positive, to have much value, it needs to have details, and fake reviews don't do that.

Please take it I am more like you in your second paragraph than those in your first, although I wouldn’t say always obvious.

I honestly don't think the majority of writers need to fear a great backlash of fake reviews designed to destroy careers. The only ones I think would be big enough to warrant that are probably also getting plenty of positive ones to balance it out.


With the amount of sueing going on over fake online reviews I think some people take it seriously. Just google “Sued for fake reviews”. This guy lost a lot of business.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JnhzByQq9ns


I don't mind an author talking about fake reviews in a general sense. I recently bought a carpet cleaner, and figuring out which reviews should be trusted was difficult. I don't think it really benefits anyone for an author to talk about fake book reviews, though. It comes too close to sounding like sour grapes.

As you say figuring it out was difficult. I don’t think everyone else will cross-examine, and I think the products you saw with fake reviews will be reaping sales as a result.

I think worrying about this is a great way to drive yourself crazy while accomplishing nothing.

The only reason I joined CS Amazon originally was to have somewhere to direct my own marketing efforts to, as they are always “in stock” for print books (I write non-fiction with layouts that don’t work on flowable eBooks). To think someone might click through to Amazon to buy my book then change their mind based on the fact it has no reviews, and instead buy one that I know has fake 5 star reviews, is what niggles me.

As kaitie says on here and others elsewhere, they can sort the wheat from the chaff, so what I say is either sour grapes if not to believe that I can, or that to be bothered about actual fake reviews is sour grapes. If I wasn’t on Amazon and it was all through my own site I’d not be worried, (I don’t have time for direct distribution this isn’t full time).

I think pointing out reviews you consider fake is an awesome way to make yourself look unprofessional and arrogant. My reaction will always be that you think your work is above reproach, not that the reviewer is part of a secret cabal attempting to discredit the your work.

Being above reproach is an aim for the long term. I’m a musician, you can’t fake skill on youtube without someone calling you out sooner or later. I will be an examiner when I get round to it. I’d never talk specifically pointing to actual reviews I think are fake, sorry if I neglected to specify that. It would be more like (to quote Kaitie earlier)…
I don't mind an author talking about fake reviews in a general sense.

If I did I would put thought into it and write it well, maybe including points 1, 2 and 3 from my original post. It wouldn’t be on its own but included in the same section as “Professional reviews” where I go for reviews from people who have a reputation, are known, with an audience and following so more at stake if they were to give dishonest positive reviews.
 

kaitie

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Figuring it out for books is much easier than figuring it out for other products. First, with other products, there is more of a financial incentive to bash competitors/say how awesome your product is. When you only have five brands of vacuum competing in the same price range, for instance, getting a dozen negative/positive reviews can help. And those guys are professionals. They know how to make it sound plausible. They also tend to be (the ones I suspect) a little ridiculous. "This vacuum caught my house on fire!" for instance.

Books are completely different. While some authors/author friends have admitted to leaving negative reviews to try to hurt a competitor, you first have to consider how many books you need to be selling to be a serious competitor (answer--a lot, in which case if the book doesn't suck it's pulling in plenty of positive reviews on it's own).

Second, there are hundreds of thousands of books. In any genre, tens of thousands. Books are being released every day. To put together any real against competitors campaign would require hundreds and hundreds of books being negatively reviewed and new ones added every day. It just doesn't seem feasible. Besides, because books are so subjective that people will have tons of variance among books they buy, which is another reason it would be difficult to wage a true campaign.

Books also require actual knowledge of them to write a good fake review. A book won't catch your house on fire. A reviewer can write "this book sucks. Don't waste your money," but that's not going to be a helpful review the same way "This was a waste of money. It broke after fifteen minutes and I couldn't get parts replaced under warranty" is helpful. Random products can be more vague and get away with it.

For a book review to be helpful, it needs specifics. If someone says the plot is awful, that does me no good without knowing why the plot is awful. Similarly, "This is the best book I've ever read and you should read it, too" is a crappy review that doesn't help anyone.

Book reviews aren't the same as consumer reviews. Now, I'm sure there are self-published authors who might be hurt by a negative review in terms of sales. One person saying the editing is awful and it's full of grammar errors can kill a lot of sales. But considering the number of books being self-published on a daily basis, I can't imagine a true campaign of negative reviews taking place, especially because those other books aren't competing in the same way as other products.

Does that make sense? And like I said, to call out a fake review risks looking bad because you'd need proof somehow that it was fake. Even "This book sucks and I hated it" might be a legit review. Some people just suck at giving reviews.

I'd rather see an author calling out fake positive reviews than negative ones.
 

Arpeggio

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Figuring it out for books is much easier than figuring it out for other products.

You’ve told me about fake online customer reviews from your perspective, I’m talking about customers in general and how phony positive book reviews work and shift books, even the obvious ones.

For businesses, the burden of authenticity and security for “online customer reviews” is the equivalent of putting “Jake” with a photo of him on a site next to the text “Jake works in a shop…..do you think Jake should lose his job? Click “yes or no”. Like the “hot or not” sites.

I have little interest in addressing it as if it is to be “solved”, or for it to be relied on. I want to steer clear of business in which I rely on customers making their purchase decision based on what a stranger says over the internet. This is just part of that.

Does that make sense? And like I said, to call out a fake review risks looking bad because you'd need proof somehow that it was fake. Even "This book sucks and I hated it" might be a legit review. Some people just suck at giving reviews.

Like I said I wouldn’t be doing that, and I haven’t said I would either. You said talking about it in a general sense is OK, so I guess I’m sort of getting some approval there?
 

kaitie

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I think I see what you mean. I could see it from a perspective of general (not your own) reviews and do those affect sales and what not. I think as long as it was clear that you weren't referring to any reviews you had gotten, and only the broader idea of how fake reviews in general influence trust and consumer behavior that could be fine.
 

Arpeggio

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I think I see what you mean. I could see it from a perspective of general (not your own) reviews and do those affect sales and what not. I think as long as it was clear that you weren't referring to any reviews you had gotten, and only the broader idea of how fake reviews in general influence trust and consumer behavior that could be fine.

Basically yes, generally, and with the 3 points from my original post. I’ve seen a small number of others do it who also have books on Amazon.

Otherwise I think this blog article is good with its subtitle “Why Book Bloggers Trump Paid Reviews” (I notice what others on here say similar too).

http://talkingwriting.com/can-you-trust-online-reviews/
 
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