In a Race to Out-Rave, 5-Star Web Reviews Go for $5

This is the best thread ever posted on AW. The use of algorithms to detect false reviews is, in my opinion, one of the best examples of taking the subjective to an objective analysis. And the OP has clearly underlined the great value of AW as a marvelous tool for all writers, whether experienced, developing, or new.

5 Stars.

Tongue-in-cheek aside, the proliferation of fake reviews is a pox on the publishing industry and nullifies the entire review process. And I am disgusted by the asshats who make money by producing these fake reviews.

It would be fantastic if it worked.

As long as it doesn't accidentally remove genuine 5-star reviews, at least.

I think this will really level the playing field. I hope so anyway. It would be nice to get real information and real feedback before picking up a book and it would be great for authors that don't cheat to keep up with the rest of the booking world.

Stacia Kane said:

As long as it doesn't accidentally remove genuine 5-star reviews, at least.

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Exactly - I checked what they use to determine false and true reviews. False ones were more full of 'we' and 'i' etc and experiences. True ones had more description.

I checked out a review I did of a hotel on Trip Advisor. Full of 'we' and experiences (the owner of the hotel really did go above and beyond the call of duty) Might well have been flagged as fake, but I just wanted to say how phenomenal the service was. It almost seems like they're critiquing reviews...

I hope they're looking at this from both sides. False negatives are a problem as well. There are right wing seminars instructing people to spend just a few minutes every day rating books (and other products) they've never read or even heard of in the past -- giving 5 stars to those aligning with the conservative side and 1 star to those that lean liberal. I know it happens frequently on both "sides" but to see it as part of a large scale, organized effort just blew my mind.

IdiotsRUs said:

Exactly - I checked what they use to determine false and true reviews. False ones were more full of 'we' and 'i' etc and experiences. True ones had more description.

I checked out a review I did of a hotel on Trip Advisor. Full of 'we' and experiences (the owner of the hotel really did go above and beyond the call of duty) Might well have been flagged as fake, but I just wanted to say how phenomenal the service was. It almost seems like they're critiquing reviews...

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Yeah, I actually don't see that as a reliable indicator at all, because when I leave a positive review I'm very inclined to say "I" a lot (in fact, many of my positive reviews have lots of "I" statements, now that I go peek at them), and most of the fake reviews I've seen hardly use "I" or "we" at all, instead just uttering meaningless platitudes, i.e.:

BOOK is a heartwarming and delightful journey through one woman's life. It will have you in tears of joy and sadness. AUTHOR will take you on an incredible voyage of self. She wrote something so beautiful that it could change lives. It evokes emotions and everyone should read it. It would make a wonderful gift for the women in your life.


I'm wandering through Amazon at the moment and looking at the 5-star reviews for book published by a certain notorious scammer; the majority of suspicious reviews for those (like written by people with the same last name as the author, who only have one review to their names) don't seem to contain much "I" or "we," really. Most seem to have more "you" and flowy adjectives.

Either way, I worry about legitimate reviews being removed.

Ratings-obsessed review systems have accumulated too much power in various markets. Consider what Metacritic has done to the entertainment industry at large. It's not pretty.

SPMiller said:

Ratings-obsessed review systems have accumulated too much power in various markets. Consider what Metacritic has done to the entertainment industry at large. It's not pretty.

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Metacritic is a joke. My favourite films tend to have ratings of about 6, with a lot of the Marvel films having 8's or 9's.

It's as though people have lost the ability to think for themselves.

If reviews mattered, good or bad, half the bestselling novels out there wouldn't have sold ten copies, and there wouldn't be so many complete flops that received glowing reviews.

Just this morning I was asked if I'd guarantee a positive review of a self-published book in return for a small fee. An amount wasn't suggested. I have ignored the email.

Old Hack said:

Just this morning I was asked if I'd guarantee a positive review of a self-published book in return for a small fee. An amount wasn't suggested. I have ignored the email.

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I'd be seriously tempted to post the email as the review.

Edit: Though I wouldn't.

I considered blogging about it, but thought that would be inappropriate. Damn.

Just curious - If you didn't mention name of book or author, why would it be inappropriate to blog about it? I'd post the email itself, minus the names.

I think alerting people to the inappropriateness of offering to paying for reviews (and the fact that these offers exist) is entirely appropriate.

Whole networks of self-pub people go around and 5-star each other. Not for money, that I know of, but just for a 5-star review in return. No shame.

I might well blog about paid-for reviews: but the text of this particular email was gloriously wrong in all sorts of ways, and that was a big part of its brilliance (!) for me.

Now we're REALLY curious. Post an expurgated version...please??????

Wow...if this works, I totally want to see it!

Once they perfect weeding out bogus 5 star reviews the scammers will just start posting bogus 4 star reviews.

I think we can all agree that this is serious. One writer has a slickly-produced Trailer for her E-book. "Crackles with suspense..." writes AJ. "A page-turner," gushes RS. "The best book of its genre I've read in years..." enthuses MT.

Why no names? So, I check out Amazon, and find it's priced at 99 cents. And, after reading the sample, I can add this endorsement: "Worth every penny!"

If Amazon really wanted to scrub bogus customer reviews from its site, it would only allow people to review products they've purchased, it would remove the customer ratings from the algorithm it uses to recommend products to site visitors, and it would hide or downrate reviews from people who have only reviewed one product.

Old Hack said:

Just this morning I was asked if I'd guarantee a positive review of a self-published book in return for a small fee.

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I always want to say to these people, if you're going to behave as though someone's integrity can be bought, at least don't do them the further insult of pricing it low.

djf, I've reviewed on Amazon several ARCs that I've been sent for free, though, and books I've bought elsewhere. I understand what you're saying: but allowing only reviews of bought items wouldn't stop people buying books them writing fake reviews of them, and it would stop people like me from writing reviews of books we've bought elsewhere and enjoyed--which would potentially harm writers.

If you go to fiverr there are screenfuls of people offering to write fluff reviews...

I really prefer the system they use on Netflix, where my movies are rated according to what other people who have similar tastes to me rate them. So the latest Werner Herzog documentary will actually show to me as having a much higher rating than, say, Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer. If Amazon moved to a system like that, or maybe dual review scores—a "just plain" score and a taste-skewed score—they would be a lot more valuable.

As it is, I pretty much only use Goodreads for determining what books to buy. When people alert them to sockpuppeting, they do crack down on it.