Quote:
Originally Posted by Wald07
Each of you has valid points, and I agree with aspects of each point of view.
For me, I think it's the plural sock puppets that have me up-in-arms. That, and authors paying $5 per review and including a copy of the book in question.
I could accept a review from the author, as long as it's made clear who they are, and what they were intending to achieve by posting a review. So long as they are not engaging in subterfuge...
Transparency is what I want to see. I'm employed by the local gov't, and we are always concerned about appearances, wheather they are accurate or not. We are concerend about how things MIGHT look, even if it's not that way.
I'm certain if had a self-pub book, all my friends and family would want to leave a review, much like a child having their artwork prodly displayed on the refrigerator.  It becomes unethical when you are soliciting reviews and paying for them, and slamming honest reviewers who just didn't like the book, genre, whatever.
And I certainly won't part with my hard earned dollar to support some &$$-hole. Same goes for buying goods. If the seller is a jerk, I move on to another vendor. It matters to me, the character of those I do business with. |
I'm not sure our views on the sock puppet users is actually that far apart. And those who do paid reviews should (and are required by law to) disclose that they are simply paid advertisements. Authors should know better than to get all their family and friends to post their own pre-written "reviews", but there are some big name people who do so (then again, they go from a publisher that does the promotion to needing to to it themselves and have no idea where to start ... then get suckered by a book or "agent" that advises them to do these things).
Free books for reviews may at first appear to be compensation, until you have to dust the blasted things for a while (often a "review book" shows up as a lose collection of printed paper, rather than an actual book). You do get the ability to read it early, but many are impossible to get thru (and that's from "real" publishers, not necessarily those from self-pubbed authors). They have no monetary value tho, either as ebooks or print copies (they are "not for sale" copies and even used stores won't take them - I donate mine to the nursing homes after I read them).
I know one big-name author who had a book (non-fic) in a specialized area; people leaving honest (and outraged) reviews over misinformation in the book were attacked by the author, agent (and probably sock puppets) and had their reviews removed, while "celebrity" reviews of the book ended up (with 5-stars, of course) being featured, instead. Eventually the "little people" gave up trying to leave reviews (and the bad/fake/5-star reviews mostly are still there).
I've also seem authors get crazy over reviews that dared to criticize their formatting (or even grammar/spelling -- one author who boasted of "writing" in a single burst, with zero editing or proofing; that might be a great writing exercise, one you pay someone to lead you thru, but shouldn't be a published work you try to charge others for), even though these are valid points that affect the readability and use of the product (whether a print book or an ebook).
There are those, though, that are personal A##hats (although not necessarily online) or whose politics I don't agree with -- whether or not to support them gets into an area that each person has to decide upon for themselves (consider, too, what you answer would be if you didn't know anything about the author, as was mostly the case pre-internet). Even taking a free book is "support", since it can boost their sales later on (it does, though, also give you the "verified purchaser" label if you leave a review).