Quote:
Originally Posted by Cinisajoy
Jon,
You sound like one of those authors that got one bad review. Or oh boohoo someone else got a 5 star and their book is worse than mine.
Note: products of all types can be bought elsewhere.
The problem with the fake reviews is most say verified purchases. And yes they are very easy to tell.
90% of the time, they start with Mr or Mrs last name has written the greatest book on exact book title.
Also look at the phrasing.
And it should be easy to tell the reviewers that got the books from the authors.
The Federal Trade Commission requires that reviewers state that they got the book in exchange for a review.
My problem with reviewing is trying not to include spoilers.
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Hmm. I don't think that really works. I think several of the reviews of my books have either Maria or Ms Schneider or some form of my name (including it spelled out Maria E Schneider maybe) and none of my reviews are paid for (or faked that I know of.) There is even one that said, 'My friend Maria" and was written by someone I don't think I know. I probably knew/know the person from a forum, and I'd love to be friends, but I'm not entirely certain I know the person.
On the good news front, Amazon used to show verified purchase when a book as "gifted." The no longer do that. If the author (or anyone) gifts a book and it is then reviewed by the recipient, it does not get the verified designation. This was to counteract authors giving books away via Amazon's gift program to reviewers.
I used to be very excited to hear from a blog/blogger with a review request. In the past year, I have not received ANY such requests that were from "legit" review sources. Every single one was "I saw your book on gr and would love to read your book! I review at such and such" The email will go on for a while before it brings up "packages" and "expedited" reviews for "only" x.
These types of ads are even showing up on forums where such ads are prohibited. But Amazon has brought some of this on itself by having rules and bonus views for books with more than 25 reviews, 100 reviews and 200 reviews. As soon as authors "perceive" a gate/goal, they will jump over it (whether it is a real gate or not). So instead of LESS fake reviews, there are probably even more.