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Originally Posted by BearMountainBooks
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.
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I was talking non-fiction.
Fiction reviews are to me subjective. What one person likes, another one won't.
Hey, I won't name names but there is one author that because of a comment on a review, he dropped that person from his email list. Note, it isn't a big author but he is or was an Amazon all star on borrows.
Oh well saves me some money.