I hate dirty, dishonest reviewers!

[Steven Lake]

Well, I've run into a real pickle and I must say that I'm a bit put off by the whole thing. But before I go further, let me explain. I've been following a variety of user powered review sites for books lately, and tracking how people are rating different new indie and small press books that are out on the market. Well, along the way I stumbled onto a rather disturbing phenomenon. Dirty reviewers.

These aren't the kind of dirty reviewers most think about, where their reviews are determinant on the amount of money you pay them. No, this is individual reviewers, just normal everyday joes who, from my best guess, have a completely elitist attitude, and go around knocking down other books and authors, giving them searing 1 star reviews across the board while ensuring that *their* favorite authors always get 5 star reviews.

I used to see it periodically with mainstream books, such as Harry Potter, where the haters would come in and give the book very nasty 1 star reviews, and the fans would turn around and give them glowing 5 star reviews, regardless of how good or bad the book was. Now I'm starting to see it even on indie and small press books. That irks me to no end. It's already hard enough for small press and indie authors to get known, or even considered by the vast majority of readers. But then to have idiots like this come in and start burning them on purpose for no other reason than to smash their hopes of success while propping up their favorite authors is ridiculous!

So far it's only happened to me on one book, and only by two people who apparently didn't like all the pro-Oort fuss I was making a few months back. So, from what I can best guess based on their previous reading lists (all Manga and Fantasy from what I could see, and not a drop of sci-fi except where they were burning the author) they wanted to burn me as best they could in order to "shut me up" and ensure that their "favorite author" got top honors while I got nothing.

Now that's not the only reason I'm ranting. I'm very much willing to come to the defense of any author out there, especially in the areas of fair and honest reviews. Regardless of how good someone's books is, be it the next monster hit, or ink covered, pre-composted, tree refuse, I still believe firmly in fair and honest reviews. What these dirty reviewers are doing is *NOT* fair and honest in any way, and is actually very spiteful and dishonest.

Alright, I've said my peace and got that off my chest. You're welcome to give your 2c if you like.

[kcmay]

I agree, Steve. Although that sort of thing is transparent to savvy readers, it pulls down the overall ranking, which might turn away readers who would honestly love the book. It's like these people can't love more than one writer. What will they do when that author stops writing? If they do it to someone else's favorite author, what's to say those fans won't do it to theirs? If Amazon removed the reviewing privileges of people who post fake reviews, it might stop that nonsense.

[greencat]

I've had this happen to a blog I listened on Amazon. The reviewer went off on a rant about all the problems they'd had unsubscribing and blamed my blog! Fortunately it doesn't seem to have harmed subscriptions very much but it was annoying all the same.

Still perhaps it's cosmic retribution for the spoof reviews I've written about popular products in the past (I always tend to give them 4 or 5 stars though).

[dreams]

I've noticed it happening at more than one site, but especially at Amazon. It's either overly gushing or scathing. I will sometimes check other reviews written by them, if I am suspicious. This is why I choose books recommended by others I know have the same reading taste that I do. Especially, members on MobileRead. If I want to check out one that hasn't been recommended, then I download a sample and check the style myself.

I think more and more readers are becoming aware of this and don't pay as much attention to the ratings. A good book will rise above this game playing. I've also figured out that the number of downloads does not translate to number of readers or how good the book actually is.

[Bookworm_Girl]

I totally agree and you are justified in your rant! I find it really annoying when people give negative reviews on products they haven't read or used based on personal motivations. Political books on Amazon is a good example. However, I think that dreams post is spot on. Most people have caught on that this behavior occurs. I always take the time to read a variety of reviews just because I know that people have different reading tastes. When in doubt Amazon makes it easy to download a sample for a trial read!

[kcmay]

When the Kindle2 first came out, there were quite a few 1-star reviews on Amazon from people who said things like, "I won't buy this because I just don't think I'd use it." /sigh

[cjottawa]

It's a shame to see that kind of behaviour immortalized online but I suppose it exists in meat-space too. I take some solace in the statistics overwhelming any outlaying opinions.

Sour grapes reviews are usually easy to detect and ignore. Gushy reviews can be a bit more difficult to weed out because some books really are that good. I tend to read the 2 to 4 star reviews to get an idea of what the general weaknesses of a book are and I tend not to buy a book that reviews under 4 stars.

I'm also fond of the "most helpful review" sort function on Amazon and the "download a sample" is fantastic.

Sometimes, people just aren't compatible with a particular author's writing style. (I couldn't stand "The Hobbit" for example but I know people who cherish that book as much as the ring described in it - precioussssss)

[tompe]

I would say that the rating system is the thing that is broken.

If you want you favorite indie author to write more books and be successful it seems rational to vote negatively on other books especially since there is not cost to vote in such a way.

[DaringNovelist]

I stopped worrying about this sort of thing a long time ago.

I wrote articles for eHow for a while, and there was something about that place that attracted the crazies. eHow had an algorithm that would reward "better" articles, but it was a secret to keep people from cheating hte system - so of course, people who wanted to cheat the system would make up methods anyway, and get in knockdown, drag out fights over it.

For a while there were groups that would compete with each other in horrible wars, rating up and down articles. They would friend each other and recommend each other and smear their "enemies." Some of them would sign up for mulitple accounts and go after their "enemies" day after day after day, giving dozens of downratings.

And the sane people started comparing notes... and found that the articles under attack tended to start making more money afterward. All the activity aimed at them was making the article look more popular to the search engines. It was actually HELPING the article and the author.

The same thing happens with these ridiculous reviews. A low rating draws interest as people check out the reasons for the low rating. (Same with a high rating - people tend to be suspicious of a solid 5-star rating. They also trust a book with a lot of ratings more than one with only a few.)

So just remember that these people are just out to get your goat. But they aren't paying rent on you head. Don't give 'em space.

Camille

[jhempel24]

I've recently seen 1 star review of Tower of Midnight because it didn't come out on eBook. They obviously don't get the point that the story has nothing to do with the format. It's pretty bad.

[JSWolf]

I do feel that people who are allowed to review a product on Amazon should have bought it via Amazon and then be allowed to review it. That way idiots and morons cannot go around giving 1 star reviews without at least paying for the item they are trying to take down.

[Luke King]

Originally Posted by DaringNovelist

And the sane people started comparing notes... and found that the articles under attack tended to start making more money afterward. All the activity aimed at them was making the article look more popular to the search engines. It was actually HELPING the article and the author.

Yes. It was interesting to see in the Smashwords site update the other day a vague explanation of how Diesel ebooks calculates its sales ratings.

"Multiple factors can influence your sales rank there, including (of course) sales or lack thereof, page views, search engine searches, the number of titles in their catalog, and the books above you that are selling."

Unlike Barnes and Noble or Amazon, you can have a high sales ranking at Diesel without even selling a book.

[dworth]

On the plus side, I've noticed that bad reviews seem to sink to the bottom of the pile at Amazon. I suspect that this may be intentional, after all, they want to sell your books and take their cut! I had a very scathing one star review a couple of months back which sat at the top of the list for a while and killed my sales temporarily. It now only appears if you elect to show all reviews or on the side bar of 'other reviews'. The four and five star ratings I received sit proudly at the top.

[Lexi Revellian]

Camille, eHow sounds terribly like Harper Collins' site Authonomy, where the rankings got so corrupt they've just changed the entire system. (People are now openly conjecturing how to game the new star ratings.)

Re Amazon reviews, surely it's quite easy to tell the genuinely enthusiastic reviews written by strangers? They sound different. On my novel, Remix, I've got thirteen reviews, all but one five star. Four are written by people who know me from writers's sites, the rest by strangers, and I think anyone can guess which are which.

I find it a bit depressing when the suggestion is made that you shouldn't trust reviews if they are too full of praise. Maybe, just maybe, it's a good book?

[queentess]

Originally Posted by Steven Lake

So far it's only happened to me on one book, and only by two people who apparently didn't like all the pro-Oort fuss I was making a few months back. So, from what I can best guess based on their previous reading lists (all Manga and Fantasy from what I could see, and not a drop of sci-fi except where they were burning the author) they wanted to burn me as best they could in order to "shut me up" and ensure that their "favorite author" got top honors while I got nothing.
What these dirty reviewers are doing is *NOT* fair and honest in any way, and is actually very spiteful and dishonest.

You really have no way of knowing whether or not they read sci-fi. I only tend to review things I hate on Amazon and rarely publish positive reviews unless I have something to add that others haven't already said. (In fact, I predominately read sci-fi, but I have never reviewed a sci-fi book on Amazon.) I do vote up positive reviews, and I'm not malicious in my low ratings. But one indie author whose book I gave 2-stars responded to my review saying that I never give positive reviews and therefore my opinion sucked and went on to say a bunch of derogatory things.

This supposed malicious practice isn't any more or less fair than indie authors who recruit their entire family to give 5-star reviews. And I don't know anyone who solely looks at the number of one-star reviews and decides not to buy. Most people are intelligent enough to know that they should look at the quality of the one-star reviews. And besides that, sometimes what one-star reviewers complain about isn't enough to stop me from buying.

You can either ignore the people who can't write a comprehensive one-star review, or you can come on here and complain about life not being fair. It sounds like you're taking the whole thing a little too personal. Try not to pull an Anne Rice.

Originally Posted by jhempel24

I've recently seen 1 star review of Tower of Midnight because it didn't come out on eBook. They obviously don't get the point that the story has nothing to do with the format. It's pretty bad.

In this particular case, yes, that is ridiculous. But at the same time, how do you get the publisher (and in this case the author's widow) to understand how important ebooks are? Writing to the publishers does nothing, but negative reviews get their attention. I would never write such a review, but I understand why people do.

But I have to disagree that ONLY the story should be reviewed. Format is equally important, and so is grammar and editing. What if the printed text is missing pages? What if the Kindle edition has mistakes on every page? These are things I would want to know before purchasing the book.