Buying Reviews and Socking the Puppet

Lately, there have been a number of articles about authors padding their reviews on Amazon.  There are two ways that they commonly do this; the first is to hire a third party to write five star reviews for them.  This method has, according to the man who was interviewed by the NY Times for the story, generated real sales for the authors.  Having the good reviews got people to try their works, and they found that they liked the author.  The second method is "sockpuppetry" which sounds like something awesome you do with kids at camp but is creating multiple accounts and posting reviews on each of those accounts praising your work.  One author, R.J. Ellory, took that a bit further and actually went to other authors' work, deriding them.

What are we to make of these trends in the digital world?  The first and most obvious answer is dismay that a system designed to help us find the books we will like is being circumvented and turned into paid advertising or an author's personal bandwagon.  Then the cynicism creeps: anything can be bought and sold, or twisted.  Last is only a sorrow, wondering if we can trust the reviews like we used to.

I'll admit: for a second, I wanted to buy reviews.  Selling your own book is hard work.  I don't know a lot of people.  I don't have a huge following.  I'm not a celebrity or someone well-known.  I'm starting at the ground floor, and I'll admit that getting a boost like that for something as inconsequential as money sounded pretty good.

But of course, I didn't.  Not only is the company now gone, but joining in would make me part of the problem.  And it is a problem.  Even if the first method is just paid advertising, it still erodes people's trust in the review system.  Without that system, people aren't sure if they're going to like a book.  Reviews at least gave people an idea of whether a book was worth their money and effort.  Ah, but quick fixes are so tempting.

I never really considered sock-puppeting.  It would take a lot of time, particularly to get any substantial return.  I'd rather spend that time doing things that created genuine fans and fan relationships.  It'll take a while to have a following; I know that.  I'm content to work on it.