After my blog last week about fake reviews, I did some more searching about false reviews and fake comments and found some very interesting things.
Fake reviews are written by “sock puppets” Sock puppets are recently born with sticky, googly eyes and are furry all over (I used this description from Mary cause I thought it was funny) A good way to spot a suspected “sock puppet” review is to check out their other reviews. If this is their only review, or the only book review and they have 1 or 2 other things bought and reviewed on the same day as the book review, good chance that its a fake review. If they have other book reviews what do they say? Do they all say ‘this book is great’ and that’s it? Or something similar chances are they’re a fake. If there are 3 or 4 reviews added on the same day, and are all short and pretty much say the same thing, chances are they are fake.
Fake reviews help no one. I do understand that it is hard to get reviews from people, there are several book reviewers but we can only read so fast. Still its better to wait for an honest review, then be known to use fake reviews. If you’re looking for your book to be reviewed, look around on the internet for reviewers.
Reviews both real and fake, have been known to generate fake comments as well. When a review is written and given only 1 or 2 stars, there are comments left that have been linked back to the author. The fake comments question if the book was actually read, says the review is a lie because the reviewer doesn’t like the author, all sorts of weird comments. A review friend received threats on a review which were traced back to the author who wanted the review changed. Bad stuff!
Fake reviews hurt all involved. from the author, the publisher, and the readers. Also real reviewers are looked on with suspicion. Look for a reviewer you trust, check different sites that you trust, and the best thing, I think, is often you can read a few chapters free on the author’s site, goodReads, Amazon and others. Reading a few chapters before buying the book, will give you a better idea if you would like it or not.
If you have a story involving fake reviews or false comments, let me know. I would love to hear about them.
Susan
Interesting. I’ve never heard of fake comments before. I’ve heard a bit about fake reviews but get a little aggravated about that subject. Let me just throw this out there: I have teenagers who, as part of their studies and as an encouragement to read/write, are asked to review a book. For instance, check out http://www.readforyourfuture.blogspot.com. Teenagers at an inner city school are given books for their library and they are asked to review it either on Goodreads and/or Amazon. As you might imagine, some of these comments are not the most articulate. Also, because for many of them it is their first time on Amazon or Goodreads, it may be the only review they have listed. This does not make their thoughts or feelings on a book “fake” even if all that they’ve written was, “This was a great book.” I’m not saying that there aren’t fake reviews out there, I just find the criteria of having only one review and the review limited to a couple of lines as a somewhat limiting definition. Personally, I would have thought a “writer” that chose to create a fake review would make it an awesome lengthy one.
I thought it was rather strange myself but knowing people I’m not really surprised. I agree with you on the reviews and that not all reviews that are short are fake. I know that my own reviews have changed in style and length as I have become more comfortable with reviewing. It must be very difficult for some people, teenagers I think even more so, to try and review a book and to have your review posted on the internet. At that age, you already feel all eyes are on you and having to put your feelings up would definitely be difficult. And I agree that not all short reviews are fake. I’ve read some pretty interesting articles on it and it is really hard for places like Amazon or GoodReads to prove what is a fake review. I think its great for teens to put up their reviews on books they’ve read! I know my outlook on things have changed greatly over the years and what I liked when I was younger I don’t neccessarily like now and vice versa.