Posting Fake Book Reviews At Amazon - A Rant!

Today I wanted to tackle the subject of people posting fake book reviews on Amazon. And what I mean by fake reviews are:

1/ People who ask for favorable reviews from people in return for posting the same for them
2/ People who ask for favorable reviews from people in return for some other sort of compensation
3/ Authors who post fake reviews in the guise of other people in order to gain sales rank

Why am I posting on this topic today? Well, to be honest, because it pi**es me off! It makes me mad. As an Indie Author who works hard for what I do, and also supports many other Indie Authors, I don't need this kind of thing ruining my reputation. Once tarnished, always tarnished. All Indie Authors stand and fall by the actions of others.

During the past year I have received a couple of really odd 5 star reviews on my books. They were full of praise for my book. Excellent, I thought. Until I read them in detail. I realized there was no way these people had actually read my books, their review was a mish-mash of other reviews. And so I looked at who these people were. AUTHORS! Quel cheek! Why would another author write an unsolicited weird 5 star review about my book? I slapped my head. Because they were expecting one in return. This was a new experience for me. I had already heard of people asking for reviews, but unsolicited and expectant? New to me.

Anyway, I read a few of these authors' reviews (of their books), and they were a mix of approximately 30% 5 stars, 30% 2 stars, and 30% 1 stars. Hmmm, sounds like the real reviews are the 1's and 2's. Suffice to say, I completely ignored the review of my book (and made a note of the authors). I do not, and will never, subscribe to this kind of practice.

To date, my books haven't received a lot of reviews, and I'm hoping one day they will. But when they do receive reviews, I'd like for each and every one to be from an actual, genuine, reader.

Rant over!

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