The great literary sock puppet scandal - what do you think?

[TheFifthElement]

For the past week, the literary community has been reeling under revelations that some authors have been writing glowing reviews of their own work and trashing others on Amazon under 'sock puppet' identities. The most high profile of these is RJ Ellory, a British crime writer, who has admitted to faking reviews. Hot on the heels of Ellory's admission, a number of other authors have admitted to faking their own reviews or paying for people to give glowing reviews of their work.

More about the story here:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/sep/04/sock-puppetry-publish-be-damned?intcmp=239

So what do you think? Have these writers done something wrong or is this just another form of self-promotion?

[Mutatis-Mutandis]

This is not really surprising--it's always been assumed that there are fake reviews written by either the product's developers or the product's competitors, though I think some people go a little crazy accusing others of being sock puppets merely because an opinion differs from their own (I've been accused several times). It seems especially lame for an author to trash another or write good reviews for their own work, though.

[qimissung]

It's immoral. If you're going to self-promote, do it loud and proud, I say. I know, we all love our own work, that's why it's more meaningful if someone else agrees with your inflated opinion of yourself, but these people have got to know that the truth-like murder- will eventually come out.

I love your headline, by the way. Such an absurd juxtaposition!

[Calidore]

There was a big scandal a few years ago when it came out that Sony used quotes from a nonexistent critic on their movie poster ads. I'm pretty sure they weren't alone.

[Alexander III]

Im surprised that people find this surprising

[Lokasenna]

Given the anonymous nature of such reviews, I'm sure it must be tempting. The only thing that surprises me about it is the sheer level of hyperbole the man in the article heaped on his own work. For a writer of throw-away crime thrillers to describe himself as 'one of the most talented authors of today', and his work as 'a moder masterpiece' is ridiculous. If he'd just posted a review saying 'I really enjoyed this, it was a great read' then he probably wouldn't have been caught,

[MystyrMystyry]

Unless of course getting caught was part of his master plan! *Wicked laugh*
I'd never heard of him before (and they say any publicity etc) and now I'm forced to know of him, which I probably never would had he not been exposed. But who'da done it? Either one of the authors he slammed, or...

There are a bazillion inconsequential reviews on Amazon (for about the same amount of inconsequential products), and who really believes them? As often as not they're parallel to your own opinion, and a few times now I've read in the 'one star' section, by the reviewers claiming people don't bother reading the five stars section: 'Actually five stars!'

My mind plays Boggle.

15 'people' seem to glowingly agree twenty bucks a good price for a purple keyboard wrist rest. Most people would smell a fish. But what if the testimonies are true? Should I quickly add one to my cart, or quickly backtrack to the mouse I was originally searching for before getting sidetracked by the sheer number of reviews for a product I'd not given any prior thought to ever?

Ah but we're talking about writers desperate to be read at any cost, personal esteem be damned - not people pushing superior/inferior product for how quickly did the 50 Shades rise to the bestseller/blockbuster lists? No, humans seem to be in a endless quest for the most insipid and shallow experiences they can find, and, attaining ultimate disappointment, will surely write their own.

[Shevek]

Passing a judgement on this behaviour seems superfluous so long as the internet can be manipulated as a promotional tool, and so long as books remain commodities. It seems to me more like, for lack of a better phrase, a "crime of opportunity" than a morally repugnant act.

[Mutatis-Mutandis]

Crimes aren't morally repugnant?

[Shevek]

Crimes aren't morally repugnant?

Not all of them.

[Varenne Rodin]

I think it couldn't be more hilarious. Literary history is full of such charlatans. Just judge the work. Forget about amazon ratings. That and/or find reliable critics/reviewers. It's the same for film. I could never go by customer reviews. I have my trusted sources.

Lokasenna, that hat is terrific!

[JBI]

Meh, only the crappiest books rely on amazon reviews anyway. The rest rely on publishing, print media and academic societies.

[qimissung]

Besides giving sock puppets a bad name. Sock puppets were once adorable, now they are all merely suspect.

[Summer M]

Meh, only the crappiest books rely on amazon reviews anyway. The rest rely on publishing, print media and academic societies.

True, and that brings us to another point: how many of these (publishing, print media and academic societies) reviews are dishonest?

I once read a biography written by a professor at a legitimate university. The thing was crap, a work of academic fraud. I found a total of nine reviews of the book, seven of them glowing. These were "serious" reviews in academic journals, etc. I contacted each of the reviewers by email and asked them a few questions. Two of them admitted they've never read the book in its entirety, and ALL of them admitted they've never read the subject's autobiography, and were thus (in my opinion) unqualified to review a biography of that person.

Now there's a scandal for you.

[Scheherazade]

I do look at the reviews on amazon but skip the 1 and 5-star ones. I am inclined to think that the ones that offer positive and negative feedback might be from "genuine" sources. I have couple of friends who write reviews for everything they get from amazon.

[JBI]

Amazon can fix it easily, make only purchasers able to comment. Problem solved.

[Summer M]

No, that's unduly restrictive. Those who purchased the book from Amazon have a Verified Purchase tag prominently displayed on their review. That's sufficient.

[mal4mac]

Don't feed the troll.

[Summer M]

Don't feed the troll.
Are you talking to or about me?

[Kyriakos]

Doesn't come as a surprise. On the other hand i do not think many people rely on user reviews so as to decide if they will buy a book.
That said i am looking forward to getting reviews for my book, when it comes out :)

[Mutatis-Mutandis]

I don't read Amazin reviews because the idiotic Amazon reviews don't know what ****ing spoiler tags are. Plus, most of them are idiots when it comes to literature.

[qimissung]

I will occasionally read Amazon reviews. More often I will read a review from the NY Times or LA Times;most often it's word of mouth. I mainly need a general idea of what the book is about and then I read the first page. I can usually tell by that time if I like the style enough to read the book.

[Anymodal]

I think its despicable

[Kafka's Crow]

Must be some very poor author who could not pay some agent, publisher, professional academic critic etc to do the reviewing. Why blame the poor sod? I have always believed that the whole publishing industry is corrupt and guilty of controlling consumer choice. The sooner pirates dismantle this charade the better.

[cacian]

Ah well if you can write a book then you can write anything.
To write is to boost about something and so this sock poppet is just an element of it.
And the saying goes if one does not help then you must help yourself.

[TheFifthElement]

Must be some very poor author who could not pay some agent, publisher, professional academic critic etc to do the reviewing. Why blame the poor sod? I have always believed that the whole publishing industry is corrupt and guilty of controlling consumer choice. The sooner pirates dismantle this charade the better.

Actually no. Ellory's book A Quiet Belief in Angels has sold more than 1,000,000 copies and made the best seller list a number of years ago. It was a Richard & Judy book club selection. Ellory is a mainstream crime fiction writer in UK.

What I found hilarious about this is that Ellory's 'crime' was uncovered by another crime fiction writer, proving that detective work really is the name of their game. Surely there's a novel in that somewhere (I suspect Alexander McCall Smith is already writing it).

[MystyrMystyry]

This appears on Good Reads dated 2008:

Apr 29, 2008 Carrie rated it [5 stars] review of another edition
Recommends it for: Eveyone who loves a thriller
Recommended to Carrie by: Roger Ellory

When I first started reading R.J.Ellory’s, A Quiet Belief in Angels, I thought,

"This is a con.....this can't be right.....this is a joke!"

I was convinced I was reading the works of the Master, Steinbeck.

Right from the opening lines, Ellory had me drawn in, taken under the influence of, and then totally intoxicated by his verbal skills and mastery over phrase, paragraph and perfect prose.

‘Sat at my window, chin almost touching the sill, and looked out into the night. Sky as hard as flint, the scudding clouds thin and fragile, like they’d disperse with nothing more than a fingersnap, but all of it beautiful in a broken-up, haphazard kind of way; the ghosts of day-clouds, backlit afterthoughts to remind you of morning. The morning gone, the morning on its way…which one it didn’t seem to matter. In the air the crisp snap of lodgepole pine and bitter juniper made the taste of breathing sour and electric.’

Pure poetry!

‘Tried not to think of my father, the sound of his voice, the smell of him – bitter apples, coal tar, sometimes cigars. I closed my mind down to nothing. Waited and watched, and then waited some more. Tried to breathe deep and even and slow. Tried to close out the sound of bugs and trees, of wind and the stream. Tried to hear other things. Things that came from darkness.’

More impeccable prose!

Added to his power over words, was R.J.’s inimitable expertise as a story teller. I read with eagerness and yet uneasiness, the unfolding of the heinous, extraordinary crimes that disturbed and haunted the ordinary, hard-working, everyday folk of Augusta Falls, Georgia; commencing in 1939.

As I travelled with him, sometimes coaxed, sometimes running ahead, I couldn’t help but feel perturbed that the road in front might not be going the way in which I wanted to walk……at times, as a reluctant traveller, he forced me to tread the path that he had beaten out and I became timorous, totally disquieted that the destination we were heading for was not one I would choose to aim for; not a place I would seek to visit.

R.J. Ellory forcibly delivers, he will not disappoint!

He is a Writer to be reckoned with and bears a name that one day, I am confident, will be reckoned up amidst the All Time Greats!

Are we sure he did not sit and learn at the foot of John Steinbeck?


I also noticed a few of the recent reviews on Amazon are of the piss-take variety, though not quite up there with the best piss-takes in other sections.