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Sunday, January 6, 2013

Amazon reviews...bogus or real?

Something is wrong with Amazon reviews. Loads of books have tons of 5* reviews, but once you read a few pages, you can see that this just isn't possible, the writing or the story or both are bad (not naming any names).
Are they bogus reviews or real? I thought reviews were meant to help someone decide which book was for them. Apparently not. How naive I am.
So, just what is the point of 'bogus' Amazon reviews? Sure, your friends want to do good by you, but it looks like 5* reviews depend on your social circle who...
1. have enough money to buy a book from Amazon;
2. are willing to express how great your book is, even though after reading only 1 page, you can see there are problems with it.
Now, when I look at a book's reviews, I check the lower star reviews as well as the 5 stars, especially the 1 star, they're sometimes funny, you take them with a pinch of salt. I'll probably get my fair share of  them - I hope not, as I feel I wouldn't deserve them, but hey, out of the hundreds of comments on all those author sites, there were 1 or 2 who had something bad to say. All I know is my writing isn't as bad as a lot of those books out there, even those with 64 5 star reviews!
I have a small social circle, relatively I know, but those who felt they needed to say something, have. And I'm still bugging the rest of them to read my books and give a review :-) Everyone is busy...
Oh right, so, what is the point of 'bogus' 5* Amazon reviews? Sales. They sell your book. It's as simple as that. Some people buy reviews, others ask their friends (as I mentioned). Of course, authors would deny all knowledge of this - they want to sell their books. It's a business, a cut-throat business.
If I had any money, would I do it too? What is the point?

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