Everyone’s a critic: The pleasure and pain of Amazon reviews
It takes guts to publish a book in the 21st Century. Back in the old days, before the internet, a handful of books got reviewed in the papers, and the reviewers were all professional critics. I’m sure it was nerve-wracking enough then (read the brilliant A Vicious Circle by Amanda Craig for proof) but now the old phrase ‘everyone’s a critic’ has become frighteningly real.
Whether you self-publish or are published by a traditional publisher, the moment your book appears in the public domain you need to brace yourself. Amazon, Twitter, Goodreads, blogs…suddenly, anyone and everyone can tell the world what they think of the piece of work you spent a year sweating blood to create.
I thought it would be fun to write about something that writers tend not to discuss in public (but talk about a lot when we get together). It’s a particularly interesting topic at the moment because of the storm of controversy around ‘sock puppet’ accounts – where writers plug themselves and attack others using fake names – that is currently raging. More of this later, as we have been targeted by sock puppets – which is much scarier than it sounds!
When we first published Killing Cupid a year ago, nobody knew it existed for a while. So to get our first reviews on Amazon was very exciting. Fortunately, they were very good. One of the highlights of our early writing career was receiving a review, and an email, from an Amazon Top 100 reviewer who had stumbled across the book and really ‘got it’. It was the kind of review every writes dreams of. She even quoted my favourite line in the book.
Then, when we got more attention – because being in the spotlight of the top ten is a bit like jumping up and shouting ‘Shoot me! In the balls!’ – we started to attract some stinkers, for both Killing Cupid and Catch Your Death. This is the point at which you have to remind yourself that everybody gets bad reviews on Amazon, even JK Rowling. In fact, if you go and look at your favourite book right now you’ll find that not everyone shares your enthusiasm. I, personally, think The Secret History by Donna Tartt is the best book ever written. But Mark Crompton found it “idiotic, implausible, laughable” and used that favourite phrase among reviewers: “I only gave it one star because none wasn’t an option”.
My favourite one star review of Catch Your Death is this one:
“Having downloaded the free sample of approx 5 chapters i was satisfied that it would be a decent, clean read. How i was wrong! After making the purchase, the authors introduce the sick and twisted villain of the piece, a mass murdering serial killer who takes pleasure in the abuse of young women. The language immediately became X-rated and the detailed descriptions of the abuse was simply sick. I read 38% of the book before deleting it from my collection. I feel I was misled into thinking it would be a more or less clean thriller, and would certainly not recommend it to those looking for a fast paced clean thriller.”
If only she had pressed on to 39% she might have started to get into it. On second thoughts, there are some really unclean bits in the second half… This is what we in the trade like to think of as a positive negative review. I mean, surely all that talk of X-rated language and psychopaths will make the book’s target audience (those who like unclean thrillers) want to give it a go?
Swearing is, according to many Amazon reviewers, the worst sin a writer can commit. Like elderly ladies who go through library books crossing out the bad words (and yes, this really happens), reviewers like to warn other sensitive souls of the presence of profanity in your book.
Making factual errors is another big no-no. This is fair enough, but I sometimes think there are people out there who read books with the sole intention of finding mistakes. Readers love finding errors. ‘A-ha! Tunbridge Wells isn’t in Sussex – it’s in Kent. One star!’ We got a one-star because we mistakenly wrote APB (American) instead of APW (British).
Things like this can actually be helpful. Catch Your Death was originally self-published. When we set about editing it for the HarperCollins version, we were able to correct the mistakes that the reviewers of the original version had pointed out. On top of this, we addressed a couple of issues that came up in more than one review. By responding to the feedback from real readers, we were able to make it a better book.
I read a study recently that showed that reviews do affect sales on Amazon. A writer analysed sales immediately after a one-star review was posted – they went down. When a five-star review became the most recent, sales increased. I think we all do this: skim the reviews looking for reasons to buy, or not buy, the book. Because of this, a lot of nasty practices have sprung up. Some writers have been exposed as ‘sock-puppeteering’ – creating false accounts to write rave reviews of their own work. This is dishonest enough but it gets really nasty when those sock puppets write one-star reviews of rival authors.
This happened to us: when we were at the top of the Kindle chart, we suddenly got a spate of one- and two-star reviews, none of which displayed any evidence that the reviewer had read the book – they were very generic – and most of them having never posted a review before. The sock puppets are usually cleverer than this, though, and they will write a few good reviews before laying in to their real target. The really stupid sock-puppeteers mess this up: they post 5-star reviews of their own books and give their rivals 1 star.
We caught out a successful self-published writer who did this to us. Using a fake name, this author gave herself away by giving us a scathing review in which she listed several authors she likes – including herself. Looking at her listed reviews, I found a number of 1 stars for other successful self-publishers like John Locke and, guess what, five-star reviews for her own books, including the same book twice! Her most recent five star review is for a book published by this author’s new publishing venture (a work of strap-on lesbian erotica; sounds great!)
This was particularly annoying because this writer had been very friendly to us over email and is even named on the acknowledgements page of the new paperback of Killing Cupid! I’m not saying you can’t trust anyone, but you do have to be careful.
I would like to see Amazon change its policies so that only verified purchasers can leave reviews. This would ensure that only genuine readers are reviewing it. It wouldn’t be foolproof, and would stop people who’ve bought the book in a shop from reviewing it, but at the moment the whole system is flawed and untrustworthy.
The other thing that is intensely frustrating as a writer is when reviewers put whacking great spoilers in their critique, giving away the ending. Especially galling if it’s a twist. And this is not against Amazon’s T&Cs. This gives the malicious sock-puppet type another way of sabotaging you.
It would be like me writing a review of The Sixth Sense (look away now if you’ve never seen it and are planning to!) that went. ‘Blah blah blah… And I found it really easy to guess that Bruce Willis is a ghost.’
I can take bad reviews. But reviewers deliberately spoiling it for other readers just isn’t cricket. And it’s another thing Amazon ought to do something about. Please.
So, if you’re an aspiring writer dreaming of the day you appear in print – or pixels – you should start growing a thick skin now, learn to look over your shoulder, beware of the deadly sock puppets and… oh, I’m kidding. It’s not that bad. Getting a good review is a genuine thrill that makes you want to give the reviewer a big kiss.
Finally, a small plea: if you read a book and love it, give it a review, on Amazon, Goodreads, even on Twitter. We really appreciate it. Even a couple of lines will do. Why not go and do it now – make an author happy.
Killing Cupid is published in paperback on August 2nd and comes complete with a free paperback of Catch Your Death. Order on Amazon now.
Category: Killing Cupid, Writing
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As a reader I always look to see if a novel I’m thinking of buying has any 1 or 2 star reviews. I then discount all those where the reviewer admits they have not actually finished the novel or disliked it for reasons that would not bother me (e.g. your reviewer who disliked it because it wasn’t ‘clean’). Because what I am looking for are reviews which might not like a novel for the sort of reasons I may not like it either e.g. the style of narration (it’s purely a personal thing but I find it very hard to get into a novel with an omniscient narrator). Having read that I will still go on to download the sample to see if I too will have a problem with the writer’s style. I’d never judge a book just by it’s Amazon review.
Thanks Yvonne. Sadly, I think other people are more easily swayed, and it affects the Amazon algorithms too. They are more likely to display books with higher average ratings.
Great post, Mark & Louise. Personally, I do put trust in Amazon reviews, and I admit that I have only left reviews for books that I like, as I think that in most cases, not reviewing at all is kinder than a 1 star. When it comes to a book I’ve heard of, and someone has recommended it and I’m still not sure, I read a good selection of the Amazon reviews – mainly the 5s and the 1s. In a lot of cases, the badly written 1 star reviews are actually what makes me decide to buy the book, just to prove them wrong. The unclean comments on yours particularly interest me! This is the problem with online samples and Amazon in general, though. If you browse in a book shop, you can get a good feel for a book. On Amazon it’s just the cover, the reviews and the extract – sometimes this can be misleading and someone gets something they didn’t bargain for. Maybe the answer is for authors to write cinema style disclaimers: WARNING! Contains extreme levels of profanity, gruesome violence and nasty bastards (for example)
P.S. I have your books on my ‘to purchase when I clear a bit of the reading backlog’ list.
Great post, Mark. I wonder if your sock puppet attacker was the same one who ‘socked’ me… (her only other review was one glowing five star for – her own? – book…) I fear the dedicated sledger of other writers’ works wont be put off, especially at the cheaper end of the market, by a ‘genuine purchase policy’. Maybe make reviewers use real names? I will ask you privately who you suspect.
Wouldn’t be surprised, Anya, let’s talk!!
A good post that has explained very well how it feels from the author’s pov – it’s prompted me to leave a review for a great book I’ve just read as I tend to be lazy in doing so. Like Susi above, I simply don’t post reviews if I don’t enjoy the book. Maybe it’s not such a bad idea for only good reviews to be accepted by Amazon and let the numbers speak for themselves.
Well said, Mark. I wrote a similar post a few months ago, and somebody told me to take it down because not all readers are too thick to spot a fake review! I was a bit embarrassed, and so I removed it. But I was truly shocked at the appalling behaviour of some other authors, which is why I was pleased to see your post. I didn’t know they were called sock puppets, mind you. When Only the Innocent got to number 1, I got a tweet from Kerry Wilkinson, who had been there a month or two earlier. Up to that point, I hadn’t received anything less than a four star and I had about 60 reviews. He told me the one stars would now start to arrive, and where they would come from – but I didn’t believe that people would post bad reviews out of spite. It took two weeks, and then they started. I have to say that some were undoubtedly genuine. I don’t expect everybody to love my book, and some of the worst reviews had really useful comments that helped a lot with the re-editing. But then started the ridiculous performance of every time there were two good reviews, immediately one (non verified) one liner one star. I was even more horrified when I found people were buying reviews from websites (which shall remain nameless)! But I also had those who praised their own books within the review, and gave their own books five stars.
I do look at reviews and use them as part of my decision making process. But I think that anybody who posts a false review should be thoroughly ashamed of themselves. Most writers are incredibly supportive of each other, and any sales gained on the back of this appalling practice must seem like a very hollow victory.
(And now I’ll just sit back and wait for the bad reviews as a result of this reply!)
Hi Rachel,
Interesting, isn’t it. I have an ex-friend (very much EX after what she got up to) who always said she’d post a ton of 5* reviews for her own novel when it was published. When the novel came out, sure enough, pretty soon an impressive 92-odd glowing reviews of it appeared, all clearly written by her. But she was now denying it was her! (you could easily tell though- they were all written in batches, within minutes of each other, no or few other ones, similar style names, reviewer ranks, etc). At the time I thought, oh well, silly of her not to admit it, but each to their own – until horrible 1* reviews of my own books, and those of other rival authors such as Lisa Jewell and Marian Keyes started to appear, in the same style!! That’s why she is an ex-friend….
Thank you so much! This is like the hush-hush topic. You know the one? When people speak of they whisper the word…..like “cancer.”
Excellent post guys. I’m so used to fellow writers being extremely supportive – you know, giving support when deserved and keeping a discreet silence when they don’t get a book – this has opened my eyes. Now girding my loins for more stinkers arriving soon.
Loved the post! It’s the courage to speak that you both have, and others I see coming out just this weekend, that will hopefully cause enough attention to warrant a change.
Considering that I feel I am more reader than reviewer, I believe that there is a large enough portion of the reading population who will care greatly about being mislead. I for one don’t read the reviews on Amazon since I also co-host a podcast directed to book lovers with an Indie Bookstore owner I have been aware that although whispered, this has been happening more and more so it’s hard to gauge what is real and what is fake.
I also am in the company of those who don’t feel compelled to write (in my case speak) bad reviews, maybe its having spent years in an industry where critique on my every word was a daily occurrence, but I rather believe its just not needed. There is enough negativity out there and why should I bash an author for my OPINION?
So again I not only applaud your post, but am currently downloading Killing Cupid as it sounds right up my alley!
Best to you both!
Thanks Nikki – hope you enjoy Killing Cupid.
Only just seen this. In Rachel’s comment above, she’s right that I told her the 1* reviews from people who had obviously not read her book would come … and they did.
I once got five 1 or 2* reviews at exactly 11am GMT five days in a row. It was last December. Some of the reviews remain but Amazon did have a purge at some point.
There are odd things too – people saying my stuff was free, when it’s never been, getting the price wrong, criticising lines that aren’t in the book and so on. All generic, all clearly from someone who has not read them.
I’ve had good and bad reviews. Sometimes the worst ones are the ones you learn from. I don’t mind those. Constructive is good. Of the 600-700 reviews I’ve had across all platforms, perhaps 6-7 are from people I know, and even then only in the sense that they’ve told me they’re reading, so I’ve said “can you leave a review when you’re done?”. I’ve never asked anyone to leave a positive review – in fact someone I know pretty well left a very neutral one. It’s fine. You ask for reviews, you expect honesty.
The person who Mark is talking about here did the same to me but I pointed out who they were as the first comment under the review and, surprise, it disappeared within 20 minutes.
I’ve never really done anything about the fake ones – even when I know who they’re from. It’s hard, because it is so easy to look as if you’re being defensive.
I think that Amazon needs to take a much harder line. Nobody likes cheats, and maybe we should all be extra vigilante and try to flush them out. I talk to a lot of other writers on Twitter and via email, and I have never met a more supportive group of people. It’s a shame that there are some who let the side down.
For context too, someone else tried to blackmail me for a review in November 2011: http://kerrywilkinson.com/2011/11/08/reviewblackmail
I’ve never done the “you review mine, I’ll review yours” anyway but this was an eye-opener.
Totally agree that Amazon should only allow those who have verified purchases to write reviews. Also, considering what Amazon do with all their algorithms, it should be possible for them to write some code (I’m a programmer so I know this wouldn’t be difficult) to detect abnormalities in the range of reviews, who they come from and what books those reviewers have also reviewed. They could then flag books/accounts for investigation. Probably won’t happen because Amazon don’t care about sales on a book-by-book basis only the overall income level.
I hate, hate, hate spoiler reviews. I think it is a shamesome people are spoiling the system for genuine reviewers.
Really enjoyed the new book (I got an ARC) and have a few people looking forward to buying it when it comes out.
Thank you. We read the review and are thrilled with it.