Crime author admits to writing his own Amazon reviews
03/09/2012 by Stacey Bartlett
Authors and readers are uniting in their outrage at crime writer R.J. Ellory's admission that he writes his own Amazon reviews and trolls rival authors'
Crime writer R.J. Ellory has apologised for a "lapse of judgment" after admitting using fake identities to write about his own work on Amazon.
According to a Telegraph report, Ellory has admitted giving his own work five-star reviews while awarding poor reviews and low ratings to rivals, after writer Jeremy Duns exposed the activity on Twitter.
Ellory, the author of novels including A Quiet Belief in Angels and A Simple Act of Violence, said in a statement: "The recent reviews—both positive and negative—that have been posted on my Amazon accounts are my responsibility and my responsibility alone. I wholeheartedly regret the lapse of judgement that allowed personal opinions to be disseminated in this way and I would like to apologise to my readers and the writing community."
Fellow crime writer Duns said on Twitter of the phenomenon, known as 'sock-puppetry': "I've suspected it's rife for years. But think it needs exposing whenever possible." Writer Don Winslow tweeted: "We simply cannot have authors trashing other authors on Amazon or anywhere. Writing is too hard and the business of writing is even harder."
Authors including Lee Child, Mark Billingham, Joanne Harris, Charlie Higson and Tony Parsons have signed up to a group statement condemning sock puppetry. The move comes after thriller writer Stephen Leather admitted at the Harrogate Crime Writing Festival that he used 'sock-puppet' reviews, and it has also emerged that e-book bestseller John Locke has used paid-for reviews.
The group statement from the authors states: "These days more and more books are bought, sold, and recommended online, and the health of this exciting new ecosystem depends entirely on free and honest conversation among readers. But some writers are misusing these new channels in ways that are fraudulent and damaging to publishing at large."
The authors warn that Ellory, Stephen Leather and John Locke have all made use of sock-puppet or paid for reviews. The authors state: "These are just three cases of abuse we know about. Few in publishing believe they are unique. It is likely that other authors are pursuing these underhand tactics as well. We the undersigned unreservedly condemn this behaviour, and commit never to use such tactics."
They end by calling on readers to contribute to online reviewing."Your honest and heartfelt reviews, good or bad, enthusiastic or disapproving, can drown out the phoney voices, and the underhanded tactics will be marginalized to the point of irrelevance. No single author, however devious, can compete with the whole community. Will you use your voice to help us clean up this mess?"
There have been multiple blog posts online today (3rd September) discussing the issue, including from authors Nick Harkaway and Claire McGowan. McGowan said: "Using a fake name to review your own books – whether on Twitter, Amazon, or blogs...to me this is straightforwardly BAD. It misleads readers and is just a bit pathetic."
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Fascinating, but I'm sure
Fascinating, but I'm sure this is nothing new. You can buy followers on Twitter, you can buy views on Youtube videos. Self-aggrandising is part and parcel of promoting a product.
Even Wikipedia, so often the go-to, redoubtable online source, is a collaborative project - anyone can contribute, and thus many of the entries are inflated - or simply erroneous. The vast majority of things written online should be taken with a rather hefty pinch of salt... perhaps Ellory was ironically making a point about the poignancy of the printed word?
Yours,
R J Ellory