Sunday, December 13, 2015

Book Review: How Fake Reviews Have Tarnished The Image Of The Publishing Industry


Book reviews mainly based on false reviews


Book reviews mainly based on false reviews


Apart from promotion, marketing, and the effectiveness of social media, book review plays an important role in the sales of books. A good review reflects on how good or great the book is, giving it a unique recognition, to entice book readers to go for the product.


Writing a book without any effort to sell it, is like putting a lighted candle under an upside-down bucket, no one will see the ray of light, supposed to brighten the environment. 

As a matter of fact, as an aspiring writer, I thought writing a book was the toughest thing on earth until I realized that the hardest part of being an author is facing the reality of promoting or marketing your book.

Like flowers depend on rain or water to blossom, every writer dreams of getting a good review to enhance the sales of his or her book, unfortunately, a review doesn’t come easy. Since it doesn’t come easy, many resort to the means of dishonesty, by faking reviews, at many bookstores, including Amazon, Createspace and Barnes, and Noble.

Life is full of dishonesty and cheating to the extent that, if you don’t follow up to live in that category, you are considered a fool in society. The desire to make it to the top has brought corruption in the book review industry today. 

Many pay for a book review, something I will never do, the fact that I consider it a bribe to someone to review my book. If you are confident your book is good, please desist from paying for a review. This is an advice I will give to any genuine author.

Let’s take, for example, if my book isn’t good since I have paid to be reviewed, there is a certain pressure on the reviewer to give me a good review. In my opinion, an author should rely on a review from an unknown reader. 

Just be patient, no matter how long it takes. Don’t let the desire to sell your book at all cost, push you into certain things which question your integrity, and diminish your credibility as an author or writer.


Cheating ‘Bestselling, award-winning author, R.J. Ellory. He was exposed after faking his reviews for years to reach the top

Cheating ‘Bestselling, award-winning author, R.J. Ellory. He was exposed after faking his reviews for years to reach the top



One of the famous writers who resorted to dishonesty, by cheating on the top is R.J. Ellory. The cheating ‘Bestselling, award-winning’ the author was caught faking Amazon reviews for both his own books and the books of his competitors. 

Ellory was caught writing fake Amazon reviews by fellow author Jeremy Duns online. He praises his own work and faked reviews against his competitors, he saw as his enemies.

He sold millions of books under false reviews, while his followers acknowledged him as one of the world’s greatest writers. There are many genuine writers with good stories because they aren’t cheating, no one knows, cares, or classifies them as good writers or authors. 

They don’t even have enough followers on Twitter or Facebook, because we are in a world that liars and cheats are easily accepted in society because they often appear on the television to deceive the people.

Recently one of the biggest online bookshops has deleted many reviews they suspected to be fake. Patience moves mountains. As writers and authors aiming to sell our books, we should take our reputation and credibility into consideration to live clean.