In The Demon's Head: Reviewing Has a Business of It's Own

In The Demon's Head #63: Reviewing Has A Business of it's Own.

September 26, 2012

So I've done it once again and now my post is late. I swear this is becoming a habit and I'm hoping to nip it in the bud and stop now but with everything that's going on I really doubt that it will stop anytime soon but I will try. I wrote Monday about the general update which should normally be on Friday and now I'm back today with my view of Fake Reviews.

Now until three weeks ago I didn't even realize that these damn things were real. I'd read small bits and pieces about them but I'd never realized that they were quite the juggernaut that they were.

I was rolling through some websites the other day and I realized that there are some cases where people are paying a thousand dollars for ten reviews. Now I'm all for free trade market and capitalism but holy hot shit what have you been smoking. I get you want reviews, and while ten is a decent number I find it very hard to believe that ten reviews will get you the fame and fortune you desire unless the ten reviews are from Roger and Ebert, Stephen King, JK Rowling, and authors of the sort.

Then today after reading another blog post I've learned that there have been times where people are posting funny reviews of products for no other reason then just to put comical reviews on the boards. I have no problem with these either in fact I thought they were damn funny in their own right.

Now of these two review styles I can't say I have a favorite or not. Because I don't, however, I would like to weigh in on the review system in general. Now as far as honest and legit reviews I have absolutely no problem with these, be them good or bad, either way is perfectly fine with me.

It's these other reviews that I have a problem with, and here's why.

They can be severely misleading. First let's focus on the paid for reviews. As stated earlier I found a place where you can get ten reviews for a thousand dollars. If you pay someone that kind of change then you'd best believe that the reviews better be shinning with gold platted compliments that could sell even the worst book on the planet.

The problem?

What if it is trying to sell one of the worst books ever. Here you have ten reviews for an eight dollar e-book. Now another forty people see this book and buy it but don't review it and then another dozen and then another. We're up to around sixty four additional readers. While this will never net you a massive income it's enough to give you hope that the book you had written was wonderful. But everyone of the buyers were disappointed and your second book will fail massively.

Now is what I'm saying a guarantee, of course not, but from a standpoint of the reader, I would never buy anything with your name on it again.

Now on the regard of the funny reviews. These have less merit and are just a hell of a lot more fun to read. I don't really see these as being harmful, most of the time though they don't really help either. Now like a lot of writers, I'm not out to condone or condemn the actions of reviewers, I personally would just wish that they were honest reviews.

Now call it hypocritical if you will, but if I had the money I'd certainly buy the reviews for my book. If for no other reason just to see if it would help. But that's another time for another day. What I'm getting at here is that writers write, and readers read, and in the readers case they are mostly directly by the reviews of others. If those reviews are false, for good or bad, then the readers are either in for a horrible surprise when they open the book, or they are in for a surprise when and if they decide to purchase the book.

That's about it for me this week, I'll be back Friday with the weekly general update. Until then I'd still like some guest post, if your interested please send me an email and let me know that you'd like to be featured on In The Demon's Head. Until the next time you want to take a trip through the gates of hell and into the demon's head, I'm Kyle Robinson wishing you a safe trip back to the surface.