Monday, December 24, 2012

Authors' and Readers' Battle Zone: Fake Online Reviews

Giving Mom’s Book Five Stars? Amazon May Cull Your Review. (The New York Times, 12/22/2012)


J. A. Konrath/Jack Kilborn is the author of the Jack Daniels series.

Amazon general review creation guidelines.

The worst offender. The dispute over reviews is playing out in the discontent over Mrs. [Harriet] Klausner, an Amazon Hall of Fame* reviewer for the last 11 years and undoubtedly one of the most prolific reviewers in literary history. 

Mrs. Klausner published review No. 28,366, for “A Red Sun Also Rises” by Mark Hodder. Almost immediately, it had nine critical comments. The first accused it of being “riddled with errors in grammar, spelling and punctuation.” The rest were no more kind. The Harriet Klausner Appreciation Society had struck again.

[Oh, brother!  *Our top reviewers have helped millions of their fellow customers make informed purchase decisions on Amazon.com with their consistently helpful, high-quality reviews.]

This New York Times article has already been cited in the Wikipedia entry for Harriet Klausner.

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