Confessions of A Rogue Writer: Time To Stand
Posted By Stephen England on June 20, 2012
During times of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act.—George Orwell
There is nothing easy about telling the truth. Nothing fun. Our nature shrinks from confrontation, from honesty. In our culture, where popularity seems to be the ultimate prize, nothing is more unpopular than taking a stand.
I’ve been independently published since December of 2009. My foray into e-publishing began last summer with the launch of Pandora’s Grave. It’s been quite a year. There are a lot of good, honorable authors in the independent community, and I’m proud to call them my friends.
Sadly, this last year has also been an eye-opening experience in the lengths that some will go to make a dollar. I’ve seen authors set up shill accounts to review their own books and relentlessly swap reviews with each other, apparently without any regard for their own integrity.
It is understandable why many authors are hesitant to speak out regarding these practices. Anyone who can muster a flurry of 5-star sockpuppets to review their own books can just as easily use those accounts to bury your book in negative reviews if you dare expose them. That’s a fear I can relate to, yet it does not explain what follows.
When frauds are exposed by readers, people with nothing to lose from telling the truth—authors often not only fail to support their endeavor, they rise up to defend the frauds, no matter how strong the evidence. Why? How are we helped by this exercise in group think—this herd mentality?
Yet, when readers judge all indies by the standard of those we have defended. . .we complain violently that it’s “unfair”, and that they should be able to tell the difference between the good and the bad! The irony is appalling, the dishonesty epidemic. You can’t have this both ways—until authors stop drinking the “indies unite” kool-aid, it’s a bit much to expect readers to tell us apart.
A couple months ago, I was alerted to a group of reviewers congregating in the Badly Behaving Authors thread on Amazon’s discussion forums—a place I had long ago forsaken due to. . .well, “badly behaving authors”. Judging by the description I was given of these reviewers, they were bloodthirsty vigilantes conducting a witch hunt against independent authors. Painted fifty shades darker than Lucifer himself, I really expected to smell brimstone from the moment of log-in.
So, I lurked. And watched. Vigilantes? Considering that their modus operandi is to collect evidence and present it to Amazon, that label is grossly inappropriate. Witch hunt? Take a deep breath and look hard at the evidence. Or better yet—try to make claims on that thread without presenting evidence and watch how fast you get shouted down. It’s not a witch hunt. Are they cynical? Yeah, I’d say they are, just a tad bit—and with good reason. Watching people try to game the system tends to do that—can you blame them? they’re not “anti-author”, they’re simply “pro-reader”. And if you’re not “pro-reader”, then I’d like to ask you one simple question. . .what you think you’re doing writing a book?
It’s time to stop pretending that every indie author is a saint. Time to stop forming a shield wall around the very people giving the community a bad reputation. And it’s well past time to stop pretending that the people giving of their time to expose the problem are the enemy.
And yet, even as I write this, I know there will be many who will not stop, many who will continue to decry the “witch hunt”, as they see it.
I ask myself once again “Why?” and this time I fear I know the answer. In the words of the apostle, “And men loved darkness rather than light. Because their deeds were evil.”
It’s time to take a stand for the integrity of our industry, or rather what’s left of it.
Regards, The Rogue Writer
I'm a writer. Yes, perhaps that's obvious. A writer of adventure fiction, both ancient and modern. This summer I followed the release of my first novel, Sword of Neamha with the debut thriller of the Shadow Warriors series, Pandora's Grave. . .
I’m with you on the sock puppets. It makes me angry when I see it for two main reasons: (1) it makes the Amazon review system not work for people like me who really want to use it to find good books and (2) as an author getting real reviews, it’s frustrating to see someone faking it and doing well anyway.
I guess there’s a (3) … that every time an indie author does something stupid like this, it makes us all look bad to some. Many lump all indies together and I don’t want to be lumped in with authors like that.
Trying to post this again…
I’m very proud of you for taking a stand. I hope there are no repercussions from it. I’m especially glad that you pointed out that we don’t make accusations without demonstrating the proof, despite what so many say about ‘witch hunting’ and that sort of thing.
Thank you. I wish more authors would take a stand against this gaming of the system. Good luck!
Excellent commentary, Stephen. People who try to game the customer reviewing system only devalue it, robbing those of us who have earned high customer ratings.
It’s one thing to encourage those who have already read and enjoyed your book to share their views with others, and to suggest that they might post their opinions as reviews online. Nothing wrong with that, because such reviews represent the honest opinions of actual readers.
But it’s quite a different matter to INVENT positive reviews and ratings — to set up phony names/accounts to post glowing sock puppet “reviews,” or to create rings of fellow indie authors who post mutually fawning “reviews,” regardless of actual merit. Such fake “reviews” simply undermine the value of customer reviewing as a reliable recommendation system for readers.
Both you and I have accumulated a lot of positive reviews for our respective novels, Stephen. We have earned them, through hard work. It irks me to think that some readers will look upon our high customer ratings with suspicion, just because other writers inflate their books’ merits with outright deception.
Thanks for saying to them exactly what needs to be said. They are frauds, and if they can only manufacture lofty literary reputations via deception, they should go into another line of work.
–Robert Bidinotto, author,
“HUNTER: A Thriller”
I completely agree with your sentiments, Stephen — authors who game the system in the way you’re describing are damaging not only to the indie movement, but also, in the long run, to themselves, since once one’s authorial reputation is tainted in that particular way, one can’t undo the damage.
That said, I have yet to see an author defend this sort of thing. All the indie authors I “know” seem as disgusted by it as you are. Perhaps I just haven’t been around long enough to see a broader spectrum of the indie community.
There are both sides, unfortunately. I believe the good outweigh the bad, but it doesn’t make the bad any less frustrating.
[...] uthor Stephen England about certain individuals attempting a scam on Amazon. Click here to read his post Go ahead, I’ll wait [...]
I completely agree. I am rather new to this and I have to say I was astounded to find out so many create fake accounts and review their own books. Why? What can they possibly get out of it? They know those aren’t real reviews, so how can they take any pleasure from fake reviews. What can it do for them?
It is also extremely frustrating for those of us who have earned our good reviews because you know everyone who looks at them is doing so with suspicion. It takes some of the pleasure out of looking and seeing a new good review.